Online reputation is essential for any business niche. It is one of the most powerful marketing assets. Today the customer journey has changed, and people go online to read and learn about productsbeforepurchasing. One of the first things they check is online reviews. The experience of others helps a potential client decide whether he wants to choose your product or go with a competitor.
The competition in any business is high. If you want potential customers to choose your company instead of your rivals – you must work on your review management.
Review management became a high looked after service because it helps grow any business and increase brand recognition.
Amazeful is a review management platform covering all your online reputation needs, from review generation to analytics.
It is a perfect solution for entrepreneurs who want to grow business online or service providers who wish to follow up with their clients.
What can the Amazeful platform do for your business?
1. It automates the review generation
We live in times of automation and fast solutions. That’s why we created Amazeful to help entrepreneurs automate the process of review generation.
Amazeful sends automated review requests (email or SMS) to your existing customers. You can select when to send the invitation and where to direct your client. Amazeful integrates with all review sites and social media platforms Google, Facebook, TripAdvisor, Yelp, and many more where your potential clients check for reviews.
2. It helps you manage negative reviews
You might find review management platforms that help with review generation but not with managing negative feedback. Amazeful has this feature, and it can be a massive advantage for your business. Negative reviews have a vast impact on any business. Not every negative review will harm your business, but you’re clearly not working on review management if the majority of your reviews are negative.
3.Provides white label online reputation services
If you own a marketing agency or you’re an online marketing service provider, you can use Amazeful as an online reputation management partner. Amazeful is an all-in-one solution to grow the online reputation of your clients.
Replace our domain and name with your own
Control all clients accounts from one powerful dashboard
Amazeful has an impressive list of features that will be highly effective for your online reputation. You can check them here.
But saving money is probably one of the essential advantages you get when using the platform. Almost 356 billion U.S. dollars were spent on digital advertising in 2020. Unfortunately, the effectiveness of customer conversion from online ads is dropping. Increasing your online reputation will help with customer conversion, which will bring more sales and profits.
What better way to promote your business than to have your customer talk about it.
Positive reviews will build a solid online reputation hard to match by your competition.
Your business reputation will never improve if you don’t work on generating more online reviews. They can boost your local SEO, increase credibility in your business and get more revenue. People always turn to reviews to claim the quality of the services or products. Shop reviews, restaurant ratings, movie reviews, hotel reviews – the list can be endless. It is essential for us because we want to ensure we choose the best quality on the market. For this reason, online reviews should be an essential part of your marketing strategy.
This article will be helpful for you if you are:
A business owner looking for ways to grow business and increase revenue
A service provider or agency looking for ways to provide online reputation services for your clients
So, how to collect customer reviews?
The majority of articles suggest simply asking your current customers to leave a review. It sounds easy, but based on our clients’ feedback, businesses don’t regularly ask for reviews because doing it manually and asking each client for review is time-consuming and challenging.
The key for efficient review generation is making it comfortable, easy, and quick both for you and your customers. You can achieve this with Amazeful, a reputation management platform that automates the entire process of gaining customer reviews.
How can Amazeful help youcollect customer testimonials?
The Amazeful platform makes the process as easy as possible with the help of automation
Amazeful integrates with your CRM or website to sync your customer database and start sending automated review requests right away. You can select when and how the review request will be sent to your client. It can be sent immediately (once a new customer appears in the database) or in a few hours. Sometimes clients can miss your review requests because of tens of emails and SMS they get every day. In this case, you can send a follow-up invitation and remind a client about yourself in a friendly way.
This process is simple, easy to set up, and beneficial for any business.
You use the magic of automation and don’t waste time askingthe customer to leave a review manually
It increases the number of new reviews posted each month. Your business will grow and get more revenue
Review reminders ensure a higher chance to get more 5-star reviews for your business
It’s an excellent solution for business owners and marketing agencies who want to grow their clients’ businesses. Amazeful also provides white-label online reputation services. You can manage all of your clients from one powerful, white-labeled dashboard branded with your company name and logo. Check the details of our reputation management reseller program here.
Amazeful integrates with sites that are important for your business
When it comes to reviews, the platform where they are posted matters. Amazeful integrates with tens of review websites that your potential customers regularly visit to check your business reputation. You can choose where to send customers to leave a review when you set up follow-up automation.
