New Google My Business Home Layout Rollling out - With GSuite Gmail Upsell

[BenFisher]

I was signing up a new client today and we were looking in their dashboard and noticed the new design.

A few things that you can see right off the bat:
Ability to edit info and cover photo from the Home tab.
Ability to navigate from Overview to Info, Insights, Photos, Posts, and Reviews in the center of the screen.

And as a way to monetize GMB further, there is, a CTA to signup for 14 day trial of GSuite to get a custom email at your domain name.

 

[JoyHawkins]

I feel like they really don't need to redesign the dashboard twice a year

 

[Colan Nielsen]

I was talking with a GMB support rep a couple weeks ago and he was talking about how Google was training him on GSuite because they are rolling out video chat support for it. Google is really making a push at positioning GSuite and GMB as a complimentary set of business tools.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

I feel like they really don't need to redesign the dashboard twice a year

Honestly, who is responsible for their technical roadmap?

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Honestly, who is responsible for their technical roadmap?

Many people. And they change frequently. Which is a big part of the problem.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

Many people. And they change frequently. Which is a big part of the problem.

Now THAT makes a lot of sense.

Any idea what the issue is? Not being paid enough, not happy with the culture, promotion?

 

[Colan Nielsen]

My understanding is that it is common at Google for employees to move around and work on different products. Cultural thing.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

My understanding is that it is common at Google for employees to move around and work on different products. Cultural thing.

That seems incredibly problematic and counterproductive.

 

[Adam Potaznik]

I really don't care what Google is monetising via GMB, but from a business perspective, how can we as local search marketers monetise more opportunities ourselves?

I'm on the path to become a Zoho partner, so my feelings are biased in that G Suite pricing is $8.40 AUD (US$6) for Basic, per user, per month.

Zoho mail has a FOREVER FREE plan for email hosting with webmail access only, for five users, again, it's totally free.

Zoho Docs with the Zoho Office Suite including ZIA AI is free for the first 25 users.

Of course Google has better intergration with the entire SaaS community of apps and additional features, but for an SME my goal is to get them integrated into Zoho and eventually evolve conversations into Zoho CRM/One implementations. I'm not trying to be a Zoho cheerleader on this forum, just pointing out where my research has led me.

Every day when we are talking to business owners about claiming or taking ownership of GMBs, they don't have company email, they forget their gmail, I need to create a Google account for them, etc. It's a good opportunity to think about email management, even in 2019 when email is so old, as part of your service mix.

It just won't die. Even when we all have VR headsets or Microsoft Hololens and voice assistant, people will be talking to their virtual screens of email

As a local search marketer reading these forum, you would have heaps more opportunities just handballing referrals to a local Zoho partner than selling clients GSuite and getting, a few shekels - 20% margin or something?