Your Google Business Profile is one of the most impactful online tools your business will have at its disposal. It’s a one-stop shop for potential customers to get high-level information about your business and a way to contact a representative without navigating through an unfamiliar website and searching for a phone number or contact form. Data from your Google Business Profile (GBP) doesn’t just show up in search engine result pages (SERPs): your listing is fed into other Google products as well, including Map Packs and Shopping results. In addition to giving users a place to see your location and examples of your products and services, your Google Business Profile is one of the first places a potential customer might look for reviews. Managing your reputation using your GBP dashboard will help give potential customers a more thorough look at your business and trustworthiness while boosting your rankings.
Online Visibility & Customer Engagement
When customers perform initial research to look for products and services, the first exposure they will likely have to your dealership is your Google Business Profile. Depending on the query entered, your profile may appear in either the Local Pack results or in its own sidebar, which will include buttons allowing users to visit your website, get directions to your brick-and-mortar location, and call your business directly.
Customers are going to be more likely to engage and work with businesses they feel like they can trust, especially for a purchase as major as a vehicle. A higher rating on your GBP will help build trust and create a foundation for a longer-term relationship between the customer and your service center for continued maintenance.
Having reviews added to your listing regularly by users is an example of social proof of your business and how you interact with customers. Positive feedback can lead to other people visiting your dealership to have a similar experience. Your customers can corroborate details and share specific examples about their interactions, including working with specific staff members, the level of service given, and whether they were able to find exactly what they were looking for at your dealership. By continuously monitoring and responding to your reviews, you’ll be able to manage your reputation better, which can help boost your position in search results as well as potentially attract more interaction from potential patrons.
In addition to reviews, you will have the ability to respond to any user questions and instant messages directly from your dashboard. Responding in a timely fashion will help let the user know that your business cares about ensuring a positive experience for the customer while increasing the overall visibility of your listing. If you consistently get positive feedback and respond to both good and negative reviews, Google may be more inclined to boost your ranking to a higher position on the page.
Managing Your Brand in Times of Duress
A key decision you are going to have to make when you are developing a marketing strategy is determining the tone and cadence of your brand voice and the overall image you’d like to convey. That voice is not just a factor in your website content and marketing materials; your brand voice should also be used when answering feedback, both positive and negative.
When creating your voice, you should consider your goals, your different audiences, and the specific needs of each. Sometimes, events out of your control may occur, and your business may be faced with an onslaught of negative reviews. By proactively managing your reviews in less fluid times, you and your team can develop a strategy for responding to negative feedback in a professional and timely manner rather than answering off-the-cuff when hotter heads may prevail.
A response strategy can help keep your brand voice level while showing potential customers that your business is committed to correcting issues that arise with products or services at your dealership. While your rating may take a temporary hit, a proactive strategy will keep users coming into your business and working with you.
Boosting Your Local SEO Efforts
A key part of any marketing strategy for a brick-and-mortar dealership is a focus on local search engine optimization. Managing your Google Business Profile and its reputation is a crucial factor in your local SEO efforts because of the listing’s location on the SERP. If your listing is properly filled out with relevant details and links to appropriate pages on your website, it can have a positive impact on your overall ranking. GBP is an important factor in determining your business’s overall position as one of the most heavily weighted listings available.
When you are working on updating your GBP for local SEO, it is important to make sure you have your service area fully built out in your dashboard. This can be done using both geographical locations and zip codes for more precise targeting. In addition to making sure you are working on improving your performance in your dealership’s exact city, you should include areas where your sales are doing well and where you want to be selling more vehicles. Data from your sales department will be able to help determine which locations to pursue.
Reputation Management with Wikimotive
Your Google Business Profile is not a simple, set-it-and-forget-it tool and can take a lot of time to maintain. If you are looking for a partner to work with to keep your profile updated and develop a strategy for responding to reviews, contact Wikimotive today! Our team will be able to fill out your profile with accurate inventory feeds and service offerings, as well as a comprehensive service area. We will also manage any changes, like updating your holiday hours, in order to keep your customer base informed. To get started, start a chat with our team.