The most popular place for posting reviews is Google. It has 86.9 billion total monthly visits. So having automated google reviewsposted means more potential clients will choose your business.
Having more reviews has other benefits, such as a higher ranking for local SEO, a big credibility boost, and better online exposure.
Amazeful integrates both with review sites and social media platforms. Working on Facebook reputation management has huge benefits for your business:
Boost credibility
Increase organic reach
Get new clients with the power of positive reviews
With the help of Amazeful, you can post reviews on the most popular social media platform and build transparent communication with existing and new clients.
Conclusion
Having a regular flow of fresh online reviews gives you a huge advantage and helps you be ahead of your competitors. However, it is almost impossible to do it effectively without an automation solution.
Amazeful can do this work for you and manage all the stages of review generation. Using Amazeful streamlined review request process, you will follow up all your customers and get the reviews your business needs.
Your business is always under the spotlight when it comes to online reputation. No matter what business you own, potential customers start their first interaction with you through an online search. What they find about you has to make a positive impression; otherwise, you lose customers and money. That’s why working on your online business reputation management is fundamental to your success and growth.
What do we mean when we talk about online reputation management?
It is the process of creating and managing what is said about you online. Based on this, potential clients will perceive your business in a positive or negative light. It includes online reviews on Google, TripAdvisor, Yelp, and other review sites and comments on social media.
Can I manage online reputation for business myself?
Yes, you can, but it requires a lot of time, money, and energy. You have to spend hours each day to ask your customers for new online reviews, monitor negative feedback, analyze each review to understand your business weaknesses. Instead, you can invest in an internet reputation management companylike Amazeful to automate these processes and free up your time so you can spend it on improving other parts of your business.
What businesses need online reputation management?
In fact, all business needs to work on their online reputation, doesn’t matter if it’s a small local business or a big international company. Large multinational business reputationworks the same as Small business reputation management just needs a lot more human resources to manage
Online brand reputation management services
Amazeful can help you work with reputation management reviews much more efficiently, save your time & money.
Let’s dive into a few ways a reputation management company can help your business:
Generate fresh customer reviews
Customers trust people, not brands. That’s why your business needs more positive and fresh reviews online from your actual customers. This way, you will attract more new customers, increase trust in your brand and rank higher in Google search (which means more potential clients will find you online).
Amazeful reputation management platform is a perfect solution to automate the process of gaining customer reviews. It integrates with your customer relationship management system (CRM) or website and sends automated review requests to your customers (via email or SMS).
What benefits do you get?
With automation, you get more reviews posted online, increasing your online visibility and attracting more customers.
You can direct your clients to any review site like Google or Facebook. Amazeful also connects with any sites that matter to your business, including industry-specific ones. In summary, you can select where to send your customer to leave a review and increase your rating on different review sites that are significant for your business growth.
A customer can overlook your review request because he receives tens of emails every day. In this case, friendly review reminders will be your best automation tool for a greater conversion rate.
Manage negative reviews
An essential part of online reputation servicesis managing negative reviews. Negative feedback definitely can ruin your business’s online reputation; that’s why you must work on it. You can’t wholly avoid negative reviews, but with Amazeful, you can minimize the number of negative feedback posted about your business online.
How does it work?
The Amazeful platform can survey your customers to see what they think about your business before they get asked to leave a review. Once you receive negative feedback, the system will forward you that information so you can deal with it asap and mitigate the issue offline.
94% of consumers say that bad reviews have convinced them to avoid a business. Before negative feedback drives your customers away, invest in a reputation management platform. Check our amazing specials and discounts
Review monitoring and analytics
Online reputation management servicesare not only about collecting reviews but also about reports and analytics. To stay on top of your online reputation, you need to monitor what customers say in reviews and what ratings you have. It’s hard to go through every single review site and check each customer’s feedback.
With Amazeful, you get a simple and powerful dashboard with all reviews you received and overall ratings. With a centralized dashboard, it’s easier to monitor your online reputation and improve your business. You have all your negative and positive reviews in one place, and you can analyze feedback faster and define what business processes need improvements to increase customer experience.
