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Can You Supercharge Online Reviews?

December 7, 2011 by Kenny Leave a Comment

Prior to reading this article you should read about levels 1-7 for this to be effective for you.

Think about how difficult it is to get a happy customer to write a review.

An unhappy customer will rent a computer at Kinkos, create an online account, and search for a place or two to write a bad review but WOW is it challenging to get a customer to write a review after a good experience.

What are the possible roadblocks to get reviews?

Customer forgets.
They don’t want to take the time to do so.
They feel like you have not earned it.
They are intimidated by the internet or technology.
They are in fear of their privacy because they do not quite understand online review sites.

A follow up communication about their purchase can lead to a better experience for the customer and inspire them to write a review. This is a good time for you to ask them and even send them a direct link to make it easy for them.

The only roadblock we have not covered with the follow up is intimidation and fear. You can implement a system that helps to overcome this which is something we have done with our clients…for their customers.

A powerful system for overcoming all the potential roadblocks is to attract internet savvy customers and offer them all methods for reviewing you.

Put a QR code on the front door.
Have a Facebook Fan Page with links to review sites
Put review links on the home page of your website

Consider the possibilities of attracting internet savvy customers and what that can mean for your business.

With all else being equal would you rather have a new happy customer that has 3,000 friends on Facebook or 50 friends on Facebook?

Would you rather have a happy customer that has their own blog with 450 followers of people with similar interests or someone that does not know what a blog is?

Would you rather have a customer that can click on their mouse and tell 250 people in your area that your business is great?

The only question left is how to attract the internet savvy customer.

Use internet marketing, of course.

Is it possible that an online savvy customer has a higher value to you because of their reach with a click of a button. Compare this to the technophobe that is jump-up-and-down happy with your service, and they tell 2 people about it at lunch next week.

In the future or even now you may see companies host a customer appreciation day and show their customers how to have fun on Facebook or write online reviews about companies they frequent. Companies will hire a professional to come in and teach their customers the value of Social Networks and writing online reviews so they can help their friends navigate the good and bad companies.

The event will be positioned as a customer appreciation event but it will also serve as a method for increasing the customer value of your existing customers by increasing their reach…so they can tell everone how great you are.

A level 8 review may be the customer that has written reviews on several companies over a period of months and now they write a review about your company. That is completely natural, it demonstrates that this is a person that is contributing to that online community, and they are probably writing a legitimate review.

Do not be surprised if reviews from regular reviewers have more relevance when it comes to the review sites.

Online Reviews are the New Black – How to Get Online Reviews

December 7, 2011 by Kenny Leave a Comment

If a testimonial, a referral, and your best sales person could procreate they would have an online review.

Reviews are that important.

How you get those reviews can help you or destroy your online exposure.

The frustration of trying to get your customers to go online and comment about your business has led some owners to seek outside assistance. Some companies have taken it to far.

Lifestyle Lift will pay $300,000 in penalties to the NY state Attorney General. Company Busted For Fake Reviews

Other tactics that may be ethical but can still get you flagged include:

Writing reviews on behalf of customers and having them sign it, then posting it.
Posting reviews on behalf of customers from one account.
Posting from different accounts but only 1 IP address.
Paying a company that has IP addresses in several locations to post on behalf of your customers.

The serious business owner that wants to capitalize using online reviews and also wants to avoid big mistakes should start with the video series below then read on.
If you find yourself in a position to question whether your online review methods are going to work long-term, think like a consumer.

If your life was on the line and you had to find the right Doctor and you were reading the reviews, what would you want?

You would want every review to have been written by a customer/patient that was so happy they were inspired enough to take the time to go online, log in to their own account, and write a review from their own home with their own IP address. No trickery, no extra push from the Doctor.

Understand that Google thinks like the consumer and does everything they can to fight the unethical people and the businesses collecting real reviews get caught in the middle.

The highest level of reviews (Level 7) are the reviews that your customers write by going online, logging into their own accounts, and posting reviews, spread out over a period of time. This is totally natural and that is one way to think like Google…as Google tries to think like the consumer.

This may be frustrating again to most business owners because it sounds like the answer is to DO NOTHING and hope for the reviews to flow.
Not so…

You can still ask for reviews or encourage reviews and feedback from your customers on specific review sites. You can make it easy for them by providing them a direct link or a QR code that takes them directly to the page where they can leave a review.

Businesses that collect the most reviews are the businesses that have it as part of the system, sales cycle, or follow up.

There may be a Level 8 and at the very least, even more power to your Online Review System.

Level 8 – More Powerful Online Reviews??

Car Dealer Case Study – Sorta

October 21, 2011 by Kenny Leave a Comment

Joey’s Autos treats car buyers like family, according to many of their customers.

Their service at the point of sale and after the sale are top notch. Everyone that works at Joey’s Autos is friendly, smiling, and willing to help find solutions for their customers’ needs.

If a “secret shopper” were to visit Joey’s and go through the car buying process Joey’s would probably get high scores.

However, traditional “secret shoppers” start with a phone call or a visit to the place of business. Research has shown most purchases, especially auto purchases, start with research and it can last 120 to 180 days.

