Google Business Profile (GBP) is a free tool that allows companies to manage their online presence and improve visibility on different Google services, such as Google Search, Google Maps and Google Shopping. By managing your Google business profile, you can help your business appear when someone searches for your business name. Or, do a local search related to the products or services you offer. Some of your competitors' Google business profiles may already be positioned based on the location-specific queries you want to target.
Creating and optimizing your Google business profile can help your business appear on Google Maps. By adding your products to your Google Business Profile list, you can also make them appear in Google Shopping with location-specific keywords. Facebook is the most popular social media platform, with billions of active users. In addition to browsing their feeds and communicating with their loved ones, people also use Facebook to discover businesses.
Creating and optimizing your Facebook business page presents a great opportunity for local businesses. Especially if your target audience uses Bing. To optimize your Facebook business page, include your business address, phone number, email, business hours, and other relevant information. You can also engage your audience through posts, stories, gifts and more.
Based on this information, Facebook calculates the company's recommendation rating. It ranges from 1 to 5 and appears on the left side of the company profile. Facebook also allows customers to interact directly with a business through messaging. It provides a convenient and personal way for them to connect with your business. Yelp is a popular review site with local customers.
Millions of people use it to discover and evaluate local businesses. And Yelp's functionality goes beyond being a simple directory. The platform promotes a bidirectional communication channel, which allows users to send messages directly to companies. Business owners can request their Yelp ads for free.
Creating and optimizing your Yelp profile can help your business reach more potential customers. This includes adding relevant information, such as phone number, business hours, photos, videos, address, specialties, and more. In addition, search engines like Yahoo use Yelp for local search results. Tripadvisor is an online platform that provides travelers with the relevant information they need to plan their trips.
One of the main features of Tripadvisor is to help consumers discover and evaluate local businesses. Including hotels, vacation homes and restaurants. Tripadvisor offers several filters and sorting options to help users find exactly what they are looking for. For example, you can select the types of properties or services you prefer to narrow your search. Or you can sort the results based on factors such as price, distance, or distance to the city center.
Businesses can create or request their Tripadvisor listing for free. Companies can also incorporate the Tripadvisor widget into their website to bring dynamic content from their Tripadvisor profile to their website. G2, formerly called G2 Crowd, is an online review platform for software companies. More than 80 million B2B buyers use the platform to discover and evaluate software.
Creating or requesting your G2 profile can help you improve your visibility on the Internet and understand the weaknesses of your customers and areas where they can be improved. You can do it all for free. The free plan includes the basic skills of the G2 profile, access to earned badges, and the ability to collect reviews for beginners. Amazon is one of the largest retailers in the world, with millions of monthly active users.
More people start their product searches on Amazon than on Google. In addition, search engines display Amazon listings for many product searches. Customers can rate Amazon products on a scale of 1 to 5, regardless of whether they made a purchase or not. The star rating is a key component of a review. However, it requires customers to assign a single number to their overall experience with a product.
There was a time when consumers made almost all their purchases within the four walls of a physical store. In those days, marketing tactics, such as television commercials and magazine ads, had a major influence on consumers' purchasing decisions. Therefore, brands and retailers invested heavily in those areas. Many brands and retailers continue to invest significantly in traditional marketing channels in an effort to reach buyers.
However, these tactics no longer have the power they once had. Consumers are no longer content with brands talking about them. What most influences their behavior and decisions are the comments of their colleagues, and not traditional marketing tactics. Brands and retailers must adapt their strategies accordingly. But how? The first step is to understand how modern consumers navigate the online buying process and the tools and information they turn to when making purchasing decisions. In this report, we'll share our key findings, as well as recommendations for brands and retailers looking to optimize their acquisition strategies and increase ROI.
E-commerce was already growing at a steady pace. The pandemic added fuel to the fire. Today, the vast majority of consumers (99.5%) turn to the Internet, at least sometimes, to research their purchases. Nearly 87% do so regularly or always.
It should be noted that younger shoppers tend to do more research online before making a purchase than their older counterparts. There are nearly endless options available to online shoppers. Where do you usually start the buying process? Amazon tops the list, and half of consumers indicate that's where they look first when shopping online. Next is Google (31.5%), followed by brand or retail websites (14%). There are some notable differences depending on the generation.