Share your best reviews on social media or your website
Reputation management services like Amazeful are a great social sharing tool by allowing you to display an aggregation of all your reviews on your website with the help of widgets. Whenever you get a 5-star review, Amazeful allows you to share it automatically on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and more. You can do the same on your website with easy-to-use website widgets. Showing customer testimonials on your site establishes credibility in potential clients’ eyes and increases the conversion rate.
Have you ever purchased a product or service after a recommendation from somebody else? That is social proof in action. People strive to fit with the rest of the crowd, and it’s not just a marketing idea – it’s a proven psychological theory. We are social animals. That’s why the actions and recommendations of others influence our decisions in a variety of ways, including our purchasing behavior.
In marketing, social proof offers a massive variety for growth and sales. Therefore, entrepreneurs implement this psychological theory into a marketing strategy to influence purchasing decisions.
When people shop, they look for reviews and recommendations of others before making a purchase. That’s why reviews are one of the most vital social proof forms to generate sales for any business.
How to use social proof in your business?
1. Generate more reviews and testimonials
91% of consumers read online reviews before making a purchase. That’s why it is essential to generate positive customer reviews and make them visible to potential clients.
Reviews help potential customers understand the quality of your products and get to know your business better from the experiences of others. The more 5-star ratings you get, the more likely the next potential client will choose you over competitors.
Thankfully, there are tools that you can use to generate more positive reviews without spending lots of time. For example, Amazeful helps you collect reviews automatically and post them on review sites that matter for your business. By having current and ongoing positive reviews, your business will show up at the top of Google search, and more customers will choose you.
2. Display testimonials on your website
To increase the conversion rate on your site, you have to include testimonials from other clients. 63% of shoppers are more likely to purchase from websites with reviews. Therefore, simply having a customer reviews section can be enough to earn visitors’ trust. It is proof that you have real customers and your business is legitimate. Besides, a good customer testimonial can explain the benefits of your product or service.
The Amazeful platform can help you embed your testimonials on your website, no programming knowledge is required. One of the platform’s features is a website widget that will display your latest and greatest reviews. Click here to get a 7-days trial version.
3. Cultivate user-generated content
User-Generated Content is text, photos, and videoscreated by individual people (not brands) and published on social media. It influences purchasing decisions and increases trust, the same as reviews do. Fifty-six percent of consumers said user-generated content was the content they most wanted to see from brands.
How to evolve UGC? For example, create a branded hashtag on Instagram or Twitter and encourage users a chance to be featured. Another way is to create a social buzz as Coca-Cola did with its ‘Shake a Coke’ campaign.
Coca-Cola swapped out its logo with random names for the campaign, enabling fans to find their names. As a result, ‘Shake a Coke’ became a highly shareable promotion hugely successful in 50 countries all over the world.
Today, 77% of patients go online to search out and read online reviews of dental clinics. Potential clients want to learn about the dental practice and read other patients’ experiences before deciding which dentist to visit. Therefore getting customer reviews online has become crucial if you want to be chosen among competitors.
The more reviews you have, the more recognizable your dental practice will seem online. After all, a potential client searching for a dentist in his area is more likely to choose a business with over 50 five-star reviews than a business with just two reviews.
The good news is, from the recent survey, 74% of customers who were asked to provide feedback, 68% were willing to do it. So don’t hesitate when asking patients to leave a review because most of them will be happy to help you out.
What are the main benefits of online reviews for a dental clinic?
You will rank higher on Google Maps and Google Searches
High star ratings increase conversions
Reviews build customer trust
The feedback received helps you improve your practice
It’s a cost-effective way to get more clients
How to get more online reviews from the patients?
1. Google reviews are the backbone of any local marketing strategy. If you want your clients to leave reviews on Google, the first thing that needs to be done is to optimize your Google My Business listing. Google My Business helps businesses manage their online presence across search engines.
Basically, it’s a source of verified information about your dental clinic, including location, opening hours, prices, and reviews from patients.
Follow these steps to set up your Google My Business listing:
Add the finishing touches (website, phone number, opening hours, photos, appointment URL, etc.
2. The most engaging way to get reviews from your patients is by asking them face-to-face after the dental procedure. Ask your сlient how their experience was and if they don’t mind leaving a review.
3. If you find it hard to get your patients to leave you a review after you ask them, there are alternative ways to simplify this task. Inexpensive reputation management platforms like Amazeful can help your business generate more reviews and save time.
