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Set Up Your Business Profile

Picture of poddle Support By  poddle Support  ·  5 minute read
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Set Up Your Business Profile

 

Set Up Your Business Profile 

To get started, click on the Business Profile section on the left-hand side of the poddle Control Centre navigation panel. There are five different steps to create your business profile, which can easily be navigated using the five numbered circles at the top of your Business Profile Control Centre page.

You can set these up by following the steps below.

 

 

How do I set up my business profile?

The first step, to keeping your customers and making more money with poddle, is to set up a really compelling business profile that tells customers everything they need to know about you. That includes your Business Name, Email, Contact Number, Address and any Website or Social Pages links that you own.

All of this information is then presented to customers in a concise and easy-to-understand way on the poddle App.  

 

Online Presence – Our support team will have filled out the majority of this information for you already by using publicly available information such as from your website, social media pages, or Google business profile. 

Once you have logged in to the poddle Control Centre, you can make any changes to this information, and then, when you're happy - you can let your account manager know so they can make your profile live. 

For any information that has not been filled in yet, you can simply follow the steps below: 

Website 

  • Step 1 - Open your website in your preferred web browser; whilst having the control panel open in another tab. 
  • Step 2 - Copy your website’s URL from the navigation bar at the top of your screen.  
  • Step 3 - Paste the URL into the box next to “website” (underneath “Online Presence”).  

 

Facebook 

  • Step 1 - Open Facebook in your preferred web browser; whilst having the control panel open in another tab. 
  • Step 2 - Login to your account and you will be taken to your homepage. 
  • Step 3 - Click on your profile name in the top left-hand corner to be directed to your profile page. 
  • Step 4 - Copy your profile URL from the navigation bar at the top of your screen.  
  • Step 5 - Paste the URL into the box next to “Facebook” (underneath “Online Presence”).  

 

Instagram 

  • Step 1 - Open Instagram in your preferred web browser; whilst having the control panel open in another tab. 
  • Step 2 - Login to your account and you will be taken to your homepage. 
  • Step 3 - Click on your profile name in the top right-hand corner to be directed to your profile page. 
  • Step 4 - Copy your profile URL from the navigation bar at the top of your screen.  
  • Step 5 - Paste the URL into the box next to “Instagram” (underneath “Online Presence”).  

 

Select Your Business Categories and Sub-Categories – This pre-populated field allows you to select up to 2 categories that best represent your business.

  • If your business does one thing – select 1 category.
  • If your business does multiple things (e.g.: Café and Florist) – select 2 categories i.e. “Food & Drink” and “Retail & Shopping”.

To choose your sub-categories, click on the dropdown to select the options more relevant to you. You can choose up to 7 sub-categories per category. 

 

Enter Your Keywords – Enter a few keywords that customers might search for if they were searching for something you could sell them. This section is not fully pre-populated and therefore allows you the freedom to decide what your keywords should be. However, there are a few options available if you need some help to get started!

Taking the example from above, if you are both a florist and a café, keyword examples could be “Coffee”, “Flowers”, or “Café”.

Next, it’s time to choose the right profile images that will make you stand out.

 

 

How do I choose the right profile images?

Using the same method of navigation as before to land on the “Business Profile” page, click on the number 2 at the top of your page to add your profile images. Continue this navigation for the following 3 sections. 

As the saying goes, a picture really does speak a thousand words. When setting up your business profile, make sure to add high quality images that best represent your business. Some key terms to be aware of:

  • Default Image – This is the main image that customers will see when scrolling through the poddle app.
  • Thumbnail – Your default image will automatically become your thumbnail. This is what customers will see when they receive a link to your business profile outside of the poddle App.
  • Profile Images – We recommend a maximum of 5 profile images that accurately represent your business. These images will be shown as a slideshow on the poddle app when customers visit your business profile.

Once you have chosen up to 5 images, you can click and drag them to re-order them according to your preference. 

 

How do I add my opening hours to my business profile?

One of the most common searches customers make online is to find out when local businesses are open. Nobody wants to make a trip into town only to find out you’re closed, so it’s a good idea to keep your opening hours accurate and up to date at all times.

  • Specify opening days - The first and most obvious step in setting your opening hours is to select the days of the week that you’re actually open for business. We recommend selecting these first before entering specific opening hours for each day. 
  • Add or update opening hours - The next step is to add or update the hours that your business opens on each day of the week that you ticked in the previous step. When adding the times, make sure to click the AM or PM button next to the time entry and it will toggle between the two. 
  • Add multiple opening time slots per day - If you have multiple opening hour windows on any given day, for example, if you close for an hour over lunch, then you can set your opening times up to reflect that. Simply click on the plus button at the very end for each day to add these hours. Here is an example: 
    • Monday - You are open from 8:00am to 12:00pm, but closed for lunch till 2:00pm. Your opening hours resume from 2:00pm to 5:00pm. Your first time entry should be 8:00am to 12:00pm, and your second time entry should be 2:00pm to 5:00pm. 
  • Close your business temporarily - If you need to close your business temporarily – because you’re going on holiday for example – then you can make it clear you’re not open right now but you’ll be back soon. You can untick the days you will not be available, and this will adjust accordingly on the poddle App. 
  • Close your business for longer periods - If you’re going to be closed for longer periods then you might want to disable your business profile, which means customers won’t be able to find your profile. To do this, simply contact support.

Once you have updated your opening hours, they will be displayed for you to click “confirm”. Once confirmed, you will be moved onto the next section of setting up your business profile.

 

 

How do I create an “About Us” description? What should I include?

Creating an “About Us” description is a great and important way to let your customers know who you are and to help your brand build credibility. Customers are eager to know where your business came from and what you stand for.

The essentials include:

  • Who You Are – Don’t forget to talk about yourself as the face(s) behind the business. Including a brief description of who you are gives you the opportunity to be yourself and build a relationship with your customers.
  • What You Do – Briefly explain the type of products, services, or experiences that you offer.
  • Why You’re Special – Include any ratings and reviews, history, heritage, special expertise… anything you can think of! The more details you add to your profile about why you stand out, the more credibility you will gain with customers.
  • Why Your Customers Love You – This is the perfect opportunity to show why your customers really love you, beyond just what you do.

 

 

How do I add my policies? What do I include?

Adding policies to your Business Profile is optional. On this page, you will see two options: "Terms and Conditions" and "Returns Policy" - make sure to enter the right information in the right section!

If you are a business that has particular terms of sales or a returns policy that customers need to be aware of, then this is where you can include it.

We recommend following the poddle approach and keeping this simple! In order to save this final part of your business profile, simply tell your customers to ‘Visit our website’ or ‘Ask us in-person’.

If you have your own Privacy Policy for your business, you can also include this here. However, regarding all the concerns about data privacy and compliance with relevant legislation for customers using poddle, you might wonder about including something about that here. But don’t worry! We take care of all that for you.