Are you making the most of your Google Places listing? Please tell me you’ve at least heard of Google Places listings. It’s only one of the most popular ways people search for small businesses locally these days.

The sad fact of the matter is that small businesses are not using these opportunities wisely. When people click on these listings, they want the entire business at-a-glance, not just an address, a phone number and a Google map of your location. Here’s what I mean…

Wedding Planner

You’ve got 10 photos: use them! Get girls in dresses, flowers, cakes, favors, décor, destinations, limos, churches, musicians and maybe even a few photos of your building, office and yourself to personalize it further.
You also have 5 videos. Get testimonials from past brides. Conduct interviews with some of your vendors. Show a behind-the-scenes day in the life of a wedding planner. Reminisce about your own wedding and all the details that made it special. There is so much you can do here to brand yourself and surpass your competition.
Do not lose sight of the power of coupons. These days people not only look for deals. They expect them. You may offer money off or give a free gift as a token of your appreciation. Some wedding planners advertise a free consult too.
Reviews are a must! Offer incentives for past clients to give you the thumbs up. As a new feature, Google Places now allows business owners to comment back on review pages.

Florist

Add pictures of your most recent arrangements. Try to showcase diversity.
Include a behind-the-scenes video of a wedding floral display from start to finish. Show clips of flowers from different weddings if you can or just a collage of flower photos set to music. Share your expertise and talk about some of your favorite flowers to use for bridal bouquets. Talk about the different styles of bridal bouquets and corsages one might choose. Add value to your listing. You can then reuse these videos elsewhere.
Create a coupon that can be printed or brought in on a mobile phone
Ask past clients to write a review for your business

Photographer

You’ve got tons of pictures, undoubtedly, but try to showcase a variety of different locations and moments – the cake cutting, the first kiss as husband and wife, the father/daughter or mother/son dance, the bouquet toss, the ring exchange, the reception dancing, etc. Also try to capture the décor.
Show video testimonials. Talk about what equipment you’ll bring or what differentiates your business. Make a video of your favorite local locations you’ve shot. Create a short promotional video about all of your services and packages. If you do videography as well, include samples of that.
Offer exclusive coupons for Google Places users to see how your campaign performs.
Get reviews!

So whether you are a Wedding Planner, Florist, Photographer, Videographer, Limo Company, Horse Carriage Company, Entertainment Company, Jeweler, Venue, Bridal Shop, Atelier, whatever it is that you do in the wedding and bridal industry…Don’t let this marketing opportunity pass you by, you are a Wedding Pro! Get an edge on the competition.

Click here to get started!

I would love to stay connected with you. Please drop by and say “hello” on my Facebook wall HERE.

In service to you,

Larissa

There are some very big changes happening behind the scenes here at Seven Winds and I want to take a break from the blog to focus our energy on the direction this business will soon be heading in.

I know what you’re thinking, “Now, why on Earth would you just stop keeping your blog updated when you’ve gained some momentum recently?”

My best answer to that is that it could possibly do us more harm than good to be blogging without knowing for certain who, exactly, we’re going to be marketing to come April 1st and frankly, blogging is too much work to be wasting valuable post energy on irrelevant topics.

Now, this new plan being cooked up isn’t something I just plucked out of thin air, but I’m being completely transparent right now when I say that I haven’t ironed out all the details yet and until I do I’m not prepared to launch anything or to be blogging about it.

There are other spring cleaning items that are taking place around here as well, changes that are collectively going to improve our clients’ experience working with us and that will make team members happier…including letting go clients who are not holding up their end of our working arrangement.

So…we’ll be falling off the radar for a couple of weeks but my question to you in the meantime is this:

When did you last do some spring cleaning in your business?

Are you still doing things that aren’t working?
Are you holding on to clients because they pay you, even though they make you miserable?
Have you brushed off your marketing materials lately?
What about an updated list of service offerings or some spiffy new content?

Come on, guys, spring has sprung and it’s time to get serious about getting rid of the business clutter to ensure a healthy, happy rest-of-the-year!

You pick up your mop and pail and we’ll see you in April!

Google Places For Wedding Pros

Wedding Planner

Florist

Photographer

Please excuse the dust, it’s spring cleaning time!

Ask Me

Certified Online Business Manager