Google Maps is the most popular online mapping destination. Seventy-one percent of the 91.7 million people in the US who visited maps online in February 2012 used Google Maps, according to comScore. This puts them far ahead of Bing's online map, or MapQuest. People use Google Maps to locate businesses and other landmarks, but there are two new ways that your business can use Google Maps to attract customers.

Blue Pin

If your business is a subscriber to Google's AdWords Express, which is primarily for small-to-medium sized, local businesses, then your business will have a "blue pin" on Google Maps. That way, when someone puts your keywords or business name into Google, you will have a blue pin that stands out from the rest of the pins on the map. When a user clicks on the pin, he or she will go to your business's location on Google Maps. The blue pin will also appear next to your listing in the Google search, making it easier for the user to connect to your location.

Google Offers

Managing a local business is enough work as is; not to mention finding time to advertise to potential customers. Online advertising is a great way to reach a plethora of potential leads. You might think you already have enough on your plate, or are already spending enough advertising dollars on your online marketing campaign.

Through your site analytics, you already know what your customers are searching for on Google to find the products and services you offer. Google Offers makes online marketing for local businesses easy by use of their current AdWords campaign. By jumping in the online coupon business as a competitor to Groupon and LivingSocial, Google is now a competitor with a new program called Google Offers. These offers can be directly linked with your listing on Google Maps and Google Places. This means that if a customer's Google search brings up your business' listing, the customer will see that you are offering an online deal. This is a great way to convert a web user doing a simple search, to a new customer for your business.

When using Google offers, there is certain guidelines that you must follow to be able to place an offer on Google. If these guidelines are not followed, Google will send you a notice advising you that your offer has been suspended due to requirement violations. Don't worry, this doesn't mean that you are unable to put your offer on Google. If you think that your offer is walking on that fine line, you can go to Google offer policies or the Google Business Help Center to better inform you on the requirements.