Organic Social Media Is Working. But Working for What?

Every now and again I do some cold outreach, recently I had a reply to one of the emails I sent out that got me thinking.

A carpenter who does these amazing fitted wardrobes, just one small part of his brilliant offering btw… politely told me he's happy only using organic because his Google Business listing brings in enough work already, so he doesn't need ads. Fair enough I thought, if it's working, it's working, let's just leave it there.

Except he's not exactly sitting back waiting for the phone to ring either.

I'd actually reached out to him after I kept seeing his posts in several local business-to-business networking groups on Facebook that I’m a member of as well. So it's not that he's avoiding marketing altogether, it's that Google Ads isn't part of the plan.

So I did what I always do before any cold outreach. Research!

I typed "fitted wardrobes near me" into Google to see whether his website would actually appear if someone searched for one of his services as a consumer, so rather than searching for his business by name. And… he didn't show up anywhere! Not on the map, not in the listings, not on the first page of Google.

A Google Business listing is brilliant for the people who already know your name. Someone's heard of you so they search you specifically, then your listing does exactly what it's supposed to, it pops up showing them your reviews, your hours and examples of your work. That's a real strength btw, it's one that shouldn't be dismissed.

It does nothing, though, to get you found by the person who's never heard of you.

You know that person who's just moved into the area or finally decided to get their bedroom sorted, typing "fitted wardrobes near me" into Google with no idea who's any good. That's a different job altogether.

So if you're confident your business will pop up, search the thing your customer would actually type, not your business name, the thing an actual stranger looking for what you do would search. If you're not there, that's the gap, and it's one worth plugging.

If you've never checked whether you show up for the searches your customers would actually type, get in touch and I'll take a look.