I tried to avoid slipping into a New Year’s resolution theme with this because a) it’s been done to death and b) we all know what happens to New Year’s resolutions by February. Still the start of the calendar year is always a great time to refocus on what you need to do to be successful and grow your business in 2023. So here are a few tips:

1. Turbocharge local search

 

You’ll notice that I don’t use passive words like position, setup or even optimize. If you’re a local public-facing business with a physical location and you don’t do this, you might as well skip the rest of this post and save yourself some time.

Quite simply, Google is where the vast majority of people go (usually on their phones) to find a business near them that has what they need. The local results that are returned are essentially the map results and being in the top three (the “three pack”) is the holy grail, the top five fairly solid, the top ten, minimal and anything below that you can forget about it.

So you need to claim your free Google My Business listing if you haven’t already done so, make sure your business category and other information is correct, populate your listing with information that points to the key products and services that you provide, post to your listing often with updates and offers, and get reviews, lots of them. Reviews are going to be the single most important factor that will separate you from the pack, so beg, plead, cajole, harass, stalk — whatever you have to do to get them. Just don’t try to pay for them, that is majorly against the rules.

2. Fine-tune your website

 

And I’m not talking about adding cool new graphics or changing to a slick new theme. Your website is linked directly to your local search performance above, as Google views one as amplifying the other. So your website needs to have markers that point to your location and content that supports the products and services that you have on your My Business listing.

Other important adjustments you can make are having a blog on your site and post to often, give the user plenty of chances to engage and make sure that the site flow is user friendly. After all that, if you want to add some snazzy graphics or a new theme, sure, go ahead. No harm in that.

3. Refocus your brand

 

It’s hard to attract people if you don’t know what you’re about. You have to get a handle on who you are, your values, what you do for people and how you’re different from the rest. All the ways your brand manifests — your logo, voice, website, content, blog posts, even what you say on your Google My Business listing — grow out of that exercise.

4. Budget for marketing

 

Surprisingly convincing people on this one can be like pulling teeth for something seemingly so obvious. But just like your rent, utilities, payroll, equipment and other overhead are expenses that you should budget and plan for, so are your marketing efforts. Marketing, if done right — whether it’s advertising, direct mail, paid search, promotions or social — will always have an ROI. Doing nothing has absolutely no upside.

As always, we’re here to help. Call 904-744-8877 or email us at info@larrybassaniconsulting.com.