THE FUTURE MARKETACADEMY
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School of Marketing

Multi-Location Marketing: scale local presence

Step 6 of 7 in Marketing Studio

Next in your path: 3.5.3 Email Strategy: deliverability and testing

What you'll be able to do
  • Organise many Business Profiles under one business group with clear owners and managers.
  • Prepare a bulk upload spreadsheet with store codes and know when bulk verification is possible.
  • Keep one brand voice while every location shows its own true name rules, hours, phone and photos.
  • Plan one useful web page per location without building spammy "doorway" pages.
  • Run one review and reply system across all locations and find problems by comparing them.
  • Track every location in one table with tagged links, and handle customer data with care.
  • Hand in a graded project: a multi-location playbook you can show.
Words in this course 53Open the Vocabulary Hall
01

One brand, many profiles

In simple words

One lemonade stand is easy to look after. Ten stands in ten parks need a map, a boss for each stand, and the same sign on every table. Multi-location marketing is the map, the bosses and the sign.

Before this course: Local Customer Growth (course 3.7.2), which builds on Google Business Profile & Local Marketing (course 3.7). You already run the local growth loop (reviews, replies, consistent listings, honest offers, tracking) for one place. Here you scale it to several locations without losing quality.

Key facts
  • Google's rule is one profile per location: do not create more than one page for each location of your business, in one account or several.
  • A business group (previously called a business account) is where you manage many locations. It lets you share location management with several users. Google recommends one business group per business or brand.
  • Two roles exist in a group: owners and managers. Both can create, edit and delete profiles in the group. A person added to the group can reach all current and future profiles in it. You can also add people to single profiles.
  • Only an owner can delete a group, and deleting it cannot be undone. A group cannot act as the manager of another group.
  • One group gives one dashboard, but people may see profiles they should not manage. Several groups limit access but split the dashboard.
  • Departments that act as separate public-facing entities can have their own profile with a different name. A section inside another store (a food bar inside a grocery store) does not qualify.
  • Virtual offices are not eligible. A co-working space qualifies only with clear signage, customer reception in business hours and staff on site.
Step by step
  1. List every location you market: name, full street address, phone, manager, opening date.
  2. Mark each as storefront (customers visit) or service area (you travel to them).
  3. Remove anything that is not a real location (virtual office, P.O. box, a shelf inside another shop).
  4. Decide how many business groups you need: one per brand is the default; use more only if different teams must not see each other's profiles.
  5. Write who will be owner (two people is safer) and who will be manager for each location.
  6. Check: every real location is on one list, has one planned profile, and has a named person responsible.
Watch on YouTube
How Do You Optimize a Multi-Location Business for Local SEO?mainstreetroi · YouTube · youtube.com

Videos by other creators on YouTube, for reference. They are not made by or affiliated with The Future Market.

LESSON 01One brand, many profiles
LESSON 01 / ANIMATED LESSON / AI VOICE00:00 / 01:00
Read the video script
[Host] "More locations mean more ways to get lost. Start with a map."
[Screen: a table of locations with address, phone, manager] "List every location, its address, phone and manager."
[Text on screen: One profile per location] "Google's rule: one profile for each real location."
[Host] "Then decide who owns it, and who manages it. Two owners is safer than one."
Try it now

Build your location list with a storefront or service-area mark for each, and name an owner and a manager. If you have no business, use a practice chain of five locations.

ClaudeStuck? Copy a ready-made prompt for Claude

Copy this, open Claude, paste it, and Claude will walk you through the lesson step by step.

For a grown-up: Claude is for adults (18+). Copy this, paste it into Claude, and use the answer to explain the lesson to your child.

I'm learning "Multi-Location Marketing: scale local presence" on The Future Market. Lesson 1: "One brand, many profiles".

What the lesson teaches:
- Google's rule is one profile per location: do not create more than one page for each location of your business, in one account or several.
- A business group (previously called a business account) is where you manage many locations. It lets you share location management with several users. Google recommends one business group per business or brand.
- Two roles exist in a group: owners and managers. Both can create, edit and delete profiles in the group. A person added to the group can reach all current and future profiles in it. You can also add people to single profiles.
- Only an owner can delete a group, and deleting it cannot be undone. A group cannot act as the manager of another group.
- One group gives one dashboard, but people may see profiles they should not manage. Several groups limit access but split the dashboard.
- Departments that act as separate public-facing entities can have their own profile with a different name. A section inside another store (a food bar inside a grocery store) does not qualify.
- Virtual offices are not eligible. A co-working space qualifies only with clear signage, customer reception in business hours and staff on site.

The exercise I'm working on:
Build your location list with a storefront or service-area mark for each, and name an owner and a manager. If you have no business, use a practice chain of five locations.

I'm stuck. Please:
1. Explain the main idea in plain, simple words with one everyday example.
2. Walk me through the exercise one small step at a time. Ask me what I've done so far before giving the next step.
3. Don't just give me the final answer. Help me do it myself, and check my work when I share it.
I'm a parent helping my child (about 8 years old) with a lesson called "One brand, many profiles" from the course "Multi-Location Marketing: scale local presence".

Here's what the lesson says:
One lemonade stand is easy to look after. Ten stands in ten parks need a map, a boss for each stand, and the same sign on every table. Multi-location marketing is the map, the bosses and the sign.

The activity:
Build your location list with a storefront or service-area mark for each, and name an owner and a manager. If you have no business, use a practice chain of five locations.

Please explain this so an 8-year-old understands: short sentences, a fun everyday example, and no hard words.
Then give me 3 simple questions I can ask my child to check they understood, and a way to do the activity together, one tiny step at a time.
Open Claude
Sources
My notes
02

Bulk setup: spreadsheet, store codes and verification

This lesson is part of full access: every course and every level for one payment.

03

Same brand, true local details

This lesson is part of full access: every course and every level for one payment.

04

One useful web page per location

This lesson is part of full access: every course and every level for one payment.

05

Reviews and replies across all locations

This lesson is part of full access: every course and every level for one payment.

06

Compare your locations and protect customer data

This lesson is part of full access: every course and every level for one payment.

07

Rules, roles and your multi-location playbook

This lesson is part of full access: every course and every level for one payment.

++

Final project

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??

Quiz

  1. How many Business Profiles should one location have?

  2. What is a business group for?

  3. How many locations do Google's bulk tools target?

  4. Is uploading a spreadsheet enough to verify locations in bulk?

  5. What is a store code?

  6. What happens to a spreadsheet column that has a heading but no data?

  7. Which details should stay the same across all locations, and which should be local?

  8. Why should a location use a local phone number when possible?

  9. What is doorway abuse?

  10. What should every location page contain that other pages do not?

  11. Why do UTM values need one naming rule?

  12. Why should each location have its own review link or QR code?

EX

Final exam

This lesson is part of full access: every course and every level for one payment.

CE

Certificate

This lesson is part of full access: every course and every level for one payment.