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EP591: TL Nuggets #170 - Marilyn Jenkins - Add 6 Figures To Your Business With Google Business Profile
109 Plays3 months ago
Do you know how to make your business stand out on Google? Do you want to drive more traffic and attract your ideal customers effortlessly?
If you're an entrepreneur looking to enhance your marketing strategies, you're in the right place. Today, we're going to discuss a crucial topic that can transform your business: creating and leveraging the power of Google Reviews and Google Business Profiles.
Marilyn Jenkins is a leading expert in digital marketing, to explore the ins and outs of Google Business Profiles. She shares her journey, insights, and actionable tips on how to optimize your Google Business Profile to dominate local search results.
"The Google Business Profile Training Guide," provides step-by-step instructions for setting up and optimizing your Google Business Profile. Whether you’re ready to outsource your marketing or prefer a DIY approach, you can find here solutions tailored for you.
Expert action steps:
- Take action. Execution is the biggest thing people miss out on.
- Get a plan, make it part of your process to get a review after every single deal closes.
- Claim your business before someone else does.
LinkedIn: Marilyn Jenkins
Website: MaximizeYourGBP.com
Visit eCircleAcademy.com and book a success call with Nicky to take your practice to the next level.
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Transcript
The Importance of Google Business Profiles
00:00:03
Speaker
It is really a place for you to tell Google on an ongoing basis where you your company should show up in searches. Who are you? What do you do? Explain it, list services, lots of different things there, but it's a free way of you telling Google what types of customers you want.
00:00:22
Speaker
Welcome to the Thought Leader Revolution with Nikki Ballou. Join the revolution. There's never been a better time in history to speak your truth, find your freedom, and make your fortune. Each week, we interview the world's top thought leaders and learn the secrets of how they built a six to seven-figure practice. This episode has been brought to you by eCircleAcademy.com, the proven system to add six to seven figures a year to your thought leader practice.
00:00:52
Speaker
Welcome to an exciting episode of the podcast, the Thought Leader Revolution. I'm your host, Nicky Baloo. And boy, do we have an exciting guest lined up for you today. Today's guest is one of the ah leading thought leaders when it comes to creating and leveraging the power of Google reviews.
Meet the Expert: Marilyn Jenkins
00:01:17
Speaker
I am speaking, of course, of no other than the one. The only, the legendary, Marilyn Jenkins. Welcome to the show, Marilyn. Thank you, Nikki. It's exciting to be here. Thank you so much. Good to have you here.
00:01:36
Speaker
So, Marilyn, the folks who listen to this show, they're your people. They're my people. They're entrepreneurs. They're the people who love serving people, the highest ethics, the highest morals, but they want to get more effective at marketing and selling, and they want to learn how to be the go-to thought leader in their space. They don't come here from here. I'm here every week. They're here because of you. But before they can open themselves up to you, they need to get to know you. So tell us
Transition to Full-Time Marketing
00:02:06
Speaker
your backstory. How'd you get to be the great Marilyn Jenkins? Well, it's it's really, a I don't know how interesting it is. In the very early 2000s, I had the ability to exit a company. And I took a bit of a sabbatical. And while on sabbatical, I was knew a lot of local business people. And through golf and that kind of thing, had conversations about what we did.
00:02:31
Speaker
And it was, like I said, early 2000s, a lot of people knew about web websites, but didn't know what to do. They wanted to know how to work in their local business, you know, get get business locally. So I started helping them with websites. And that was really fun. We did that. I enjoyed helping with the design and the actual build of it, getting their message across and helping them get business that way. And it just kind of steamrolled into what else can you do for me? And then when I decided to really do this full time and make it a real business, I needed to do all of those same types of marketing for myself. And so through a lot of trial and error, um learning, testing, I learned what worked, what doesn't.
Evolution and Significance of Google Business Profiles
00:03:16
Speaker
And the Google business profile is one of the biggest advantages I could point anyone to.
00:03:22
Speaker
So that's basically what I focus on. I now do a fully like omnipresence for my clients, everything from websites to SEO and Google business profile to paid ads to email newsletters and social media marketing so we can help them be found and and stand out in their local community. So that's fantastic. But let's get into. First of all, there's people who probably don't even know what the heck a Google Business Profile is. So why don't we start with that? What is a Google Business Profile? Why does it matter?
00:03:55
Speaker
Well, I think most people think of it as Google My Business. That was its most popular iteration. um It actually started as Google Places about, I don't know, 10 or 12 years ago. So it's been, Google kind of updates the name every time they make some major ah and ah enhancements to the actual program. Bottom line is it's free and it's a way that you, it's not just a place to store your reviews, which is what we, most people think it is. um It is really a place for you to tell Google on an ongoing basis what your where you your company should show up in searches. Who are you? What do you do? Explain it. List services. Lots of different things there. But it's a free way of you telling Google what types of customers you want.
Optimizing Your Google Business Profile
00:04:40
Speaker
So why is that important? Why should people care? Honestly.
