Promote Your Business: Reply to Reviews

You can promote your business by knowing what people are looking for when they write and read online reviews about your products and services. After all, sites like Yelp, Foursquare, Google+, Trip Advisor, and the multitudes of other review websites wouldn't be popular if they weren't meeting the needs of consumers!

Why Online Review Sites?

When consumers visit online review websites, they are typically looking for information on a business' products and services to help them decide who to trust and what to buy. As a consumer, they look for:

• High star ratings - Better than 3 stars on a 5 star rating system and preferably 4 stars or higher is the goal. After all, why would anyone go to a 2 star business if the same services are offered by one with a 4 star rating?
• Current reviews - Businesses and products change over time with new owners, new employees, and different service offerings as well as product upgrades, so people look for recent reviews for the most current information about a business. 
• Quantity of reviews - When there are only 2-3 opinions on a business, that doesn't tell the consumer much about quality. Having upwards of 20 reviews is necessary to give a good picture of your business.
• Obvious quality - Reading reviews that talk about the quality product or customer service will go a long way to impressing the consumer, but even more so if that customer service is apparent because the business is interacting with the reviewers!

Replying to Reviews

Replying to reviews is not a difficult thing, but it requires you to be monitoring your reviews so you can respond promptly - preferably within 24-48 hours. 

• Replying to positive reviews shows that you have connection with your clients. Consumers are looking for businesses that care about their customers and studies have shown that 89% of people are willing to pay more for better customer service. 
• Replying to negative reviews may seem a bit more daunting, but this too can greatly improve your reputation on online review sites. Consumers want to see that you are willing to address issues of customer service and what better way to advertise your quality service than to directly respond where customers are researching you?

Online marketing is critical in today's market and you want the best information on the websites where your customers are researching. Promote your business by interacting with your client reviews and watch your ratings soar!

www.impressionsrm.com 

Online Reviews: Letting Customers Promote Your Business

The biggest reason business owners don't generate a lot of online reviews is that they don't ask. Your happy customers can be actively promoting your business through their online reviews, but you have to get comfortable approaching them and asking for the favor.

Ask for Online Reviews

If you have done your business with excellent customer service in mind, your clients will feel like they have been waited on by you and that you did them a favor by going above and beyond the call of duty. Most of them will be very happy to return the favor, so let's look at how to ask:

1. Think about how you usually wrap a sale or a visit from your customers. As you begin closing out your conversation, you likely ask something like, "Is there anything else I can do for you?" This can be the starting place for your request. Once your client says he or she has everything they needed, you can move into your lead in question...
2. Lead in question - Let your clients know you are gathering feedback from clients and would really like them to review your business. Ask something like, "Do you spend any time online?" This means, of course, that they could answer one of two ways...
3. If your clients respond that they do spend time online, you can easily respond with something like, "GREAT! Would you be willing to go to Yelp (or Google, or Trip Advisor, or wherever you are working to build your online reputation) and give us your feedback?" At this point, it would be a good idea to give the customer a business card or paper that has a link directly to your Yelp (or Google, or other review website) business page so that he or she has something to remind them when they go home.
4. Of course he or she could say "No." This is where some business owners get squeamish. No-one wants to feel awkward, so plan your route of escape ahead of time keeping in mind you also want to allow your customer to end the conversation gracefully. Something like, "I can completely understand that! I don't have a lot of time to be online either, but if you do find you are online in the future, it would be great to have your feedback on Yelp or Google - we want to make sure we always meet your needs."
5. No matter how the conversation ends, always end by thanking the customer for his/her visit and reminding them that you appreciate their honest feedback. 

Better than 75% of the online reviews that are posted are positive in nature and since you are speaking with a happy client, more often than not they will be happy to write you that review. Don't wait any longer - ask for those reviews and build your online presence so your customers can begin promoting your business!  

www.impressionsrm.com 

Local Online Advertising - Be Happy!

Local Online Advertising with Positive Reviews

I love TED Talks. As I laughed my way through this one, I realized that the information Shawn Achor shares is the perfect starting place for growing local online advertising through positive customer reviews:

• Happy business owners are productive business owners who lead by example and set the tone for their employees. 
• Happy, productive employees result in satisfied customers.
• Satisfied customers leads to positive reviews.

