10 Proven Ways to Get More Positive Online Reviews for Your Business

Do you want your business to stand out from the competition?

Do you want to completely DOMINATE local search?

Do you want to have a steady stream of leads coming in online every month?

If you answered “YES!” to even one of the questions above, you need to work on building a system that creates a stream of positive online reviews for your business. When someone in your area looks for a business like yours, you need to show up first organically and be the obvious choice.

One factor that Google uses in organic ranking is online reviews. They will look at quantity, quality, how often you receive them and product/service keywords. Then, they will look at the same thing for your competitors. It is crucial that your business does better than your competitors in all of these categories to show up higher in the rankings.

To be the obvious choice, getting multiple positive reviews consistently is key. They help you strongly influence potential customers. Reviews provide the social proof that people are looking when researching a buying decision.

In this post, we will cover 10 ways to get more reviews, increase your visibility on local search and take your company’s online presence to the next level.

Ways to Get More Online Reviews – Tip #1: Create a “Review Generation Strategy” to get reviews on all of the sites that matter to your clients.

Make sure that you are visible on sites and search engines that are used by your clients and prospects!

To start, identify review sites and directories commonly used in your industry and location. Don’t forget to research lesser known sites that may be specific to your town or niche. Once you have your list complete, create profiles on those sites (if necessary) and start asking for reviews that funnel to those locations.

Ways to Get More Online Reviews – Tip #2: Ask your 5-Star Reviewers for referrals

Is there anything better than getting a 5-star review from a happy customer?

Not only do they leave social proof online to help others make a decision, but they identify themselves as excellent people to ask for a referral.

Happy customers can make the BEST brand ambassadors for you. They made the effort to leave you a great review, which shows an investment in your business doing well. Reach out to these people with an email or phone call. Thank them for the great review and ask if they know anyone that would benefit from your services. Be sure to personalize these messages. In some cases, they may even offer to introduce you to the referral themselves!

Ways to Get More Online Reviews – Tip #3: Train your employees to ask for reviews

Training your employees to ask for a review should be a top priority in every business. To make this an easy, repeatable task, develop an internal review request system within your company. Make sure that all of your employees know how to use the system and stress the importance of its utilization.

Ways to Get More Online Reviews – Tip #4: Use feedback forms proactively to stop negative online reviews and comments

Bad customer reviews can negatively impact your business in multiple ways. With this in mind, it may be scary to send out review requests to all of your clients. In order to put your mind at ease, there is a middle layer that you can add to your review system that will “catch” those bad comments before they make it to your review profiles – feedback forms.

You can use the feedback forms to funnel the people that want to leave a good review to Google, Facebook etc. and the bad reviews can come directly to you to deal with offline.

Ways to Get More Online Reviews – Tip #5: Respond to every review to build trust with future prospects and increase your online authority

Generating new reviews and monitoring review sites are not the only review management tasks that you need to perform. You need to respond to every review that you receive, as well. This shows your current and future customers how much importance you place on their experience with your company.

Businesses that have review replies are more likely to receive useful, detailed reviews from their customers. In addition, if people know that you are likely to respond, they will be less likely to leave mean-spirited comments within their review.

Make sure to thank the reviewer for taking the time to leave a review and let them know how valuable their input is. If you do receive a negative review, leave a reply with a cool head and offer to discuss the issue that they had offline.

Ways to Get More Online Reviews – Tip #6: Request online reviews from your happiest customers

The best time to ask for a review from a client is immediately following their service or transaction. The experience is fresh in their mind. You have just done a great job for them. Their appreciation for you will be the strongest and they should be more open to leaving a review. Make it easy for them and they will put more effort into leaving an awesome review for your business.

Ways to Get More Online Reviews – Tip #7: Ask your 5-Star Reviewers to leave reviews on multiple platforms (or on video)

Has a client left you a glowing review that you think would benefit others?

