You may have heard of ‘online reputation marketing’ and not be well aware of what it means or exactly what value it can provide. Maybe you are just hearing about it right now or wondering if this is something you need to implement as a strategy in terms of moving your local business forward. Then keep reading this post…
Online reputation marketing is mainly about building a 5 star reputation online by getting positive reviews (such as Google reviews) and then marketing your 5 star reputation to get more conversions and customers.
The big question is do you actually need reputation marketing strategy for your local business?
As you can clearly see from the above definition, the answer is of course a resounding ‘yes’ and let’s now go into more details why every local business out there definitely needs to be applying this strategy.
Reputation marketing focuses on three main activities which include:
(1) Monitoring what customers are saying
(2) Generating more and better reviews
(3) Syndicating the reviews to effectively generate sales
When done in the right way, reputation marketing builds a stellar online reputation and leverages that reputation across the internet to highly promote your local business and bring you new customers.
There are some major websites (such as Google, Trustpilot, Yelp, Trip Advisor etc) where people leave reviews about local businesses. In other words, you can put a solid strategy in place to regularly acquire multiple 5 star reviews from these major websites or directories that display listings of local businesses.
In case you don’t already know, the most important website that lists local businesses and their reviews and even showcases their reviews in the local search engine results is Google.
Why does this really matter?
This matters because new prospective customers discover your local business online by searching on relevant major websites (like the ones mentioned above) or using the internet search engines and when they do, they see your reviews if you have any already.
Google is the KING of internet search engine results, and for this reason it is highly likely that more people find you from Google where your reviews are obviously showcased. Here is an example of local search result listing on Google…
What would you like people to see?
For illustration purpose only. Google search results for Chiropractor Finchley.
Regarding the above Google listing…
Blue arrow and two red arrows point to the star ratings of the business, showcased right under their company name.
Green arrow shows you how many reviews they have. So Finchley Back Care Centre has 52 reviews as of when this Google screenshot was taken.
Finchley Feet Ltd chiropractic has only 3 reviews.
While Finchley Chiropractic Clinic has none.
Who Would You Call?
With many local business directories (like Google, Trip Advisor, Trustpilot, Yelp etc) and numerous social media sites around that can showcase your reviews, you being in as many of them as possible is crucial. And going back to the Google image above, which local business would you want to be? The one with no reviews or the one getting all the calls due to their solid reputation?
As you can see your reputation as a local business is apparent online and if people do not like what they see, they will end up going to your competitor.
That is why reputation marketing is absolutely critical to move your business forward. Now that you understand the image above and how critical it is to your reputation, let me point out more of what that means, to you…
How really critical is your reputation online?
Regarding the above Google example, let us assume your business is Finchley Chiropractic Clinic with no reviews, no stars and you have a marketing budget. Let’s assume your marketing budget is £1000 per month. So you are spending your marketing budget and it generates 65 brand new people to look at your chiropractic business. Then those people noticed you have no reviews, so they checked out your competition and noticed Finchley Back Care Centre has 52 reviews and 4.5 Stars, which appears much more appealing…
Based on the assumption that your business is Finchley Chiropractic Clinic, will people call you or call Finchley Back Care Centre?
I guess you would agree that majority of them that find you through your marketing will call Finchley Back Care Centre. So what just happened?
You have easily wasted your marketing budget because by having no reviews, you ended up having high cost per click and low conversions on your spending.
Your marketing budget just helped your competition MORE THAN YOU!!!
That is a prime example of insanity of the highest order!
Finchley Chiropractic Clinic may as well give the biggest portion of their marketing budget to Finchley Back Care Centre!
Absolutely insane, right?
That is one of the most crucial reasons why you should be working on your online reputation every day, doing this really matters in the local business space. We highly suggest that you take 1/3 of your marketing budget and put it soley on working for your reputation – 1/3 at the very least. Because you don’t want to have the above scenario play out and you be the one that loses money, every day.
Maybe you are experiencing the above scenario already – whether or not this is the case, you can now start focusing daily on your reputation as a local business.
Yes, Every, Single, Day…
Why Work On Your Reputation Every Day?
Here is why. Finchley Back Care Centre look good at first glance, right? 52 Reviews with 4.5 stars. They must be sitting pretty, and they are listed number 1 on the Google Map (shown above).
Nope, they are not entirely in good nick. Let me show you why…
Finchley Back Care Centre problem…
Having lots of reviews does not tell the whole story!
Did you notice the problem? Their reviews are not current or not coming in very regularly. People who look at the reviews to find out what they can expect, would see the reviews are months apart. It’s like they get a review on a certain day, and then NOTHING for a while.
Even though they have positive reviews. But you can see that the first review on the list was posted 5 months ago, the second on the list was posted 8 months ago and the third was 4 months ago.
That leaves people wondering…..if they are so good why has no one said anything for months? Are they frequently open for service or do they operate part time? Why are they getting reviews a few months apart?
This will make some people to keep digging to find a Chiropractor who appears to be frequently active and has more current and regular reviews that they would find more insightful, and more appealing.
Finchley Back Care Centre at first glance may appear to be better than Finchley Chiropractic Clinic from the above image examples, but upon investigating, even they are doing something WRONG.
Every day, every single day you should be focusing on your reputation. After all, what else do you have and how can you maximise results on your marketing spend /effort without having a solid reputation, which is really vital in the local business space.
But you are busy, right? You don’t have time to manage it all. So hire a professional to do the work for you.
We can help do it for you!
Rather than be paying a huge salary for 1 person to do online reputation marketing, building and management on your behalf, you can simply hire us as professionals to do this task for you. As we have expertise in this field and will effectively take care of everything you need for your reputation for far less the amount it would cost you to pay someone a huge salary to do the task.
We would also be able to work on your reputation for you every day to help strengthen your reputation on an ongoing basis, which as a result will help maximise your conversions and effectively drive in new business.
Visit our Online Marketing Services website for more information on reputation marketing and other online services we are providing – by clicking the link below.
