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MAP APPS

You Are Here Customers rely on smartphone map apps to locate products and services, but small-business listings aren’t always complete.

Here’s how to make sure that your business is on the map.

BY CHRISTINE BIRKNER | SENIOR STAFF WRITER

 cbirkner@ama.org

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efore the ubiquity of smartphones, customers searched for a local shoe repair store, florist or sandwich shop by dialing 411 or consulting the phone book. Now most people find what they’re looking for by tapping the map app on their smartphones. Small-business

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listings don’t appear on these apps automatically, however, and if your listing is missing or incorrect, your sales will suffer, experts say.

“Apple and Google will call on the big retailers directly and ask for a feed of all of their location data, but they don’t do that for small businesses,” says Nathan

Pettyjohn, CEO of St. Louis-based Aisle411 Inc., which provides mobile location tracking services for retailers.

“Everything is mobile now, so when people look up your store, they’ll follow the map and if it’s not there, they won’t go in your store, even if it’s a block away.”

Here’s how to make sure that your business listing isn’t lost in the digital shuffle.

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Submit or edit listings through each app service, individually.

For Apple Maps, check the app, itself, and if your listing is missing or incorrect, you can submit changes to Apple by clicking on “report a problem.” For Google maps, you can add or change your listing for free via the Google My

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MAP APPS

Business website, Google.com/business.

Yahoo Localworks (SmallBusiness. yahoo.com/local-listings) offers a free basic map listing for small businesses on Yahoo, and for $29.99 a month, you can list your business across 40 local directories, including the apps for Yahoo Local, Yelp, Whitepages, Bing, MapQuest and Superpages. Because larger map app services often pull data from Yelp and TomTom, you also should add or update your listings on those websites.

Figure out your own customers’ most common access points for your company information and focus your efforts there, advises Peter Christianson, director of product marketing at Retailigence Corp., a Redwood City, Calif.-based marketing platform provider that helps stores provide location data for apps.

“You should be talking to your customers and asking them how they found you. If they found you on Google Maps or on Foursquare, maybe you should spend more time making sure you’re visible there.”

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“Everything is mobile now, so when people look up your store, they’ll follow the map and if it’s not there, they won’t go in your store, even if it’s a block away.”

NATHAN PETTYJOHN, AISLE411

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Hire location syndication services to update all of your information at once. Location syndication companies, such as Neustar Localeze, SinglePlatform, Signpost, Universal Business Listing and Yext, also make sure that your data is consistent across all of the major online directories and consumer-facing apps. Their services usually start at $30 per month and the cost is worth it, Christianson says.

“Sometimes, a competitor might change your data and you might not be aware of it. For SMBs, having a solution that does a lot of the work for you is appealing.”

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Look beyond the accuracy of your address. “Apps use specific location information, not just the address,” Pettyjohn says. “Knowing your latitude and longitude is good.

Make sure your coordinates are correct, so the app isn’t sending your customers to a store that’s two blocks away.” This is particularly important if you’re located in a shopping mall or strip mall, Pettyjohn says. “Even with the major retailers we

deal with, if an address is on the corner of a big strip mall, it makes it challenging for people to find it.”

Update your information if you change your address or add another location, Christianson says. “If you open a new store, sometimes it takes a while for your

new location to be indexed by these services.” Correct, consistent online data will ensure that new customers find you, he says. “Customers are starting their path to purchase on their mobile phones.

Most shoppers are starting online, but they end up in a local store.” m

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