What are the main advantages of using a reputation management platform?
It’s a fully automated process, so you don’t have to spend time asking each client for a review. In addition, the platform can integrate with your patients’ management system and automatically send email or SMS survey requests.
You can redirect your patients to leave reviews on other sites besides Google like Facebook, Yelp, or any review site that matters for your business.
You can manage your negative feedback offline and deal with the issues before they escalate.
You get in-depth reporting of your online reputation to analyze and find ways to improve patients’ experience.
Positive reviews can help you build strong relationships with existing patients and attract new ones.
Considering that clients tend to trust online reviews as much as they would a personal recommendation from a friend, it’s a time to use reviews to your advantage.
Worried about finding time to get more online reviews? Start 7 days free trial with Amazeful!
If this pandemic has taught us one thing, it’s that everybody needs to be online. The online space is everything in these pandemic times when you’re barely allowed outside, and the only way you can really connect with people is through social media and online platforms.
Online reviews are probably the most influential factor that customers consider when deciding which product or service to choose. For this reason, business owners are always wondering how to get more reviews. In fact, over 50% of consumers say that online reviews influence their decision to purchase, and 84% trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation. In other words, online reviews can make or break your business.
Doesn’t matter what kind of business you own. Generating online reviews is a key to your success. They can boost sales, rank your company higher in search engines and build a strong reputation – exactly what any business needs.
Let’s face it – you want to know how to get more customer reviews. The more positive reviews you get, the more new clients will choose your business over your competitors. Everyone looks at the number of reviews next to the stars because potential clients want to know how many people reviewed the product. Probably, one or two positive reviews aren’t enough to convince somebody to buy a product. Another situation is when a product has dozens of reviews with good ratings. In this case, potential customers are more likely to choose your company over others with fewer reviews.
Most probably, you got to this blog while trying to find answers to some of the following questions:
How to generate more online reviews in an easy way?
How to get clients to leave reviews?
How to improve your online reputation?
Let’s talk about them in the following article, but first, we need to clarify where we want our customers’ reviews to be published.
Where can you publish your customer reviews?
On Google My Business (to appear on Google Search and Google Maps)
On review sites (TripAdvisor, Trustpilot, Yelp, Foursquare, etc.)
On social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter)
On your own website site
How to get reviews for your business?
1.Ask in person
If you regularly meet with your clients, you have an excellent opportunity to ask for a review in person. It is considered to be one of the most effective methods of gaining customer feedback.
How to get customer feedback?
Start the conversation by asking about the client’s experience with your business and, based on the reply, decide if it’s the right moment to ask for a review.
Another way is to ask for a review at the end of a sales transaction. To make it convenient for the client, prepare a card with a QR-code to redirect a customer to a review page on Google, Facebook, or your website.
Example:
You: Thanks for purchasing {product name} from us! If you don’t mind me asking, how was your purchase experience with our shop?
Client: I’m happy with my purchase and your customer service. Thank you!
You: Thanks for your feedback! If you have a minute, I was hoping you could do me a favor. We’re collecting reviews on Google, and I would be grateful if you could leave a review of your experience. Just use the QR-code on this card, and you will be directed to the review page. We’d really appreciate it!
2.Use personalized emails
How to obtain customer feedback with personalized emails? Make your customer feel special when asking for a review. Nobody wants to read a general newsletter with boring text saying, “Leave us a review, please.” Go beyond standard email templates and personalize your email review request. Include the customer’s first name, company name, and even the service or product he purchased. This method will use a more personal approach towards the client and increase his loyalty to your brand.
3.Keep your review requests short and simple
The more text a customer has to read, the less he is likely to leave feedback. You’re already asking a client to leave a review, so don’t take any more of his time to read a long email. A simple and short email with a clear call-to-action always works the best.
4.Add review requests in your newsletter
A newsletter helps to build a relationship and maintain regular contact with your clients. It is a great place to add unobtrusive review requests. Make a review request section noticeable but not too big, and don’t forget to add a call-to-action. For example:
“What did you like the most about your latest experience with our business?”
5.Ask for reviews over the phone
If your business offers phone customer support, it means you have another great opportunity to ask for reviews over the phone. If you provided a customer with excellent service and met all customer’s needs, he is most likely to leave a review.
