Transcript:
Google has been for years trying to… Make it really easy for people to understand that somebody is trustworthy by allowing like reviews to show up on their Google business profile or Google my business in the past. And what they did is they’ve actually in my opinion, leveled the playing field for the consumer when it comes to working with businesses that are trustworthy.
And that’s actually adding the Google guaranteed badge and then allowing companies to market accordingly. I guess if you would put it in a nutshell, Google guaranteed is. A way for the public to know that they’re working with a trustworthy company.
Hello and welcome to DM Shop Talk or Digital Marketing Shop Talk. I’m Mike Mahaffey, Valor Circle’s Media Production Specialist. And here with me is… I’m Jeremy and I’m the Senior Marketing Director for Valor’s. Awesome. We got another episode, great episode for you guys today. A few episodes ago, Jeremy and I walked through a long list of items that we think all home service business owners should do to help better their marketing, to help grow their business.
And now each episode we’re diving deeper into each one of those items and to further give you information, give you tools, give you the knowledge so you can take what we’re saying. It apply it to your plumbing business, your electrical business, your roofing business, and so on and so forth. And today’s going to be another exciting one because it, in my eyes, in, in your eyes, cause I know you really emphasize this in our episode a few weeks ago this item or this task is really what will help home service business owners show up in Google.
And that’s Google guaranteed. Jeremy, can you give us a definition of what? Yeah, but I’m going to, I’m going to preface it with a question. Mike if you’re choosing to do business with somebody online and you have you don’t know somebody that real is a plumber is an electrician, what is the number one thing you look for to ensure you’re getting the right person?
Like in general? The right company to work with, yeah. I guess I, How do you know you can trust them? Yeah, that’s what it comes down to, right? Can you trust them? Though Google’s been for years trying to Make it really easy for people to understand that somebody’s trustworthy by allowing like reviews to show up on their Google business profile or Google, my business in the past.
And what they did is they’ve actually in my opinion, leveled the playing field for the consumer when it comes to working with businesses that are trustworthy. And that’s actually adding the Google guaranteed badge and then allowing companies to market accordingly. I guess if you were to put it in a nutshell, Google guaranteed is.
A way for the public to know that they’re working with a trustworthy company. Yeah, that’s a good way. That’s a good way to put it. And I know it pushed off to the side, but I want to dive into that trust that you get as a business that you create with Google business or your Google guaranteed.
With the consumer by getting that badge, but for now, I want to start off with Jeremy how, if they, if a plumbing business hasn’t set it up yet, what is it? Is it an easy process? Is it hard? Is it something they’ll be able to figure out? Is it something ask someone to help them out with?
Like, how do they go about getting it set up? Yeah. The process isn’t hard. It’s just making sure that you have the right paperwork available for you. Google wants to make sure that you’re insured, right? If you go into somebody’s house and something breaks you should have insurance to be able to cover it.
So like most home service industries are insured, which is just a necessity in today’s day and age, right? And so it’s doing background check, do you have felonies? Do you have things that would prevent you from being trustworthy? And you also have to have a certain amount of reviews, right?
You have to be in business for a little bit. I think it’s five reviews. You have to have at least five reviews. They have to be over four stars. There’s criteria there just to make sure there’s a level playing field and making sure that you are there, but the process is pretty easy.
If you just go to Google and Google, how to become Google guaranteed it’s very easy. It’s a step by step process. And they really create those criteria, like you were saying with the reviews, is to bring it back a little bit they, they want it to be a process that they can actually establish people with that trust value because they’re, they don’t want to just, when I say they, I say Google, Google just doesn’t want to give Google guaranteed to every random business or any Joe Schmo that’s coming up there.
They’re doing it. They’re putting the green checkmark badge next to your business’s name when they give you a Google Guaranteed Because they trust you and they want to show other people when they come and are searching for plumbing business electricity or electricians roofers that you should trust them to so there is that qualification but It’s not because they’re trying to make it hard for you to join five reviews isn’t is it hard to get you can get that pretty quickly but they really, this is really establishing that trust and I know Jeremy, you like to really dive into the psychology of things.
What does it mean from a consumer standpoint, if I’m searching for a roofer, roofer near me, I just moved here my, my roof’s leaking and what does it mean for me to see? Seeing that a business towards the top with the green check mark is that, does that mean I’m going to more likely do business with them?
