What Is the Bing Business Portal?

Almost a month ago, Bing announced the new Bing Business Portal. An online GPS/map-like program is designed and developed to compete head-on with Google Places. Bing’s looking to go mainstream, but they’re coming to the party a bit late. To make up for their tardy behavior, they brought a few trendy, but useful features for any retail business.

It takes about an hour to fill out all the necessary information. But once your account is activated, you’re provided with a Bing-branded “Open Sign” and an accompanying QR code to complement your mobile marketing efforts. Both come print ready and are great additions to any retail storefront. Your customers can now scan the code and be directed to your Bing Business page-this is perfect if you’re looking for reviews. More than SEM and Retail Marketing, Bing is trying to become a leader in small business Mobile Marketing.

Mobile Marketing with Bing:

If you’re a local business with a menu of food items or services, you should capitalize on Bing’s “Mobile Menu” feature. This allows viewers a quick snapshot of your offer. Now assuming this obtains “wide usage,” with the increasing adoption of Windows Mobile Devices and/or Bing Mobile users, you could see a substantial traffic increase to your website and in turn your business, simply from Mobile User’s ability to find your restaurant online…some say it will rival Google Places. And to sweeten the deal further, Bing is also offering a “FREE Mobile Site,” which at this stage is more of an added feature than a true benefit to your business (short on design), yet when combined with the QR code and the Open Sign, your online mobile location can help drive traffic through your front door–literally.

So why not take a moment and give one of the largest software companies in the world a bit of data about you and your business? It can only help. After all, it’s FREE!

http://www.bing.com/businessportal/.