If someone has given you a great review, there is now an easy opening to ask them to leave that review on multiple platforms. Additionally, you can ask them for a video testimonial, which is simple to create. They just have to record themselves on their phone reading their review and send you the clip via email or text.

Ways to Get More Online Reviews – Tip #8: Make collecting customer emails part of your onboarding process

Online businesses typically collect customer emails by default as this is part of the buying or opt-in process. However, when you are in a brick and mortar store setting, email collection should be a part of your buyer’s journey as well. Create a system that will help you easily assemble this information.

Ways to Get More Online Reviews – Tip #9: Use SMS texts to request reviews

Did you know that you can send a customer a text with a link to a review site?

This strategy is quite effective for companies that already use phone numbers as their primary method of communication with clients. As mobile device usage is so popular, clicking a link in a text message is a fast and easy way for an enthusiastic customer to leave you a review. Because they have received other information from you by phone in the past, they will not be put off by a review request via text.

Ways to Get More Online Reviews – Tip #10: You can use incentives, but be cautious with the rules

Giving customers a perk in exchange for their feedback is an acceptable method of gathering reviews, but keep in mind that there are regulations.

Make sure to look at the “reward” rules for the review sites that you use and follow them. The Federal Trade Commission also has their own rules for incentivizing people to leave reviews. They basically say:

It’s okay to invite people to review your business after an actual purchase if you tell them in advance that they should disclose what they received from you in exchange for the review and that the discount or incentive is conditioned upon their making this disclosure. This protects the consumer by giving them a choice to decide how much trust to put into those reviews.

If you have further questions about this topic, speak with your legal team for more information.

Make Your Reviews Your Best Salesperson

The importance of online reviews and monitoring your online reputation is paramount to the success of your business. This includes the following tasks:

Monitor review sites
Constantly request new reviews
Handle negative reviews
Respond to all reviews
Manage the review system itself
Make sure your employees are using the review system

This process can seem overwhelming. Where is a good place to start?

Luckily, it is quite easy to outsource and automate the whole system. Contact IFTS to find out how to leverage your positive online reputation and protect future revenue without any extra work. Ask about our free trial of ReviewLead to take your company’s online presence to the next level.

How to Win Over Customers with Your Online Reputation

Are you looking for some online reputation marketing tips? If so, you’ve come to the right place!

Marketing your business online in a traditional way is on the decline due to the way that people are now using real customer recommendations. Frequently, before they spend any money, they’ll hop over to Google, Facebook, Yelp, Amazon or any other site that gives recommendations to check out what other people are saying. This helps them feel like they can make an informed decision about how and where to spend their money.

To help make the buying decision easier for prospects doing research, businesses must begin to build, grow and protect their online reputation. This includes monitoring online reviews, blog comments, top ten lists, directories and more.

Even if you are actively asking for reviews and responding to negative reviews, you’ll need to take it up a gear to highlight your positive online content via multiple marketing channels. This will result in boosted sales (and a happier owner)!

Get More Clients with Proactive Tactics for Online Reputation Management

You must use online reputation management tactics if you want to show on the first page of Google. It also ensures that your company’s page shows up in online searches for your business name. This activity helps you attract more leads, retain your clients, and saves you money by helping you avoid the cost of fixing a poor public perception.

To help grow your business cost-effectively, you’ll want to use a proactive approach to the following activities:

– Monitor your company’s online presence

– Respond to both negative and positive reviews

– Request new positive reviews from your clients

– Publish good reviews and useful content online that ranks highly

Monitor Your Company’s Online Presence

Knowing where and when your business is being talked about is a big part of maintaining your online reputation. These conversations will rarely happen within your website, so you need to go find them.

You may ask, “How do I find what people are saying about my company online?”

The answer is very simple. Google your business name and look to see what results come up. Then, use Bing to do the exact same thing. Take note of where your name is being mentioned and bookmark the sites. This will make it easier to monitor them in the future. You can also set up a Google alert for your name or your company’s name. They’ll let you know when a new search result appears that mentions you.

