Jon: In terms of Google My Business, it has had a profound impact on our web design business here on the Gold Coast, as I know it has with yours Karl. So maybe you want to give a little bit of background on who you are, your experience, and why you are an expert in Google My Business.
Karl: Thanks Jon, well my main business is Xennox Diamonds, and we currently have over 603 5-star Google reviews. And really during this whole Covid process, it has really forced me to kind of have a look at the systems and the processes, and “How we got to where we were”, and ultimately the impact it was having on our business.
And when we dived down into the numbers we found that last year we had over 173 sales (And that’s sales, not leads) that came directly as a result of our Google reviews.
Jon: That’s awesome
Karl: That translated into a million dollars in top-line revenue. And today it accounts for more than 25% of all of our revenue generated, as a lead origin source.
Jon: It is such low-hanging fruit, and we see this day in and day out. So in your experience, what are the three mistakes that a business owner is making with their Google My Business listing?
Karl: So the first one, and if you are not really familiar, ‘Google My Business’ listing is basically Google’s online directory, it is like the old Yellow Pages. That is where you would put in all of your contact details, your phone number, and – some interesting stats around that – your clients, 64% of them, will actually get your phone number and your address from the Google My Business listing, as opposed to 49% of them who will find it on your ‘Contact Us’ page on your website.
So, the biggest mistake that I see around a ‘Google My Business’ listing, is that people are inconsistent or haven’t even optimised their listing. So maybe it is something that you’ve done once, but it has been sitting in the top drawer for 6 months or a year. Google needs you to update every week, every seven days. You can put up a post, but it expires. We are moving into that age now, of things like Instagram Stories and Snapchat, and all those sorts of things where they are constantly expiring. So, at the moment it is free, which is so awesome. Imagine if I told you that there is a zero-dollar cost marketing machine out there that can just bring you leads and sales every week, and it costs you nothing. You know, you would be crazy not to jump on it. But if you look at things like Facebook, or any of those other platforms, they all started off free as well.
The question is ‘How much longer is it going to stay free?’. Well, who knows. But right now, there is a really awesome opportunity to get in there, optimise it, get it humming for you, so that it can already start building you those leads and sales. As well as SEO traffic, because that is really what it is all about. It is Google’s eyeball’s. So when we talk about SEO – (Search Engine Optimisation / Search Engine Optimised Traffic) – it is all about how many eyeballs on your product, your business, your services and your brand, can we get in front of a potential client.
The second mistake I see is business owners spending money on advertising on things like Google ads or even Facebook ads, that just simply do not generate or result in sales, or any positive influence to your business. You are spending two, three, four or five thousands dollars a month on ads, and when you really look at the conversion ratio, and ‘What is the revenue that we have been generating’, the result is pretty poor.
When I look at us, when I talk about that one-million dollars being generated, and I look at ‘What was our actual cost of acquisition in order to generate that revenue, it is about $3500.
Jon: That is awesome, that is an amazing return!
Karl: We don’t incentivise Google Reviews, we don’t pay for them, any of that, they are all genuine stories of clients that come to us. So, it is really about focusing on this can potentially be the best marketing asset that you can build. And when I say asset, that’s really what it is right? So if you’ve got two businesses, and one business has no reviews, no established GMB account, and the other one has like us, 600+ Google reviews in there, generating a million dollars in revenue, that is totally independent of the business owner, is it like an ATM cash machine that is just going “Cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-thing”. Every week three sales come in from our Google reviews and our Google My Business listing.
Jon: Part of that is about the social proof. People want that social proof, and that is where that experience starts, right off of the back of Google search, isn’t it?
Karl: It is definitely the social proof, but it is also a massive asset to your business, so Jon, like you, the computers and the things like that, that you have in your business, they are all assets to you and your business. If you were gonna sell that to somebody, you have all these assets that are worth money. The great thing about a Google review portfolio asset, is not only does it get better and better every year that you do it, but it also adds a multiple to the evaluation of your business. So now you might not ever want to sell your business, I certainly don’t want to sell mine, but still it will make your business run more effectively and as efficient as it can be.
Now, the third biggest mistake. If you take away nothing else from this little chat we are having, the number one thing that I want to encourage you and your team, is just to go out and ask clients for reviews. 86% of clients would leave a review, if you simply ask.
Now Jon, I know that you have asked more in the last 3-6 months that you ever have previously, and then guess what happened to the needle? It is definitely moving in the right direction. We were sharing before that you are now Australia’s number one, highest rated website designer and developer.
Jon: Yup, and it snowballs. So once you get that momentum, it feeds it. So it’s super powerful.
Karl: Great. So there are the three biggest mistakes. I mean, there are loads more..
Jon: No, those are awesome! There are some gold nuggets there, so thank you very much.
Karl: And for me, I have been in the diamond business for over 24 years now, and I genuinely just absolutely love it. I wake up every day and I jump out of bed with two feet. And it really hurts home. And if this year has been anything to go by, it is like, as business owners, we just love what we do.
Jon: Yup
Karl: We genuinely want to do tat for more people. And so this process of of helping other business owners uncovering what we went through, and we went through the systems, some that didn’t work, did some fine tuning, and we have gotten to a unique framework now that just works. And my goal is to help business owners replicate the results that we have, so that they can go out and do what they do, so that they can help more people.
Jon: Yeah, we talk about “Sharing Their Magic” with the world, and that is definitely a way to do that Karl.
Karl: So, if you guys want to find out more, I would be more than happy to have a conversation, I know that Jon will CC every up, but there is a window here. So before your competition finds out, it is only a matter of time before the other guys starts looking over the fence and going “Hey, what’s that guy doing?”.
You want to get to a point where you are that far in front, that it won’t matter.
