Have you ever wondered whose job it is to maintain and create the ever important Google listings for a casino? In most cases, it is someone like me with a job title that sounds something like “digital marketing manager.”
Before we jump into the nitty gritty of all things Google, it’s important to first explain why the search engine and everything that comes along with it matters. First off, there is a reason why Google has become a verb in our everyday language. People, myself included and probably you, will say “Google it” at least a few times a week if not daily. Googling has become such a routine for our civilization that it was even added to dictionaries way back in 2006 – 20 years ago now!
With the understanding that nearly everyone uses Google on a regular basis, it’s easy to surmise that many potential guests will look up a property before making the final call on whether or not to visit. Unless someone is from the area or has heard things from other people, Google will often serve as someone’s first impression of the property. In addition to listing out vital information like daily hours and the general offerings, Google also shows users what a property looks like both inside and out.
A direct example from my career comes from when I was on the opening team for a casino in Louisiana. I was working as the corporate team’s Digital Marketing Manager at the time, and it was my job to handle property photography and make sure the Google listing (Google My Business) was displaying the correct information and images.
Google images are super helpful because it allows someone to get a taste of what to expect, from what the gaming floor looks like to any food and beverage options that are available. Unfortunately for marketers tasked with maintaining these ever important profiles, Google allows for users to upload their own images. While most of the time this is totally OK, and even encouraged, there were some images that operators would rather not put on display.
Speaking more to my opening example, the specific property that we were launching was more of a complete overhaul than a blank slate project. Our goal was to move the casino operation off of a riverboat that had been there for decades, and bring everything on land. This meant millions upon millions of dollars were being spent on a little bit of everything from demolition on some parts of the existing space, to renovating others, and of course, building completely brand new areas. Because the property had been in existence for a while, albeit as a riverboat, it was important for our marketing team to show off the completely reimagined property without alienating the existing fanbase.
This proved to be harder than expected. While I understand why Google does not allow Google My Business owners and managers to delete images uploaded by users, I do think they should make exceptions for cases like this. Google would not allow our team to delete images of the riverboat despite it no longer being part of the operation.
We learned the hard way that we should have created an entirely new listing instead of trying to rebrand the existing profiles. Because we couldn’t delete the old images, we made a concerted effort to flood the profile with all new images. This meant uploading our own images as users to push the older images farther down the timeline, but also included reaching out to an actual Google photographer.
The Google photographer was able to come out, for payment of course, and take 360 degree images of the entire property. These images were then uploaded to the Google My Business listing and now allow users to take a walking virtual walking tour through the property.
In addition to showing off what a casino looks like, Google also helps potential guests decide if a property is worth a visit thanks to reviews. Guest submitted reviews can either be the best thing to happen to a property, or the worst. There were some hiccups with the property team around the time of opening, leading me to cover review management from the corporate side.
For at least an hour a day, I would scroll through the pages of feedback that would come through to see what was happening from our guests’ perspective. Mixed in with the property accolades and team member-specific feedback would be issues that required a little more investigation, especially if a trend was emerging like a specific issue with a promotion or employee.
While trying to get to the bottom of issues sometimes made me an enemy to the property, I always found it very interesting to see what was happening from an outside perspective.
The absolute highlight to my day was when positive feedback would come through about a team member, I would always screengrab the comment and send it to their manager. I’ve worked more than my fair share of public facing jobs. I know those comment card wins, even if digital, are a nice mood boost (and who doesn’t like looking good in front of their manager?).
Next time you are headed to a new property, let us know if you look it up before you go or if you prefer to be surprised. If something memorable happens, either for good reason or bad, what does it take for you to leave a Google review?