If you find any negative information, take action! Reply to the review, contact the customer or add to the forum…Anything that can move your company into a positive light.

Respond to Negative and Positive Reviews

The first step to good online reviews is to claim your profiles on Google, Yelp, Facebook, etc. so you will have control over the information for your business found there. You should monitor these sites on a daily to weekly basis.

Create a process for your business to respond to all online reviews and make sure that you and your employees follow it every time.

When you receive a positive review, it is easy to write a response. Thank them for their time and review, use their name, talk about your commitment, let them know that their feedback is important and invite them to take another step with your company. For example:

Hi Claire, we at ABC painting wanted to thank you for taking the time to write that great review! We’re committed to working really hard to provide everyone with a first class experience, it’s our #1 goal. Your opinion is valuable to us and helps us shape everything that we do. Please consider us again for any future painting needs and consider joining our mailing list with exclusive promos and discounts.

If you do receive a negative review, comment directly on the review with a polite tone and offer to help resolve this issue offline. This way, potential clients will see that you care about customer satisfaction and that you tried to make it right – allowing you to flip a negative into a positive.

Request New Reviews from Your Clients

Did you know that it is much more effective to email or text your clients to ask for a review than it is to do it in person?

This is due to human biology!

Generally, people like to help people. It releases the “feel good” chemical, oxytocin. So, when you ask someone to leave you a review and they say yes, their body releases oxytocin because they said that they would help you. However, because they have already released the oxytocin, they have less desire to actually go online and leave a review.

When you email or text the request, they have to actually leave you the review before their body releases the oxytocin.

You will also want to make sure that the request makes it as easy for them as possible to leave you a review. Send them the exact link that they need to click on.

Publish Good Reviews and Useful Content Online

When you actively promote positive reviews and comments from your clients, you will attract new business and persuade undecided prospects. As a BONUS, this will demote any negative reviews further down in the search results.

We Promised You Online Reputation Marketing Tips

Now that you know how important it is to actively pursue a positive online reputation, here are a few ways to get started:

1. Get Active on Social Media

To get the most return on investment, find out what social media channels your ideal customer is on and focus on those. Ensure that you create a positive, professional profile that will attract the clients that you want and will repel the ones that you don’t want.

Social media has the potential to expose your business to millions. It also puts you in complete control of what those people see about you and your brand. Make sure that they see why they should spend money with you by providing quality, consistent posts.

As a bonus, your social media profiles can help boost your organic search engine rankings because they provide social proof.

2. Content is Still King

If your company does not have a blog, create one! Blog entries can help you get a great organic ranking with the search engines because they love informative and original content. When you create your blog entries, see sure to have keywords that you want to rank for in the title and the first two paragraphs. Consistency is important, so pick a blog schedule and stick to it.

Stuck on what to write? Create a list of the ten questions that your prospects or clients ask you the most. Then, answer them. These are your first ten blog posts with original and helpful information for people that are searching for your business.

3. Great Reviews are Key

Reviews can help influence people researching your company as well as help your ranking on the search engines. Create an easy system to request reviews and make it as easy as possible!

Win New Customers with Your Positive Online Reputation Marketing

Online reputation marketing is a must for any business looking to grow. At IFTS, we have a complete system in place that can automate everything for you! Give us a call at 412-715-6266 to learn more and check out our free trial today.

Why Should Online Reputation Matter to a Small Business?

Small businesses (especially those with local brick and mortar locations) seem to underestimate the importance of having a positive online reputation. Without national or international customers, you may ask – “What’s the big deal?”

The big deal is that 82% of searches done online are followed up with an in-store visit!

It is very clear that local consumers are utilizing the internet to research businesses close to them. The real question is, “What is the internet telling them about you?”

Any business that is not taking this seriously risks losing business…to your neighbors that position themselves online well (even if their product isn’t better than yours)!

Just How Important Is It to Create a Positive Web Presence?

