Why a Picture Paints a Thousand Words for Your Google My Business Profile

Why a Picture Paints a Thousand Words for Your Google My Business Profile

Making your own Google My Business account is certainly a step in the right direction for your damage restoration business, but in order to maximize the potential of your My Business profile, you need to take care of a few little things.

Make your business stand out with pictures

The expectations and tastes of internet users have consistently changed and evolved. With so much competition for almost every business industry and niche, it is essential to ensure that your business stands out and hits all the marks. You can no longer do well by just getting by and doing the bare minimum. If a customer fails to find anything of particular interest on your website or online listing, they will take a total of 10 seconds to click off your profile and head on to another one. Their business will ultimately go to your competitor. Hence, you need to captivate your potential lead and the best way to do that is with pictures.

Pure text is boring

The fact of the matter is that, to the average individual, blocks of pure text are extremely boring and certainly are not the first things that their eyes will fall onto. You have to use images and visual aids that attract customers and form a lasting first impression on a new viewer so that you can use that as a starting point to build a customer relationship based on honesty and good service. Multiple studies and surveys have found that consumers find images and video content to be much more immersive and impressive than text. Images help to convince them to make a decision in favor of the business.

What pictures do you need?

You can upload photos of your business on your Google My Business profile and this will most likely be your opportunity to make a lasting first impression. You want to make sure that your picture paints a thousand words and gives a complete summary of what your business is and what it stands for. You want to somehow translate the ethos of your company into a pictorial format and ensure that what you show your viewers attracts them to your business.

What kind of pictures should you put up on your My Business profile? To begin with, you need to upload a cover photo for your profile as well as a profile picture which should ideally be your business logo. Once that is done, you need to move on to the pictures that will flesh out the content on your profile and will give the customer a peek into the company workings, standards, and culture. Start with a few photos of your establishment’s exterior so that they get an idea of what your building looks like if they ever decide to pay a visit. You can go for different angles or take pictures at different times of the day depending on your preference.

 

Next, we move on to the interior of the establishment. Focus on the customer’s perspective and the features they will most likely be interacting with were they to visit your office. Make sure that the pictures are full of character and life, and reflect the vibe of your business. Another great way to show the importance of customer service at your company is to upload pictures of your employees and staff interacting with customers and providing them with the various types of services that your company offers. You can also showcase some of the restoration materials that you frequently use in your work as well as some finished or in-progress projects to reflect the standard of your service. When uploading pictures with staff and employees, ensure that they are having positive interactions and that they show smiles and a general feeling of happiness and satisfaction from both sides- the customer and the service provider.

At the end of the day, make sure that the pictures are natural and of high quality. Steer away from extremely professional looking photos as they may give a more fabricated or exaggerated feeling. Never use stock photos on your profile as Google will simply delete them. Keep it authentic, honest, and real to the core.

Pictures really do paint a thousand words and they definitely grab potential customers’ attention. Contact us today for more information or a free quote for any help we can give you.

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THE IMPORTANCE OF FAQ SCHEMA FOR DAMAGE RESTORATION SEO

Schema markup is one of the latest tools introduced by Google to allow businesses to enrich their content with proper SEO and help their readers understand their content much better. A properly implemented schema enables you to drive organic growth and improve your performance in search results.

For the rest of this article, we will focus on three types of schema that you can use to supplement your content and make it all the richer in order to drive an increase in the visibility of your page or website: FAQ Schema, How to Schema, and the Q&A Schema.

FAQ SCHEMA

FAQ schema, as suggested by the name of the tool, displays the content you have put up in the form of a Frequently Asked Questions or FAQ page in the search engine results under your site. In order to use this schema, you have to create an FAQ page that is created and can only be edited by the company, and elaborates on any particular aspect associated with your organization or service so that it allows the user to better understand a topic. The content that is displayed in the SERP under the schema will be a complete match of the content that has been posted on the source page on your website.

But before you even think about implementing this schema, you need to develop an appropriate FAQ page for your site. How can you go about doing so? And do you even really need a FAQ page?

Before you set about creating your FAQ page, you need to understand that the goal of such a page is not to fill it to the brim with unnecessary, straightforward queries just to fill in the space, but it is to provide value to the reader who is also a potential customer. You need to show the potential lead that you are working hard to give them the exact answer they are looking for in the matter of a few seconds.

