Posted By Industrial Web Solutions Marketing Team on October 14, 2010

Google Places offers industrial marketers a free to low cost online advertising opportunity. If you haven’t done so already, you can claim your business listing or update your Google Places account by signing in at http://google.com/places with your gmail address and password. And while you’re doing that you may as well take advantage of the features that allow you to target your customers for the holidays.

First of all, consider what your customers may need to get them through the holidays or to get them ready for the top of the New Year. Next create a limited time offer promotional coupon featuring specified products and/or services. It’s easy to do. From your Places dashboard, click on the “Coupons” tab and then “Add a New Coupon.” Fill in the details and click to post it live to your Google Places listing page.  Remember to add the expiration date before you make it live. Customers respond better to limited time offers. You can always add a new coupon featuring new or different products and/or services once this coupon has expired. Because the coupon has a url string, you can easily track results to learn how many of your leads are coming from the promotional offer.

Google Places also allows you to keep your customers up-to-date by including a custom composed Post about events, specials, announcements, or whatever you feel will be of interest to your target audience groups searching for what you offer. From your Places account page, at the top right next to “Post to your Place page” type your message in the box provided. You only get 160 characters, not words, including spaces and punctuation as well, so make sure you compose a message that is motivating and on-point!

Right now you can try a feature called Google Tags for 30 days for free. Tags are bright yellow markers that allow you to highlight important or unique aspects of your business, such as coupons, specials, videos, photos, and more.  They will show up with your listing on Google Maps and in Google search. If you have not completed your profile then the Add a Tag feature will not yet be available so be sure to complete your profile with photos and information first. To create a tag, from your dashboard look for the “Create Tag” link in the Status column. Look for “Make your listing standout on Google” and click the drop-down “Preview and Select a Tag.” The choices available are based on the information that you have already added to your listing such as your photos, videos, coupons, website, and more. If you don’t see the tag type in the drop-down then you’ll need to add some info to your listing first. Once you have selected your tag type (what you want to highlight in your business listing), then click on “Proceed to Billing.” Fill out the form and click on “Activate.” The normal charge will be $25 a month but as I mentioned earlier you can try the service for free for 30 days.

Google Places offers you a great way to advertise online that won’t break the bank. Manage your Google Places account and keep your contact information up-to-date. Make it work for you by adding photos and relevant information that will interest and motivate your target audience groups.

For those of you who are targeting a local audience, Industrial Web Solutions also offers resources and services geared specifically to ensuring your local marketing success. If you need help, call (800) 399-9859.

Categories: content targeting, google, industrial marketing, industrial search engines, mobile web marketing, online advertising, online marketing, search engine marketing
Tags: free advertising, Google Places, Google Tags, industrial marketers, industrial marketing, internet marketing, low cost advertising, online advertisimg, target marketing