Thursday, March 16, 2017

From RepPilot.com/info: How to Use Customer Reviews to Market Your Business – Reputation Marketing Basics

Reputation Marketing is, in the simplest terms, using your five-star online reputation to influence customers to do business with you.  Here you’ll learn how to use customer reviews to market your business.

Got Questions About Your Reputation & Marketing? We’ve Got Answers.

Q. So, how do you get a five-star online reputation?

 A. By collecting and promoting stellar online reviews on the websites and networks your customers use to research before making their buying decisions.

Q. And why isn’t it called Customer Review Marketing?

A. Because even though customer reviews are the most visible and sought after confidence signals for prospective buyers, there are other visibility and SEO factors that make up your online reputation as a whole.

Q. Is Reputation Marketing hard or expensive?

A.  NO and NO. Customers give their reviews for free, on websites, prospects use for free. You just need a system in place to encourage those reviews and get them out there where your next customers are looking for them. It is without a doubt one of the easiest, cheapest, and effective ways to market your business, service, or product.

Enough with the Q&A.  Here are some great articles that will help you learn more so you can be more effective in using customer reviews to market your business:

The Value of your Business Reputation

2017 Reputation Management Checklist – Downloadable PDF with Actionable Links

Reputation Marketing in 5 Steps

Why Customer Reviews are a Game Changer – Here’s the Facts

No salesman, account manager, or marketer is going to be as trusted or persuasive as a real-life customer’s review.  After all, your employees are paid to say your business is the BEST choice. Ads are just more money spent telling people “Pick Me!” Everyone knows that so there is a lack of trusts in both your sales team and advertisements.

You know what people do trust? The words of a customer who received nothing for giving their opinion of your business.

How to use customer reviews to market your business NEGATIVEProvided you have built a positive online presence (the foundation of your Reputation Marketing) and are visible when people search for your type of business, your online reviews are the decider of whether or not you get a new customer lose another customer to your more customer-admired competitor.

Customer Review Facts:

88% of consumers say that they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. – BrightLocal.com

40% of buyers form an opinion of a business after reading just 1-3 reviews. –  BrightLocal.com

How to use customer reviews to market your business INFLUENCE97% of B2B buyers said that user-generated content, like user reviews, is more credible than other types of content. – Thismoment.com

72% of buyers will take action only after reading a positive review. –  BrightLocal.com

Customers spend 31% more with a business that has “excellent” reviews. –  Invespcro.com

Buyers consult reviews early in the search, with 68% reading reviews as they build their shortlist. –  SoftwareAdvice.com

How to use customer reviews to market your business VISITReviews can have an impact of up to 10% on a business’s search rankings. – WebRepublic.com

44% of consumers say a review must be written within one month to be considered relevant. – BrightLocal.com

89% of users will make a purchase within one week of reading reviews. –  ReachLocal.com

How to Use Customer Reviews to Market Your Business

At this point, you should be convinced that you need to continuously encourage your customers to give you feedback so you can get your best reviews online promoting your business where it matters most.

That might sound like a lot of work, but technology rides to the rescue once again with ways to AUTOMATE your customer review management. Automatically handle everything from gathering reviews and weeding out dissatisfied customers to promoting only the best reviews and monitoring review sites. I’d suggest using ReputationLoop™, but I may be biased.  Check out the ReputationLoop™ reviews to see what others think.*

*BAM!!! Did you see what I did there???

That is how you use customer reviews to market your business.  It’s just that easy.

Now let’s talk about how you are going to use customer reviews to market YOUR business.

1. Use Customer Reviews to Build a 5-Star Online Reputation

  • Have a system in place for monitoring, managing and promoting your customer reviews online.
  • Respond promptly to both positive and negative reviews in a way that influences future review readers.

2. Be Where Your Customers Are Online!

  • Claim and optimize your business profiles where you customers search for reviews for your type of business. (List of Customer Review Sites)
  • Encourage customers to leave their positive reviews online to help future customers.
  • Make it easy to leave a review. One or two clicks from your website or email create a quick and simple process for customers.
  • Claim, optimize, and monitor your business profiles on the most popular social media networks. (Picking Your Social Media Networks)
  • Promote your best reviews on the social media networks that matter in your industry.

3. Make Reviews the Star of Your Ads

  • The copy in your ads is very important. But what is going to sell you better than a highly satisfied customer review?
  • Save precious ad copy space for “features” and “specials” and use customer reviews to highlight the “benefits” your business or product.
  • You can also add them to your email marketing campaigns!

4. Empower Top Customers by Making Them Brand Ambassadors

  • Set up a brand ambassador program. (How To Create a Brand Ambassador Program)
  • With guidelines in place, build an incentive plan that is easy for you to package, track, and disseminate. This could range from a company T-shirt and free memberships to big discounts or free products – things that won’t hurt your budget.
  • Create content your ambassadors can use to market your business. Include testimonials and reviews they can promote.
  • Find potential ambassadors by looking at your customer feedback, reviews, and social media conversations. Find customers who show a love of your business, but remember they will need to be monitored.

This is the part where I tell you about what we do!

But I already did that (reference the smooth reputation marketing in the middle of this post).  We want to help you build a stellar online reputation and show you how to use customer reviews to market your business. ReputationLoop™ makes it as easy as possible to generate more leads and attract new customers. That’s what we do.  But don’t take our word for it, you can read our reviews or get a free demo and see for yourself how ReputationLoop™ can grow your business.

Free Demo RepLoop

Zach_Color_Trans_small_CroppedAbout The Author

Zach Anderson is the co-founder of Reputation Loop (helping small businesses grow by generating customer feedback and online reviews) who loves online marketing and golf.

The post How to Use Customer Reviews to Market Your Business – Reputation Marketing Basics appeared first on Reputation Loop.

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The post How to Use Customer Reviews to Market Your Business – Reputation Marketing Basics appeared first on RepPilot.

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