Enjoy Achor's humor and consider how you can incorporate his research into your business to improve your reviews and strengthen your local online advertising.

Internet Marketing - Are You Missing Something?

Internet marketing is still relatively new and many businesses are only partially taking advantage of the full power of the internet. There are four main pieces of online marketing that you want to make sure you have in place for your business: your website, search engine optimization (SEO), social media, and online reputation management (ORM).

All four components overlap and affect whether people are finding you when they run a search for your products or services.

Your Website:

• Web-friendly content - Your content should be written at about an 8th grade reading level, should be pertinent to what your clients are looking for, and should contain key search words as well as links to related outside websites. 
• Photos - Any photos should be your own or should be free from copyright issues.
• Navigation - Your site should be easy to locate information and it should be of a responsive design meaning it will re-size depending on the viewer's device and viewing screen size. 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO):

• The coveted spot in search engine results is at or near the top of the list of businesses. 
• Your business website should come up when people search for the type of product or service you provide.
• Your business website should come up at the top of the list when a person conducts a search for your brand name.

Social Media Marketing:

• Your business should have a page on the social media sites common for your customers to use.
• You should be posting news and public interest posts regularly.
• You should be monitoring your social media sites for interaction and/or reviews from your clients.

Online Reputation Management (ORM):

• Your business should have reviews on all of the major review websites including Google+, Yahoo, Yelp, Foursquare, Citysearch, Merchant Circle, Super Pages, Insider Pages, and Angie's List as well as any industry specific review sites such as Wellness or Trip Advisor. 
• You should claim and update each of your pages on the review websites.
• You should monitor for new review postings and respond to each review.
• Your business should implement strategies to generate new customer reviews - keep that word-of-mouth advertising going strong!

Online marketing obviously has a huge impact on generating new business - use the power of the internet, marketing your products and services so everyone will know your business is awesome!

www.impressionsrm.com

Promoting Your Business Online - Play Nice!

Part of promoting your business online is understanding how to respond to negative reviews. Today's consumer uses review websites not only to see what others are saying about you, but also to see how you respond to and interact with your clients.

• Are your responses friendly?
• Can the reader sense your connection with your clients?
• Do you make changes to your business based on client posts?
• Are negative posts handled with excellent customer service?
• Can the reader see that you are trying to work with difficult situations?
• Do you come across as enjoying your work and concerned about the quality of your products and services?

If there is one rule in responding to reviews, whether they are positive or negative, it's BE NICE. This is easy when your client raves about how amazing you are, that you walk on water and glow in the dark, but the challenge comes when Cranky Cruella hits the web.

You work hard and pour your life into your business, so your likely first reaction to a negative review is one of hurt and anger. Don't reply to a post when you are feeling this way! Even if you try to be nice, that anger is likely to come through in your response. Here are some tips on bringing yourself into the right frame of mind and composing a reply that is professional and holds the best chance of mending bridges and showing off your excellent customer service:

• Shake it off. Go for a walk, play with the dog, get away from work and ignore the computer for a little while. Know that negative reviews happen to everyone and it is just your turn.
• Cut the reviewer some slack. When people are under stress, they can react emotionally and you don't know what else is going on in his/her life that added to the situation. 
• Look at the situation critically. Is there something that needs fixing in your business? Is there a way you could avoid similar situations in the future? Can you make some changes?
• Talk to a trusted friend. Choose someone who will help you determine if you need to make changes or if it was a misunderstanding or just a perfect storm of mishaps. 
• Plan out your response and give it to someone else to evaluate it before you post it publicly. Ask the person to let you know if it sounds at all defensive or angry and rewrite until you get it right.

