Latest / The Local Marketing Podcast with Fexingo: Small Business, Google Maps, and Local SEO / How a Local T-Shirt Printer Uses Google Maps for Wholesale Leads
Transcript
- Lucas: There's this T-shirt and merchandise printer in Portland called Bold Coast Print Co. They do custom runs for local breweries, event organizers, corporate swag — and they told me that over 70 percent of their new business accounts come from Google Maps, not their website or Instagram. Luna: Seventy percent? That's huge. But I'm guessing they're not optimizing for someone who walks in off the street and wants one shirt. Lucas: Exactly right. And that's the angle today — most local marketing advice is written for B2C businesses. Coffee shops, salons, boutiques. But what if your customer is another business? Bold Coast figured out that Google Maps can actually work better for B2B than for retail, if you set it up the right way. Luna: Alright, walk me through it. What's the first thing they did differently? Lucas: They started with the product category attributes. Google Business Profile lets you list products and services — most businesses just throw a few generic terms up there. Bold Coast listed specific product categories like 'custom screen printing', 'embroidery', 'bulk T-shirts', 'corporate apparel', and 'event merchandise'. Those aren't search terms a consumer would use — they're terms a procurement person or a marketing manager types in. Luna: So they're writing their listing for the person who needs 500 shirts, not the person who needs one. Lucas: Exactly. And then they took it a step further. They added attributes like 'service options' — things like 'on-site consultation', 'rush service', and 'online estimates'. Those are signals that tell Google, and the searcher, that this business handles B2B workflow, not just retail. Luna: I'm curious about the photo strategy. Most local businesses just upload pictures of their finished product. For a printer, that would be stacks of T-shirts. Lucas: And they do have those, but the photos that drive the most engagement are the ones showing their equipment and workspace. They uploaded a picture of their automatic screen-printing press — it's this big industrial machine — and a photo of their warehouse with rolls of fabric stacked up. Those photos got way more clicks than the shots of finished shirts. Luna: Because a B2B buyer wants to know if you have the capacity to fulfill their order. Lucas: Exactly. A photo of a finished shirt tells you they can print. A photo of a multi-color automatic press tells you they can print 500 shirts in a day. There's a credibility signal there that's much stronger for the corporate buyer. Luna: What about the Q&A section? That's usually an afterthought for most businesses. Lucas: Bold Coast treats their Q&A as a sales page. They proactively seeded it with questions and answers that B2B buyers actually ask. Things like 'What is your minimum order quantity?' — answer: '50 pieces per design.' 'Do you offer rush production?' — answer: 'Yes, 5 business day turnaround for an additional 15 percent fee.' 'Can you ship to multiple locations?' — answer: 'Yes, we can drop-ship directly to your event venues or offices.' Luna: So they're preempting the objections before the buyer even reaches out. Lucas: Exactly. And the beauty of it is, Google Maps shows the Q&A prominently in the listing. If someone searches 'custom T-shirt printer Portland' on Google Maps, they can see those Q&As without ever clicking through to a website. It answers the key questions right in the search results. Luna: I'm going to play skeptic for a second. Does this really move the needle, or is it just a nice to have? Like, how many B2B buyers are actually searching Google Maps for a printer? Lucas: More than you'd think. Google's own data from 2025 showed that 30 percent of mobile searches related to local businesses have commercial intent — meaning the person is looking to buy, not just visit. And for B2B categories, that number is even higher. Bold Coast told me they get an average of three new inbound leads per week just from Google Maps. And these are high-value leads — average order value around $2,000. Luna: Three leads a week at two grand each — that's over $300,000 in potential revenue a year from one free listing. That's wild. Lucas: And they're not a big operation. It's a five-person shop in a converted garage. They just optimized their listing with the B2B buyer in mind. Let me give you one more example. They also use the Google Maps 'Products' tab, which a lot of businesses ignore. They listed specific products like 'Custom Hoodie — starting at $28 per unit at 100 quantity' and 'Event T-shirt — starting at $9 per unit at 500 quantity'. Luna: Including pricing in the product tab — that's a gutsy move. Most businesses hide pricing because they're afraid of scaring people off. Lucas: But for B2B, transparency actually builds trust. A buyer who sees a price knows whether they're in the right ballpark. If they're expecting $5 per shirt, they're not your customer anyway. But if they're expecting $15, seeing $9 is a green light. Bold Coast says their conversion rate on leads that come through Google Maps is about 40 percent, compared to 15 percent from their website contact form. Luna: That's a massive difference. So what's the takeaway for a business owner listening who's not in printing? Can any B2B local business use this? Lucas: I think the framework applies to any business that sells to other businesses in a specific geographic area. A commercial roofer, an office supply company, a catering service that does corporate lunches — all of them can use product categories, attributes, Q&A, and photos to signal B2B readiness. The key is to stop optimizing for the consumer and start optimizing for the procurement professional. Luna: Let's test that. I'm going to pull up a random competitor listing for a printer in another city. Let's see if they're doing any of this. Lucas: Go ahead. Luna: Okay, I'm looking at 'City Print Shop' in Austin. Their listing has no products, no Q&A, and their photos are just four pictures of baseball caps. No equipment, no workspace. They have one attribute: 'women-owned', which is fine, but nothing about service options or consultation. Lucas: So they're leaving a ton of money on the table. Bold Coast's listing probably outranks them for any B2B-related search in Austin, even though they're in a different city, because Google's algorithm rewards completeness and relevance. If City Print Shop added even half the optimizations Bold Coast did, they'd likely see a significant lift in leads. Luna: Alright, I'm convinced. But I want to ask one more thing — the ongoing maintenance. Do they have to constantly update the listing? Lucas: Not constantly. They do a quarterly audit — they check if any new product categories have been added by Google, they update their photos with recent jobs, and they review the Q&A to see if any new common questions have come in. But the heavy lifting was upfront. And it's all free. The only cost is time. Luna: That's a powerful story. And it's a good reminder that local marketing isn't just about the coffee shop on the corner. Lucas: Quick honest thing — a handful of listeners chip in monthly through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, and that's literally what funds making this many episodes like this one. No ads, no sponsors, just people who find the show useful. If these marketing conversations have sparked something you've actually used, that's the whole reason we do it. Luna: Yeah, it's a small group, but it makes a big difference. Keeps us independent and focused on what works, not what sells. Lucas: So if you've ever applied one tactic from this podcast and it paid off, that's the connection. But back to Bold Coast — I think the most interesting part is that they didn't invent anything new. They just looked at their Google Business Profile through the eyes of their actual customer. And that's something any business can do. Luna: I love that. It's a mindset shift more than a technical hack. Lucas: Exactly. Next time you're on Google Maps, look at your own listing and ask: would a person who wants to spend $2,000 with me find what they need in 30 seconds? If not, you've got some work to do. Luna: Great episode. Let's do it again soon.