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We had a chat with Richard Westerlund, Marketing Manager at Byggmax, about how Byggmax uses Mobal to engage with customers on Google and what impact Mobal has had on their business listings and local marketing efforts. Learn how they streamlined their listing management and reach millions of people on Google today.
Looking for high-quality building materials at an affordable price? Then Byggmax Group AB, the Nordic leader in construction retail, is the one to turn to. With their bright red and yellow logo, Byggmax has become a household name for consumers across Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, totalling 190 stores and counting.
David Olsson, Head of Digital Marketing at Byggmax, was looking to take control of their business listings and turn their inactive business listings into active marketing channels, and chose to partner with Mobal. Today, their business listings get millions of views every month.
We had a chat with Richard Westerlund, Marketing Manager at Byggmax, about how Byggmax uses Mobal to engage with customers on Google and what impact Mobal has had on their business listings and local marketing efforts.
Our main problem was that our organization did not have the time to update our Google Business profiles. Including responding to reviews, uploading posts and media, and updating critical business information, such as opening hours. This made the profiles look incomplete; sometimes, the Google Business profiles even displayed incorrect information.
Additionally, we had never worked actively with the business profiles, partly due to lack of time and partially because we hadn't realized how important they are.
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The time used for uploading media to the profiles was one big challenge. Uploading ten images for nine stores can take up to an hour if you do it directly via Google Business, while it takes a few seconds to do it from Mobal.
Our reviews used to go unanswered before using Mobal. One main reason for this was the amount of time it would take to reply to them one by one. Overall, we didn't have a comprehensive understanding of all the stores' reviews because they weren't in any centralized place. This made it difficult to understand what people were writing about us.
Now we know that millions of people see our profiles and interact with them on Google.
Analytics and getting clear and actionable data were challenging before using Mobal. We simply didn't know the value of Google Business profiles and hadn't followed up on it before. Now we know that millions of people see our profiles and interact with them on Google.
We occasionally uploaded images or updated large amounts of information (for example, business categories) via our contact at Google. This was the only possibility to do bulk uploads.
Our store staff primarily had access to the Google Business profile to update opening hours but had no framework or routine for replying to reviews or uploading posts. In other words, we didn't have proper routines for managing the profiles. A tool, like Mobal ,that makes it easy and smooth was a requirement for us to start working with our business listings actively.
We chose Mobal due to the straightforward user interface; anyone can use it and get up to speed fast. Also, the service and support we have gotten has been very fast. The team also follows up with us to ensure everything is ok and that we're getting the maximum value out of Mobal.
Mobal puts its customers first. When we wish for new features, improvements, or changes to the platform, Mobal really listens and takes them into account.
Everything considered manual, time-consuming, and repetitive work via Google's platform can now be done in bulk via Mobal's tool, so time consumption is a big deal. We save a lot of time on a weekly basis.
Our business listings on Google now look much more visually appealing, we respond to all our reviews and questions in no time, and the results look good too.
Mobal has helped with the most significant issues related to business listings management. Additionally, we have had good sessions where Mobal's team has guided us and explained the most important things to focus on. For example, the frequency of posts and questions related to local SEO. The team at Mobal has helped Byggmax reach its full potential in our business listings on Google.
Actually, all features on the platform have been valuable. Answering reviews without Mobal's automated solution would take a lot of time. The ready-made reply templates have made that process a lot more efficient.
During our proof of concept period, we worked centrally with Mobal. In other words, our Finnish marketing team handled all the Finnish Google profiles to familiarize themselves with Mobal.
We use Mobal two to three times a week and responded to reviews, and scheduled posts, and from time to time, uploaded larger bulk uploads of media to all listings.
However, the essential requirement was that we could share the right authority and areas of responsibility within the platform for different stakeholders. Our goal is that, for example, our customer service team will, in the future, be able to respond to reviews and questions and answers. Stores will be able to update business information themselves and respond to reviews while our marketing team will work centralized with other content such as media, posts, and local campaigns.
The platform itself is straightforward to get started with. It only took a few minutes to get onboarded, connect all our profiles, and manage your listings. Most of the time is spent creating good routines and processes to integrate Mobal into our everyday activities, but Mobal helps with that.
The management of our business listings has become much more efficient with Mobal. We were not actively managing our profiles before using Mobal. I know that we have saved many hours weekly by using Mobal. We are most likely talking about saving days when it comes to more extensive updates in the business profiles, such as campaigns, posts, and opening hours across all our locations.
Discover Mobal For Retail to learn how you can turn your business listings into active marketing channels and win more customers online.
Today, our profiles look great and match our brand identity. They also give a much more professional look to Byggmax on Google. Our business listings get millions of views; there is no logic in not updating them regularly and treating them as active marketing channels. The listings now match the "look and feel" of Byggmax.
Our information is always up-to-date and correct in our business listings, thanks to using Mobal. The active management of our listings has also resulted in higher rankings in local searches for search terms related to building materials and our product categories.
Another positive point is the efficient use of time. We can literally update all our listings in a matter of minutes today. Our team also has full control over the profiles.
Especially keeping track of the user-generated content and being able to react to it is valuable. User-generated content is good and gives an authentic image of the store and brand, but at the same time, it can get messy if customers' pictures dominate the profile. Sometimes the pictures are not even related to our stores, and then we want to be able to report them.
We now have a much higher engagement rate in the review and Q&A sections in our Google profiles. By being able to answer all reviews quickly, we make our customers feel seen, which translates into a better customer experience.
Also, by showing that we are active listeners to our customers, more people leave reviews in the long run. The more reviews we get, the better we rank in local searches on Google.
1. Our profile views are up by +418% year over year.
2. Our local post views have increased from 500 last year to 43 000 this year. That's an increase of 8600% in views. It proves that local posts are a valuable channel for communication and marketing.
3. We now have dozens of times more reviews in our profiles and 30% more 4-5 star reviews.
I firmly believe that working with your Google Business Profiles is a must, especially if it’s a businesses with physical locations, like retail businesses with physical stores and restaurants. Often, the listings get much more views and visits than what the website get.
It really doesn't have to be time-consuming to keep your listings up to date. It can easily be integrated into different teams, such as customer service can take care of answering reviews and Q&A, while the social media team can do posts and media. Make it a habit to update your business listings at the same time as you're updating your other social channels or website.
The amount of traffic that goes through the profiles is tremendous, depending on the industry and location; millions of people see your business listings just during a few months. With this in mind, you'd definitely want your brand identity to be in shape there too. I'd say that businesses must take a look at their business listings and ensure they keep the same "look and feel" as the brand.
Surprisingly few businesses work actively with their Google Business profiles (or other listing directories like Apple Business Connect). By taking control of your business listings, you create an opportunity for your business to truly stand out online with a relatively small investment in time and money. Don't let your business listings hold your business back; take control with Mobal and see the results for yourself.
Manage all your business profiles in a single sleek dashboard.
Manage all your profiles in a single sleek dashboard and easily update multiple locations with a few clicks
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