Regardless of the length of time your potential buyer researches products and services before buying, they most likely start with the internet.

Studies have shown 78 – 95% of consumers go to the internet before making a buying decision.

In the case of Joey’s auto, their “secret shopping” grade is high but what about the research phase that started long before a consumer was ready to call or visit the dealership?

If you picture the marketing funnel you realize the “secret shopper” would be entering the funnel from the side or at a point not at the top. The top of the funnel is where all the leads(in this case, ups) come in.

If 1,400 people per month look for a car in their area, how many find Joey’s Auto?

If their website or local listing appears on page 2 of Google then Joey’s will likely miss out on 92% of the market(the first page of Google is a must.)

The good news is Joey’s Auto is likely to be found by car buyers in their area because:

We have them at the #1 position on the first page of Google.
Their website exposure has increased by 358%
Their high level online leads have increased by 700%

Sharing these numbers is not to brag…but to demonstrate that there was still a problem even with the results we were getting with our efforts.

We dedided to pretend to be a car buyer in the area of Joey’s Autos.

-We easily found their dealership because it was in the #1 spot.
-We searched through their inventory…no problem.
-We read great reviews from their previous customers.
-We watched testimonial videos from some of their customers.
-We felt like this was the place so we clicked on the “Location” page…uh oh.

The “Location” page did not work and it gave us an error message.

At this point a highly motivated buyer may locate the phone number or use some other method to figure out where Joey’s is located. However, the buyer that was deciding between 2 dealers may not make the effort.

Take a look at the math to see just how much profit can be lost in this example.

Some of these numbers are approximate and others are pulled out of thin air just for demonstration purposes.

Let’s say this problem existed for a week.

350 new people look for a used car in their area per week

175 of the 350 click on our clients website(studies have shown that 50% of all online visitors click on the 1st place website)

82 of the 175 are interested in buying a new car this month

26 of the 82 found a car they liked on our clients website

13 of the 26 would have purchased a car after going to the dealership because they have a 50% closing rate

7 of the 13 still buy because they loved the car so they took the time to call to get the location of the dealership

6 decided to go to a different website for various reasons

3 of the 6 thought it was fishy that a car dealership would not have their “location” on their website

2 of the 6 thought a business that can’t even take care of somethings as important as their “location” on their website, probably doesn’t take care of their cars either

The last 1 accidently hit the “X” button on his browser when the “location page” did not work then got distracted and found a different website and purchased elsewhere

That is 6 customers lost…BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE.

This car dealer sells an average of 2 cars over the next 5 years to every customer that buys from them.

Now it is a loss of 12 car sales!

This dealer also earns 1 referral from every 3 customers that buys from them over a 5 year period.

That is 2 more lost sales!

20 sales that are not going to happen because the “location” page was not working for a week.

Multiply the average profit per sale times 20 cars…that is a lot of profits out the door.

Expand upon your secret shopper and start from the beginning…like a consumer. Try to find yourself on Google then go to other areas to determine what you can be doing to increase the size of your marketing funnel so you can gather more leads.

Determine if you should be on Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Linkedin, and Google Plus.

We added our Marketing Analysis Audit and Plan to our services after discovering several problems with new clients websites, marketing, lack of exposure, customer comments, and more.

We realized that even when we bring you 2,000 new visitors and potential buyers in a month, if the “Buy Now” or “Location” page is not working, your profits will not be as high as they should be even with great marketing.

Test every aspect of your marketing, sales, and communications regularly to be sure you are not turning away profits including your entire marketing funnel.

Numbers and names were replaced in this case study to maintain privacy. You can call it, based on a true story.

When a Big Mouth Pays – Marketing Funnel

October 21, 2011 by Kenny Leave a Comment

Marketing and sales consultants often reference the need for a marketing funnel yet they rarely talk about the size and shape of the funnel.

Size matters…and in this case, shape matters too.

Going directly for the sale at the first point of contact with a potential customer is not as effective anymore. Potential buyers are bombarded with thousands of advertisements and sales pitches daily. They have a list of your competitors at their fingertips so you better have more than a pitch.

Although the marketing funnel has existed for some time, it’s importance continues to grow. Consumers want to research products and services before spending any of their hard earned money.

Other articles and videos can be found right here on this site about the do’s and dont’s AFTER someone has entered your funnel. This article is focused on getting prospects into the funnel.

Remember the line in Jaws?

“I think we are going to need a bigger boat.”

Well my entrepreneur friend, “You need a bigger funnel.”

A great follow-up system/funnel is great but only if the opening is big enough to collect a ton of leads. Ever pour olive oil into one of those fancier decorative bottles to put on display? Get a funnel with a bigger opening and its smooth…if not, you will be washing olive oil off your hand, your feet, the counter, the dog…

Quick Hint–> All parts of the funnel need to be working or many of those leads will go to waste. Test your system once in a while.

Case Study L`Auberge in Sedona

July 7, 2011 by Kenny Leave a Comment

Recently my wife and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary in Sedona, Arizona. A friend of my wife recommended it and said it was a beautiful place to stay with great service.

She was right!