For example, members of Generation Z are the group least likely to start their search on Amazon. On the other hand, these young shoppers are more likely than older shoppers to start their search on social media. We know that Amazon is the most common place to start a product search. However, consumers don't just use Amazon to search for and buy products.
Instead, they turn to a lot of different websites to browse and shop. And, often, they do it quite often. There are a couple of clear trends. The first is that consumers use Google more often than any other channel. It should also be noted that younger shoppers use all four channels more frequently than older consumers.
At best, consumers do a lot of research before making a purchase. This is even more true in times of uncertainty. Nearly three-quarters of consumers research their purchases more than before due to the current economic climate. This figure is even higher (78%) among Generation Z buyers. We analyze the sources of information that buyers turn to when making purchasing decisions, but first let's analyze the critical factors (at the most basic level) that determine whether consumers will buy a product or not.
When it comes to more in-depth product research, our survey highlighted some key findings. As expected, consumers are now taking a closer look at purchases, given the prevailing economic conditions. Customer photos and videos and recommendations from friends and family are tied for second place. Now, let's take a closer look at how some of these factors influence behavior throughout the buying process. Word of mouth has always had a big impact on the buying process.
Today, 60% of consumers say that recommendations from family and friends are a key way to learn about new (or new to them) products. Finally, 59% say that a personal recommendation influences their decision to buy the product in question. As we discussed earlier in this report, Google and other search engines are a common starting point for buyers. It's not surprising, then, that 63% of consumers use search engine results as a tool to get information about products they've never purchased before. After arriving at a brand or retailer's site, many consumers use the site's search box to identify products that fit their needs.
Today, nearly half (47%) of consumers use search results on retail sites to learn about new (for them) products. In addition, 49% trust the site's search results. Consumers use social media to keep in touch with family and friends. But they also use these channels to discover products. Facebook is the most popular channel for discovering products, and 37% of consumers indicate that they use it to learn about new products.
A good number of consumers place their trust in social networks, and Facebook tops the list. In the past, brands and retailers invested most of their marketing investment in traditional channels, such as television commercials and celebrity and influencer promotions. But today, these channels don't have the impact they used to. In addition, few consumers trust these traditional tactics when making a purchase decision.
That doesn't mean you should completely abandon traditional marketing tactics. On the one hand, these techniques serve a different purpose, since they provide value at different stages of the buying or funnel process. There is a level of risk associated with buying a product that is not seen at first glance. As the price increases, so does the risk. In order to compete, brands and retailers must first have a clear idea of what those consumers expect during the buying process and how different factors influence their behavior. Read on for five key findings from our latest survey.
By now, the vast majority of consumers browse and shop online. Trustpilot is a popular third-party review site that allows customers to review the companies they purchased from. In addition, when the review is published, it is also very informative when it comes to determining if buyers decide to read it or not. This will help your brand look authentic and will prevent Google from imposing sanctions on you for review restriction practices.
If you have a feeling that you have too many questions on your review form, consider deleting some of the most frequently asked questions that have received the least answers and see how this affects your percentage of submitted reviews. However, sometimes a reviewer mistakenly includes some of this content, such as personally identifiable information, and that can be easily corrected by improving the instructions on the review form. Manta differs from most review sites because it focuses more on connecting people than on commenting on products and services. Therefore, a solid review generation program helps your product pages rank higher, which means more traffic to your site and more buyers exposed to your products (in the chapter we talked about many ways to maximize the volume of reviews).
After reviewing all comments, the moderator will determine if the review should be published. While Google's business profile offers many useful tools for business owners to promote themselves online, such as booking appointments and posting on social media, its review service is the most prominent. Finally, consider showing the most useful positive opinion along with the most useful negative review. This is data that you'll want to incorporate into the review screen, so you'll want to include questions that address the topic in your review collection form. Optimize your emails by allowing customers to review several products at once, from the body of the email, and always send at least two feedback requests.
That's why they show the percentage of critics who recommend a product at the top of the review screen. The same review is then shared with the exact retail partners chosen by the brand, and these companies also display the review on their e-commerce sites. Once that's done, you can ask the reviewer for a second chance and ask them to update their review.
