Your customers will know you
BEFORE you know them!
50%- 70% of all customers check online reviews before buying and 80% of all customers say that online reviews impact their purchasing decisions. This is only getting to be more and more important over time and review sites are increasingly improving their standards and credibility, so why would any business leave their online reputation to chance?
If you are interested in increasing lead generation and growing your business, you simply have to make reputation management a priority and take control of your online reputation.
The key to a successful online reputation strategy is being proactive and not waiting for customers to talk about you positively, but instead approach your existing customer base in a thoughtful and appreciative manner.
Many of your clients that you have provided excellent service for in the past will be only happy to help say a few nice words about you online. You just have to make it easy for them. Don’t hope they find your Google or Yelp page online, provide them a direct link. This is not a “one time” operation, this is a process that should be integrated into your marketing plan and it should be ongoing.
Testimonials Are Key
Testimonials need to be a huge part of this process and managed as well. There are many ways to improve your testimonial strategy. Did you know that testimonials with a photo of the customer are much more effective than testimonials simply written out? Did you know that video testimonials are even better? This doesn’t just happen by itself though. Your business has to put a plan in place. What are the odds that your customers will make a video testimonial about your business without your help? Not very good. The great thing about testimonials is that they build the case that your business is solid for the buyer before they purchase your product or service. They also can be used in multiple places on your website and updated frequently. A home page of your website is an excellent place for a short but sweet testimonial from a satisfied customer!
Review Management
What if your business has negative reviews online already? What is the best way to handle those? It is such an important subject that we wrote a learning center post about how to handle bad reviews online. Just like many other aspects of your Internet Marketing, your reputation needs to be maintained and tightly guarded.
When a bad review gets placed about your business for the world to see, it can be very emotional, but it happens to even the most well run companies. It is impossible to please everyone all the time, but the key is not to overreact and address the bad review quickly and professionally.
As long as you keep your positive review to negative review ratio high, you will be in good shape and actually will shine because your business will showcase how on top of things it is and how you take all comments, good or bad, to heart and care about your customers. However, if you let these negative reviews go unanswered, like many businesses do, it will hurt your lead generation process.
GMS has programs in place that accomplish all of the above with very little effort from the client. It’s like putting your online reputation on autopilot. We assist you in maintaining communication with existing clients, obtaining their feedback, and get them to enthusiastically assist in your lead generation process. These are very low cost, highly effective strategies that Google likes to see and your potential customers are persuaded heavily by. When a bad review is placed about your business online, we get notified and in turn, notify you so you can do something about it ASAP!
Don’t leave your online strategies to chance and random results. Take command and control of your online presence.