Apple announced exciting news: the relaunch of their business profile manager, now known as “Apple Business Connect” (ABC). With Google historically dominating local search with Google My Business (now known as Google Business Profiles), Apple’s commitment to improving their maps and search interface signals an exciting new era for businesses and consumers alike.
Having business profiles on Apple Maps is nothing new. In fact, this feature has been around since 2014 when Apple launched “Apple Maps Connect.” But whereas before, you could simply register your business to appear on Apple, now you can customize your business to help customers find and interact with you directly on Apple Maps.
Here’s the scoop on Apple Business Connect – and why you should implement it for your business.
Customizing your business profile with Apple Business Connect
You can fully customize your place cards, which is what comes up when users click on your business from the search bar in Apple Maps. The new and improved place cards allow for a lot of personalization, including adding photos, header images, and logos. It looks like a great place to incorporate more branding into your ABC profile – so customers can get a taste of your business before they go!
Apple Business Connect features a new and improved store hours interface
Apple also added an improved interface to change store hours. The new interface for updating store hours is intuitive and convenient, so you can update your business hours with ease (that is, if you aren’t using a listings management platform like Synup).
Showcases enable businesses to make posts to their profile
Apple is also adding showcases, which functions similarly to Google Posts. Basically, businesses can make announcements or promote offers directly on their business profile. This is a great way to efficiently interact and communicate with your customers when they search for your business on Apple Maps!
ABC helps businesses understand and interact with their customers
Beyond simple profile customization, ABC enables businesses to better understand and interact with their customers.
Call-to-action buttons guide users through the customer journey
Businesses can implement call-to-action buttons to help facilitate customer interactions. These include:
- Appointment booking
- Call
- Chat
- An order feature for food or groceries
- Reservations
- Hotel bookings
- Buying tickets
- And even viewing movie times
Adding call to action buttons on ABC reduces friction in the customer journey. Whether consumers want to learn more or are ready to buy from your brand, having convenient call to action buttons ensure that customers actually complete their purchase.
Customer-driven Insights go beyond standard analytics
Apple Business Connect also gives businesses an incredible Insights feature! which should be welcomed as Google seems to be removing its Insights functionality. Brands can get a better understanding of their customers, see what people search to find their business, and more!
So – this is great. But what does it mean for businesses? It means you should update or claim your Apple Business Connect at businessconnect.apple.com
What’s next for Apple Business Connect?
It’s great to see Apple investing in their platform, emerging as a rival of Google Business Profile. The increased customization abilities on Apple Business Connect enhance the user experience, making it easier than ever for customers to interact with and patronize businesses using Apple.
So far, the launch of Apple Business Connect has been well-received by the local search industry. And this comes as no surprise. After all, ABC has great functionality and an intuitive and sleek user interface – hallmarks of any Apple product.
We’ll be excited to see how Apple continues to develop Apple Business Connect following the launch!
