It’s been a busy week in the world of social media. First Facebook launched their new cover video feature, and now search giant Google is stepping up the interactivity of their local game as well.
Google has dropped a new feature that makes it a little easier to connect meaningfully with your potential clients. You now have the ability to add a call to action to your Google local presence, putting your most relevant information right in the hands of those who need it most.
Whether you already have a rockstar local presence or you’re looking for a difference-maker to break you out of mediocrity, adding a call to action to your local profile is something every business should consider.
How to Add an Offer or Call to Action to Your Google Local Profile
The first step will be to make sure you’re logged into the account that manages your firm’s Google Business listings. From there, the simplest way to add your new offer is to search for your brand name, triggering your local card in the search results.
Because you’re logged in, you should see administrative options to edit your profile or add photos. But now, you should also see a new option. Click the “Do more with Google My Business” button to access your dashboard.
You should see a “New” icon on the posts button in your menu, this is where you can add your call to action:
From there, simply make a new post and select the “add a button” option, then highlight the details of your offer or CTA. You’ll definitely want to make sure you add a photo or graphic, and you have up to 300 words to provide additional information.
You’re currently limited to 5 pre-defined button options:
- Learn More
- Reserve
- Sign Up
- Buy
- Get Offer
But these should be adequate to suit almost any need. Once you’re happy with your text and photo, publish your post then go check it out in the SERPs! (As you can see, you can even add multiple offers).
What to Promote With This New Functionality
Your call to action should provide benefit to your potential clients. Do you have a book or white paper they can download? That makes a great offer.
Do you have a relevant and meaningful landing page where people can learn more about the services you provide, and how they can contact you? That can be a great place to send people as well.
You have a lot of tools at your disposal. Choose to promote things that have been proven converters for you in the past or new things that you want to gain added visibility.
Tracking Engagement Will Be Essential to Gauge Success
None of this is any good if we can’t track the clicks the call to action generates in a meaningful way. You need actionable data above all else, right? Otherwise, how do you know what’s working and what’s not?
Google does provide some baseline engagement metrics that can be useful:
However, I would recommend that you also add campaign tracking parameters to your URL so you can track additional behavior and conversion information through Google Analytics.
You Can Promote Your Events Too!
One point you may have already noticed—though we haven’t addressed it yet—is that in addition to adding a button to your local profile, you can also add an event.
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In Local Search, Every Edge Counts
It remains to be seen exactly how effective Google's new local promotions and events will be. What we do know, though, is that similar efforts to improve interactivity and drive engagement have been great for businesses. Completed, visually-stimulating Google local profiles continually outperform their more spartan counterparts, and curating a positive reputation through review generation has been demonstrated to increase click-through-rates.
If the past is any indication, utilizing these calls to action will be an indispensable component of any successful business' local presence.
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