We all know the cliché about the top 3 most important things in real estate being location, location, location. What makes it a cliché is that this old saw has been repeated time and again, and everyone knows it.
Despite this, I’m constantly surprised (and frequently annoyed) that people don’t consider this when creating their websites, designing their business cards, or promoting their businesses. It’s a pet peeve of mine, because the failure to adequately communicate basic location information leaps out at me all the time.
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| Google Maps is awesome, free, and simple. Please use it! |
You can have the fanciest website in the world, or the slickest branding campaign of any restaurant in town, but if people can’t figure out how to get to your store or business then it’s all for nought. How are people supposed to visit that great new place they’re heard about if they’re not sure where it is? How can people think they’d like to stop by your trendy shop when they’re in the area, if they don’t know where that area is?
When communicating with people, your job is to make it simple and easy for them to understand and learn what they need to know. Not providing a map so a customer can find you is an epic fail — and so common that it astonishes me. With Google Maps so readily available, there’s simply no excuse for not having a map on your website.
Any location-based business that relies on customer visits, including restaurants, bars, stores, dentists, doctors, tattoo parlors, hardware stores, and yoga studios needs to provide a map and clear directions on its website. In addition, they need to provide location information on their business cards, email signatures, and anything else that customers might read. A map on the back of a business card is not a bad idea. And if your business is in a large city, tell people the nearest subway stop, or let them know that it’s near a prominent local landmark. Give the intersections. Anything that will help people visualize where your business is.
This is just Communication 101. Location location location applies as much to communication and marketing as it does to real estate.