Creating and managing Google Business Profiles for local businesses is one of the biggest growth opportunities nowadays.
You shouldn’t focus your efforts only on social media management tasks, as Google is perhaps the most important online business platform.
For that reason, I go over different GBP services available to agencies, brands, and businesses looking to optimize a Google Business Profile!
What is a Google Business Profile?
Google Business Profile, formerly known as Google My Business, is an online listing for companies with and without physical locations on Google Maps and Google Search.
‘Google Business Profile’ definition
As such, it is part of the Google ecosystem for businesses, providing features for establishing an online presence. That way, brands and businesses can be discovered by local customers, create their Google Ads, and reach more locals.
Furthermore, a Google Business Profile helps in engaging potential customers via a better shopping experience, which naturally builds brand loyalty.
Google Business profiles can be accessed on this link: business.google.com. As an example, here’s the GBP dashboard of our own Google profile:
What does Google Business Profile management consist of?
Google Business Profile management (formerly Google My Business management) is a service package that includes a range of features and activities, starting with creating and verifying a GBP listing, optimizing for better visibility, collecting and responding to customer reviews, to publishing Google Posts to promote new products, create events, and add updates.
Here’s the main screen of the Google Business Profile Manager page:
In a way, it’s like social media management specifically dedicated to managing the brand’s presence on Google services like Maps and Search.
What Google Business Profile Management Services can you offer?
In our experience, agencies often combine their current services with our GBP management services to offer them in a bundle to their clients.
Still, since some services are unique, and your GBP agency might not have yet established expertise in certain areas, such as reputation management.
For that reason, we divided the list of services into services native to managing Google Business Profiles and services that you can offer in bundles.
With these services, you can attract more customers and increase conversions, thus reaching a wider audience and enhancing local search visibility.
Provide unique GBP services to large companies
If you manage large companies with multiple locations, tailoring your offering with a specific service for multi-location companies is better.
For this purpose, you can select some of the following GBP services:
If you manage large companies with multiple locations, creating a more specific service for multi-location companies is better. For this purpose, you can select some of the following GBP services:
GBP business listing management
GMB listing management includes adding the listings in relevant business categories, updating profiles, business hours, and new menus, and uploading photos and videos for each client’s business location.
Google reviews collection
This is a very specific service for GBP management. It requires a strategy for contacting customers and requesting reviews via email, SMS, or other methods, such as Google reviews NFC cards, QR codes printed on menus, or Google reviews collected through website buttons or badges.
Google reviews management
Reviews management can be a robust service, especially if you manage a popular, multi-location brand. It will require setting up notifications and aggregating Google reviews in one place to achieve efficient monitoring, responding, categorizing, etc.
Google reviews widgets
You can provide Google reviews widgets, badges, or review collect forms for your clients’ websites that they can use to show trust and build confidence.
GBP post scheduling
GBP publishing and post scheduling include services like creating content plans to post updates, events, or offers on all your client locations. This can be a truly time-saving activity if you use a Google post scheduler that will help when you need to post on all locations simultaneously.
Google reviews insights
Google reviews reports and insights is a service that includes regular reporting about the status of the overall Google rating, new reviews, whether positive or negative and recommendations for handling potentially harmful reviews in the future.
GBP analytics
This service includes specific Local marketing analytics for each business location on Google Maps. The GBP analytics provides an overview of the total visits of the profiles, local search queries, and traffic that a particular website receives from the GBP dashboard.
Google My Business API Access
Utilize the Google My Business API for streamlined management, including role management without granting multiple access permissions, advanced post scheduling, and bulk review responses.
Multi-location clients can benefit from native GBP services
Here are some ideas for clients that can benefit much from these services:
- restaurant chains
- multi-location brands
- multi-brand companies
Provide bundled GBP services to SMEs
Offering bundled Google My Business management services might be easier if you need to build up your expertise.
Also, if your clients are small businesses with up to 5 locations, it makes much more sense to upsell the GBP management services in bundles you already offer.
Here are some ideas for bundled services that can include GBP management as well:
GBP management as part of social media management and monitoring
For agencies already providing Instagram monitoring or monitoring of mentions on other social media networks, you can upsell and provide Google reviews monitoring, setting up alerts to get notifications each time the customer gets a new review.