Example:
You: I’m glad we were able to help you! If it’s not too much trouble, can you please review the quality of my service?
(Send the customer an email with the feedback link or have a phone system that allows your customers to key in the feedback performance.)
Feedback from existing customers makes others feel more confident in our company, knowing they will get the support they need in case of any problems. You would be extremely helpful!
6.Request reviews via SMS
Text messages are known to have a high opening rate. In fact, 98% of messages are opened. So there is a big chance customers will open your review request and click on the link. To achieve a high response rate, keep your SMS review request brief and straightforward.
Example:
Hi [Customer First Name], thanks for doing business with us! Would you have a minute to share your experience with our business on [review site name “Google”]? Just follow this link [insert review link] to leave a review. Thanks for your help!
Dear [Customer First Name], thank you for visiting [Business Name] today! To help us provide you with the best experience possible, please take a moment to share your feedback. Follow this link [insert review link] to leave a review. Thanks for your help!
To speed up the process of collecting reviews via SMS, try a reputation management platform. It sends automated text messages and emails to your customers with review requests and directs them to the review sites that matter for your business. It is a convenient and effective method that takes the guesswork out of review requests. Using a software platform to manage review collection is very helpful for all business owners looking to save time and quickly increase their business review rating.
7.Use the power of social media
53.6% of the world’s population uses social media and spends 2 hours and 25 minutes daily to scroll the feed. It would be best if you took it as an advantage for your business. First of all, work on your social media presence to actively engage with your customers. Once you build a community, use it as a platform to gain customer reviews. Try posting a review link in the bio or directly in one of your posts.
8.Place CTAs on your site
Your site is another place where you can get customer reviews. Try adding call-to-actions with review requests on your homepage, blog, or the product page. Make sure the CTA is relevant, so it can help you generate more online reviews:
Use an appropriate button link. Don’t make it too small or too big.
Think about what color will be the best to increase the click-through rate.
Keep the message short and clear.
9.Promote the reviews you already have
Customer reviews work like user-generated content, and we know how influential UGC is in attracting new customers. The secret is, people don’t trust marketers. They trust real people.
So, how to promote reviews?
You can add a website widget with the most outstanding reviews on your site
Run an advertising campaign on social media showing your best reviews
Add a new heading to your social media strategy called ‘Testimonials’
Use a social sharing plugin to share your best reviews on Facebook, Twitter, and more
10. Monitor and analyze your online reviews
Constant monitoring and analysis of customer reviews and feedback will help you understand overall customer satisfaction and define your strengths and weaknesses. By collecting feedback data, you will be able to quickly resolve the problems customers face while dealing with your business. An optimized business will provide greater customer satisfaction which will bring more positive reviews and increase sales.
How to analyze online reviews?
Do the analysis yourself.
Collect customer feedback, analyze each component, and define correlations.
View and manage all your reviews in one dashboard and be instantly alerted when new reviews or feedback come in. This way, you take advantage of an easy-to-use dashboard which allows you to quickly make a more accurate analysis, identify trends and use these insights to improve your business customer experience.
11. Follow Up
Following up is a great tool to increase the number of reviews, but you should be gentle with it.
Don’t be pushy and obsessive. It can backfire.
Don’t send review reminders too soon after the first review request.
Wait at least 2 to 3 days after the first request and send a follow-up.
Use an automation tool to send friendly review reminders. Don’t waste your time sending each request manually.
12. Automate review requests
An automated process can help generate reviews faster and easier. Businesses that automate review requests can double or triple their review volume and save time on doing it manually. Think how easy it would be if you can integrate your CRM system (customer relationship management) or accounting software with a review management platform.
As an example:
You can automate review requests after a new customer was added to your CRM system or after an invoice was generated. The Amazeful platform was built for this purpose:
It automates gathering business reviews
Connects with your CRM, website, and more
Integrates with review websites like Google, Facebook, TripAdvisor
Collects all reviews in one dashboard for in-depth analysis
Makes it easier to manages negative feedback
At the end of the day, the most important thing is to keep your customers happy.
Focus on providing the best experience possible, improving customer satisfaction, and clients will be happy to leave reviews. The methods discussed above are great to get you started as not all businesses are the same, always try new things and analyze what works better for your company.
