Everyone knows that word-of-mouth is the best form of marketing. Why? Because human beings trust what other human beings say about a product, service or company. This form of marketing has moved into the electronic age as customer reviews. Amazon built their business based on engaged customers providing reviews for books and subsequently, thousands of other products. One of the most popular search terms for any new product or business now consists of the “<product/business-name> review” format.
Review platforms such as Yelp, have emerged as the yellow-pages for the 21st Century by not only providing the name, address and phone numbers of businesses, but providing forums where previous customers share their experiences. Many other social media sites such as Google My Business and Facebook have jumped on the review bandwagon as well that may require some social media management.
Managing Your Online Reputation “In House”
Getting online reviews is a great–and free–way to market your business. All it takes is a little time and technical know-how. The best way to do this is to stake your claim on your online territory by creating a business page for Facebook, and claiming the physical address for your business on Google My Business or Yelp. It is then a simple process to create links for your customers to leave reviews for your website. All you have to do is ask them and provide them with a link.
If you’d like to set these up for yourself, check out these articles on how to do this:
Getting Online Reputation Management Services
Obviously, the number and frequency of reviews can be daunting from the technical viewpoint. How do you respond to a positive–or overwhelmingly negative–review? What do you need to know about Yelp, Facebook or Google My Business to respond effectively to a customer review?
This is where online reputation management services come in. Online reputation management is when you hire an experienced company to manage your social media review sites, answering questions posed by customers through these online platforms, addressing the customer reviews by thanking customers for positive reviews and engaging customers that leave negative reviews in order to attempt to turn a negative experience into a positive one.
Get More Reviews Through Online Reputation Management Services
Online reputation management services can be taken one step further by asking your customers to provide online reviews. By providing an online reputation management services company with a list of recent customer email addresses, you can increase the number of reviews you receive on your website, as well as uncover opportunities to resolve unseen customer problems and uncover additional sales opportunities.
Want to Know More About SMR’s Online Reputation Management Services?
Here is how it works: Weekly, your SEO Manager will gather all contact emails your team has encountered, Blog opt-ins, sales calls, online-offline customers and business prospects. A ‘Thank You’ email will be written and sent to each contact with links to the review options for Yelp, Facebook and Google+ with a few examples of how to pen a review.
The contacts that participate will be removed from the mailing list. Those that have not provided a review, will receive a follow up email within 30 days again promoting to post a review.
In addition, we will provide an email signature you may add to your email replies with links to all three accounts which will continue to promote ‘Likes’ and ‘Reviews’.
Ready to learn more? Our online reputation management services can be integrated into your local search engine marketing services program. Give us a call at 888-842-9033, email us at sales@searchmarketingresource.com, or complete our simple online form for a free search marketing services proposal.
