New Agency & Organizational Account ?

[Monica Simpson]

Hi there! I work for a fairly new marketing agency in Wisconsin. We have about 25 accounts and getting more. We've been setting up a gmail account with our clients for claiming GMB and other listings, helping them manage accounts, monitoring reviews. Many of our clients are only just familiar with online marketing.

If we do not even have a GMB page, should we do that first and then sign up our agency for an organizational account?

For a business that hasn't claimed or know they have a GMB page (someone else claimed), do we still create that gmail account for claiming? We use these accounts for GMB but also as the touch point for Yelp, Manta, Apple, etc. as they don't want to deal with it themselves. We have some clients that don't want to touch anything online and are happy to pay us.

Finally, our business has no physical address... do we just put the owner's home address in and hide the street address on our listing? Just want to make sure I'm understanding this correctly.

I just want to make sure I understand this correctly. Thank you, in advance, for any assistance!

 

[JoyHawkins]

I would avoid putting clients in Gmails. It's best to have all your clients in your one account (I'd use the GMB Agency account).

The issue with gmails is that no one is checking them and thus you miss all the alerts about your listing and you have to manually login to dozens of accounts all the time (which is a time waster).

For your own business, as long as you make face-to-face contact with customers you'd be eligible to have a listing using the owner's home address provided you hide the address in the Google My Business dashboard.

 

[Digitaldar]

I have several clients and always start by creating a gmail account for them so they own the data. This account is then used to set up GMB, GA, GTM (this one is not important as the data shows up in GA, not GTM), GSC, etc.
For citation building, since I outsource it, they use a different email account. I use the client's google account (gmail) for important things like BBB, etc.
I would not want to store all of my client's GMB under one email address although I do have access from my account. This way if we part company, I can disconnect my email and not see them.

I have not started using the agency GMB yet as I had to use a Google Account that does not already have access to GMB *sigh*. I don't need to have another email address in circulation

 

[JoyHawkins]

@Digitaldar - Curious, wouldn't you think it'd be better for them to have the Google account under their work email (vs a Gmail) so they get all the review alerts without having to check another email?

 

[Scott Rawlins]

I agree with @JoyHawkins. It's always best to use a domain based email when possible.

 

[Digitaldar]

@Digitaldar - Curious, wouldn't you think it'd be better for them to have the Google account under their work email (vs a Gmail) so they get all the review alerts without having to check another email?

ideally yes Most of my clients are not able to convert an email address to a Google Account but once I get everything set up I can add them as a user.

I'm working towards my clients and contractors all using descriptive or work emails in google products so everyone knows who they are and who they are associated with. I am not comfortable with a client's personal gmail being used in their work account...

 

[Monica Simpson]

@Digitaldar - Curious, wouldn't you think it'd be better for them to have the Google account under their work email (vs a Gmail) so they get all the review alerts without having to check another email?

Typically, yes, but I have clients that don't check their emails or get flustered by YP, Yelp, BBB, GMB, etc. We update and check for them at their request.

 

[JoyHawkins]

I think it makes sense to user an external shared email for citation building but when it comes to Google properties I always go with an email that matches the domain of the website (if possible). This causes a lot less headaches down the road if you ever have someone else trying to get access to the GMB listing.

 

[Digitaldar]

This is what I'm dealing with today
1) client has apparently not received 2 postcards sent sequentially from GMB. This client cannot disable their answering system. I am sub-contracting so have decided to change address to main contractor's home in same town... not my decision but the client is not engaged so I think we're just trying to finish up what we said we'd do.
2) new prospect gave us access to GA. This account has no data and the id does match what is on website
3) another client is not able to give me access to Youtube unless they convert their account into a brand account. Struggling to do so there I've requested the email and password so I can work on it.
Same client - I can't verify GMB as apparently someone else owns it. My client has access but must not be the original owner. At lease google will help us with this by Oct 1. Chances are the owner is a previous employee of the company and nobody can access their email address

The struggle is real when it comes to google products! Maybe this conversation is morphing into best practices or how to plan for these delays when quoting

 

[Monica Simpson]

Can we create an organizational account if we're not even on the map yet? We do not have a GMB account at present, just the one through the owner's and my emails. Or would it be more prudent to get a GMB account together, claim and then create an organizational account. Sorry if these questions sound simple... trying to get my head out of my marketing tunnel vision

 

[Monica Simpson]

So what I'm asking is if we're not even on Google's radar yet, would we be able to create an organizational account? We do have a landing page waiting for our full website to launch.

 

[Digitaldar]

So what I'm asking is if we're not even on Google's radar yet, would we be able to create an organizational account? We do have a landing page waiting for our full website to launch.

A GMB agency account cannot already be in use with another GMB account...

I am not sure of the advantage of this account - anyone?

 

[JoyHawkins]

@iwritewebcopy all you need is a Google account that uses an email that matches your company domain to start the account.

@Digitaldar so far I find the advantages are - it loads faster, it has a section to keep track of pending invitations and you can add your employees to the account and they instantly get access to every listing (you can also segment it so they only get access to some).