Offline Marketing Question - Do These Things REALLY Help Local Businesses?

[NetProfits]

I'm looking for an honest answer on something from those who might know.

I know when I google a service, product, or company on Google for my own use ... I always look firstly for a video to pop up in the organic results and then everything else in the organic results section. Rarely if ever will I look at the Google My Business section.

This brings to mind "Does optimizing Google My Business and Google Maps REALLY help the local business owner GET MORE BUSINESS or is this just something we say to them to get us more business simply because we can show we added something to their GMB and Google Maps?

I ask this because I've been in advertising for years. When I started I was taught that businesses needed their name in front of people so anything goes as long as their name got out there. We were selling ads on bathroom stall doors so you could see them while sitting there and on walls in front of urinals and other places to businesses that you would probably never remember their name once you walked away because that was not the right place for their ad to be. I guess I was so young and naive that just because I saw my manager or trainer selling something to a business owner and both seemed happy at the time of sell that it must be a productive and good thing. I mean Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Marlboro, Winston, Nike all had their name plastered everywhere so small businesses also should do that. That was before I understood branding, direct response, etc.

So again ... can anyone tell me how a local business actually REALLY benefits from Google My Business other than someone who is actually looking for a particular business. They already know the name and they may just be looking for the phone number or location ... which I see and understand that.

I guess my real question is will an optimized Google My Business and Google Maps REALLY benefit a local business owner much if at all when someone doesn't know that particular company even exists. I KNOW a ranked video that stands out like a billboard in the middle of a desert of their competitors helps them but just don't see GMB and Google maps as anything more than courses that IM'ers make money off of.

If you KNOW that the local business owner gets business from GMB or GM's please tell me how they do.

My biggest interest is in getting the business owner a positive ROI by getting them customers ... not getting them a pretty website or simply ranked on 1st page, etc. I want their phones ringing and customers walking in their door. Direct response marketing!

[Jamathon]

be interesting to hear from the other members as well

location based would help consumers find businesses of a particular industry in their SEARCHED area

[PatcheZ]

Surprised some of our experts haven't chimed in here

[California Kid]

i used to market online for small local businesses when i lived in cali and when it was google places.

i saw this posted a while back but didn't answer because this dude is all over the place. and to be quite honest, some of his thought process is ridiculous.

obviously there will be a different main marketing strategy when marketing for local businesses. exposure will be the key ingredient for any business and all businesses better be prepared to pay for that exposure.

so if it was me trying to make sense of the op's post, i would have to assume that he's talking about how cost effective is it for a business to promote themselves in google my business and having a pretty website and to continue with the seo and citations which can cost a business(on average) of 5k and $300 a month.

if someone charges a business $2000 to get in to google my places and and gets them ranked to the A spot with a solid 4-5 stars for reviews, the business will easily make a 500% roi(10k). i am not gonna give my own stats but that figure is very conservative.....especially for businesses that has repeat customers not to mention the referrals from friends and family

now videos work too but the surfer not only has to watch the video, they have to read the description in the video(if the video entices them enough) and click on the website and then call a #. if the website is S***** looking though and a user has to go to the about me page to find a # and map, good luck with that. the business probably just wasted $500-$1000 on a video.

i can tell ya right now that one of the main benefits of google my places other than if you're placed in a-c spot is the reviews. people aren't really searching for a business more than they are searching for reviews. so if you want to be in the google my business business, you HAVE to also be in the review business and help that business get good reviews when a lot of people are too lazy to give a review online. the person with the most and best reviews gets the new business. people are going to be searching through the a-c spot for the reviews....something the yellow pages couldn't offer.

but again, it all depends on the business and where the marketing efforts needs to be focused on including the budget of the business......

the op looks for a video when he searches and if he doesn't find a video he gets disappointed. sometimes i do the same thing depending on what i am searching for. when i moved from california to missouri though, i had to search for a dentist and a family doctor. i wasn't interested in watching any video on that shit. i researched companies by going on their website and i researched their reviews. the reviews were my MAIN concern.....not a marketing video unless it's a new company.

anyway, marketing for a company entails a lot of things.....not just 1 thing like google my business or a pretty website or seo. there has to be a marketing plan which entails many things that can link together.......

[NoJob]

I agree with much of California Kid's comment. There has to be more to a local business's marketing than just GMB. Many people looking for a local business are indeed looking for reviews. GMB is ideal for this, but you need to track your views/clicks and ROI. IMO not tracking your ads is the single biggest mistake you can make.
Good luck,
NoJob

[GetStuffDone]

One thing a ranked property on the first page of google gives for sure - it's minus one competitor from the first page of google. So i say yes, it's worth it.