00:04:44
Speaker
Well, let me ask you this. When you're a consumer, say you're going to go out to dinner tonight or you're walking around the street and you're looking for something, what do you do? Well, if I'm walking around the street and there's stores around, and I go look in the stores. If I'm at home, I guess I'll go online and I'll look. You Google it, exactly. And what happens is when you look when you Google a local place, you get the top three results are going to be ads. The next part has a big map on it that's very colorful and has three listings. That's the map pack and that's your Google business profile. So Google statistics show that between 50 and 80% of searches click on the map pack.
00:05:26
Speaker
So if you've done a good job filling out your Google business profile and you keep it up to date with engagement because Google is a search engine that loves to give rewards to people who are engaged and care about the user user experience, you will be in that map pack.
Claiming a Profile Without a Local Address
00:05:43
Speaker
So you will be potentially 50 to 80% of the searches clicks of those searches. OK, that sounds pretty good. So say, let's talk about me. I i have a business. I coach ah mostly other coaches and consultants and speakers and authors around how to become the go-to authority in their space, how to go on podcasts and and and you know get booked on podcasts and get paid from those bookings, and then also how to be more effective in having powerful sales conversations that convert. so that's That's me. That's what I do. So if I were starting from scratch, what would I need to pay attention to as a technically non-local business? I would say you still want to Google your business name. And if a Google business profile shows up, you want to claim it. um If it doesn't show up, you can simply go to Google business Google, my business or Google business profile and on Google, just Google it and you can create one.
00:06:44
Speaker
Now, your local your for you specifically, your local address is not as important, so you can choose to have your address not shown. okay that If you are a local business, that's going to detract from how many searches you get, but as a remote worker, it's not that important because You know,
Enhancing Profile Effectiveness: Consistency and Engagement
00:07:02
Speaker
I'm not in your local area, but I might want what you what you provide. So it's helpful to still fill it out, to give Google the the information for you. And then it also ah filters down to your website. So they're going to obviously spider your website as well. By connecting those two together, it's going to help you.
00:07:23
Speaker
OK, so I do that. I set up my profile. What's the next thing someone like me needs to pay attention to to make the profile more robust, more engageable, and searchable? So you want to make sure that you use your actual company name as the name. Don't add extra keywords or cities or any of that kind of stuff to it. um You want to fill out your address and phone number and make sure it's exactly the same everywhere on the web as it is on your web page, your Google Business Profile. And then your categories are huge. So it used to be we only had three categories to choose from. They're pre-selected. So you just choose the one that's best. And now they're seven. So and they will continue to change that. So look and see if anything has changed. But choose every category that you should be found in. So that's your first thing. ah You want to make sure your hours of operations are correct. um If you're 24 seven because you work remotely, then that's fine. um And you want to make sure that um you have
00:08:20
Speaker
Questions and answers. Every business has, you know, customers have the exact same question. We call them FAQs. So there's a question and answer section. Use that. Ask those questions so that you're feeding information to the potential new customers coming up.
Staying Relevant with Regular Updates
00:08:36
Speaker
And then, of course, with every review, good or bad, you want to reply to it. You're showing Google that you care about the customer experience. Okay, that makes sense. So once I've done that, um what will have my review, my my profile be one where I can actually, you know, start to get people going, oh, okay, yeah, Nicky Baloo, E-Circle. I'm showing up in their feeds, I'm showing up in their searches, and they're they're interested in talking to me, because at the end of the day, that's what people want, right?
00:09:14
Speaker
Exactly, exactly. And the thing is, is you don't want to do this just one time. um Like I said, Google is a search engine that is the biggest search engine because of the user experience. So what you want to do is make sure that you go in every week and update something on your profile. This is extremely important for a local business that has walk-in traffic. that you update, you've got photos, you've got videos, and and anyone that's remote needs to do the same thing. But it's super important for local businesses. And also your hours of operation, I mentioned that. um If we're in a holiday period where maybe your hours are a little bit different, you need to keep those updated.
Using Multimedia and Keywords for Enrichment
00:09:50
Speaker
Because Google now is showing um a little highlight above Google Business Profiles that shows last updated on.
00:09:56
Speaker
So if we're in the middle of a holiday period, like in the US, we just had you know the 4th of July. Some people take Thursday and Friday, different things like that. um If someone's looking for your business and you haven't updated your hours and they go to you, it's going to give a bad taste in their mouth. But the worst part is, is if they search for something and you show up and your competition shows up, your hours have not been updated, but theirs have, perhaps they'll go to them. So you want to make sure that your information is consistent and you know there's you can always adding photos and videos is a great way of doing it.
00:10:31
Speaker
You know, encourage your customers to live photos leave photos and videos if that's appropriate for your business on the reviews, that is. And um yeah, there's a section for products and services. So for you, you would want to fill out the services and be very keyword specific about what you offer so that that you're still giving Google even more information of what you do and what searches you should come up for.
