When customers search for products or services, location is often a deciding factor. Google has long recognized this fact and has been steadily adding features to their Google Maps API. With a simple mouse click, a user can see restaurants, hotels, and gas stations as a map overlay, helping them identify and narrow down choices by vicinity.
Now, Google is literally letting companies put their brand on the map. Google Mapplets is a free developer application that lets you add your company or product information as a place point on Google Maps. Technically, it’s a mini-webpage, so pretty much anything you can think of within the constraints of html is allowed, including images, JavaScript, and Flash. Let’s say Peppy’s Pizza adds a Google Mapplet. Customers can access their menu, read restaurant reviews, or feast their eyes on their amazing Chicago-style deep dish pies, directly from Google Maps.
Mapplets are fairly simple to create but require basic web development knowledge to write the code. Considering Google is offering a free platform for exposing your brand to millions and complete content control, it may be well worth the investment.
Mapplets are part of the Google Gadgets family (as we mentioned in Gidget goes . . . on the desktop), html and JavaScript applications that can be embedded in other applications or webpages. Expect more gadgets as Google has just unveiled a single line of code that will help developers make certain gadgets open-source.
Google built an ad layer into their Mapplets application via their Adsense system. Similar to their other ad vehicles, advertisers appear as listings in your Mapplet content, and you earn revenue for every link click.
Not everyone’s ready to spend millions on TV ad production and media. There’s a new alternative.
Now you can embed a YouTube video into a Google map. When your potential customers find you through Google, they can watch a video that describes your business. Here’s an easy to follow example for a San Francisco bakery.
Ideally, you have already gone ahead and set up your business in Google maps, so prospects can find you easily. If so, here’s what you need to do: simply upload your videos to YouTube and ensure that the ‘embed’ option is turned on. Then, associate your video to your business listing through the Local Business Center.
For the cost of a simple YouTube video recording, you can ensure that web searchers find your video that explains in glorious detail why they should buy from you.
We talked about this capability earlier (see the article You goob!), but it was limited to Google Earth - an application with a much smaller following than Google Maps. This is just a natural step forward and another push for everyone to get smarter about video.
Do you sell a product or service that’s difficult to explain? Want to really communicate how you’re different in a way that sells? Looking for that extra edge against your competitors? Here’s an easy to use, free tool that’s just waiting for you. Get going.
There’s been so much hype about virtual reality for decades, it’s no wonder everyone is jaded. So, for a change, here’s an idea that’s focused on a virtual world - but we’ll be short on hyperbole.
Try attracting users to your business, using the searchable virtual world called Everyscape. Maybe you’re thinking about going out to eat in Miami and considering Cafe Ragazzi. With this Everyscape map of the restaurant, you can quite literally walk through the front doors and see everything there is to see … and how to get there. As you might imagine, even though the site is new, this sort of map can attract people to whatever business you’re in. In addition to letting people walk into your store, the system will also let you post advertisements / links to your company site.
This service should make one thing clear to you - mapping is just going to get bigger as virtual worlds are developed that are near exact replicas (but probably with more advertising). If you are looking to stand out, especially if you’re in a travel-related business (restaurant, hotel, gallery), this type of mapping may bring more customers to your door.
This site / service just launched, so they’re no doubt going to be adding more functionality and more maps over time (they currently feature maps of New York, Miami, Harvard Square, Boston, Aspen, and Laguna Beach - note high end target).
We’ve covered how to put a Google map on your site in No folding required (something that everyone should consider). An Everyscape map raises the bar, while also helping potential buyers make the final decision- you or your competitor?
Web based advertising is often wasted because it’s not targeted based on geography. Secondarily, there’s a certain serendipitous pleasure to finding something that’s new and local - whether it’s a shoe store or a new restaurant.
Google brings these concepts together by letting you connect a specific YouTube video to a place in Google Earth. While everyone probably knows about YouTube, Google Earth is a virtual globe program that lets you traverse the world and see everything from satellite images of your house to pictures of every key monument in the world. The novelty here is that by combining YouTube and Google Earth, local companies now have a great way to create and upload YouTube videos and then associate them with their specific location.
As more and more people rely on Google Earth as their mapping tool, they will now be able to stop on your store or office and also view your YouTube videos. This tool can serve as a virtual advertising platform for nearly any kind of business. If you have video content available, what’s the harm in advertising your brand to Google Earth’s millions of users?
In case you were wondering, you can also add other things to layers in Google Earth. You might find it easier to just add a photo to a certain location or maybe just geotag a relevant Wikipedia entry. It’s up to you.
