Picture this: Your brand has dozens of locations across the country.
Great!
But not all of those locations are actually listed online.
… Not so great.
And of the locations that are listed on Google, a handful of them contain inaccurate business info.
Yikes.
This is the painful reality for many channel marketers. It’s dozens (or even hundreds) of locations versus one you. But with location data management, you can ensure your local listings are accurate across every store location.
But what exactly is location data management? Why does it matter? And most importantly, how do you do it? Buckle up — we’re about to get into the nitty-gritty.
What is location data management?
Location data management (sometimes known as business listing management) is the process of ensuring a company’s location information is accurate across all publishers where their business locations are listed, such as Google, Facebook, and local directory sites like Yelp and Merchant Circle.
Managing location data is especially crucial for channel marketers who sell their products across a network of local affiliates. These brands rely on their partners to drive local sales — and managing their listings plays a big role in their success. Think about it: If customers can’t find a location or get in touch to ask questions… they probably won’t make a purchase.
Benefits of business location data management
Your affiliates have plenty of responsibilities that probably seem more important than keeping up with their online listings. But the thing is, this task has a lot more impact than they may realize.
Business listing management doesn’t just make companies look good — it also drives significant results. Here are the main benefits of managing location data across your channel partners.
Increased visibility
Inaccurate location data negatively impacts businesses’ search rankings on Google. When your affiliates practice business location data management to ensure their listing information is correct, their businesses will rank higher (and maybe even land themselves in the coveted Google 3-Pack), leading to increased searches and profile views.
Reaching the right customers
Managing location data ensures that your brand gets in front of the right customers. With well-managed listings, your affiliates can expect to attract more consumers in their local areas who are interested in their offerings.
Driving more sales
Local searches have incredibly high purchase intent. In fact, 78% of local searches conducted on mobile result in an in-store purchase. That means the better your affiliates’ business listings, the more people will see them. And those people are highly likely to make a purchase — which means more revenue in your pocket.
Tips for managing location data
Now that you know why your local affiliates need to practice location data management, it’s time to talk about how. After claiming listings on Google My Business and local directories, your partners should follow these best practices to ensure their listings are optimized to drive the best results.
1. Go into detail
When it comes to location data, the more information, the better. Encourage your affiliates to make their local listings as detailed as possible. That means including the basics like business name, address, and phone number, as well as more granular data like:
- Store hours
- Description
- Categories
- Site links
- Photos
- Attributes
- Logo
- FAQs
- Cover image
The more details your affiliates provide, the better local consumers can get to know them and the more results you’ll see. In fact, businesses that complete over 86% of core data fields see 43% higher impressions and 62% more clicks.
2. Be consistent across locations
It’s a good rule of thumb to claim business listings on Google My Business as well as local directory sites like Yellow Pages, Nextdoor, and Yelp. However, it’s crucial that business information is consistent across all of these listings. Otherwise, customers can become frustrated trying to figure out which address, store hours, or phone number is the right one. And chances are, they won’t stick around long to figure it out (and may even flock to your competitors instead).
With consistent data across each of your affiliates’ listings, your customers can easily find their businesses no matter where they’re looking.
3. Make updates regularly
Business listing management isn’t one-and-done — that’s to say, the work isn’t done after filling out your data fields. It’s important to be proactive about managing business listings. That means refreshing them regularly by adding new photos, posts, and FAQs and responding to reviews. That way, your affiliates’ businesses always look fresh.
It’s also important to update listings to reflect any changes to your partners’ businesses, such as temporary closures, new locations, or changes in operating hours. This will keep customers in the loop and prevent a lot of lost business and angry reviews.
4. Invest in location data management services
Maintaining accurate data across all your affiliates’ locations (or trusting them to do it themselves) isn’t always the best course of action — especially if you have countless locations to manage across multiple publishers. With business location data management services, you can turn over your LDM responsibilities to the experts and ensure data accuracy and consistency wherever your locations are listed.
Plus, all business listings are subject to publisher suggestions from the channels they were listed on — and these recommendations can get into the hundreds. Instead of going through and accepting or rejecting these edits yourself, you can let someone else do it for you.
Drive more foot traffic with location data management services
Ready to optimize business listings across your channel partner ecosystem and drive clicks? Get location data management services from the best in the biz.
With over 20 years simplifying channel marketing for beverage alcohol brands, Fortune 1000 companies, and over 1.5 million local businesses, BrandMuscle is the marketing partner you can depend on.
Get in touch with our marketing experts to learn more.
