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Tips and tricks for managing your business with Google’s solutions
Bring customers in the door with Google Maps Business View
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
One of the toughest things about running a successful business is standing out from your competitors. With
Google Maps Business View
, you can show the unique character of your business and service to more than one billion Google users around the world. Business View uses Street View technology to let your potential customers explore your location through a 360-degree virtual tour. Hundreds of thousands of businesses have already gone live with their tours on Google to help give people the information they need when booking a trip, making a dinner reservation, and more.
If you're in the travel and tourism industry, Business View can help give potential visitors a glimpse of where they're going as they plan their trips. A great example is
GeoVegas
, a new website from
Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority
. GeoVegas incorporates Business View to enable people to virtually experience hotels, restaurants and other noteworthy locations in Las Vegas before making their reservations. The site even lets them tailor their experience so they can plan their dream vacation. vacation.
Adventuredome at Circus Circus on GeoVegas
On a larger scale, as part of Andorra’s goal to grow tourism, the
Actua Initiative
helped get more than 95 percent of the country’s businesses online with Google. Visitors from across the globe can use Business View to preview restaurants like
La Borda
and salons like
Anna Barroca Perruquers
. This has resulted in an increase in online traffic and extended time spent on the business’ websites.
La Borda, Andorra
Business View can also be a powerful way to communicate your brand story to customers. For example, if you’re in the product manufacturing industry, you can show your customers not just what you make but how you make it. The
Chrysler 200 Factory Tour
gives consumers an interactive look inside the auto making process and allows them to tour aspects of the assembly process, bringing them inside the local Michigan plant.
Body analysis from Chrysler 200 Factory Tour on Chrysler200Factory.com
Getting the virtual tour of your business live on Google is easy:
How it works:
A Google Trusted Photographer collects a series of high resolution panoramic photos of your business interior to create a 360-degree interactive experience. Google Maps Business View appears in Google Search results, Google Maps and Google+, whether your customers are using computers, smartphones or tablets. For hotels, Business View will also show up on
Google Hotel Finder
.
Why you should try it:
People like to see photos of a location when deciding where to go, and Business View allows owners to put their best foot forward with a high quality interactive tour. Our testing has shown that "See Inside" drives more clicks to a business' site. This imagery also allows you to build unique experiences online for your potential customers to enjoy.
How to get started:
Find a Google Trusted Photographer or Trusted Agency on the
Google Maps Business View website
and set up a photo shoot.
We look forward to seeing your business’ virtual tour going live on Google. And to learn more about other ways to connect directly with your customers on Google, check out
Google My Business
.
Posted by Soufi Esmaeilzadeh, Google Maps Business View Product Manager
One week left to apply for a Mission Main Street Grant
Thursday, September 25, 2014
The Robot Garage was a past recipient of a Mission Main Street Grant from Chase.
Small businesses are driven by turning big ideas into reality. A few weeks ago,
we posted news
that we’re once again teaming up with Chase for this year’s
Mission Main Street Grants
program, an effort helping small businesses across America bring some of those big ideas to life.
This year, twenty businesses will each get a $150,000 grant from Chase, as well as a Chromebook, $2000 towards one market research study with
Google Consumer Surveys
, and a trip to Google for a small business marketing workshop with Google experts.
We know how important the web can be to help small businesses grow, so we also worked with Chase again to build a marketing toolkit on
www.MissionMainstreetGrants.com
. The toolkit shares tips that every business can use, like best practices for digital marketing and social media, as well as how to make the most of online advertising and analytics.
ABL Denim
, a small business based out of Los Angeles and a 2013 grant recipient, understands the benefits of the grant full well. The company produces a premium denim jean line designed with features that make dressing easier for people with limited mobility or sensory integration disorders. The grant has allowed owner Stephanie Alves and her team the opportunity to hire staff, rebuild their website, create a product catalogue, and learn more about investing in marketing and advertising - which lent tremendous credibility in their talks with bigger retailers about business partnerships.(Google to confirm that this has been verified by ABL)
The program is open to current businesses that have been operating for at least two years and have less than 100 full-time employees. Businesses must receive at least 250 votes on
www.MissionMainStreetGrants.com
via Facebook authenticator to be eligible for the opportunity to receive a grant. The deadline to apply is October 3, 2014, so hurry and sign up soon! You can find out more information about the program and all of the eligibility requirements at www.MissionMainstreetGrants.com. On the website you can also check out videos and a Google Hangout with last year’s grant recipients as they share how they used social channels to rally support and improve their applications.