However, this is not a review of L`Auberge in Sedona. It is a case study…so we will analyze what they did right and what they can do better. You can learn from both.

We will focus primarily on the communications/marketing.

The most important part of your business is your actual product and service. If your product/service stinks there is no marketer that can save you. If your service is as great as L`Auberge in Sedona, people will talk about you…in a good way. However, as a business you should stimulate them to talk about you more and spread the word. Social Media can stimulate that conversation…more on that in a moment. Lets disect this in chronological order.

First Marketing Communication–

After we booked a room we received a Reservation Confirmation email. In fact, that was in the subject line of the email. This is a typical email that many hotels will send after you book a room. The email content was also very typical. This hotel/resort is anything but typical…it was above and beyond our expectations.

What Would Have Been Better–

All businesses can do better and lower return rates and cancellations by getting personal immediately after the purchase. Rather than the Reservation Confirmation email it could have been a Welcome to the Most Beautiful Place In America or anything other than the typical message.

I realize the hotel probably needs to confirm everything but they could personalize the message a lot more and most importantly…

Remind us of the great decision we made by talking up your hotel, restaurant, spa, and the entire city.

Second Marketing/Communication-

Just prior to our arrival we received another email. This time it mentioned the amenities and it really was the email I was talking about a moment ago. It was well written and it was more of a reminder of how great the hotel and area is and it kept our excitement level up just prior to arriving at the hotel. There was a things-to-do list and more.

What Would Have Been Better–

This particular email was well written and well timed. The content of the email was good but the subject line could have been better. This is pretty typical of most businesses. They put so much emphasis into great content in the email, they just write a narration subject line. Just like a sales letter, the headline is critically important. With email it may be more important than in a sales letter because if the subject line is NOT enticing, the content won’t even be opened.

Hire a copywriter or take a course on writing great headlines. The content is irrelevant if does not get read. The headline/subject line should make the reader feel compelled to open the email. This is easy to test. Most email software programs for business give you open rates. Send 100 emails using one headline and 100 using a different headline then compare. Use the better performing headline from now on…consider testing it again.

Final Communication-

The day we arrived home from our stay in Sedona we received an email from the hotel thanking us for our business. They also asked us to complete a short survey and why it was important to them. I applaud L`Auberge for sending a follow up email after they have our money but…

What Would Have Been Better–

The email did ask us to vote for them in a contest for Travel and Leisure Magazine but no mention to “Like” them on Facebook or mention them to our friends on Facebook or any other social platform.

Doing it the old fashioned way I can tell my friends as I see them, “We had a great time in Sedona. Next time you come over I will show you some pictures and here is a few on my cell phone.”

The new way, the Social Media way, I can log onto Facebook and share photos with ALL my friends immediately. The average person on Facebook has 140 friends. Sure I may do that anyway but it would be wise to always ask your customers to do so. You can incentivize them to do so.

As an example – L`Auberge could send an email after our stay and say, “Please share your favorite picture with us on our Facebook page”. Or they could say, “Please share your favorite picture of your stay on our Facebook page. Once a month we have a drawing for sharing fans.”

It could be something as simple as a glass of wine or a free upgrade next time your visit our hotel.

When I share my picture on their Facebook page it demonstrates proof to their Facebook visitors that people love it there. It also notifies all 140 of my friends.

Best of All-

When I first called to make the reservation I said something discreetly just once and I did it on purpose to see how the hotel would handle it. In the middle of our conversation I said, “We are coming down for our 10th anniversary so we will just go ahead and get the Spa Cottage.”

The way I said it was not to highlight our anniversary…rather to express that we wanted the Spa Cottage. The average business would be looking for buying triggers and moving right into the sale of the Spa Cottage but not this hotel. The reservationist said, “Happy Anniversary”. Then she carried out our purchase. It gets better…

When we arrived we walked into our cottage and right there on the corner of the desk was a note that said “Happy 10th Anniversary.”

I mentioned our anniversary exactly one time and the person at this hotel that took our reservation was listening. She acknowledged our anniversary and then took it another step.

The tip here is to LISTEN to your customers. What they have to say is more important than what you have to say. This is the case with social media and online reviews also. Track and listen to the conversations online about your business, your competitors, your industry, and your local area. It will serve you well because your customers will know you care and they are being heard…they love the sound of their own voice.

Overall Assessment-

Our stay was great so we are talking about L`Auberge to all our friends anyway using Social Media but not everyone does that. Don’t assume that because you are great that your customers will recommend you. Ask them to.

Doing this case study I also found that this hotel is not listed in the top 7 on the first page of Google for the term Sedona Hotels. That is a shame. I can’t imagine 7 other hotels being better than this one. For the term Sedona Resort they rank #2.

With some tweaking to their local online marketing, reviews, and social media, they can do better.

Hint–> if you are not in the first 7 local listings that means you are on page 2 or worse. 91% of the time the potential customers never get past page 1.

Hint 2–> 89% of all the clicks after a particular search such as Sedona Hotel the potential customer clicks on one of the first 4 listings.

Hint 3–> the #1 listing gets 4 times as many clicks as the #2 listing.

*All statistics have been verified by credible resources and are available by request. Ask below in the comment section or contact us.