This article has been updated on 3 November 2020
Erratum: Google My Business Marketing Kit is now available to businesses in Australia. Apologies for any confusion!
Google has launched a cute little way to promote your local business with five-star Google reviews from your favourite customers. Formerly called Small Thanks with Google, Google My Business Marketing Kit is a simple platform that you can generate various posters to show off your best Google reviews. Local SMEs in select countries can use this free service to further promote their business.
Reviews and ratings for local businesses are very important ranking factors that search engines like Google take into consideration when displaying results. This is because users are looking for social proof to help influence their decision making. It’s human nature to be drawn to a business that has positive reviews because these reviews and ratings encourage better purchase decisions. So it’s a nice touch from the search giant to allow you to do a little bit extra with your positive reviews by creating these posters for free.
How do you create a Google My Business Marketing Kit poster?
It’s a very easy process to generate your posters. Here’s how you do it
Visit Google My Business Marketing Kit
Enter your business name in the field and select it when it appears – make sure you have a GMB listing and that it’s verified. You will also need to have some 5-star reviews on Google for your business to appear on the list.
Google then generates some poster examples with some randomly selected reviews that you can select as they are, or you can select to “customize your own”.
If you customise your own, you can select the style and layout as well as the colour in some instances.
You can also choose the style and colour of your poster. Click on the poster of your choice to change the colour if that’s an available option, change to your preferred colour and then click next.
Download Your Materials
You can download a zipped folder that contains all the promotional material you need in conveniently sized (with bleed lines) and labelled files ready to send to the printers, along with all your online assets too. You also get to choose from more reviews when you personalise your toolkit, so you can really create something awesome that works for the medium you want to publish your posters on.
New Update – Sharing COVID-19 Updates
With the Coronavirus pandemic still going around, Google My Business now lets you download and print social post templates that focus on business updates. You can personalise any business changes like ‘Takeaway or delivery only’ them and hang them on your storefront. Think of it as a creative way to let your customers know what’s going on with your local business.
Stickers for Download
You can add free stickers, available for download and print, on your store’s door or windows. Google My Business Marketing Kit also has these add-ons to further promote your business online and get more 5-star reviews.
Fun and practical application for Google My Business Marketing Kit
Here’s a good idea for a practical application of Small Thanks with Google if you don’t want to print out your posters. Create a Google My Business Post with your postcards and have them on rotation – that will make a super-attractive carousel and get customers’ attention by showing off your highest-rated reviews. And it doesn’t look like anyone’s doing this yet so why not be the first!
Don’t have any / many reviews at the moment? Check out this blog article on how to get your customers to leave you reviews.
Need help optimising your Google My Business account or your digital marketing strategy?
Sign up for an account with DigitalMaas to get your bespoke digital marketing report and see if we can optimise your Google My Business account or help you with other aspects of your digital marketing strategy.