The web opens up countless opportunities for small businesses to grow and reach new customers, and we’re excited to see your great submissions. Get moving before time runs out, and good luck!
Posted by Jon Kaplan, Vice President of US Sales & Operations
A Hangout On Air Conversation with SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
There are 28 million small businesses in the US, and small businesses represent almost half of US private-sector jobs. What kind of support and resources does our government provide to make sure these small businesses thrive? Where can we find tips on how to start or grow a business? What funding opportunities are there?
On Wednesday, August 27th, the leader of the
U.S. Small Business Administration
(SBA) and the voice of small business in President Obama’s Cabinet,
Maria Contreras-Sweet
, will join the
Google Small Business Community
for a Hangout on Air to share tips and insights for small businesses.
Since being appointed by President Obama, Administrator Contreras-Sweet has made a priority to meet and hear from small businesses. On Wednesday, she will answer questions directly from small businesses through Hangouts. Over the past two weeks, thousands of small business owners from all over the US, representing various backgrounds, experiences, and businesses, have submitted questions for the Administrator covering funding for businesses to technology.
Five small business participants will be joining the Hangout on camera along with the Administrator. One of the attendees, Brantley Crowder, is the director of e-commerce for
Savannah Bee Company
. Savannah Bee Company started in 2002 with a single beehive and a mission to support regional beekeepers by selling their honey and making honey-related health and beauty products. They started delving into digital with their website which launched in 2010 to support their stores in Charleston and Savannah.
The Hangout has participants like
David Winslow
, writing, “the SBA is beginning to make headway in an effort to lead the Government into a friendlier, more engaging place!”
Join the SBA Administrator tomorrow at 1:30 PM PT / 4:30 PM ET in the
Google Small Business Communit
y, a public community, which gives business people direct access to experts and industry leaders like Contreras-Sweet. The event will also be accessible live on the
Google+ Your Business YouTube channel
, in the
event invitation
, and the
SBA website
, and the video will be posted for viewing post-event.
RSVP
to view the broadcast and submit your questions for a chance to have them answered live, on-air during the Hangout.
Posted by the Google Small Business Community
Get fresh business feedback with Reviews
Monday, August 25, 2014
When’s the last time you checked out what your customers are saying about your business on the web?
With Google My Business, you can see and respond to reviews from Google users. You’ll also be able to see feedback that customers have left on other websites.
The first step to seeing and responding to reviews is to
verify your business
.
Once your business is verified, visit the
Google My Business dashboard
, scroll down, and click
Manage Reviews
.
For the best experience with reviews:
Encourage your customers to
leave feedback on Google
. Reviews on Google can help your business stand out from sites with fewer reviews.
Respond to reviews
. Your customers will notice that your business values their input and respond with more reviews.
Keep it clean
. We’ll remove reviews and responses on Google that contain advertising, spam, and other stuff that violates our
policies
.
With Reviews, you’ll hear firsthand feedback from the people who matter most to your business: your customers!
See the metrics that matter for your business
Monday, August 4, 2014
With the launch of
Google My Business
, we’ll be exploring new ways to build a strong online presence for your local business.
For this post, we’ll be focusing on using Google My Business to see how your business performs on the web. Have you ever wondered how many customers search for your business on Google Maps or whether your customers are seeing that photo you uploaded last week?
Google My Business makes it easy to find valuable information about your local business on Google, including:
The number of times people saw your business information show up on Google Maps, Search and Maps for Mobile
The areas from which users have searched for driving directions to your business using Google Maps
The number of impressions of your Google+ photos, profile, posts
To access Insights, open Google My Business, choose the page you’d like to manage, and click
View Insights
. Insights are another good reason to verify your local business--you won’t be able to see the data without going through that process.
Once you’re there, you’ll see three tabs: Visibility, Engagement, and Audience.
Click
Visibility
to get numbers on how customers engage with your business on Google--through driving directions, clicks to your website and more.
The charts on the
Engagement
tab lets you know how your customers interact with your posts. You can even breakdown the information by type of post to see whether your customers respond better to picture or text posts.