Make sure that the language you use is easy to understand and simple in its essence so that people will easily find what they are looking for. If you are not sure what your customers might need to know, explore the market and think from their perspective- what are the common issues they may face when considering damage restoration for their homes?

You can also gain inspiration from your competitors in this regard but make sure that you cater to the needs of the subset of the audience that you are targeting.

HOW TO SCHEMA

How to schema is similar to FAQ schema except for the act that it lays out a certain process described in an article or post on your page in the form of steps for the reader to follow.

Q&A SCHEMA

A Q&A schema differs from an FAQ schema in the fact that it refers to a page that is only focused on answering a single question or query as opposed to a list of questions as you would on a frequently asked questions page.

At the end of the day, testing the performance of your newly implemented SEO techniques is equally as important as you will need to know whether or not a certain strategy is actually working to draw in more traffic and give you more clicks and leads. You can keep track of the performance of your new Schema using the Rich Results Testing Tool which analyzes the performance of your schema in the Google search results and presents it in the form of the Rich Results Status Report.

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How Damage Restoration Companies Can Use Google My Business Posts to Boost Visibility

In recent times, a lot of business has shifted to the online realm, filling it with tonnes and tonnes of data and information that can be accessed on a whim by anyone with a browser and reliable internet connection. The beauty of the internet is that many services have become much more accessible and easier to use than they have ever been before. All a potential customer has to do is type in what they require, and they will receive a number of listings in their local area of businesses offering those particular services.

You need local leads

When developing a digital marketing strategy for your damage restoration business, it is important to emphasize the fact that you are not just looking for potential leads- you are looking for qualified leads. These are the leads that are much more likely to interact with you and avail themselves of your services and that are most often located in your local region. It is unlikely that someone living in a different state will ask you to come and redo their home. That is why it is good to capitalize on the various geo-focused tools offered by Google to further specify and better categorize your listings based on your local presence.

What Exactly is Google My Business?

Google My Business is a platform that essentially acts as an online directory of a variety of businesses. Previously called Google Places, Google My Business allows you to increase the visibility of your business and gain exposure from qualified leads in your targeted audience. It is primarily for the use of businesses that are focused on providing region-based services in their locality as opposed to those looking for national or global exposure.

By signing up with Google My Business, you enter your business as a listing that can be shown to the viewer if they search for the relevant keywords. You are supposed to add the name of your business, your address, as well as the contact information. Make sure that the information you enter on your My Business profile is consistent with the information mentioned on your other business associated social and online profiles as any discrepancy may cause Google to overlook your listing. By adding your address, you locate yourself on Google Maps, allowing users to quickly visualize your real-time location on the map so that they can ascertain whether or not you would be the best service provider for them.

Local 3 is where you want to be

Another great benefit that comes from becoming a part of Google My Business is the fact that you significantly increase your chances of appearing in the coveted Local 3-Pack. You must have seen the 3-Pack when running a search for a restaurant or a hotel: a set of three listings appear before the organic search result on the top of the page and are supplemented with some of the details of the business. This gives you much greater visibility as it has been shown that brands that feature in the 3-Pack experience a 700% boost in their sales. Appearing as a featured result on Google also enables you to gain the trust of your customers and deliver services with credibility.

If someone were to click on your My Business listing, they would see the name of the business, the address along with the location pointed out on the map with a red arrow, a phone number for contact purposes, your opening and closing hours, the main website, any photos of the company or store, as well as reviews and ratings. With Google My Business, you can encourage your customers to leave you reviews and ratings out of five on the listing after they have used your services. A good rating and positive reviews from a healthy number of consumers lend your business credibility and make the chances of lead conversion much greater.

To find out more about Google My Business, contact our helpful agents today. They’ll answer your questions and provide you with free quotations.

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DAMAGE RESTORATION EXPERTS SHOULD PREPARE FOR THESE 2020 DIGITAL MARKETING TRENDS

The damage restoration industry is a competitive space and in order to remain relevant among the plethora of tough competition, it is important for you to remain flexible and adapt to the changes that the industry constantly experiences. Utilize consistently evolving technology and changing practices to keep your marketing fresh and engaging, ensuring that you and your business are able to keep up with the changing tastes and expectations of the public that you aim to serve.

Let’s look at the top digital marketing trends that you should look out for in 2020.