It's not easy and it does hurt, but when you address negative posts by being nice, you can address difficult issues, make quality business decisions, and improve your services while retaining and attracting customers. Your quality customer service and passion for excellence will greatly serve to promote your business.

http://www.impresionsrm.com
#promoteyourbusiness #onlinemarketing

Web Marketing - Getting Great Reviews

#onlinemarketing #webmarketing #onlinereviews #onlinereputation

Yesterday's blog was about how your web marketing and business improvement can benefit from negative reviews, so it seemed right to touch on getting great reviews too.

Everyone wants positive reviews - what better way to promote your business than to let your happiest customers share their experiences?! The problem is that most of your customers do not understand the huge value online reviews are to your web marketing.

While I'm sure you could take the time to explain to your customers at great length (and no doubt to the point of boring your clients) the impact of your star-ratings and reviews to attract new customers, give you a higher ranking in Google, and solidify your online presence, that might not be the best way to gather new reviews.

Here are some tips to get your customers talking online:

• ASK! As you are finishing up with your customer, ask him or her to write you a review. They may have never thought to do so, but if you let them know you need and value their feedback, they will be much more likely to head over to Yelp, Foursquare, Yahoo, Google or any other site and leave you a note.
• Put something in the customers hands. Whether it's a business card that says on the back, "Leave us your feedback on our Google page" or a message on the printed receipt, you want the client to leave your business with something that reminds him or her when they put their keys and paperwork on their kitchen counter, that they were going to leave you some feedback.
• Consider offering a small incentive. You never want to give people the impression that you are paying them for their feedback, so keep it small and indirect - a drawing instead of something they will for sure be given.

Your most impressed and your least happy customers are going to write you reviews. By using the above tips, you should be able to get a nice share of your average customers to leave feedback too. This will give prospective consumers a well-rounded view of your business and it will provide you with the kind of feedback you need to serve your clients even better - the best in web marketing and business improvement!

IRM works with you to provide the level of support you need.
It's all about saving you time while promoting your business online.
www.impressionsrm.com

Online Marketing - The Road to Great Reviews

Web marketing is critical for your business, so you created an excellent website with all the bells and whistles. You made sure it has the information your clients need, and that it is aesthetically pleasing, has web-friendly content, and it works on mobile devices. However, if your business doesn't have solid reviews and a great star-rating, consumers will choose a competitor who does and they will never see the great website you created. You really need to have a strong online reputation, high star-ratings, and solid reviews.

Thankfully, there are many strategies for having great reviews to encourage people to check out your website and ultimately, walk through the doors of your business. The infographic below will get you started - check out our website for more help and support!

Impressions Review Managing empowers businesses to manage their online reputations through supportive services, staff development training, and customized programming. Visit www.impressionsrm.com for more information or contact our team at impressionsrm@gmail.com to enhance your web marketing today!

#onlinemarketing #webmarketing #onlinereputation

Local Online Advertising: The New Phone Book

Advertising used to begin with a phone book ad. Your local online advertising plan still seeks to let people know who you are, your services, products, and the quality of your company and staff, but now that information needs to come up on the person’s computer or smart phone to reach prospective customers.

Hopefully you already have a web-friendly written, original content website with your business' basic information. Beyond your website, there are many things you can do to increase your online marketing. 

Your business' information is already online on many different websites, but how do you go about making sure your information is correct, your star rating is good, and your reviews encourage new clients to come through your business’ doors? The good news is, it’s not an expensive process and, if you are moderately tech savvy, you should be able to complete the process with minimal difficulty.

1. Start by looking at your business page on each of the major review websites (see the list on the infographic) especially paying attention to the sites that are also major search engines. Go through the process of claiming your business on each of the websites so that you can update the information and password protect it so that no-one else will accidentally upload inaccurate information. Most of these websites allow you to claim your business' page for no charge.
2.  Once you have claimed and password protected each of your pages on these sites, check each site for new reviews regularly. When you receive a new review, reply to the reviewer whenever possible – a nice, personalized thank you when it is a positive review and a request that the customer contact you by phone when it is a negative review. This shows your customer service and personal connection with your customers.
3.   Start asking customers to write reviews for you. The decision-making of today's consumer is based on reading the reviews your customers have written. Encourage your top customers and your happy clients to share their experiences online. This word-of-mouth advertising is an exceptionally powerful piece of your online marketing plan.

