THE TALL 10
Owning a business can be a stressful, 24-hour job. We are here to lend a helping hand.
Below is our TOP 10 FREE TASKS that every business should do. Things YOU can do all by yourself to help boost your business. Get those lost hours back. Have peace of mind that these things are set. You may have already completed some of them, but if not, we are here to help … and we’re giving this to you for FREE! Plus, if none of this makes sense or if you’re stuck, please don’t hesitate to reach out for a little more FREE help from Justin Styll or Neil McCormick. We’d be happy to help you through any of the steps.
1. CLAIM YOUR FREE GOOGLE MY BUSINESS LISTING.
Yes, this is FREE, too. It’s easy to do. If you don’t have a Google Account, create one. Then go to business.google.com and search for your business. If you can’t find your business, add it to Google. Just follow the steps on screen to set it all up. Most likely, your information will be there and you just need to claim the business. Get it verified, too, which will take some time as they send you a very important piece of mail that has a code on it that you will need to input on your listing to be verified. This can take 5+ days to get and can easily get lost in the mail. Even tossed into the trash as junk mail!
Treat this platform like you would Facebook. Make “posts” to it regularly and even upload photos often! These photos should also be named with keywords, business name and/or location. Don’t forget to RESPOND to reviews!
2. SYNC your BING LISTING WITH YOUR GOOGLE MY BUSINESS LISTING.
Once you have your business listing all set up with Google My Business, head on over to Bing Places for Business at bingplaces.com. There are several ways you can sign in, but if you create a new account, keep track of the password (see tip below).
Once you’re in, sync it up with Google My Business. It will pull your info, hours, website, etc., over to Bing and keep it all up to date for you. You will, however, need to post some photos there, too. Be sure to set how often you’d like Bing to sync to Google, too. This is good for businesses that update their Google My Business regularly with posts, photos, hours of operation changes and more.
NOTE: Maybe it’s just us, but we found that this platform is very slow. So, be patient if it seems like it’s not doing anything when you add photos or click on any button to move to another page.
3. CREATE BUSINESS PAGES ON SOCIAL MEDIA.
Seems simple enough, but older companies overlook this platform. It’s time to embrace it, if you haven’t already.
According to statista.com, “With roughly 2.89 billion monthly active users as of the second quarter of 2021, Facebook is the biggest social network worldwide.”
So, what’s stopping you? It’s a free platform that allows you to engage with your customers. They love to talk, too. Just be sure to fill out all of the portions of Facebook to the best of your knowledge. Be sure to check out Business Manager and setup your business account and ad account, too. This is important if you want a marketing agency to help you with ad buys later on.
After you create your page, don’t leave your fans hanging! Post regularly and RESPOND to them. Not only does this help your reach grow, but it can also help you improve your business. The word on the street is that Facebook is also doing away with “likes.” There’s not a date set for this, or if it’s still going to happen, but we always want to prepare for it if it does. To do that, start “following” people, too. That includes other businesses. Build your follower base just as you would your likes.
Don’t forget to also download the Business Suite app for Facebook. If your Facebook & Instagram accounts are synced, you can post to them simultaneously! This is for regular posts as well as for stories. The only downside is that you can’t change the text up unless you post separately.
Facebook owns Instagram, so it’s an easy “Yes” when it comes to if you should create a business page. Again, fill out all the information and have it match! You can even connect the two platforms together so that when you use the Facebook Business Suite app, you can post to both platforms simultaneously.
Create fun hashtags, too, and use them often. You can search these to see if anyone else has used them to tag you. If they did, respond to them! Search your business name and location, too. Some users will tag you when they visit your location. Don’t forget to include a location when you’re posting as well! They love it when they get recognized by the company.
You may find that you do not use Twitter as much as the other two, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore it. Posting to this platform helps reach a different kind of audience. One that may have more potential to you than the others. Maybe not. But you should post to it regularly.
There are other platforms to consider, too, like TikTok and SnapChat. But those really depend upon you and your audience.
4. CLAIM YOUR FREE YELP BUSINESS LISTING.
Yelp is another important platform to keep up to date. Head to biz.yelp.com and search for your business. You will need to verify the business before you can make any changes to the listing. You can either have them call you, send an email or text you. Just be ready to do this upon setup.
Be sure your information matches how it appears on all the other platforms, too. Upload current photos with descriptions using key words and location. This information is supplied to Apple Maps!
Again, don’t forget to respond to reviews!
NOTE: While Apple Maps uses the business listing information on its platform to show customers your address, hours, website and more, users can also now add a thumbs up or down directly onto the Apple Maps platform. Not only this, but users can also upload photos of your business.
