Market Awareness With Google

Last week, the Anti Guru team hosted a Google livestream that explained how increasing market awareness online using Google’s products and tools, your website, online advertising, and analytics results in more leads and sales for local businesses.

If you are reading this, chances are you missed the free food and priceless Q&A and help session afterwards, where we helped business owners and entrepreneurs directly with the problems that affected them. Although we didn’t save any leftovers from lunch, we do have the full presentation from YouTube, as well as they key takeaways and lessons I’ve pulled below.

Any business can now get online and get in front of their customers in amazing ways. Small business and big business – the internet is leveling the playing field. When so many customers are searching online, why are so few small businesses online? Well, time, money and perceived complexity are a serious constraint. But, as we all know, few businesses can really succeed without any kind of marketing push. This needs to be planned into your business. Know where your customers are coming from, and what they need from you.

Businesses that make use of the web expect to grow 40% faster than those that don't.Click To Tweet

And there are many economical, simple, and quick ways to get in front of your customers. Adwords Express, for example, makes it easy to have a full campaign set up and running within minutes. Your biggest competitor is market awareness.

When someone searches for the products and services that you offer online, do they find you or someone else?

5 Things you should do RIGHT NOW to increase market awareness:

Understand the Google results pages. Think of Google as a matchmaking service. Users input a keyword, and based on this, as well as other information available on the user, to match them with a result that is most relevant. The most prominent result in Google Search? An advertisement with Adwords. Organic listings are powerful sure – but a paid listing is still above.

Put yourself in the shoes of your users. Figure out what they want to or can search for to find a company like yours. Not necessarily what you’d define your company as within your own niche industry.

Enable Google Adwords extensions. You only have 95 characters available in an ad. Add extensions to increase your ad’s visibility. 11 different ad extensions, with a 30% increase in clickthrough rate with these free extensions.

Utilize “Google My Business.” Claim your business and be found across devices on Google Search, Maps and Google+. Google likely knows your business exists. It’s likely already listed somewhere. But what you need to do is claim it – essentially telling them that yes, you are the owner/manager/marketer in charge of the business online. Once you are claimed, you can enhance your listings with photos, videos, and more. Modify contact and location information, and more. Record a video that explains your story, your business proposition.

Google My Business enables you to be social. Be interesting, be consistent. Conversations are happening whether you are part of it or not. Respond to reviews, good or bad. What matters more than a positive review? How well you respond to a negative review.

Advertise when you need it most. Utilize the Knowledge Graph to dynamically update ads. Set ads by time of day, time of year, even the temperature! Do you sell both Hot and Cold foods or drinks? When the temperature drops, automatically stop advertising ice cream, and switch out for an advertisement for coffee and hot chocolate, for example.

As many as 88% of consumers are researching items online then buying in a physical store.Click To Tweet

45% of people would rather give up their vacation than their smart phone.Click To Tweet

Get Mobile. A smartphone is a portal to access the internet. There is no restriction to what internet you access. Mobile will be bigger than desktop. Take the time, track your users, see how you can improve your mobile experience with other Google tools like Analytics – you can see where you lost viewers, why you attracted them in the first place, and more. Make sure every piece of content you publish is easily accessible by mobile users.

Think mobile first. Responsive designs work best. Depending on what type of device, the same site will adjust to the best visibility for each user. Stop jamming everything into a website. Give consumers what they are looking for, and reduce the number of steps a user needs to take on your website to get things done or learn something new.

Consider Mobile-Centric Advertising. People on their mobile phones are generally in a different state than consumers on desktop. The mobile users are closer to purchase. By deploying mobile ads, you could grow your sales faster than ads focusing on desktop users.

Track Everything. Use Google Analytics to learn about visitors on your website. With Website Call Conversions within Google Adwords, you can now know when a click from AdWords leads to a call to your business. Things like this can help you hone in on the keywords and campaigns that really work for you, and toward your own personal goals.

Search Ads Lift Brand Awareness. Search ads are not just for direct response campaigns. Own the search results page with both ads and organic results – even for your brand terms. Search ads will help lift the top-of-mind awareness in customers, even if they aren’t clicking on your ad. Even if it doesn’t lead to a sale today – people’s perspective on your brand will grow.

Big thanks to the presenters from Google:

Scott Christopher
Community Marketing Manager

Todd Rowe
Managing Director, Global Channel Sales

Frederick Vallaeys
Adwords Evangelist

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