You are going to hear me say this often throughout my blog post and videos so please just get used to it- marketing a local business is never ending. This marketing tip about where to start might sound simple but it's just the first of many marketing tips I offer that will help you market your local business (near and far). But please don't stop reading my marketing tips because I have a lot to offer, and they are absolutely free. And, even if you wind up hiring someone to manage your marketing for you later on down the road you need to know as a business owner exactly what they are doing for you so you know if they are charging you a fair rate.
With that said...
No matter if you are planning on opening a business or you have an existing business you absolutely have to have a Google My Business listing that you control. It should be the very first thing you do if you are starting to get serious about marketing.
Hiring a firm to start your Google My Business listing is okay as long as you are immediately made the owner of your listing before payment is made or it is contracted that you will be made owner soon thereafter. Google My Business listings are absolutely free of charge and are not complicated to figure out at all. However, lots of small businesses owners who are afraid to start their own Google My Business listing often turn to way overpriced, and usually desperate, "advertising agencies or marketing agents," to start their listings.
Your Google My Business listing, if set up properly, will always thrive at the top of local searches near your initial address input and will also help attract customers from further away if your listing is "optimized," which you shouldn't pay for either. Optimizing your Google My Business listing is not like optimizing a website and it can only be optimized to a certain extent. Paying someone $100's of dollars to do it for you should either be included in a much larger package of optimization on your website or should just be done by you so you can ensure that it's done right.
You should also never pay a monthly fee to have your Google My Business page maintained as there is no maintenance needed really. You may need to set a reminder to login every six months or so to make sure nothing has changed that needs to be addressed. Money hungry agencies will charge you fees for things like this which just eat into your important marketing budget. The money you do invest into marketing should get you a return on your investment.
Here are the best tips I can give you, for free, to help you set up your Google My Business:
1) Try not to let anyone set up the listing for you if you can. It will be your highest local landing page but never mistake how a website will bring you more business over time.
2) Take the time to get comfortable with all of the tabs within Google My Business and make sure you set your hours for when you are actually open. Do not put yourself as 24 hours if you aren't open, even if you have a phone que to handle after hours. It will only frustrate your customers.
3) Make sure you list your service areas according to what you can actually service. Start with your home zip code, then your city level, then your county level, and then fill in the blanks. Stay as close as possible and don't be afraid to overlap areas. Example: 85020, Phoenix Arizona, Maricopa County, Scottsdale Arizona, Tempe Arizona, etc...
4) Make sure to add all services Google allows you to list.
5) If it ask for verification make sure to go through the process promptly.
6) Make sure you know how to login in and out of your listing and keep that information handy.
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