There are many time-saving strategies and tools to assist businesses in this process – feel free to check the other articles in this blog or on my website for more help with your local online advertising!

Ann Pearson is the CEO of Impressions Review Managing, LLC - a company committed to empowering businesses to manage their online reputations. For more information about the services IRM offers, visit www.impressionsrm.com or email Ann at impressionsrm@gmail.com.

Online Marketing Services: Reputation or Faҫade?

When you are looking at selecting an online marketing service to help manage your reputation, it is always important to choose a company that will help you grow your reputation and not just play the numbers game or try to create a faҫade of excellence. After all, you want people to see how truly excellent you really are!

As you will see in the infographic and descriptions below, there are three major areas to consider when you evaluate a company that offers review managing services.

Empowerment
This is YOUR reputation we are talking about, not any other company's reputation. It is vital that YOU are involved in the process and that you are given the information you need to solidify and grow your reputation online. This typically means there should be an educational component to the program.

Look for a program that includes staff development training and ongoing consultation services to help you work with the feedback your customers provide you through their reviews. Any company that encourages you to just let them handle it all, while they may be very well-intended, runs the risk of misrepresenting your business.

Impact
Think about where you go to research companies and products. Chances are, your customers are going to similar websites. You want reviews and customer feedback to be posted where potential customers are going to see it - this means on the major review websites and the major search engines' review websites - Google+ and Yahoo Local for example.

In order to have reviews on Google+ and Yahoo Local, your customers must post directly on these websites. NO third party company can post directly on your Google+ or Yahoo Local business page. They can only post to a website that that company owns and controls - this may produce more positive web content for your business, but it will not impact your Google+ star rating or the star rating on any of the other major review websites.

Ownership
Third party companies that are gathering your clients' reviews and posting them on their own website often retain the power to remove those reviews if/when you cancel services. Make sure that you own the feedback that is gathered from your clients.

Grow Your Reputation and Not Just a Faҫade
You work hard to make your business a quality and reputable place for your clients. Make sure the company you choose to manage your online reputation is committed to transparent and meaningful practices too.

Ann Pearson is the CEO of Impressions Review Managing, LLC - a company committed to empowering businesses to manage their online reputations. For more information about the services IRM offers, visit www.impressionsrm.com or email Ann at impressionsrm@gmail.com. 

Online Marketing Ideas: Grow Your Reputation

Building your presence online through claiming your review website pages, monitoring for new reviews, interacting with your clients online, and generating new reviews is one of the most effective means of local online advertising.

People turn to Google to find businesses and to research their quality as well as the quality of the products they provide.

Taking an active role in managing your business' online reputation will help you keep the customers you have, attract new clients, and grow your presence online.

Ann Pearson is the CEO of Impressions Review Managing, LLC - a company committed to empowering businesses to manage their online reputations. For more information about the services IRM offers, visit www.impressionsrm.com or email Ann at impressionsrm@gmail.com.

Online Marketing Help - What Someone Else Can and Cannot Do For Your Business

Who has time to manage all of the online marketing that needs to be done to adequately promote your business?! From social media websites to online review websites to constantly changing SEO (search engine optimization) to blogging and YouTube and Pinterest... there are a ton of different ways to promote your business and many third parties willing to help you do so.

How do you know who to trust?
It's important to know what third party businesses can and cannot do for you in each of the online marketing arenas so that you can make wise decisions in what you outsource and what you handle in-house. Let's take a look at the online review options.

I like to end on a happy note, so let's start with the no-nos. Third parties can NOT:

• Write reviews for you. All reviews must be written by consumers. This is a good point to keep in mind when you are tempted to have Gramma or your brother or your hunting buddy write you a review. It's not only unethical, it's illegal and can land you in significant trouble. Just ask McMillan Law Group in San Diego.
• Post to review websites on behalf of your clients. If one of your clients fills out a survey for you and leaves fabulous feedback and the highest recommendations, a third party company cannot take those words and put them up on Yelp or Foursquare or any other review website. Only your client can do that. The review websites require that a person sign in with his or her account information and write the review directly on the site. 