What’s the kind of psychology behind that? I think that’s the thought. You’re gonna do businesses with people that you like, love, and trust, right? If you don’t like them and love them, you gotta be able to trust them and having that prequalification means a lot to me at least. No, I agree.
And I know you’ve talked a lot about E the acronym that Google uses, which stands for expertise, experience, authority, and trust. Awesome. And the Google Guaranteed really helps, especially it hits all four. But emphasis on that last part, trust Google is looking for businesses that they can trust so they can rank you better.
And although it like you get your badge at the top with it, it also helps the rest of your rankings. Do better as well. So if they’re keep scrolling, they’re going to see some of your other pages along there as well, just because it’s all working together in one unity, one body with this Google Guaranteed.
It just helps really establish that e and really establish that trust. Is there anything further you think it helps with that eat? I think it’s going to go into experience as well. And it makes you an authority in my opinion as well. So you’re right. It’s like that, that, peanut butter and jelly sandwich type of situation where you’re connecting everything with the Google tools and I’ve always said, if you use the Google tools, Google’s going to do what they’re probably going to reward you.
Yeah, exactly. I really want to emphasize. All businesses should be getting Google Guaranteed, but obviously we’re talking directly to home service businesses here. And what’s, Jeremy, what’s one of the number one things we get that every home service business that we work with? What is the number one goal?
What do they want every single month? Leads. Leads and leads. They lead leads. They want that full ringing. And by getting that Google Guaranteed, You’re taking another step in direction of working with Google so you can beat out your competition. Because if your competitor down the road, your roofing competitor down the road is already signed up on Google Guaranteed and already doing these steps, they’re already, Miles ahead of you.
So if you really wanna get more phone calls than that person or that company down the road, you really need to take these steps as well. And that’s why Google will help favor you. You’ll start ranking better on Google. And even if it’s not near me, like roofing problems, roofing issues, I need a roof or any of these terms that people might be working in Google.
The more you use these tools that they provide, the better you’re gonna be out your competition. And get that phone ringing or some consequences you think for people that are maybe neglecting like, Oh, I need to do this, but it’s not a priority of mine. It’s just lack of leads. I’m going to backtrack for a second, just because you’re Google guaranteed doesn’t mean you’re going to get leads Google guarantees connected with local service ads.
So local service ads are an auction platform, just like anything else, where you can actually bid on how much you show up, but it’s bidding on something that is going to get you more phone calls, right? Google knows exactly what’s happening. They’re pretty smart company. And when you sit there and you say, I want to show up this many times where I get this many leads.
The local service ad lets you do that bid per week to figure that out. If you’re not doing those I think you’re actually leaving money on the table, to be honest with you. It’s just a great way to get quick business over and over again that’s just the way I’m going to put it.
So I agree. And I think if they, cause as we said, a lot of these things we’re talking about in this podcast work together for the common goal of getting leads. Ranking well on Google, practically everything that we’re talking about is aiding towards ranking better on Google. And so if you neglect some of this stuff, like a Google guaranteed, it’s like you’re trying to compete with your one arm tie behind your back, or you’re walking on one leg.
It’s if you’re not using every tool, like Jeremy said earlier, if you’re not using every tool that Google is offering, then you’re hurting yourself and it’s costing you more to, and it’s harder for you to rank better in beat out. I agree. So do it. Don’t be so far. Awesome. Yeah, exactly.
Speaking about cost, I was just curious for people that might be wondering cause obviously whatever, whenever we do anything, people always, what was our cost detection? Do I have to pay for it? What’s that? That’s going to depend on the population of the areas you serve. Obviously the more population you have, the more competition you have.
It’s an auction based system. There’s no, I couldn’t tell you how much it would be to actually show up on the Google local service ads. ’cause there’s just a huge algorithm that you have to figure out and when you sign up, Google will let you know how much it’s gonna be per week.
It’s pretty, pretty precise. The one thing you have to make sure you do though, is you have to make sure that either an office that answers the phone calls when you say you’re in business, Or you’re able to answer those phone calls, even if you’re on the job, because if you miss those phone calls, it actually does penalize you on that system.
Once again, Google tries to make sure that they’re putting on the right businesses of our people who need them at the right time. Yeah. And as I say in general, like it hurt, as you’re saying, it hurts Google, but it just also hurts your reputation in general too. If people are trying to call you and you don’t have someone answering the phone on a regular basis, or you’re not answering it and they go to voicemail too often.
