Most local businesses don’t have a strategy in place to generate and monitor their online reviews.
This hurts them.
Our clients who implement such a strategy often tell us how it improves not only their marketing efforts, but also how potential clients are much more likely to do business with them (the smart marketing people will call this the conversion rate from taking a phone call to having a paying customer).
Why should you care about generating online reviews?
Businesses that do not have a pro-active review generation policy in place, tend to get stuck with mostly negative reviews.
Why is this?
Like you, we are also frustrated that unhappy customers are two to three times more likely to leave a review when compared to happy consumers.
This means that if you leave reviews to happen naturally, you run the risk of having more negative than positive reviews.
84% of consumers trust online reviews just as much as a personal recommendation
Why should you have a pro-active strategy in place to generate positive reviews?
According to a study by BrightLocal (one of the leading authorities on online marketing and search engine optimization) showed that 76% of consumers that are asked to leave a review, will actually do so.
The big fat disclaimer here is that how you ask for that review, and when you ask for that review, makes a massive difference in the effectiveness of generating more online reviews.
So, how do you give yourself the best shot of getting that 76% of people leaving reviews?
There are a number of different ways to ask for a review, and here are some of them (see if you can determine which methods will me be more effective):
- In person
- Over the phone (or via Whatsapp/SMS)
- Through your website (ideally, a reviews page)
- Via email (email blast, personal email, company email, email signatures)
- Via social media (direct message or post)
- Via thank you pages
On receipts/invoices
Our clients who take the most personal approach usually get the highest number of reviews.
What does that mean?
Asking for a review while talking to a client (in-person or on the phone), is likely to get you the best response.
For some businesses, this isn’t always possible, so if your businesses serves large numbers of clients on a weekly basis (think of restaurants, training provider, eCommerce websites, etc), you will have to find the next best way that allows you to communicate with these clients.
Get your template here