CHATBOTS

We have all had the opportunity to interact with a chatbot at some point in our surfing experience and you can only expect those experiences to become far more frequent as time goes on. Chatbots are essentially computer programs that employ the use of machine learning to interact with customers in a human-like fashion so as to carry out a natural conversation and answer the consumer’s questions. If your business puts chatbots in place to deal with simple queries, you will save a lot of time and resources.

MESSAGING APPS AND SOCIAL PLATFORMS

Messaging applications on social media and other platforms have become the primary means of communication for many individuals who regularly use their phones for any and all purposes. This is something that you can capitalize on. With over 1.6 billion active users on WhatsApp and 1.3 billion monthly users on Facebook Messenger, it is easy to see that social messaging platforms are a popular choice among the general audience and a great way to communicate with them. As a damage restoration company, your goal is to ensure the customer’s convenience while you are providing your services, and communicating with them through messaging apps that they are using on a daily basis is a great way to do that.

 

 

INCREASING PERSONALIZATION

Speaking of messaging apps and using them as a means to communicate with your customers, it is also a great opportunity to personalize your messages to better appeal to the particular needs and tastes of that one customer in particular. With competition increasing daily and competitors adopting new and improved technologies and innovations for better service delivery, consumers are looking for brands and services that truly put them first. With so much big data available from your existing resources, it is time to leverage consumer information and behavior and start delivering content through extremely personalized campaigns so that your business can stand out.

VOICE-BASED SEARCH

With the increasing popularity of voice assistants such as Siri and Alexa, voice-based search is going to experience significant growth in the coming year as more and more people start to run their primary searches through voice commands. You may not think it’s a big change, but you will have to make significant changes in your marketing strategy to adjust to this new development. The key to optimizing voice searches is to take into consideration how a person would inquire about your service. They would most likely use relatively longer sentences and longer keywords which you will have to incorporate into your SEO profile. They would be more conversational in nature as opposed to just using a statement like in a written search and it may be in the form of a question.

VIDEO MARKETING

Statistics show that the average individual responds much more positively and frequently to immersive graphical content than they do to simple text. That is why it is no surprise that video marketing is set to be the fad in the upcoming year. Among those businesses that have already implemented this practice into their strategy, 72% claim that they have experienced an improvement in their conversion rate. 52% of their customers say that they felt more inclined to go through with the purchase of the product or service after viewing video content. Whether you are marketing on YouTube, Facebook, or your own website, video content keeps your customers engaged and helps deliver relatively dry content in a much more digestible format, equipping the consumer with the knowledge they need to make the right decision in half the time.

Our friendly team is standing by to help you with more information or a free quotation. Call us now.

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Why Damage Restoration Companies Should Use Call Tracking with PPC

WHY DAMAGE RESTORATION COMPANIES SHOULD USE CALL TRACKING WITH PAY PER CLICK

Big data used to be merely a buzz word just a few years back. Now, it has become one of the most frequently used and central phenomena in the world of business. The truth is that most marketing and business strategies in modern industries are almost completely reliant on large amounts of data to improve their overall performance and results. If you have a website or any form of online presence, you are undoubtedly generating large amounts of data which subsequently can be used for predictive and analytical purposes to help you make the right changes and run effective marketing campaigns. With the right kind of data, you can better understand your customers and then cater to them accordingly while also keeping your ideas and implementations consistent with your goals.

This is especially true if you are running a PPC campaign. A PPC ad is a pay per click advertisement that is predominantly featured at the top of Google search results. It’s designed to give you more exposure and immediate results in the form of leads and page visits. If you do not establish and assess some parameters, you will never be able to tell whether or not your PPC ad is actually working. You do not want to be wasting a significant chunk of your advertising budget for ads that are not serving their purpose. That is why it is important to establish your overarching objectives for the ad campaign beforehand and then use the data obtained from the campaign to judge its performance against pre-established parameters and criteria.

While you can use tools such as Google Analytics to evaluate the data obtained from your website or online profiles, what can you do if you are being contacted by your customers over the phone? For a service-based business such as a damage restoration company, many of your customers will most likely search for a service like yours, see your ad with your contact information, and get in touch with you directly to get the details, ask questions, and make appointments. Well, there is a solution for you, and it is PPC call tracking.

WHAT IS PPC CALL TRACKING?