Odds are people aren’t going to be patient if they’re having a roofing problem. If they’re having a plumbing problem, they want it fixed now. Or, our society is most impatient it’s ever been. So if you miss, if they missed a fold, odds are they’re going to the next one on the list.
And yes, as you said, yes, it helps Google, but it was also just good. Good practice in general, because you don’t want to miss an opportunity of the lead because we know how valuable leads are. Exactly. So besides, obviously one of the most important things is ranking well on Google and that’s when Google guaranteed can help you out with.
What are some, are there some, any other like tools or things that Google or the Google guaranteed helps out with does it help with the phone calls we were talking about? Does it help? With booking and scheduling. Is there anything else that it offers with that listing? Yes. And yes. But bookings are, you have to make sure you’re connected with an automation system in order for it to be booked though.
So now not to be self promotion self promoting, but we have a program called Thomas, which if a client of ours has local service ads, we can actually connect the two together. And there’s an automation there for booking and scheduling and putting them right into your CRM too. Yeah, pretty much local service ads, Google Guaranteed, in my opinion if you didn’t have a website it’d probably be one of the best ways to obtain new leads outside of site websites. And basing on those leads, is there a way for people to track whether they’re coming from Google or Google Guaranteed, if Google Guaranteed is working, if they need to adjust anything, does Google Guaranteed offer anything like that?
Yeah, so when somebody calls off of a Google Guaranteed, I’m sorry, a local service ad. It actually informs you that it is connecting a call with Google. It’s you know exactly when the phone calls come in and you can actually
You can, oh my gosh, what’s the word I’m looking for? You can contest the phone calls that are spam or that are short or hangups. And so you don’t have to pay for those ads. You don’t have to pay for those calls when they come through. Oh, that’s awesome. I know a lot of people will benefit that because you just get, there’s a lot of spam calls that go around.
Everything’s recorded. So they can tell if you’re telling the truth or not. So that’s awesome. That’s awesome. I know last week we talked about Google Business Profile, just another tool that Google offers. Is there any connection? Do they go work hand in hand at all? How do they help each other, Guaranteed and Google?
They are connected. Obviously your brand name is going to be on there, on both of them. And once again, they’re both tools to allow the public to know that you’re trustworthy. As I said, they definitely work hand in hand. As I said, trying to use all the tools that Google offers.
Help you rank better and so on and so forth. But yeah, there’s just Google guaranteed is one of the many ways, but obviously we view it as important things to do to help your business rate better. Is there anything that sticks out to you that we haven’t touched on yet? That you really want to, you really want to talk about.
Yeah don’t hire a company to Google service ads or Google guaranteed for you. For instance, we can’t help our clients do it because it’s something that, they have to submit their insurance company submit their insurance information fill out the background checks. So like that for not only the business, but their employees.
So that’s on top of that a company would want to take on not us for liability reasons. So make sure that you understand you can do it. You’re on your own. It’s not a hard process. It just might be a little time consuming time. So as you said, a lot of it, just collecting paperwork and getting your business in line so you can apply for it.
It wasn’t that though, even though that’s a lot of likes, some might view that as a lot of upfront work. I just want to remind everybody when we’re doing things like this, when working towards the goal of ranking better on Google, we’re not looking for as many quick wins. We’re looking for the long haul.
Like this is stuff that’s going to help continue to build momentum. And so once you’re ranking well on Google, that’s not just going to disappear one day, like you, it’s a momentum. I always like to use the analogy with SEO, a search engine optimization, it’s a snowball and it starts small. It might take some time to get going.
Once it picks up momentum, it’s just going to keep building and building. And so this is Google guaranteed. It’s just another one of those tools that will help you. With that snowball effect. Yep. I agree. Awesome. As we talked about this week, Google guarantee, just another great tool for you guys to add to your toolbox of digital marketing assets to build your business.
And we always, I always want to end the podcast every single week to encourage anybody who is listening. If you want to be a guest, we would love to have you. We’re talking about tips on our end. Cause we’re. We’re marketing experts, but we’re not in, we’re not in the field. We’re not in the battlefield per se of doing stuff that you guys do.
And so we want to invite roofers. We want to invite plumbers. We want to invite landscapers on our podcast to share their stories. So other people like can learn from them and continue to build this community. So any parting words this week, Jeremy? No just look into local service ads and Google guaranteed and.
Just move forward. I’m in a few words today. Nope, I love it. It’s been a great episode and we’re excited to release the new one. See you guys next time. Yeah, we’ll see you guys.