Five tips to improve the customer experience for restaurants
Quick Links
List on Google My Business
Offer loyalty programs
Collect reviews
Learn from negative reviews
Place your menu online
Tips to improve the customer experience for restaurants
The world pandemic is a challenging time for any business, including restaurants. In addition, the restaurant business has always been a competitive one. According to statistics, 6 out of 10 restaurants fail within the first year of operations. It requires innovation, creativity, and constant development of restaurant management, customer service, and more.
In this guide, we will go through 5 tips to improve the customer experience for your restaurant. It will help you get more clients and increase the number of regular customers.
1. Make sure you are listed on Google My Business
Google My Business lets you list your restaurant location on Google Maps and search results.
It has always been important because it’s the first thing your customers notice when they search for your business online.
If you are already listed on Google My Business, make sure the information is up-to-date and list your business on other sites like Facebook or Yelp so that customers know where they can find you and how they get in contact with you. Business listings are also a perfect way to increase local SEO and rank higher in search. This way, you will have better visibility in the neighborhood and outperform competitors.
Google My Business lets you list your restaurant location on Google Maps and search results.
It has always been important because it’s the first thing your customers notice when they search for your business online.
If you are already listed on Google My Business, make sure the information is up-to-date and list your business on other sites like Facebook or Yelp so that customers know where they can find you and how they get in contact with you. Business listings are also a perfect way to increase local SEO and rank higher in search. This way, you will have better visibility in the neighborhood and outperform competitors.
Offer customer loyalty programs
Customer loyalty programs are the best retention tool. Because rewarding clients with bonuses and points lets them know that you value them, it is also an effective way to increase customer purchase frequency which means more loyal customers for your restaurant. Unlike one-time coupons, loyalty programs inspire many repeat visits. Besides, clients will spread the word about your restaurant, and more people will come to have lunch in your place. Statistics prove the importance of loyalty programs – 75% of customers say they would switch brands for a better loyalty program.
Collect reviews
Trust reviews from customers are the basis of an online presence. The more quality reviews you get, the more trustworthiness you see from Google. If you don’t have enough positive reviews from clients – ask them! When a client leaves your restaurant after a delicious meal – send him a message or an email asking if he’d like to leave a review on Google or Facebook. To automate review requests, use a reputation management platform. It will do all the work for you, so you don’t have to send a review request to each client and spend precious time. Instead, use this time to work on other business processes.
Make the most from negative reviews
Negative reviews are not as bad as we think they are. In fact, there are plenty of positive sides. Did you know that 95% of unhappy customers return if the issue was resolved? Negative feedback is something that helps your business to improve. Without negative reviews, you’d never hear from dissatisfied customers and would never be able to understand and correct a mistake. You can always try to solve the customer’s problem and find a solution to make him happy. Timing is essential in handling negative reviews. Try to be as fast as possible to save a damaged customer relationship. For convenient managing negative reviews, use a reputation management platform. It helps you manage all negative feedback by capturing and sending them to you privately, allowing you to deal with them offline.
Place your menu online
Since most people use the Internet to research before choosing a place to dine out – an online menu becomes a crucial thing. Without a searchable menu, you take a risk of being unnoticed by potential customers. Add your restaurant’s menu to Google My Business so that your potential clients can easily find it.
Conclusion
Improving customer engagement is №1 thing to grow your business. Make sure your restaurant information and menu are listed on sites where people are searching for food. Always ask for accurate feedback and manage negative reviews. Think of possible loyalty programs to increase the percentage of returning clients. A constant work on these few points will bring your restaurant to the next level of restaurant experience.Ma
Digital technologies have completely changed the way we’ve lived our lives. With many customers using the Internet to find a local business, your company’s online presence and reputation become crucial.
Reputation marketing is critical for any local business: dental clinics, restaurants, or puppy shops – all benefit from customer feedback and reviews. In turn, customer feedback is the construction material that establishes your online reputation.
So, what is reputation marketing?
Reputation marketing highlights and intensifies positive business content like customer reviews using digital marketing channels. This marketing tool lets you generate more leads and grow your business faster. In a nutshell, it’s a strategy to promote your company’s good reputation or repairing a flawed one.