PPC call tracking is a technique which enables you to collect information regarding the customers who are contacting you on your business phone and categorize them. You can then integrate this data with what you already have and make informed decisions later on. Tracking numbers can be purchased from various providers and a unique number can be assigned to each of your campaigns. This enables you to see exactly how each of your landing pages or site pages is performing and to collect qualified leads for your business.

You can also use click to call ads with Google ads where, by activating call extensions, you can assign various ads’ different phone numbers and then use the call reporting feature to analyze the finer details of the interactions. Using call reporting, you can track the duration of the call, the type of call, when the call started and ended, the area code that the consumer was calling from, whether or not the call was received by a responder at your company, and whether or not the call was connected. It works in collaboration with call extensions to give you a thorough idea of how your PPC ads are performing in respect of generating calls for your business or service.

Regardless of how central the internet has become for many business interactions, phone-based engagement still remains a primary means of communication and one that results in arguably the greatest lead conversion. Your potential customers will most likely want to connect with a real, human representative from your company’s side before they decide to give you the job and book your services. This is where you can drive a potential customer away by not responding or by failing to provide them with a means of communication or you can gain a loyal one by answering their questions, mediating any conflicts, and providing them with real and genuine customer service.

If you have any questions about call tracking, call our friendly service team today. They can also supply you with a free quotation.

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How to Use Google My Business for More Restoration Jobs

Contractors working in restoration often puzzle over how to attract new clients. If you have not been using digital channels to promote your business, you are likely missing out on opportunities for work. One of those channels is Google My Business. The following is an overview of Google My Business and how it can specifically help contractors land more restoration jobs.

What Is Google My Business?

 

Google My Business is a free service from Google that allows business owners to create a listing for their company on the search giant. This listing then shows up when anyone searches for your company on Google. It is also the best way to add your damage restoration business to Google Maps. Given how most customers now find restoration companies by searching online, having a visible profile on the biggest search engine in the world is undeniably advantageous. Having a My Business profile also boosts your search engine optimization (SEO) because it will integrate with other Google results for greater discoverability.

How to Create a Google My Business Listing

 

It is easy and costs nothing to create a My Business listing. Simply go to google.com/business to begin and follow the instructions. You will need to create a new Google account or use an existing one. You can edit your information via the Google My Business dashboard at any time.

List Detailed Information

 

Don’t just stop at putting down your company’s name – give potential customers some more key details about your business. These include:

 

• A blurb describing your business, complete with relevant keywords;

• A link to your website;

• Contact information such as a phone number and e-mail address;

• Your address and service area;

• Hours of operation; and

• Emergency numbers.

 

The blurb describing your business needs to be short and to-the-point. State the kind of restoration work you do as well as any major distinguishing traits about your company. Contact information is critical to list, as well, so people who are just browsing can easily contact you for more information. List your website, too. Restoration leads drawn to your website can then learn about your company in greater detail and be convinced that they should do business with you. For restoration contractors, listing any emergency numbers, as well as your service area as part of Local Pack is advisable.

Post Photos and Offers

 

Photos can be of your offices, vehicles, examples of the work you have done and more. Photos are especially useful for getting restoration jobs because you can show before and after examples of your work right there on your business listing. These examples can impress customers right away and generate some solid restoration leads.

In addition to photos, you can post special deals, offers, and coupons on your listing, as well. These can be strong incentives for new customers to give your services a try. It is then up to you to perform solid restoration work to please those clients.

Use in Tandem With Other Techniques for Good SEO

 

My Business can be used in tandem with other techniques for good restoration SEO. There are ways you can improve your SEO directly on you’re My Business profile. This includes using keywords and phrases in your business description that are used elsewhere in your online presence, such as:

 

• Your website;

• Any social media profiles; and

• Your online content, including your own and guest posts.

 

Restoration contractors conduct their business in a set local area, which is why it is important to use local SEO terms. Be sure to use local terms such as “fire restoration [your city and/or state].” Consider what phrases users are organically searching for in order to have your results come up in response.

Analyze Results

 

Google My Business comes with analytical tools that can help you track who is viewing and interacting with your listing. You can then use this information to make any needed changes for better results. When customers post reviews, you can respond to them in thanks or to tell your side of the story, if necessary. Doing so makes customers feel a business is more trustworthy.

Google My Business listings are just one aspect of any good online marketing plan. If you are looking to grow your restoration business and make it easier for customers to find you online, contact Destiny Marketing Solutions to learn more.

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