5 Tips to Boost Your Review and Reputation Marketing

You probably recognize that customer reviews have become a core part of your new business acquisition process. All the best marketing and advertising in the world can get prospects to start looking into you and your practice, only to stop short of calling your office to schedule a consultation. Why?

A.     You don’t have enough reviews

B.     Your average review ratings are low

C.     Competitors have a lot more positive reviews

The biggest problem: You don’t know often, or how long has this been happening. 

Here are 5 quick tips to start building and solidifying your online reputation, credibility and authority, so you don’t leave new business at your front doorstep.

1-     Consistently Ask – What I mean is ask in-person. Simply sending emails and even text messages are less personable and never come with an agreement from them to post. By asking for clients to share their experience in-person, and getting a confirmation, you will get more reviews. In addition, because they “agreed” to do it, they will likely invest more thought into writing a higher quality review.

2-      Consistent Timing – Find the strategic time in your relationship and engagement to ask, and make it a part of your client management process. Requesting your assistance at a time when they feel very appreciative of what you have done elevates your conversion rate, and they can share their positive experience while it is very fresh in their minds.

3-     Consistently Make It Easy – Even when they ask clients at the right time, some practices don’t maximize their results by making it easy for them. Many practices still hand out reminder cards with directions on where and how to post reviews. Make the process easier for them by leveraging email and text messaging that include hot links to your profile on key review websites. Since they receive your request through their smartphone, they are just a touch away from posting your review.

4-     Consistently Remind – In most cases, customers have every intent to write a review, but just get busy and forget. If they have not posted a response in 3-4 days, send gentle email/text reminders (no more than two) and include the links. Ensure your messaging is highly empathetic and appreciative, not pushy.

5-      Use A Review Marketing Platform – You will notice that consistency is the key to getting maximum results with your review marketing efforts. By using a review management platform that has been customized to your industry and practice, you can:

-         Easily send well-crafted messaging to get clients to take the actions you want.

-         Send them immediately when they agree to share their experience.

-         Monitors their activity and sends reminder messages, without you or your practices doing anything. Once they post, they will no longer receive a reminder.

-         Keeps track of all of your reviews on your most important review platforms.

-         Sends you a notification when a client posts a review with a link to it.

-         The cost for these platforms is about $250/month, but the return is priceless.

*Bonus Tip: When you get the notification that a client has posted a review, you will also have the ability to quickly post a response to their review. Responding to reviews is important in multiple ways. First, your client will get a notification from the review website (Google, Facebook, Yelp, etc.) that you responded and link it. Engage with your most likely referral sources! Also, if the review and exchange happens on your Google By Business profile, Google sees the activity on your GMB profile, which can help boost your listings in search.