Key Factor In Digital Marketing 2018: Managing Your Business Information Online

Today customers use a diverse list of maps, apps, voice search tools, digital assistants, search engines, directories, and social networks to search for local businesses. Managing your business information online is key factor in Digital Marketing for 2018.  

Listing Management (Online Presence Management) is the process of updating your business information online, also known as Digital Presence, or Online Presence. 

Your Digital Information includes everything about your business: Basic contact information, business hours, lists of services, menu, staff bio’s, photos, videos, and posting updates about your business on social media sites. 

"Just like a sign or billboard does offline, digital presence ensures customers who search online find their way to local businesses in person. To succeed, every business in the world needs a strong digital presence. A complete digital presence includes: Website, Social Media profile & posts, Online directory listings, organic search ranking, & customer reviews."  -Alex, MGB Digital Marketing Specialist

Listing Management, updating your business listings, can be simplified with new technology. I will go over the technology we use to manage it all for you, but first let’s go over what exactly to cover when managing your business information online.

How Important Is Managing Your Information Online ? 4 in 5 local mobile searches results in a purchase!

While there are a lot of unknowns, one thing Google has revealed about its compilation process are its local ranking factors, which re distance, relevance, and prominence. Prominence is based on the information that Google has about a business from across the web, including business listings and reviews data. (Improve Your Local Ranking On Google, Google)

“Incorrect or incomplete information online causes small businesses to lose potential customers at a cost of $10 billion per year.” (Screenwek study 2013)

Search engines want reliable information. They search for information which is updated frequently. Now, a big part of your search ranking is reliant on consistent business information. If you set up a YouTube channel and then forget about it, never updating your phone number, website, address, or other details than you are seriously hurting your search results. 

Key Steps To Managing Your Business Listings:

Take control of your business listings. 

Claim your listings and set up your accounts. It is easy to skip over some of these sites, but vitally important: Google My Business, Google+, Bing, Yahoo, Apple, Facebook, Twitter. These are only the basics, we have a full list of the network we cover here. 

Clean Up Your Data. 

Everywhere your information is being displayed should have accurate facts about your business. Phone numbers, addresses, website URL, the basic information for people to find you can be drastically inaccurate. Over 40% of online business information is inaccurate, and in some industries much higher rates! We have provided an easy tool to scan your online presence for inaccurate information here. Select "Scan My Online Presence" to see how you stack up.

Optimize Your Listings.

You will want to use every possible enhanced feature to make your business listing stand out. Clickable links, photos, business hours, featured messages, and product/service lists are just a few enhanced features you can add to your business listings. These features help you stand out from your competition. Take the time to add more information & content which people can engage. Listings with photos, videos, and descriptions receive 45% - 61% more listing views! 

Regular Updates

More than ever sites rely on crowdsourced information to rank you in results. Sites like Google allow people to publish information & reviews about your business. It will help you get better results to go on and check this information on a regular basis. Verify Publisher Suggestions, give feedback to reviews, thank your audience for contributing and your results will continue to grow. 

Having consistent & accurate information across your entire digital footprint helps your business rank higher in search results. Accurate information also helps more people find you through the various apps & business directories they use everyday, not just search engines. 

It’s all in the details. Search engine optimization (SEO) is more important than ever. If you are wanting to get the best results for your website you need to make sure you are managing all of your digital information, everywhere it appears online.

How is a business supposed to keep up with all the sites people use to find information about the products & services they are looking for?

Fear not, it’s not futile to manage your information. There are Listing Management systems which will track & update all your information for you. 

These systems will take care of getting your information on the popular sites & apps, identify your content, link it together, and actively manage your information. 

Data integrity matters more than ever. 

A Listing Manager ensures you are engaging with your audience & doing so in a meaningful way. This is what we ultimately want out of our technology, to find relevant information which contributes to what we want, when we want it.

We use a simple platform to control, schedule, and keep all the information up-to-date, Multi-Platform Synchronization. This Listing Management Tool controls your information with features helping you reach more customers across the largest network. Direct publisher integration updates your information quickly across publishers like Google, Bing, Apple, and Facebook.

The Multi-Platform Synchronization Platform manages your Digital Presence for you:

Maintain Control

Get control of your business listings across a huge network of sites. Lock your info so you control it.

Information Mangement

Manage all your information online from one platform. Update your holiday business hours, photos, or timed special promotions you can schedule ahead of time. 

Optimized Workflows

Take the guess work out of staying on top. All of the resources are brought together so you can dominate your digital presence from one place.

Enhanced Feature Rich Content

Unlock the optimized features on your business listings with enhanced content. This includes clickable call-to-action messages, featured messages, interactive product/service lists, calendars, menus, online orders, E-Commerce, staff bios, categories and keywords.

Manage Publisher Suggestions

Manage customer suggestions and control your business information from this one platform.

Review Management

Generate real reviews, manage customer feedback, respond, and share your reviews. Now you can stay on top of everything without having to hunt for your reviews!

Comprehensive Analytics

Analytics are brought together so you can see where you are getting the best results. Target your listings according to accurate data. 

I hope this has inspired you to build a more authoritative online presence, manage your online information, shape better customer engagement, and make more strategic business decisions! Remember, there is no permanent record or single source of location data online, so it’s up to you to take control. I highly encourage you to take advantage of the technology which can do this for you. Learn More About Multi-Platform Synchronization Here 

Read More On This Topic: Forbes Article, Four Signs It's Time To Revamp Your Digital Marketing Strategy

Thanks for reading & contact me if you have questions support@maingoesbig.com 

Sources & Linked Pages in this Article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_presence#Web_Presence_Management

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_presence_management

https://www.neustar.biz/about-us/news-room/press-releases/2014/survey-reveals-local-businesses-and-c... http://searchengineland.com/study-78-percent-local-mobile-searches-result-offline-purchases-188660

https://support.google.com/business/answer/7091?hl=en

http://www.lsainsider.com/

https://www.maingoesbig.com/listing-manager

https://www.maingoesbig.com/multi-platform-synchronization

https://www.maingoesbig.com/listing-network-marketing

http://services.google.com/fh/files/misc/mobile-search-ppt.pdf

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2018/05/23/four-signs-its-time-to-revamp-your-digit...