Latest / The Local Marketing Podcast with Fexingo: Small Business, Google Maps, and Local SEO / How a Yoga Studio Uses Google Maps Posts to Fill Classes
Transcript
- Lucas: So there's this yoga studio in Portland — it's called Prism Yoga, just one location, a converted storefront in the Southeast district — and they have basically zero ad budget. No Instagram ads, no Google Ads. But their 6 AM class is consistently 80 percent booked, and the lunchtime flow class fills up three days in advance. Luna: How are they doing that without paid ads? Are they just relying on word of mouth? Lucas: Partly, but the real engine is something many small businesses treat as an afterthought: Google Maps posts. Not the attributes we talked about in earlier episodes — not 'has free Wi-Fi' or 'wheelchair accessible' — but the actual posts you can publish on your Google Business Profile. The owner, her name is Jenna, told me she treats her Google Maps listing like a micro-blog. Three posts a week, every week, for the last fourteen months. Luna: Three posts a week feels like a lot. What is she posting? Yoga poses? Class schedules? Lucas: It's not just schedules. She posts a photo of the studio before class — usually showing the mats already laid out, natural light coming in, maybe a plant in the corner. Then a second post mid-week that's a thirty-second video of her adjusting a student in a pose, with a caption about the theme of that week's classes — something like 'this week we're working on hip openers, here's a safe way to get into pigeon pose.' And the third post is usually a straightforward class reminder with a book-now button. Luna: Okay, the video post is interesting. Most businesses I see just upload a generic photo of their storefront and call it a day. But does she have data that this actually drives bookings? Lucas: She tracks two numbers from her Google Business Profile insights: post views and direction requests. And she noticed a strong correlation — when a post gets over 400 views, direction requests from that listing spike by about 30 percent the next day. But the really telling metric is that the video posts consistently get 2.5 times more views than the photo posts. And the posts with a book-now button convert at about 5 percent, which for a free traffic source is solid. Luna: So the video is the hero. But let me push back — a lot of small business owners are not comfortable filming themselves or their students. Is there a workaround? Lucas: Jenna actually addressed that. She said the first video she posted was just her hands setting up a block and a strap, no face, no students. It was a fifteen-second clip with a voiceover saying 'this prop setup will help you in tomorrow's class.' It still got 300 views. So the bar is really low. You don't need a professional production. You just need to show something useful. Luna: I can see that working for a yoga studio where the product is visual. But what if you're a plumber or an accountant? Does the same logic hold? Lucas: That's the right question. And the answer is — the format adapts. I looked at a study from BrightLocal that analyzed 100,000 Google Business Profiles. Businesses that posted at least once a week saw 2 times more profile views and 1.5 times more direction requests than those that posted less than once a month. But the type of post that worked varied by industry. For home services, before and after photos of a completed job — like a clean drain line or a rewired panel — outperformed every other post type. For accountants, posts about tax deadlines with a 'get a quote' button drove the most clicks. Luna: So it's not about being a content creator. It's about showing proof of work or providing timely utility. That feels more doable. Lucas: Exactly. And the consistency matters more than the polish. Jenna told me that in her first month of posting three times a week, she saw almost no change. But by month three, her profile views had doubled. Google's algorithm seems to reward fresh content on the listing — it shows up more often in local search results and in the Google Maps 'explore' tab. Luna: Wait, the explore tab? I didn't realize Google Maps had an explore tab for local businesses. How does that work? Lucas: When you open Google Maps and scroll down from your current location, there's a section called 'explore' that shows nearby places. It's personalized based on your history and time of day. Jenna noticed that after she started posting consistently, her studio started appearing in that explore section for users who were within a mile and had searched for 'yoga' or 'meditation' in the past. She never paid for that placement. Luna: That's a huge unlock. So for a small business, consistent Google Maps posts can essentially act as a free local SEO boost. Lucas: Yes, but with one caveat: you have to actually post useful content. Google's algorithm can detect low-effort posts. If you just repost the same photo of your storefront every week with 'come visit us', it won't get many views and the algorithm will deprioritize you. Jenna's approach is to think of each post as answering a question a potential customer might have: 'What does this class look like?', 'Is the instructor good?', 'Is it crowded?'. Luna: That makes me think of the class reminder post — she's answering 'when is the class?' and 'how do I book?' in one go. Which brings me to the call to action buttons. Google Maps posts can include buttons like 'book now', 'call now', 'learn more', 'get directions'. Do those actually get clicked? Lucas: They do, but the click-through rate varies. Jenna's data shows that the 'book now' button on her class reminder post gets clicked about 8 percent of the time. But on the video post, the same button gets only 2 percent. She thinks that's because the video post is more about building trust — people watch it, get a feel for the studio, and then maybe book later. So she uses the video posts as top of funnel content and the reminder posts as conversion content. Luna: So the strategy is a mix: one trust-building post, one educational post, one conversion post per week. That is a simple content calendar any small business could copy. Lucas: Absolutely. And I think that's the takeaway here. You don't need a complicated marketing funnel. You just need a Google Business Profile and a willingness to post three times a week with a mix of content types. If you're a plumber, that might be: before and after photo on Monday, a tip post about preventing frozen pipes on Wednesday, and a 'book a service' reminder on Friday. If you're a restaurant, it could be: a photo of the lunch special on Tuesday, a video of the chef plating a dish on Thursday, and a weekend reservation reminder on Saturday. Luna: And all of that is free. Which brings me to something I've been thinking about — the fact that this podcast stays ad-free, and that's partly because listeners like you support it. If these marketing conversations have sparked something you've actually used — maybe you set up a Google Maps post for your business, or you changed how you handle attributes — and you want to help keep these episodes coming, you can do that at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a couple of bucks a month, and it genuinely makes a difference in keeping this show independent. Lucas: Yeah, that's a good point. And we don't mention it often, but it's true — listener support is what keeps us from having to run ads or sponsored segments. So if you've gotten value from any of the episodes, that's the place to chip in. Luna: Alright, back to the yoga studio. One more thing I want to dig into — Jenna mentioned that posts with photos of actual people outperform posts of just the studio space. Is that your sense too? Lucas: Yes. And there's data behind it. Google's own research shows that listings with photos see 42 percent more requests for directions and 35 percent more click-throughs to the website. But the photos that perform best are the ones that show people using the product or service. A photo of a smiling student in a yoga pose is more compelling than a photo of an empty room. For a plumber, a photo of a technician shaking hands with a homeowner after fixing a leak is better than a photo of a clean pipe. Luna: So humanize the listing. That seems obvious but so many businesses just upload a logo or a stock photo. Lucas: Exactly. And the other thing Jenna does is she rotates her cover photo every two weeks. The cover photo is the first image someone sees when they find your listing. She changes it to match the current season or a special event — like a photo of the studio decorated for the winter holidays, or a shot of the outdoor space in summer. That signals to both users and Google that the listing is active. Luna: I love that. It's low effort but high signal. So if someone wants to start tomorrow, what's the one thing they should do? Lucas: If you have a Google Business Profile, log in, go to the posts section, and publish one photo with a short description and a call to action button. That's it. Do that today. Then set a reminder to do it again in two days. After a month, look at your insights and see which post type got the most views. Double down on that. Luna: And if you don't have a Google Business Profile yet? Lucas: That's your first step. Claim it, verify it, fill out every field — hours, phone, website, services — and then start posting. There's no reason not to, because it's free and it's the most direct way to appear in local search results. Luna: Alright, I'm convinced. I might actually start posting for my own consulting side gig. One video a week of me talking about a common client problem — that could work. Lucas: Do it. And let us know how it goes. Maybe we'll do a follow-up episode on your results.