This combination of YouTube videos inside Google Earth is referred to as a mashup - combining two web-based content and delivery systems. Compelling, targeted content should always be your objective, as vehicles for delivering it will just continue to proliferate. Now your advertising can be found in virtual worlds with just a few clicks.
If your customers can’t find you, they’re going to have a hard time buying from you. Why not make it easy?
Google Maps lets you add a map to your website in three simple steps. Find the map that you want (you may need to complete your company profile first). Then, copy the simple HTML code. Next, just paste that code onto your website. This is a perfect example of how to make it easy for other sites to carry your content, as we described in Kiss the problem.
Here’s our example for a little show and tell. Come see us and we’ll go get a latte at San Francisco Coffee.
These search based mapping systems represent the phone books of the future. It’s important that you go ahead and create your listing to make sure that search engine users can find you.
If your company is hard to find, consider including a link to an online map like this one more broadly - company email signatures, blog postings, text messaging signatures, website home page.
It’s hard to overestimate the power of an image to make your sale. It seems that so many people would consider buying anything from furniture to landscaping services if they could just see what the outcome might be . . . before buying. Unfortunately, you can’t really “try on” a couch or landscaping services. Or . . . can you?
Google’s Sketchup 3D modeling tool might be able to help you close the deal. It lets you build and modify 3D models quickly and easily, certainly such things as homes (a nice loft) or offices (the Campanile building in Atlanta). So, if you want to help your customers see how that new couch looks in the living room, it’s not out of the question. Sketchup democratizes 3D modeling so that it can be put to work selling just about anything - see this gallery of modeling examples.
In addition, you can also search the Google 3D Warehouse to get a sense of the types of things that people are designing, using this tool. As you might have already noted with gaming advertising, 3D modeling has arrived. It’s only natural that it should be put to work in selling materials.
Sketchup also lets you put your models into the quasi-real world of Google Earth, using actual coordinates. In other words, if you design your house, you’re able to place it in Google Earth for anyone to see.
This tool doesn’t do anything that architects haven’t been doing for centuries. It just makes model building more accessible. Think about how you can use this approach to differentiate your offering from your competitors, while also helping your customers make the decision to buy on the spot.
We get it - mapping has been conquered by Mapquest (AOL), Google, and Yahoo!. What is an online map anyway? So many people are stuck with the notion that it’s an electronic version of a flat, lifeless piece of paper. Locations are plain points. Au contraire, mon frere.
Use Mapquest’s gift of access to their platform to entice your customers with a map that’s alive and percolating with data and intelligence. Maybe you would like to help your customers find a nearby golf course or perhaps identify a campground that allows you to take your dog along in your big rig. If your customers start with a map to find you, now you have an opportunity to stand out.
If you’ve already made an investment in search marketing, consider this the graduate school class - helping your customers find your physical location by enriching the mapping experience. How else are you going to convince them to go that extra mile?
Currently only MapQuest Business Solutions (MBS) customers have access to the beta version (pre-release) of this API. If you’re not an MBS customer, Google offers a free beta version of their Javascript API with some similar traits, but does not yet allow you to integrate the fancier Flash animations, graphics, or videos that will delight your target audience.
When you’re developing content that will be delivered in a map, put yourself in the same vehicle as your customer. Think about how you can add value to the entire experience. It may be something as simple as reminding a service customer at a car dealer that they can wait for their car at the wi-fi equipped Starbucks down the road.
A 32 inch LCD HDTV can be yours at Wal-mart for just $597. Did you realize that these low LCD prices are also changing the outdoor advertising game?
Clear Channel’s Taxi Media has created a network of 32 inch LCD screens (connected by satellite) that ride around on top of Boston and New Orleans taxis. These taxi-top LCD’s don’t feature static ads – they can carry 5 or 10 second animations (the feed growth! candidate). What’s different here is the level of control. You can change the graphics on the fly or even run different ads on different streets or at different times, opening up opportunities for optimization (we mentioned the web equivalent in The dating game).
With rates running at $450 / month for a 20% sign share, are you taking advantage of opportunities to rethink digitally enabled outdoor?
This geo-targeting ad system (developed by Vert) uses GPS to identify the taxi’s location and a rooftop wireless modem to transmit up to the minute adjustments to the ads served by the ad-server network.
Consider how you could use such a system to optimize what you know about the effectiveness of outdoor ads. Combine more dynamic ads, geo-targeting, and variations by day-part and you have a rich opportunity for learning.
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