Customers are constantly reading online reviews to identify if they should buy a particular product, eat in a restaurant or visit a dental office. Every year the popularity of online reviews has been increasing, and new statistics prove its importance. For example, in 2021, 93% of customers read online reviews before buying a product, and 94% of all purchases and appointments are made for businesses and goods with an average rating of 4 stars and above.
As you can see, online reviews are a vital component of your business’s reputation in the public eye.
Local reputation marketing
More than ever, potential customers are searching for local businesses online. As a business owner, if your business is a local business where you need to meet your customers face to face, you need local reputation marketing.
The main difference is that your marketing should focus on the geographical area where you provide services, so you should always mention the suburbs, postcodes, or cities where you want business from.
Google is the largest search engine, and its main focus is to provide the best results for customers searching for services in their geographical area.
However, not all customers use specific keywords like the suburb or city. Instead, they use more general terms such as: “Electrician near me,” so it is Google’s job to translate “near me” as the search area around the shopper location.
That’s why to increase your local reputation marketing, you need to help Google by clearly specifying your business location or the local area where you provide services.
An influence on purchasing decisions
As we mentioned above, people are likely to trust recommendations from previous customers. So, the more quality comments and reviews you get across different digital channels, the higher potential customers’ credibility you get. Therefore, positive customer reviews have a significant impact on purchasing decisions. It is evident that customers choose more reputable businesses among their competitors.
Your goal as a business owner is to set up your dominance over competitors using reputation marketing tools like generating positive reviews, monitoring reviews, and rapid response to them.
How exactly do positive customer reviews increase sales? First, let’s dive into the marketing funnel:
Awareness: Potential customers learn about your business through previous clients’ reviews.
Interest: People began to search for more information about your company – explore your site, social media pages, and review websites.
Consideration: Clients compare your business with rivals to understand your weaknesses and strengths.
Solid reputation marketing depends on what people say about your business. Usually, business owners understand the importance of positive customer feedback but rarely ask clients to leave a review.
Eventually, it leads to an imbalance of negative and positive reviews because people are more likely to leave feedback themselves only when they are dissatisfied. As a result, it won’t help your business to grow. So, asking your clients to leave reviews about their experience should be one of the essential points in your marketing strategy.
There are many ways to collect positive reviews website feedback, social media reviews, and of course, reviews on review websites such as:
Google reviews
TripAdvisor
Yelp
Foursquare
Facebook
Asking each client for feedback is possible but can be time-consuming. Besides, there is a way to automate the review gaining process with a reputation management platform like Amazeful.
Very easy to use:
After each purchase, your customers will receive a message to review your business
You can direct your customers to leave reviews on a wide variety of platforms like Google, Facebook, or any other review site that matters to you
You can monitor all reviews in one dashboard and easily embed them on your website
Using an automated reputation management platform like Amazeful is the most convenient way to gather positive reviews because it saves time and money. However, remember that reputation marketing is not only about sending review requests to get as many good reviews as possible. It is also about honest feedback, which can include negative reviews too.
Negative feedback is an excellent way to improve your business because, throughout it, you can understand if a client complains about the quality of the product, the price, or the professionalism of the staff. You can use the Amazeful platform to filter and manage negative reviews too. The system captures and sends negative reviews to you privately, allowing you to deal with them offline.
Reputation Marketing Conclusion
I hope by now you have a better understanding of what reputation marketing is and how to implement it for your business.
It would be best not to underestimate the importance of local reputation marketing for any business. It will help a business grow faster, generate more leads, and stands out from competitors. Every year the popularity of online reviews has been increasing.
In 2021, 93% of customers read online reviews before buying a product, and 94% of all purchases and appointments are made for businesses and goods with an average rating of 4 stars and above. As a business owner, you should generate more positive reviews about your business and display them on review websites like Google reviews, Yelp, and others local review sites.
User a reputation management platform like Amazeful to save time and money. Remember that reputation marketing won’t work without lots of positive reviews. So, next time you plan the marketing budget – set aside some funds for your online reputation.
Since its founding in 2014, Google My Business has become a major force in local commerce, with millions of people using it on various devices each month to post millions of business reviews.
Online Google Reviews – Best Thing For Small Businesses
Google My Business online reviews rise hasn’t come without controversy, with some arguing that it’s not fair to put small businesses’ reputations on display online.
