Marketing & Brand Growth
Many local businesses are hard to find at the moment somebody is looking for them
Somebody two kilometres away searches for exactly what you sell, and finds three competitors. This session covers the unglamorous work that decides who appears — profile, reviews, listings, and responding to what people say about you.
Explore this page6 sections
For a business serving a place, this is the marketing that pays.
Owners spend on social media because it feels like marketing, while the customer with immediate intent — searching now, nearby, ready to buy — goes to whoever appears first with credible reviews.
Much of that is free to fix. It is simply unglamorous, fiddly and never urgent, which is why it does not get done.
What decides who appears
35 topics across 6 areas. Six things.
Your Google Business ProfileThe single highest-return hour available.7 topics
- Claiming and verifying it
- Correct category
- Accurate hours, including holidays
- Phone number that is answered
- Photographs of the actual place and work
- Products or services listed
- Keeping it current
Many local business profiles are unclaimed or out of date — wrong hours, an old photograph. Google asks you to verify a business before you can edit it.
ReviewsWhat decides the choice between you and the next result.7 topics
- Asking, at the moment somebody is happy
- Making it easy — a link or QR code, not instructions
- Never buying them, or offering a discount in return — Google prohibits incentivised reviews
- Asking everyone, not only the customers you expect to be happy — Google also prohibits filtering who is asked
- Responding to every one
- Responding to bad ones without arguing
- A steady trickle beats a burst
Being FindableConsistency across the places people look.5 topics
- The same name, address and phone everywhere
- Local directories that matter for your trade
- Maps listing accurate
- Website that says where you are
- Language your customers actually search in — English, Kannada, Hindi or a mix
What Your Listing SaysThe few lines that decide a call.5 topics
- What you actually do, in plain words
- The area you serve
- What makes you the safe choice
- Price signal, if it helps
- How to contact you, and how fast you answer
Responding to What People SayPublicly, and without arguing.6 topics
A calm reply to an angry review can persuade the next reader more than the review damages you. An argumentative one does the opposite.
- Reply to everything, promptly
- Thank the good ones specifically
- Acknowledge the bad ones without excuses
- Take the detail offline
- Fix the cause if it recurs
- Never argue in public
What Not to Spend On YetBefore the basics are done.5 topics
- Paid advertising while the profile is wrong
- A website redesign before the listing is right
- Social media without a reason to post
- Agencies for work you have not defined
- Anything you cannot measure
An hour that changes the numbers
- Claim and correct the Google Business Profile
- Fix hours, phone and category
- Add ten real photographs
- Ask five happy customers for a review, with a direct link
- Reply to every existing review
- Check the name and address are identical everywhere
What to measure
- Calls from the listing
- Direction requests
- How many people search your name against your category
- Number of reviews and the average
- How fast you reply
- Where enquiries actually say they found you
How the session runs
Participants look up their own business on a phone in the room, which is often the moment the session lands — wrong hours, an unclaimed profile, a handful of old reviews. The corrections are made there, and each person leaves having asked five customers for a review.
What your students leave with
- A claimed and corrected Google Business Profile
- A habit for asking for reviews at the right moment
- Replies to every existing review, including the bad ones
- Consistent details across the places customers look
- A clear view of what not to spend on yet
- Numbers they can check again in a month
Scheduled sessions
Nothing scheduled yet
Sessions are arranged with a college once a date is agreed. Ask us and we will find the right person for it.
A student rather than a college? See what is coming up, or ask your placement team to host this.
Start a conversation
Ask for this session
Tell us who you are and what you have in mind. A person reads it and writes back, usually within two working days.
- Tell us what you need
A topic or a question is enough to start.
- A person replies
Usually within two working days.
- Agree the next step
We work out the details together.
Somebody nearby is searching for exactly what you sell.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.