The Clinic Marketing Podcast - Local SEO & Healthcare Digital Marketing Tips for Clinic Owners & Wellness Providers

Mastering Google Posts: Your Guide to Driving Business Growth | Ep. 97

• Darcy Sullivan • Episode 97

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If you’re not taking full advantage of Google Posts through your Google Business Profile Listing, you’re missing an incredible opportunity to drive more business. So, how do you create Google Posts that get great results?

In this episode, we discuss Google Post strategy and detail the best ways to ensure that those looking to take action come to you.


We’ll give you three categories of  Google Post-creation guidance:

  • What not to do with your Google Posts
  • Google Posts that CAN work if done correctly
  • Google Posts that you simply must do to connect and engage with your users so they take action

Episode webpage: https://propelyourcompany.com/google-business-profile-post-strategy/ 

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Welcome to The Clinic Marketing Podcast. I'm your host, Darcy Sullivan, from Propel Marketing & Design. 

We talk a lot about Google Maps, Google Business Profile listings, and local SEO on this show, and today is no different. 

In fact, we're gonna include links in the Show Notes to other episodes about your Google Business Profile, as it relates to what we're talking about today. 

Today, we are diving into a critical but often misunderstood feature of Google Business Profiles, and that is the Google Post.

Many clinic owners are missing out on the true power of Google Posts because they're treating them like social media updates. If you have ever wondered why your Google Posts aren't attracting new patients or clients, it's probably because they're not optimized for what Google Posts are intended to do. 

Or it could be because you're simply not posting–you're not doing Google Business Posts. Well, let's dive into the right way to do it. 

First of all, I want to give you the key takeaway at the very beginning: Google Posts are not social media posts. I repeat, Google Posts are not social media posts. Stick with me here. 

Social media is about engaging with people who are casually scrolling through social media and are looking to be entertained or informed. But with Google Posts, we are dealing with an entirely different audience. 

When people view your Google Post, they're typically in a transactional mindset. They're searching for a service, and they are ready to make a decision about it. So your Google Posts need to reflect that intention. 

A Google Post should not be about entertaining, educating, or showing off what happened at your clinic's last team-building event. Instead, think of Google Posts as little sales pitches or apps. They are opportunities to highlight the services, the specials, and unique offerings that set your clinic apart. Your post should be straightforward and convincing, telling prospects and patients why they should choose you.

So, let's go over some specific examples. I'm going to break these down into a few different categories. 

Category one: examples of what not to do. 

Category two is going to be examples of posts that are okay; they work. 

And then category three is going to be what I really want you to focus on, and these are going to be examples of what really works to drive more business. 

You ready to drive more business? Let's go.

First, let's talk about some common mistakes I see clinic owners make when it comes to Google Posts. 

One: using stock content. For example, let's say you're a chiropractor, and you're posting: Drink more water and move your body. That does nothing to drive more traffic to your website and for you to get more patients or customers. Again, I get it. Sometimes, it's easy to hand over social media or Google Posts to an outside resource, but when you turn to some of this basic stock content, it's going to do nothing for your business.

Another example is infographics and tips. Tips are great for blog posts and for social media, but on Google Posts, they don't really serve the right purpose. 

These viewers are not looking for a list of tips or to look at an infographic. They're looking to book an appointment with someone that offers a service similar to yours or, hopefully, your service. 

Another example: industry news and updates. Again, it's great for social media. Not really a good fit for Google Posts. People are not interested in industry news or your latest clinic's partnership. We want to save that stuff for your blog and for social media.

Another example is personal messages and holiday wishes. Again, it's really nice to send well wishes to your customers, right? Like that's okay for an email blast; it's okay for social media. 

But again, when people are viewing your Google profile in that map section in Google Maps, they are prospective clients and patients. They're not people you've worked with yet, so we don't need to wish them well. We need to showcase what services you offer. 

Up next: recruiting post. Google Posts is not a place for you to list open jobs that you have that you're trying to fulfill. Keep recruiting efforts on job boards or LinkedIn, not the place for Google Business Profile listing. 

Another one: keyword stuffing. You're not going to gain any points with Google by shoving in as many keywords into a Post as possible. We, again, want to focus on clarity and relevance, not keywords.

Another example: blog posts. They're okay, blog posts are okay, but again, if a viewer is looking to make a choice between you and your competition, we want to make sure that we're delivering them the right content. That is more of the transaction type. 

Okay. So now let's talk about a couple of ideas that are okay. They're still not the best, which we'll get to. But two post types that I think are okay, and I've seen that they do work–again, not the best, but they do work. 

One would be an event post. Obviously, if you're hosting an event, you want to show it and you want to spread the word everywhere. So, event posts are okay for your Google Post. 

Another one is how-to. A lot of healthcare professionals post how-to, whether it's videos about how to do a specific stretch or something like that; posting instructions on relieving a pain via stretches or whatever is fine, but we want to make sure that we're not confusing them or that we're not being ineffective because of the fact that we want to showcase your service. We don't want them to just think, oh, I can do a stretch and be okay.

So, what really works when it comes to these Google Posts? What should you be sharing on Google Posts? Well, in my opinion, effective Google Posts fall into two specific categories: either selling or convincing. 

Selling posts: these are straightforward promotional posts that highlight your offerings, your services. They might offer a discount or a limited-time special if that aligns with your marketing initiatives. 

For example, get a percentage off if you book today, or if you are a med spa, maybe you have a fall skincare package. Anything like that works really well, again, because you're selling. 

Remember, people that are booking on Google for your services are ready to buy. Convince them, which brings us to the second one. 

The second type of posts that work really well are convincing posts. These are posts that build trust by showcasing what you do best. So you can share quiet testimonials. You can showcase awards that you've won; you can spotlight your unique services. Maybe you were voted top chiropractor in a specific city, or you could have something that highlights what your clients say about your specific treatments. 

Highlighting specific services also helps prospective clients or patients recognize that you offer exactly what they're looking for. If someone is searching for a chiropractic adjustment for back pain, seeing a Google Post about your back pain relief services through chiropractic care makes it easy for them to make a decision to call.

Now, one thing that is really important is we want to make sure that we are also including calls to action buttons. These are included in Google Posts, but sometimes people don't include them. 

Typically, you want to either use the “learn more,” or “book an appointment,” or “book now” button. Those are really great ways to tell people what is the next step you want them to take. 

Also, case studies, awards, again, they add a lot of credibility.

So we want to make sure that what we're doing here again, we're going to kind of wrap this up here, is we are not treating Google Business Profile Posts the same way we treat every other type of social media post because they're not. 

We want to make sure that your Google Post either sell; with a special, with an offer, with a promotion highlighting your services, whatever, or they convince with a testimonial. Again, a service highlight could also fall into that category, an award or a case study.

And following with that, we want to make sure that we include a call to action button so that people know what action you want them to take. 

So focus your Google Posts on these strategies, and you'll stand out. By optimizing your post to directly appeal to prospective patients and clients in the buying mindset, you can convert more of that Google traffic into actual appointments for your clinic. 

Thanks for tuning in.