Modern businesses collect a lot of data from their customers, sales representatives, and business leads. Knowing what to do with that data is often difficult, especially if it’s stored inside pages and pages of spreadsheets. Turning your data into a visual representation can be much more effective when planning your future strategies. Visual representations of data can include charts, graphs, and even maps.
Services such as Maptive can take your raw business data and turn it into a custom Google map to help organize your business. Using a map or a chart, you can sport trends, gain insight into your business, and plan out new opportunities. In this guide, we’ll be explaining how map creation services work, how to use them, and their advantages. Follow these steps to make your own custom business map.
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Step 1: Choose a map-making software
Lots of great software tools allow you to export data from a spreadsheet into your own map. Make sure that any software you choose uses enterprise-level mapping technology.
This will give you global coverage and highly accurate mapping tools. Pricing for a map creating tool depends on the service you use. Some services are free, while others might charge a subscription or a one-off fee. You may also find services that offer a free trial. Ensure you choose an option that has the features and capabilities you need for your business.
Create an account and sign in to get started using your map-making tool.
Step 2: Upload your data
Once you’ve set up your account with your preferred map-making software, log in, and create a new map. Name your map to describe its purpose and then upload your data. When choosing which data to upload, make sure you only select relevant information from the spreadsheet.
Include the headers, so the map knows how to label the data points. This will then create your custom Google map featuring the data you selected. The process is normally completed quickly, but larger amounts of data will take longer to plot onto the map. You can use multiple sets of data, but sometimes it can be better to create two separate maps to avoid confusion.
Step 3: Customise your Google map
Once you’ve created your map, you’ll want to customize it to get as much information out of it as possible. Most mapping tools will allow you to customize the map markers you use and set the default view. You can also choose from a wide variety of map styles to make your map stand out and make it easier to use.
You can create multiple versions of the map, which can be given to different employees or departments based on their use-case. Properly naming each one will help you know what each map is for and make it hard for them to get mixed up.
Step 4: Make the most out of the features of the software
Depending on which service you chose, you should be able to use lots of different features.
It’s a good idea to color-code your custom business map so that it is easier to read. You can also create sales territories and demographic areas, which can let you know what your company needs to focus on.
One of the most useful features of tools like Maptive or Google Maps is the route planner. You can mark the most efficient route between multiple stops. This makes traveling between business locations or customers much simpler.
Step 5: Finish and Share your map
Finally, your custom business map is complete, and all that’s left is to share it with your employees. You can choose to either print or embed your map on a webpage. Alternatively, you can share the file privately via e-mail. Embedding the map into a webpage is easy and simply requires HTML code.
Once you’ve shared your map, you won’t be able to edit it, but you can come back to the original file to edit later on. This is useful for fast-paced businesses, especially if you have a frequently changing customer base and sales territories. Make sure to always give your employees the most recent map by regularly sending out updates when new data is collected and used.