5. CLAIM TRIPADVISOR BUSINESS LISTING.
If you are a destination of some sort, you should qualify for a TripAdvisor listing. Not all businesses can have one. But, it doesn’t hurt to try. Visit tripadvisor.com.
Once you set up your listing, you will be able to upload photos and all your business information. Customers love to leave reviews on this platform, too. So, be sure to check back regularly to respond to those reviews (see tip 10).
If you have multiple locations, there is no need to create multiple logins for TripAdvisor. You can list them all under one main email. Be sure to add this email and password to your Google Doc/Sheet we mentioned earlier!
When you login, you’ll be able to switch from one to the other to update your business hours, photos and respond to reviews.
6. CREATE AN FAQ LIST.
This may be a daunting task, but take your time and cover as many questions as you can. You can find a lot of questions from reviews, too. Make the list as long as you can. Start with simple questions like, “What are your hours?” or “Where are you located?” Then, add more common questions. Take these questions and answers and head on over to Google and search for your business.
When you get to your business, ask a question about your business. Ask each question on your list and provide the answer after each one. This gives more for Google to search. Be sure to include your key words and business name in some of your answers! For even better SEO if you do not live in the area, have a friend or family member that does live in your service area to ask the questions for you to answer.
After you’re done with Google, use this same list to create an FAQ page on your website. That way your answers are found in multiple places and gives your website something else to add to it.
7. CREATE A LISTING IN APPLE MAPS.
Places on Maps (formerly Maps Connect) supplies information about your business to platforms such as Yelp. Not only that, but having a listing with Apple Maps ensures that users with Apple devices find you so much easier. And, with more and more people using Siri to ask for places nearby, this will help your business will come up.
Ready to set it up? Head on over to register.apple.com/placesonmaps. You will have to create an Apple ID. Add that password to the Google Doc/Sheet we mentioned earlier.
This is another place you will need to keep your business name and hours up to date. And, now that the ratings features is up and running on Apple Maps, your business information needs to be correct. The ratings system allows consumers to give you a thumbs up or a thumb and even share photos of your business.
8. MAKE YOUR “NAP” THE SAME EVERYWHERE.
NAP is an acronym for name, address and phone number. Something as simple as including this all over the Internet sounds easy, but many don’t realize they’re making simple mistakes with it.
Your business name should be spelled exactly the same way each and every time. Capitalized, spaces, commas, etc., should all match.
Your street address should be spelled exactly the same way. For instance, if you spell out the word “street,” do this every time. Do not switch to abbreviating some things. Same goes with the suite number.
When it comes to your phone number, it should be the same, too. If you use parentheses around the area code, do this all the time. If you use dashes, use them all the time. Stay consistent!
9. CORRECTLY NAME YOUR PHOTO FILES.
This may be harder to do if you are always using your phone to post or upload photos. However, if you can use a computer, you’re at an advantage.
This process is really an SEO hack for beginners! SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of optimizing a website to generate the maximum number of ‘organic’ (non-paid) visits from search engines. So, when you upload a photo to Google My Business, your website or anywhere else, those file names are searchable. According to Google, “Google uses the URL path as well as the file name to help it understand your images ... Google extracts information about the subject matter of the image from the content of the page, including captions and image titles.” However, do NOT keyword stuff your file names. Give relevant information.
Save your photos to your computer and rename them. Use keywords, your business name, category, location, etc. Change it up each time, too. Do not just upload something with a file name such as IMG_12345.jpg. Go for something like restaurant_name_biscuits_gravy.jpg. This is especially important when it comes to photos that will be used on your website.
10. RESPOND TO REVIEWS ACROSS ALL PLATFORMS.
Here’s where you can really shine! Hug your haters and love on your loyal customers. Here’s why.
When a customer posts a negative review, it can look really bad on your business. Especially if it goes unanswered. By not responding, you admit fault. However, if you thank them for bringing the situation to your attention and want to reach out to them personally to do something about it, that shows you care and are willing to learn from the experience. You may learn something about an employee, a business process that doesn’t work, or anything for that matter. It could also be someone just having a bad day. How you respond is up to you, of course. Be delicate or be yourself. Just know people ARE reading these! A negative review, if handled correctly, can turn into a positive review or removed altogether. You can also report some reviews. Not all will be removed.
When a customer leaves a positive review, it can look great for your business. It can look especially good when you respond to these as well. They will feel great when they hear back from the place they just visited. Others will see again that you care about how your customers feel about your business. Engagement is everything!