The truth is, Google My Business didn’t create the Web 2.0 movement that enabled everyday internet users to create content and share it with the whole world. What Google My Business did do, however, is harness shifts in consumer behavior to create the best marketing channel of all time for local businesses. Today, Google My Business is joined by dozens of other popular consumer review sites as the first place shoppers go to find businesses nearby. As long as they’re governed correctly, these sites are a boon to small, local businesses.
If you run a small business today, the single most important thing you can do to attract new customers is to take control of your online review score on sites like Google My Business, Facebook, TripAdvisor, FourSquare and Yelp. More on that soon, but first, let’s take a quick look at how technology has transported the classic small business storefront onto the internet.
Shopping Online – Is the new trend
Mobile Is Driving Local
Even the busiest business owner must recognise that access to real-time information has exploded. Internet usage around the world has almost tripled since 2001 to nearly 350 million users, and smartphone penetration has risen from 20% in 2010 to 75% in 2019 among general consumers. Everyone has the internet in their pocket all the time, and this changes everything for small businesses.
This dramatic shift in technology adoption has led to similarly dramatic shifts in consumer behavior. About 90% of global sales still happen in physical stores, but 97% of consumers use the internet to find local businesses and three in four people who use their smartphones to search for something nearby end up visiting a local business within a day. Foot traffic to retail businesses is down 60% in the past five years, but the value of every visit has tripled.
For small businesses, this means many digital stores have replaced the iconic physical storefront. Consumers are using the internet to figure out where they want to spend money locally before they go there, and their visits are increasingly prompted by real and urgent purchasing intent.
The days of window shopping and scanning the Yellow Pages are over.
Attract More Qualified Customers With Google Reviews
Online Review Sites Are A Customers Magnet
In the past, small businesses had to rely on inefficient “push” methods to attract new customers. If you buy a radio ad, for example, the message has to do two hard jobs: Convince the customer to spend money with you and create urgency to do it now, before distractions take over.
When a consumer uses a review platform like Google My Business, the decision and urgency to buy are exactly what prompted the person’s search. If traditional advertising is a megaphone that enables businesses to shout and see who’s listening, review sites are tractor beams that pull consumers toward local businesses precisely when they’re actively looking to spend money. That’s an invaluable opportunity for small businesses with small — or non-existent — marketing budgets.
Think about it. When you’re looking to try a new restaurant or find a mechanic, what do you do? You might get a recommendation from friends or family, but you probably also do a “near me” search on Google. This is the new normal: 97% of consumers use the internet to find local businesses, and one in eight searches online for a nearby business every single day. Review sites are at the epicentre of “near me” searches.
Get More 5 Star Reviews From Your Customers – Use Amazeful
Google Business Can Work For All Small Businesses
While there are certainly internet trolls out there, one of the great myths about online reviews is they’re all bad. In truth, more than half of all Google reviews are four or five stars, meaning most customers are logging on to rate their great experiences with local businesses.
That’s good news because 90% of customers say that what they decide to buy is influenced by positive online reviews, and 94% will use a business with at least four stars. If you run a small business, the very best thing you can do to attract more customers is to maintain a high star-rating on the most popular review sites like Google Business, Facebook etc.
Small businesses have more control of their online star ratings than they know. First, they can proactively encourage their customers to post reviews about their experience — 68% of customers will leave a review if asked. This activates the business’ happiest customers, buries any unfair negative reviews and ensures that the company’s “review ratio” is healthy.
Second, small businesses can turn negative reviews into a second chance. Everyone has a bad day, and business owners deserve to know when something’s wrong. In the past, dissatisfied customers might not even fill out a comment card — they’d badmouth the business via word of mouth, and the owner might never know anything was wrong.
Small businesses can use online reviews to uncover any legitimate blind spots and show acts of good faith for all the public to see. Engaging with dissatisfied customers in online review forums can lead to repeat business, and up to 70% of complaining customers will give the business another shot if their concerns are resolved.
If you run a small business, it’s time to embrace online review sites and use them to your advantage. Word of mouth happens online now, and small businesses finally get to add their voices to the conversation. Better yet, leaning into the world of online reviews might be the only marketing plan a small business needs these days.