Visit the
Audience
tab to understand the makeup of your Google+ followers, including their age range, country, and gender.
With Insights, you have the tools to watch your local business grow online.
America's businesses are using the web to grow
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Cross-posted with the
Official Google Blog
.
Over the past few months, we’ve had the chance to talk to businesses all over the country and hear stories of how they’ve become successful. For many, it’s pretty simple: the Internet. The web is helping businesses and communities across the U.S. to grow and succeed. In fact, last year Google’s search and advertising tools helped provide $111 billion of economic activity for more than 1.5 million businesses—advertisers, publishers and nonprofits—across the U.S.
Take
Go2marine
, a boat supply company located on Bainbridge Island, off the coast of Washington State. Because of their remote location, bringing traffic to their website using
Google AdWords
plays an important role in their ability to sell their 250,000+ boat supplies to customers in 176 countries. When it’s winter in the U.S., they rely on customers located in other parts of the world where it’s boating season, with the web bringing them business from any place, in any season.
Or meet Don Morton, who taught reading, writing and language in lower-income neighborhoods in my home town of Chicago for nine years. In 2005, he began creating his own materials to supplement what the school system provided. Realizing that his worksheets could be useful for students and teachers everywhere, he created
ereadingworksheets.com
to provide his worksheets for free. Don started using
Google AdSense
to offset his costs by placing ads next to his content, and today he’s able to work full-time on his website and make an impact on students around the world.
These are just two examples of enterprising people making the most of Google tools to find new customers, connect with existing ones and grow their businesses; you can find plenty more of them in our
Economic Impact Report
. Our tools help connect business owners to their customers, whether they’re around the corner or across the world from each other. And when businesses flourish, it’s good news for the rest of us. Recent data shows that businesses that are online are expected to grow 40 percent faster and hire twice as many workers as businesses that aren’t. Every year, it gets clearer that the web helps lead to more successful businesses, stronger economies, more vibrant towns, and more prosperous communities.
Learn more
about our economic impact in all 50 U.S. states, and how businesses are finding success through the web. Whether it’s a part for a boat or a grammar worksheet, we’re proud to play a role in giving businesses the tools they need to do more--to grow and thrive and connect with customers and communities all over the world.
Posted by Jim Lecinski, Vice President, Customer Solutions
Advertising on your schedule with AdWords Express
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Cross-posted with the
Inside AdWords blog
.
Small businesses know the importance of being online, but running that first ad can be overwhelming. Google
introduced AdWords Express
to help small businesses start advertising online easily, without the need for daily management. Fast-forward nearly three years to today, and businesses around the world are seeing success with AdWords Express.
Nick Valle, owner of
Nick’s Towing and Roadside Assistance
, uses AdWords Express to run his business from the road. After a decade of driving an 18-wheeler and working part-time for a towing company, Nick decided to start his own small business. He started using AdWords Express six months ago, and his business is doing better than ever. He gets enough calls to keep himself and a driver busy throughout the day, and can easily track calls back to his ad with the
call reporting
feature.
Get results on the go with the AdWords Express app
Nearly 74% of small business owners like Nick use mobile devices to help manage their business*, and earlier this year, we announced
improvements to AdWords Express
across all screen sizes. To make starting a new ad and managing an existing one even easier on mobile, we’ve now introduced a free app for
Android
and
iOS
users in the U.S. The app gives you access to all the features of AdWords Express while on the go:
Reach the right customers with new targeting options
AdWords Express has added more control where it counts for defining your target audience. Now advertisers can
choose
exactly where to promote their business -- in their zip code, city, state or others around the country (currently in English-speaking countries). When customers search from their phone, they can get driving directions, call your business, or visit your website in one tap.
Let AdWords Express do the rest
When you select your business category, AdWords Express makes sure that customers searching for related topics see your ad. To improve the targeting of your ad, products and services that are mentioned on your website can now be added by AdWords Express as keywords if they are related to your ad. We’ve also added more negative keywords to exclude unwanted searches, which improves the click-through rates of ads and means a lower cost for advertisers.
Let us know
how AdWords Express is working for your business, and stay tuned for additional improvements in the coming months.
Posted by Xuefu Wang, Engineering Director
*
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