Advice from a Traveling Marketer: Get on the Map!

This holiday season, Craig and I were able to do a little in-state traveling – something we don’t get to do very often. Exploring new things is one of my favorite past times, especially when there is a beach involved!

One of our adventures was a weekend trip to Daytona Beach for News Year’s. While this was a “getaway retreat,” we did have a very important activity we had to cross off our list before we could hang out on the beach!

What was the very important activity?

We had to get to the Daytona Beach area before the Citrus Bowl started. Craig wanted to get there and watch his Gators play…

So, while Craig drove, I was tasked with finding the perfect place to watch the game!

We wanted to be around some fun people, with a good sports bar atmosphere and a good menu, and, of course, lots of TVs.

I mapped out our hotel’s location, received some instructions from Craig about where he did not want to go – he didn’t want to be too far from the hotel when the game was over, so that kept us away from all the spots I found that were on the International Speedway Blvd. – and I spent about 15  minutes looking on my smart phone for “Sports Bars” in the vicinity that fit our needs.

I opened the Google Maps app, entered the address for my destination and then I clicked “Explore Nearby”

After some research, I found a couple of options, and ruled out several, because they weren’t as much “sports bars” as they were seafood places that had TVs… We figured we’d catch some of the “beachy” venues when we weren’t so focused on Football.

So, here’s what happened…

After my extensive searching for a Sports Bar in the Port Orange/Daytona Beach Shores area, I found one that seemed to be exactly what we were looking for. Note: I have intentionally left out the names of both locations because I don’t want to cause either of them any negative backlash from this post. When we arrived at our chosen destination, there were zero cars in the driveway and it was less than 20 minutes until kick-off. Granted, it was New Years Day, maybe they weren’t open, but I didn’t stop to check – we needed to find a place quickly! We decided we were going to try another place that I had spotted while we were heading to this location, because I had been on the lookout for alternatives, in case the place we were heading didn’t turn out well – and, since there were zero cars in the parking lot and the other place seemed really busy, we opted for the place we passed on the way instead.

And it was PERFECT. The exact atmosphere we were looking for, TVs and lots of people watching football! The only thing that could have been better was the outcome of the game!

So, here are some points to ponder:

What if I had been changing the station on the radio when we drove by this perfect place? What if we had chosen the alternate route that had been suggested instead of the one we chose?

And now, I am finally able to get to the point of this post:

How many out of town people in _______________________ (enter your community here), who are looking for a sports bar, like we were, or some other specific type of venue, or business, using only their mobile device and the results they are able to get from their searches miss the PERFECT place for them because the business does not appear in the results of their searches? It’s mind boggling to think about! And it’s so easy to fix!

With the constant updates being made to the Google experience for users traveling, it is ESSENTIAL that business owners who want to be found by those who don’t already know them, take the time to keep up with their business listings, especially Google!

There are tools, like Google’s “My Business” product, that make this easy, and if you don’t have time to figure it all out, there are companies like Maximize that can help!

Bottom Line: This is the landscape of business ownership today, and unless your exit strategy is to close your business in 2016, it’s time you did whatever it takes to get your business on the Map!

For more information about Maximize Digital Media, visit our website! https://maximizedigitalmedia.com.  If you're ready to make it easy for your perfect customer to find you, give us a call 863-606-5994