Bold statement – huh!
“The fastest, most effective way to get more new customers for your business.”
What nerve to make such a claim.
Ok…so let’s say it’s just a point-of-view. Maybe not something you agree with – yet. Let’s see just how close to accurate it really is.
Every minute of every day, someone is searching online for a product or service. It’s probably a fair argument that even when your advertising is supposed to be advertising and your marketing is supposed to be marketing, your best prospective customers, clients or patients are not seeing those messages.
In reality, probably most of your prospects are not seeing the various things you are doing to promote your business. That’s why any given company are not flooded with new business right now. The aggregate masses who are buying today aren’t all buying from the same business. And in your location, not enough of them are coincidentally buying from you at the same time to dramatically impact your sales.
But what if they could be positively and ethically influenced to do so?
You know the business is out there. There’s clearly enough for you and your competition to stay in business, right?
Well guess what. Your next best customers are right under your nose – or should be and can be. Here’s how…
There are more advanced examples but let’s keep this simple for now and focus on local businesses. Open a browser to Google.com and do a search for something you will need to get done for yourself or your home in the near future.
Maybe your plumbing is leaking or maybe you have a legal issue that needs attention. How about that nagging toothache or that black tie event you plan on attending?
So you will be searching for something like plumber los angeles, attorney dallas texas, dentist in detroit, tuxedo rental okc. There many variations to choose from (like using plurals, abbreviating city names, putting cities at the beginning of the search phrase, etc.) and some those will produce at least slightly different results.
So type in the type of service and the city and let’s imagine you’re now a prospective customer for that product or service.
See the search results? You just bypassed almost all of the advertising most types of local businesses are doing right now. In other words, you made most of what all of those businesses are doing to find you and impress you as a customer worthless, meaningless and in some cases a waste of money.
You also instantly got in front of more businesses than you’ll possibly ever want to consider for what you need. In fact, the 20-25 listings are almost too many choices. It can be overwhelming and confusing, especially if you’re in a hurry or already frustrated with past attempts to find a solution.
So what now? How do you choose where to start? How do you differentiate, how do you value any of these businesses over one another? Who can you trust and depend on?
Well, considering what you searched for and your specific area, you may see gold star reviews on the page. These reviews are what most consumers like you right now are considering first.
Whoa there…what about all the other business listings on this page. They are certainly still in the running aren’t they?
Oh those? Sure. But those with no reviews or poor or average reviews look the same or similar for the most part. And in a sea of sameness, what stands out the most?
Yes, there might be a few exceptions on the page you see right now, but the overwhelming majority of these types of local business searches position the businesses with the best and most respectable reviews as the primary choices for the majority of consumers.
Those businesses with 4 and 5-star reviews are usually the ones shoppers consider first. And often when people click on other links first, they can’t get those little stars out of their heads. They know they are there for a reason. They go back to check them out.
Gold star reviews can’t be ignored.
Are you getting this? Or are you trying to convince yourself that it’s not true and it doesn’t matter because you don’t want it to – you don’t want to put in the effort or you’re embarrassed to proactively go after your customers for reviews?
I’m betting that if you have a great reputation review score, you’ve been seeing the results of this for some time now. You know EXACTLY what I’m talking about.
And if your business has poor, average or even non-existent reviews, that’s why you are making excuses this is too much trouble to take seriously.
Ouch! Sorry to rub it in (ok – not really, but it’s for your own good). You can’t sleep through this aspect of marketing your business. Consider this a reality check. Call it tough love.
We think of it as the new holy grail of what you need to be doing to get more new customers at the exact moment they are looking for what you provide – regardless of what your marketing and advertising is trying to achieve elsewhere. Even if it’s trying to get their attention as an ad at the top or side of that same search results page!
In fact, you might even see gold star reviews in those ads, too. And that should further drive home the point why having and marketing with a 5-star reputation is so valuable to your business.
Taking this seriously and ethically cultivating more great reviews is just one part of an approach we call Reputation Maximization.
Your prospects want to use your past customer’s experiences as a guide for whether or not they should to even consider your business. Once they have that extra bit of confidence in you, then they feel better about investing more of their time checking out your business.
People highly value the time they spend on research and finding what they need. They want to minimize it, but also feel confident about who they choose to do business with. And these reviews them identify companies that are likely to be more credible, professional and trustworthy.
We know that some of the gold star reviews you might see are not so good. This makes it even more important to not let this situation run unattended. There are things you can do without begging for good reviews, writing fake reviews, or twisting the arms of customers to go write you a good review now and then.
Are there exceptions? Of course! Ads, videos, photos, press releases, blogging, social media and SEO activities still produce results.
But do you have any idea how many of the people that get sent to your web site from your marketing and advertising come back to this search results page or do a search specifically for your business and end up seeing the same review you have (or don’t have) here?
You can’t escape it. It won’t go away because you don’t like it or want to change the situation. Your reputation exposure is inevitable – and increasingly so.
Prospective customers that don’t go through this process of checking you out – especially if you charge substantial fees or prices – are likely to be in the minority. Go check your analytics to see the evidence. That’s because the more a person has to lose, the more they want to ensure they are making the right decision.
Maybe that insight will finally reveal to you why so many of the visitors to your web leave –
never contacting you or returning to do business with you.
Maybe they didn’t find any reviews on your web site. Remember, testimonials are not necessarily reviews – especially if they are just on your site and not at a respected directory.
Maybe they stumbled on some better reviews for your competitors when they went back to Google or some other directory site to check out your business.
Hmmmmm… is the picture becoming any clearer now? Are the missing pieces falling into place?
Remember the comment I made about marketing and advertising being made worthless, meaningless and a waste of money? Well, I may have been a bit harsh, but not by much. There are marketing people, ad agencies and the like who provide those services who will vehemently claim that those other marketing activities will at least contribute to the branding of a business.
We agree completely. Everything helps or hurts getting and keeping customers to some degree. But that’s kinda the point. Your reputation can override or support all that if you market with it.
So let’s wrap this up. In the above experiment we had you go through, very little if any of your other marketing applied at that exact moment except what was on that search results page OR the Google page that comes up when someone searches specifically for your business name.
Obviously there are ads at the top and side of the page that get new customers. Obviously there is search engine optimization work that pushed some of the links to the first page – and maybe even got a few of them above the Google+ Local listings. There may even be some video or photos or a press release on the page you were looking at.
All of those activities also attract new customers so you should get your business in those spots, too, if you can. And since your 5-star reviews also show up in those positions on the page, it creates even more of the positive impact for you that we’re describing here.
Do you see the HUGE opportunity for your business?
Argue it all you want, but for a local business the Google+ Local listings are still one of the primary if not the most important place to be on the search results page. That should demand that you use it to your advantage as a business.
Your business needs a 5-star reputation and you need it to show up for the various terms that people use to find your business.
You bragging about your company isn’t what consumers want to hear.
A great reputation review score solidifies consumer confidence, gets you more new customers and does so in a way that all your regular marketing and advertising won’t.
Reputation Maximization solves those problems for you. We help you repair, establish, maintain and protect your very own 5-star reputation in the search results – AND on other directory sites. And that’s just the beginning.
You need this.
It’s affordable.
The customers you don’t get because of having a 5-star reputation go to your competitors and you are literally pushing them away by ignoring this. It’s pure opportunity you are missing right now.
Come and get it!