Success Stories from Optimization
00:10:55
Speaker
So if I've got all these one minute clips from my podcast, is that a good thing to put in there? Absolutely. And especially if you put captions on them. Yeah. Okay. All right. That's good. This is really helpful. This is really helpful. Okay. So if someone wants to learn more about how to do this, Marilyn, what would you suggest?
00:11:21
Speaker
Well, it's easy. Give me a call. but But the other thing is, is I wrote a book. um Like I said, I work with clients. I do the full service marketing. We have packages for any level of customer, any size of business. But I have quite a few people that wanted to work with me that just aren't quite in the position of of outsourcing their marketing. So I put together a book called the Google Business Profile Training Guide, and it walks you through step by step ah Claiming it, verifying it, and then optimizing it to dominate your local searches. It's a it's a quick read, it's about 102 pages, um lots of screenshots to walk you through everything you need to know, and it's the easiest way to have this taken care of.
00:12:02
Speaker
And, you know, other than that, obviously we take care of that for our clients. And it's like years ago, we used to throw around the term SEO and people didn't like it because it was really kind of a woo woo term when it comes to digital. With Google Business Profile, you can see a turnaround and improvement very, very quickly. And I've got a couple of quick stories
Marilyn's Training and Services
00:12:23
Speaker
for you if you got time for that. Yeah, rock and roll. Cool. So Doggirmy Studio. For some reason, traffic, walk-in traffic stopped on Tuesdays. And the client was like, I don't know what's going on. So we have to dig in around. And someone, maybe one of their managers of the the Google Business Profile, someone changed it and put their day off, their day that they were closed as Tuesday instead of Sunday. As soon as we changed and corrected their hours, business picked up on Tuesday. so
00:12:51
Speaker
Something as simple as that. I had an attorney office out of Florida that had noticed that her phones just weren't ringing like they used to. So we got to dig in a little bit deeper, made some updates, corrected some things on her Google business profile. And literally within six weeks, she calculated using the insights on their Google business profile, a 42% increase in phone calls. So how many you how much would it affect your bottom line if you got 42% more phone calls to do business with you? I tell you what, if ah we were able to generate calls from inbound calls from Google, that would be spectacular. There's a lot that I do to generate business and calls, and I go on podcasts, that's super effective, I go on stages, all that's important. But I have a client, he is a tax accountant, and this fellow gets three to eight calls a week from real buyers, real prospects.
00:13:50
Speaker
And he is he's incredible at converting those people. you know His business continues to grow, and his Google business profile is a massive part of his success strategy. And I imagine so. Yeah, when you and I ah met when I was a guest on your podcast and you shared with me your book and what you do, I thought, I got to have this lady on. What she does is fantastic. People are going to need what she does to be out there in front of them, because if they are able to utilize this inside their business, their business is going to grow.
Connect with Marilyn Jenkins
00:14:29
Speaker
So I'm really grateful that you came. So what's the best way for people to actually get a hold of you or buy your book?
00:14:36
Speaker
um You can reach me at on LinkedIn under Marilyn Jenkins if you want to check out the book It's also available as an audiobook if you're like me and you listen to audiobooks and podcasts when you're walking you can go to maximize your GBP.com So that's maximize your GBP dot.com like Google business profile maximizeyourgpp.com. So listen, Marilyn Jenkins is the real deal. This lady knows what she's doing when it comes to Google Business Profiles and utilizing those to get business. If you're interested in doing that for yourself, you definitely, absolutely need to check out what she's all about. Go connect with her on LinkedIn. Go to maximizeyourgpp.com and talk to her. She knows what she's talking about. I like her. She's great. And I highly, highly recommend her.
00:15:25
Speaker
Maryland, God bless you. Thanks for coming on the show. So we end off every show by asking our guest expert, you, for your top three expert action steps. These are your three best pieces of business advice in bullet point form. What say you? Take action, take action. That would be number one, execution is the biggest thing that people miss out on. If you are a local business that depends on local traffic, get your Google business profile or your competition can claim it and change the phone number to theirs. Get a plan, make it part of your process to get a review after every single business deal closes.
00:16:08
Speaker
And even like ah restaurants put it in their their receipt pack or the bill, they have QR codes in there. Your stores have QR codes on their their point of sale system. I love it. Marilyn Jenkins, really, really great having you on the show today. This was a fantastic interview. It's one of what we call our thought leader nuggets, which is like just a nugget of gold. So it's an interview that's under 20 minutes. And I think people are gonna love it. Thanks again. God bless you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Yeah, you bet. And that wraps up another exciting episode of the podcast, The Thought Leader Revolution. To find out more about today's amazing guest, the one and only Marilyn Jenkins. Go to the show notes at thethoughtleaderrevolution.com. Make sure you go find her on LinkedIn and go to her website, maximizegbp.com and take advantage of what she's talking about. This is a way that can work to get you business now. Until next time, goodbye.
00:17:05
Speaker
This episode has been brought to you by eCircleAcademy.com, the proven system to add six to seven figures a year to your thought leader practice.