Publishing on GBP as part of social media publishing
If you provide Instagram, TikTok, or LinkedIn publishing services, you can add Google post scheduling as an extension of your current services.
Local SEO as part of broad SEO services
This service is perfect for any local business with tons of nearby competition – like restaurants, real estate offices, hotels, etc. You can offer it as part of current SEO activities and be specific to providing services such as competitor review keywords analysis and Schema codes for star ratings in local search results.
Local SEO can help engage potential customers by driving traffic to the website, helping them find the business locally, and providing a better shopping experience.
Website review widgets as part of web design services
providing the ability to design and embed Google review widgets for your client websites can help extend your current web design services and also differentiate your offering from the competition.
GBP accounts analytics as part of social media analytics
Suppose you already provide services like social media analytics. In that case, you can extend this and provide analytics of the visits and traffic that your clients’ websites get from their Google business profiles.
How to start offering Google My Business management service
Here’s a structured guide to help you get started and expand on your current business management capabilities:
- Gain expertise in offering GBP services
- Pitch the benefits of GBP services + email included
- Get access to clients’ Google Business Profiles
1. Gain expertise in offering GBP services
As we mentioned, for existing digital marketing agencies, it is most probably the easiest to integrate Google Business Profile services with other digital marketing strategies. And, of course, to start offering these services, you will need to gain experience in setting up and using the Google business profile manager.
- Leverage existing skills: Adapting to GBP reviews should be manageable if your team is already monitoring and responding to comments on other social media platforms. Develop a review policy that includes strategies for handling both positive and negative feedback effectively.
- Training and resources: Familiarize yourself with the setup and management of Google Business Profiles. Here are some key resources to get you started:
2. Pitch the benefits of GBP services + email included
Once you gain some expertise and knowledge in managing GBP profiles, you can start by learning the benefits of having an optimized Google business profile and pitching these benefits to your most loyal clients. Here are the main benefits that usually resonate with clients with multiple locations:
Subject:
- Let’s increase your local visibility
- Let’s get you more local clients
Hi [Client Name],
We are excited to introduce our new Google Business Profile (GBP) management services!
As you know, maintaining a strong online presence is crucial for attracting local customers.
With our expertise, we can optimize your GBP to ensure you stand out in local search results and on Google Maps. Benefits of our GBP management services include:
- Managing consistent branding across all locations.
- Boost local search visibility by up to 50%.
- Efficiently manage reviews and customer inquiries.
- Increase website traffic and bookings.
- Access detailed performance analytics for better decision-making.
- Get a competitive advantage with star ratings in search results.
- Increase sales by up to 15% on your website with Google Reviews Widgets.
We already secured a professional GBP management software that has direct access to Google business API that will help us all save time and be very efficient.
Let’s schedule a call to discuss how we can tailor our services to meet your needs and help your business grow. Please let me know a convenient time for you.
Best regards,
[Your Name]
Example pitch email for GBP services
3. Get access to clients’ Google Business Profiles
Finally, once a client is committed to trying their service, you will need to get access to their account. This is probably one of the main steps in determining their seriousness, and getting a big foot through the door is needed to prove yourself.
- Secure GBP access: Explain the process to your clients and provide clear instructions on how they can grant you access to their GBP. You can use the Google Maps app to set up this access on your mobile device. This step is crucial, especially if the client has multiple listings, and you will also need to define the role management within your team internally, such as providing a dedicated account manager for each location.
- Onboarding process: Develop an onboarding checklist to ensure you gather all necessary information from the client. This might include business information, business photos (exterior and interior), and any existing reviews needing attention.
Offer Google My business services with GBP management software
If you want to offer GBP management services, start using a GBP platform with all the functionalities needed to make your life easier.
Professional software for GBP management typically has an official GBP API integration—a huge benefit for large companies with lots of data.
One such platform with advanced GBP software is EmbedSocial, which you can try today. Here are the features provided:
- Access to the Google Business API
- Google reviews aggregation for multiple locations
- Team & sub-accounts and role management for multiple GBP locations
- Bulk adding multiple listings and bulk editing business information
- Google Posts publishing and scheduling at scale with an AI generator for post ideas
- Google reviews responder and autoresponder
To get started, schedule a demo call or start a free trial by clicking below.