By Craig Connelly
Competition is tough out there for alot of businesses and getting those essential leads is paramount to survival. Your sales funnel always needs new prospects added in order to grow the business and smart business owners are always on the lookout for things that will help this process.
There is a valuable tool that will help you do this for free and it is called Google Places.
This is the most under utilised marketing tool in New Zealand and I still don't know why more people don't use it as Google Places is a powerful marketing tool and it is FREE!!.
If Google Places is used and optimised it can put you on front page Google in a heartbeat and outrank some very strong competition.
Here are some ideas for getting Google Places pages ranking plus some other ideas to help you get ahead of your competition in 2012 and beyond.
Google Places Pages
If you are a local business then you need to optimise your google places listing. Any work put into your places page will be rewarded by Google with a possible front page listing under very desirable keywords. Whats more it is completely FREE and so under utilised it makes an old marketer like me weep with despair.
Here are some tips to get your Google Places Page ranking well and out strip your competition 10 fold.
1. Make sure you citation (address and details) matches your google places page. (Very important but not many do it)
2. Fill out all the areas of your Google Places page. You are allow 10 images, 5 videos and adding in customer coupons also is highly effective for grabbing googles attention. Do a good long bio on your business also.
3. Get some client reviews of your business. The more the merrier. This is critical and a good review from a unique IP address is worth gold.
4. Add some links on your site back to your Google Places page. Show Google you care. Link from your own site and others if possible
5. Add content to the page and link it to your Google Plus 1 account
6. Claim your page if you have not done this already
Build a Client Database
Although Google are amazing and have helped many businesses gain free traffic and lifetime clients they have one disadvantage which can be a thorn in the side of any Internet Marketer. Google change the rules and move the goal posts very regularly.
This can be very frustrating for business owners who have invested heavily in being on the front page of google. 
However we have a sure fired way of overcoming Googles fickle nature and taking some control back in your business marketing.
Create a database of targeted customers and potential customers. If this is done properly a database can be your most valued tool for promotions and increasing business profits
For more detail on how to grow a database with out lifting a finger please click here . Or Scan the QR code below to get to the page
So do you have a database or just a list of email addresses?
A database of clients consists of email addresses of people that have given you permission to market to them. There is a large difference between a email list and a database. See my post here on what the ramifications are of not building a database correctly
Please contact us to see how easy it is and automated our system is.
Modernise your brand and website
Times are changing and what used to cut it 3 years ago now is outdated and unprofessional. In our travels around meeting business owners, we are finding more and more companies that have outdated websites and branding. This can be very off putting to potential clients who may decide to give their business to your opposition simply because they like the "look" of that business.
Giving your brand a refresh also gives your clients a refresh. It boost your batteries, is not as expensive as you may think and generally is good for the health of you and your business.
Here is an example of a before and after
Before
After
