Google Places offers free marketing service

Going Places

Google wants to put your business on the map

I just did a neato-keen, high tech, wiz kid marketing trick that was so easy, anyone can do it. And probably should. I listed Sharp Audio on Google Places, a marketing tool offered for free by the (increasingly misnamed) global search engine company.

Google came up with the idea in order to provide content for GoogleMaps. There are over fifty million businesses located on Google Maps, according to the blog Extreme Social Media, but only four million have taken advantage of Google Places. Google would like to see every single one of those businesses fill out a simple form adding who, what and when to the where balloon already on the map.

My business now has a Places page (though it will be a few days before it gets activated, so don’t rush off). The page tells searchers about my music recording studio, gives them contact information (including web page) and notes hours of operation. Photos and videos can be added for a little extra zing. I don’t run a drop-in business, so the program allows me to keep my physical address private. All they ask for is a mailing address.

The information pops up automatically when a user searches for my services anywhere near my location. There is nothing more that I need to do, nothing at all to pay. Ever. Because my information also benefits Google, it is a win-win situation. Search for a recording studio in Sonoma County, for example, and Sharp Audio will be one of the little balloons that appear on your map. Clicking on it brings you straight to my Places page.

The service is further customizable, as well. Businesses can update their status in real time, letting customers know, for example, when a special is about to end or sell out. It is also set up to use QR codes that can be imprinted on other marketing materials, like fliers or business cards. Simply scanning one of these crazy quilt codes takes the browser straight to your page.

It may not be the be all and end all of marketing, but this new little service from Google may well be the final nail in the coffin of the yellow pages. Print media in a digital age gets nearer and nearer to extinction.