How to Attract Travelers With Google Maps Marketing ?
Are you interested in using Google Maps to attract more customers to your business? If so, you might want to consider Google Maps Marketing. While most people use Google Maps for navigation, it can also be a powerful tool for businesses to reach new customers and boost their online presence. With Google Maps Marketing, you can optimize your business listing, showcase your products and services, and even target specific audiences. So why not explore the exciting possibilities of Google Maps Marketing today?
No one asks for instructions over the phone anymore as a modern traveler. They won’t merely travel in the real world; before they do that, they’ll go for a walk online. This is an opportunity for tour operators to come up with a marketing plan that will help them get more attention online.
Let’s go back to the problem of how to help tourists get about! Do you think Google Maps can just be used to find your way? Google Maps can do so much more than that!
Google Maps doesn’t simply provide maps; it also shows updates, photos, and even consumer reviews about your travel firm.
Without a doubt, it is a good way to reach out to people who might stay at your hotel.
Do you already know how to use Google Maps marketing to bring in tourists? If you still need to, you can read this article before you get to work.
The benefits of using Google Maps for marketing
Every day, millions of individuals use Google Maps to locate businesses. And, Google Maps can direct countless potential customers to your business.
Right after we’ll talk about the advantages of applying Google Maps for marketing.
High visibility and traffic on the platform
According to recent studies, Google receives around 3.5 billion searches every day and is accountable for almost 88% of all mobile searches.
As such, you can get a chance to reach a large number of potential visitors by listing your location. From this point, your travel agency will start gaining visibility and platform traffic.
While Google Maps marketing is totally free, local search advertisements can increase your business’s presence in Google Maps search results.
These ads with geographical targeting will push your company’s listing to the top of search results for terms related to your industry.
As you make advertising for your company, you can also analyze their performance to see how people react to them and take the actions necessary.
Integration with other Google products such as search and reviews
Google Maps will integrate with Google Search, Google Trips, Google Posts, and Google Reviews just like Google Things to Do to streamline holiday planning from A to Z.
With this integration, more information about your tour agency will be shown on just one Google Maps page. Customers do not have to switch to each platform one at a time. This will make it easier for people to decide to buy, leading to a greater conversion rate.
By knowing how passengers utilize Google Maps and its features, you can aim for a higher ranking and set yourself up for future opportunities within Google.
The ability to showcase location and proximity to popular attractions
What does proximity actually mean? – The distance between your business and the user searching on Google.
As you can see below, when someone searches for “coffee shop” on Google Maps, they will get a list of popular destinations.
With Google Maps, your real distance from anyone checking on their phones is a crucial ranking factor.
Your real distance from whoever is looking on their phones is a big ranking element on Google Maps.
Undeniably, you cannot modify your location, but you can utilize the necessary tools to help your business be accessible when it should be.
Unlock the power of Google Maps Marketing to optimize your business listing and attract more customers
Having known the benefits that Google Maps, travel operators need to know how to optimize the listing on Google Maps to maximize the success of their marketing approach.
Claim and verify your listing
The first step you should do is to claim and verify your business listing. It’s no cost and easy to do.
You must claim a business as your own on Google Maps so that you are the only individual who can update information in your business profile.
This verification process is handled by Google. Alternatively, most businesses can do it by phone or postal mail.
Include complete and accurate information about your business
Any information you provide must be identical to what’s on your website as well as other local listing platforms in order to get a higher ranking.
Be sure to provide as much information as possible. This boosts your company’s chances of appearing in the right places.
Google Maps marketing works well when it provides more than just a location. Make clear your opening and closing times. Additionally, include an URL for your website.
What’s more? You should also include interesting attributes. Add everything that tourists would be interested in and make your business shine through.
Use high-quality photos and videos to showcase your property
Photos definitely do say a thousand words, especially when a customer is scrolling through several options.
According to Google, businesses showcasing photos get 42% higher requests for driving directions to their place and 35% higher click-throughs to their site.
Take this chance to show high-quality images of your physical store, products, or services, or even invite your customers to share some of their own.
Encourage guest reviews to improve your ranking on the platform
A great way to build trust and credibility is to have reviews on your Google profile. Also, this can help you rank higher in Google Maps results, which may lead to better conversion rates.
Customers do in fact spend 31% more at a business when there are good reviews, especially in the travel industry where online reviews are king.
Have you already had happy customers who bought your tour or booked your hotel? Don’t hesitate to ask them to leave reviews on Google.
Advanced Google Maps marketing techniques
The basic optimizations above probably won’t be enough to have a perfect strategy. Let’s move on to the following advanced Google Maps marketing techniques!
Use Google My Business to post updates and offers
Sounds pretty new right? Customers have little access to updates and offer on Google. But that doesn’t mean they never.
Regularly posting the latest updates, along with offering offers (remember to include CTAs!) will help your profile get recognized by Google and give you higher local rankings.
Moreover, customers will also trust you more if you have a complete profile and are active on Google frequently.
Utilize Google Maps Ads to target specific locations and demographics
It doesn’t matter whether you have an optimized listing and a relevant website; organic Google ranking takes time.
Be at ease! Ads on Google Maps are always there for help. To be clear, this cannot replace organic efforts; rather, it can only support them.
When guests search for your related services on Google, you can appear at the top of the results page or in the Map App with paid advertising.
Create custom maps and collections to highlight your offerings and local recommendations
This step can be a bit cumbersome since you need to learn how to create a custom map on Google Maps.
It will take a bit of time, but it will highlight your location and make it easier for customers to find you.
Furthermore, creating a collection of your offerings can be another level of trust and help customers easily learn about your products or services.
Best practices for using Google Maps to attract travelers
So you have already mastered all tips to have a successful marketing strategy on Google Maps. Now let’s go through some of the best practices!
Stay up to date with Google's guidelines and policies
Google’s guidelines and policies are constantly being updated to match global trends.
Google Maps is a part of Google. As a result, it’s important to continuously stay up-to-date with Google’s guidelines and policies, especially when optimizing your business listing.
By doing this, you can build and develop marketing strategies that work well on Google Maps.
Monitor and respond to customer reviews
This will be a huge plus point in the eyes of customers.
Do not encourage customers to leave reviews but forget to respond to them in the most professional way.
Whether your customers feel happy or bad, you need to give them the impression that your tours and activities are worth returning for, and that you are always willing to hear what they have to say.
Bad reviews may make you down but don’t ignore them! Face them and respond to them to know which area you need to repair and improve.
Here are Google guidelines that you should read carefully before replying to any reviews.
Regularly update your listing to keep the information fresh and accurate
Travelers probably won’t like to visit the same place over and over again. The key is freshness.
The same goes for marketing strategy. Create useful and fresh information to attract customers to stay longer.
Conclusion
Google Maps is so important that you can’t ignore it if you own a travel business nowadays.
You may not only get more clients to come to your business, but you can also encourage and take advantage of more interactions with them. This will help you make more purchases.
By following the methods in this article, you can start using Google Maps to market your business right away and start bringing in visitors and getting them to buy.
