Google announced on January 15th that since the official launch of its Google Business Photos program a year ago, the number of businesses with the service has reached over
100,000 . Google Business Photos allows business owners to invite customers into their front door for a virtual look inside. Using high-resolution panoramic images and
Street View Technology , businesses are able to offer customers an interactive virtual tour right from the comfort of their home computers or mobile devices.
The automotive sales industry in
New Jersey has been quick to adopt this new feature from Google after seeing how it can strengthen their online marketing and advertising efforts. It is important for auto dealers to
stand out in Google Searches because of the high level of competition among local dealerships. Over the past year, Google has made it notably easier to find dealerships that have added Business Photos on Google Search, Google Maps, and Google+ Local.
They have done so by adding new graphics and images that are designed to let customers know that they can
"See Inside" a business (see image below). Only business locations that have added Google Business Photos have the new graphics, and so they stand out from all the businesses that do not have virtual tours. "Customers find us on Google before anywhere else, whether it's to get directions or just by accident. This is one more way we can keep their attention and get them to walk through our front door", said one dealership's sales manager.
"Dealers spend millions of dollars building beautiful showrooms and service departments, and this is the best way to show off the dealership to customers who've never been there", stated Anthony from
Black Paw Photo - a local photography company which provides the service to auto dealerships. "Every dealership I've added the service for is absolutely thrilled with it", he continued. "Not only do the tours show up on many Google products, but they are fully embeddable and can be placed right on the dealership's website. As an advertising expense for auto dealers, this is a no-brainer."
Google doesn't provide the service directly, but does so through trained and certified independent contractors. New Jersey auto dealerships wishing to add the service can contact Anthony at
Black Paw Photo to schedule an appointment. Pricing for the service is based on the size of the dealership and is reasonable compared to most other advertising and marketing expenses an auto dealer typically encounters. Once published on Google, there are
no monthly fees and the virtual tour becomes a permanent part of Google and the dealership's Google+ Local Page.
Google Business Photos is the first on-demand service of its kind ever offered through Google. For the first time ever, a company can call a photographer to request service and have a virtual tour live on Google in under a week. New Jersey auto dealerships have been taking advantage of the service and the excellent exposure it gives them. The following links will take you to the virtual tours of several New Jersey auto dealers:
Circle BMW - Eatontown, New JerseyUnion Volkswagen - Union, New Jersey Union Volkswagen Service - Union, New Jersey Englewood Cliffs Cadillac - Englewood Cliffs, New JerseyHamilton Honda - Hamilton Township, New JerseyMore auto dealer tours as well as of other types of New Jersey business can be viewed by visiting
http://www.insidebusinessnyc.com