• Post reviews on Google+. Let's say you are dentist in Chicago. Prospective clients looking for a dentist are typing in a Google search bar something like "dentists Chicago IL." What comes up in a search like that is a list of all the dentists in Chicago. Under each business name is a star rating and a link noting how many Google+ reviews the business has. Just like what was described in the previous bullet point, the only way for Google+ reviews and star ratings to be changed is if your clients write reviews directly on Google+. No third party company can post reviews on your clients' behalf. 
• Remove negative reviews. Wouldn't it be great if you could control every negative thing that someone wanted to say about you? How reliable would review websites be if they let businesses silence the people who didn't like them or their products? Not very. The idea is to give you an opportunity to right wrongs, mend bridges, and grow your business by listening to and responding to your clients.

Before we jump into the good things that third parties can do... third parties should NOT:

• Post replies on your behalf. Clients are posting to your review websites and describing situations of which only you are going to be familiar. The idea is to build relationships with your clients. Just like you couldn't build a friendship by having some un-involved person represent you, you cannot build client trust and loyalty if you are not the one doing the interacting. (Side note: Social media sites are different in this respect and it can be very helpful to have a third party posting there on your behalf because they are starting the conversations)
• Keep log in and password information from you. If a third party is acting on your behalf on the review websites, you should still be able to fully access and make changes to your account whenever you desire and without having to go through that company. 

Now what you've been waiting for... third parties CAN:

• Assist you with the claiming and updating of your business listings on most of the major review websites. A few are fee-based, but the biggest and most frequently used sites are free to access and a third party company can save you considerable time in this process. 
• Save you time monitoring the review websites for new reviews. It takes time to keep an eye on all of the different review websites. For any business, there are at least 9 general review websites and then a host of industry-specific review websites to monitor as well. Every site needs to be monitored a bare minimum of once per week, but preferably every day. Many services have advanced software that can automate monitoring for you.
• Consult with you on encouraging clients to write reviews. There are many strategies to encourage your top clients to leave you valuable feedback.
• Consult with you on responding to review posts. Both positive and negative reviews benefit from replies. While a third-party should not write the response for you, they can provide guidance and help you evaluate the tone and potential repercussions of your posts.

Obviously this is a short list, but my hope is to equip you to carefully evaluate the third party you are considering using for your online marketing needs so that your business gets the most value for your marketing investment. 

Ann Pearson is the CEO of Impressions Review Managing, LLC - a company committed to empowering business to manage their online reputations. For more information about the services IRM offers, visit www.impressionsrm.com or email Ann at impressionsrm@gmail.com.  

Got Reviews? - Online Marketing Ideas

Here in the Midwest, it doesn't seem like it, but summer IS coming and summer means more people are traveling and exploring new vacation spots with their families. This also means that small businesses need to focus on their online marketing ideas to attract those summer vacationers.

Picture how the typical family decides how and where to spend their vacation monies.

We've been driving for hours and we are all getting hungry...

• "Hey Hon, we are coming up on Eau Claire. Look up what they have for Mexican restaurants."

The dutiful spouse opens up his smart phone and...

• "Looks like we've got Azul, Cancun... OH LOOK! Tacos Juanita is a 4.5 star one! Let me look at what the reviews have to say..."

Now, I've been to Eau Claire and all three of those restaurants are great places to eat. So how can the other restaurants compete when Tacos Juanita has 29 reviews and a 4.5 star rating that jumps off the screen at the customer?

They, like every restaurant, hotel, and business that hopes to attract tourists need to have reviews and solid star ratings. When consumers have choices, why wouldn't they opt for the business everyone is talking about and everyone recommends?

There are many strategies for generating reviews, but the most important one is to ASK! People love to be asked for their opinions and they love to talk about the places they love. So, what are you waiting for? Start asking your customers to write reviews today!

Ann Pearson is the CEO of Impressions Review Managing, LLC - a company committed to empowering business to manage their online reputations. For more information about the services IRM offers, visit www.impressionsrm.com or email Ann at impressionsrm@gmail.com.