When looking for great service or a great price, local consumers turn to their phones and tablets. With just a few clicks, they are able to peruse Google, Bing, social media, other review websites and forums for businesses that have exactly what they are looking for.

Your company may have an amazing product at an unbeatable price with the world’s best customer service, but if your online presence does not reflect this and you have negative social signals, you will have a very hard time convincing new customers to trust you…and pay for your product.

Many people are using word of mouth on social media, online reviews and company content to make informed buying decisions. In fact, more than 90% of people trust online reviews as much or more than a recommendation from a friend or colleague!

Two important questions to ask yourself when it comes to your online presence are:

When your ideal client searches for your product (or service) near your location, do you show in the search results or the maps results?
If so, does he or she see a professional online face to the world with glowing reviews?

If you answered “No” to either of the previous questions, the chances are that you just lost a great customer.

What are the Benefits of Online Reputation Management?

You need to have a positive web presence for the survival of your business. It can help:

Establish your credibility with positive testimonials
Give you an edge over your competition
Build trust with current and future clients

Position your company as the first and best choice for your ideal clients. When they are researching, you need to be the obvious decision.

A well-positioned online reputation is also your best sales person, working for you 24/7/365, especially to those people in your community searching for your specific offering.

Finally, having good reputation management can help you rank higher organically in search engine results, which will expose your business to more customers. Good reviews that mention where you are, what you do and your company name will help tell Google a bit more about your offerings.

How Can a Small Business Build a Positive Online Reputation?

Your website, print advertisements and social media posts are not the only things that make up your web presence. It is a much wider net than most realize. Your online reputation does include those things, but it also is made up of reviews from various review sites, comments on your website or blog, “complaint forum” threads, “Top 10” lists that your company may have made, photos tagged with you or your business and much more. Anywhere that you (or your business) is mentioned, tagged, linked to online – that is all part of your online presence.

Managing all of this seems like it could be akin to “herding cats”, but there are a few impactful steps that you can concentrate on to start. This will help ensure the future success of your company.

Step 1 – Monitor Your Online Reputation

The first step to taking control of your online reputation is to monitor it daily. You can handle this yourself or you can outsource this activity, but it is very important that someone is watching.

You need to make sure that you know exactly what your ideal client is looking at online about you. If you find any negative information, be sure to remedy that quickly. With so many products and services available to today’s consumer, there is no reason for him or her to trust you (or buy from you) if there is negative information readily available about your business.

Step 2 – Acquire Positive Reviews and Mitigate Negative Reviews

Online reviews are one of the major factors when it comes to your online reputation. Remember, 90%+ of people trust online reviews as much as or more than a friend or colleague. This is why there are more important than any content that you could create.

How many times have you seen a company with multiple one-star reviews and decide to buy from them anyway? I would bet on a very small amount.

Be sure to create an automated system for monitoring, soliciting and responding to reviews that you receive.

If you happen to receive a negative review, it is imperative that you respond to it quickly and with a level head. Remember, your response is for your future clients and not the person that left the bad review. Be sure to apologize that they had a negative experience and offer to talk about their issue offline. This way, people can learn something positive about your company (that you care about your customers) from a negative review.

Step 3 – Get on Social Media

Where do your clients hang out online? Are they on Facebook? Twitter? Instagram? LinkedIn?

Do a little research and find out where they are most likely to be active. Then, concentrate on those social networks and build your profile to be attractive to your ideal client. Be sure to completely fill in the profile and include photos and videos to keep it engaging.

By keeping your social media simple, it will help you avoid overwhelm and really concentrate on activities that will give you the best ROI. Create a schedule for posting regularly and use a tool that helps you automate the process. This allows you to use social media for your business, but cut the time that it takes in half.

Leveraging Your Online Reputation

You’ve worked hard on your business over the years to build up your name! Don’t jeopardize that fact by neglecting to build and monitor a positive online presence.

Overwhelmed or unsure where to start? Contact IFTS to learn more about our online reputation management program and steps you can take to better position your business.