How Online Reviews Can Make Or Break Your Business

Historically, word of mouth has been a powerful source for business referrals, and it still is today, but the Internet and online reviews has added a layer of information.

You should know that Bob will probably do some online research before reaching out to you– he’ll check out your website, read a few reviews and compare you to other potential like-kind companies.

Online reviews aren’t just for consumer products and restaurants anymore. These days, reviews are impacting revenue for all kinds of businesses and professional services including lawyers, roofers, loan officers, salons, boutiques, auto repair shops, rehab centers, doctors and everything in between.

What’s the big deal? We’ve uncovered the data, and the data tells us one thing– the power of online reviews shouldn’t be underestimated. Because reviews can hurt or help your bottom line, you need to know what people are saying about your business online.

With Jane’s recommendation and a few minutes spent online, Bob is able to form an opinion about you as a real estate agent before ever having met you. The majority of customers, like Bob, will read up to six reviews before forming an opinion of a business.

According to a Pew Research Center survey, as of January 2014, 87% of U.S. adults use the Internet and 58% of adults own smart phones. Worldwide, the United Nations reports 40% of the population is online. Who are the best bankruptcy lawyers in my area?

5 Reasons Online Reviews Matter for Your Business

1) 68% of consumers trust opinions posted online.

One of the most popular review websites, Yelp, has 207 million visits each month. Now factor in that customers are reading up to six reviews, both negative and positive, before ever having met you or stepped foot in your place of business. What is being said about your business should matter to you because it matters to everyone else.

I read it on the Internet, so it must be true.

2) 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

That’s right; today, the vast majority of consumers trust the opinions of strangers on the Internet as much as their own friends. While an online review coming from an anonymous user, a review that lacks detailed information or one that doesn’t seem genuine won’t fall into this category, online reviews can be thoughtful, personal and thorough, much like an exchange between friends.

3) Customers are more likely to share bad experiences than good ones.

Sharing a bad customer experience online is an easy way to release frustration. Sometimes even more importantly, to a reviewer, is the idea that a bad review might save someone else from having a similar experience!

What we can take away from this fact is that it is important for you to proactively ask happy customers to leave online reviews too. Whether you helped Jane Doe buy her dream house or gave her the perfect haircut, let Jane know that you welcome and would appreciate if she could take the time to leave a review on your behalf. A bad review is bound to happen at some point, but wouldn’t it look nicer surrounded by a whole bunch of good ones?

4) You can turn a negative review into a positive review.

When a reviewer says something negative about your business, you have an opportunity to excel at customer service. Many review sites offer a reply feature. Often times after a business reaches out, reviewers will provide an update to their negative review and let people know what happened.

With the trust that your potential customers place in online sources, negative reviews have the potential to substantially impact your business. Reviews are influencing the opinions of potential customers, but they don’t have to be a permanent black mark on your digital record.

5) 72% of consumers say positive reviews make them trust businesses more.

Reading a bunch of negative reviews isn’t likely to make someone want to take a chance on a business. Reading a multitude of positive reviews provides a potential customer with a sense that the business can be trusted.

Summation

How do your online reviews tally up? Are people saying bad or good things about your business?

In short, people are forming opinions about your business based on what other people are saying, long before you even get the chance to meet them, so it’s your job to take an active interest and convert your online audience into new customers.

As the world exists today, you have to care about online reviews. Positive reviews can help bring in customers, negative reviews can turn people away and not having any online review presence can cause someone to feel like doing business with you would be a gamble.

People are looking for reviews and putting trust in those reviews, so it’s time to take a proactive role in the process– provide customer comment cards, send out surveys and ask happy customers to share a review. You may even consider providing a way for people to leave reviews on your own website so people won’t have to look any further to find glowing testimonials.

Now factor in that customers are reading up to six reviews, both negative and positive, before ever having met you or stepped foot in your place of business. What we can take away from this fact is that it is important for you to proactively ask happy customers to leave online reviews too.

Often times after a business reaches out, reviewers will provide an update to their negative review and let people know what happened. Reading a multitude of positive reviews provides a potential customer with a sense that the business can be trusted.

You need to know what people are saying about your business online because reviews can hurt or help your bottom line.

LocalAd Connection
1700 E.Sunrise Blvd Ste 1213
Ft Lauderdale, Florida 33304
Call Us Today: (USA) 1-954-266-0078

Call Us For More Info: (954) 266-0078

 

 

 

Copyright Disclaimer:  Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.

How Negative Reviews Can Impact Your Reputation / New Business

Years of work, extensive resources, and loads of money go into the making of a strong brand. In today’s super-connected economy, those brands can be taken down more easily than one might expect.

Not by their top competitors, but by the average Joe behind a computer or smart phone.

You may deliver impeccable service, but occasionally something will slip through the cracks. A sales associate might be having an off day. A contagious illness might cause a location to be short-staffed. You may have an issue with a supplier and run out of stock of an item.

For whatever reason, a customer has an experience with your brand that is not at the level for which you are normally known. Then, they want to vent.  And they do. Online.

How much can one, two, or a handful of negative reviews or posts actually damage an otherwise strong brand?

A lot.

This tale of digital David and Goliath is commonplace: one or two consumers throw stones at your brand online. Thousands of potential customers see their negatives posts and decide against doing business with you. Sales plummet – and often management does not know why.

Without the right monitoring tools and analytical skills, it is difficult for managers to understand what is happening with their brand online. Often they do not discover problems until their reputation has incurred significant damage. Because their customer satisfaction levels are high, they assume online sentiments match.

However, studies show that both B2B and B2C customers are more likely to share negative experiences than positive ones in person, on social media, and on review sites like Yelp. This is particularly troublesome for businesses because the sites where customers are likely to share their negative experiences tend to rank well in search engines. Because of this, potential customers find the undesirable content early on in their research, marring their first impression of your company.

It is easy to imagine how a bad review or two can jeopardize a company’s online reputation – and the statistics support it. In one survey by Dimensional Research, 86% of customers who read a negative review online said that information impacted their purchase decision.

How many potential sales are jeopardized by poor results in Google? While the answer to this question varies by business, online reputation is extremely important for almost all companies. According to a report by Fleishman-Hillard, 89% of consumers conduct online research via search engines before making a purchase.

This percentage is even higher for B2B.  Acquity Group’s 2014 State of B2B Procurement Study found that a whopping 94% of buyers complete some sort of online research before making a business purchase. 77% of these use Google.

You can imagine the immense impact just one or a few well-placed negative comments can have on internet searchers’ perception of a brand.

Moreover, vast amounts of information and data are exchanged out of the sight of search engines. Known as the “deep web,” this includes dynamic web pages, blocked sites, unlinked sites, private sites (like those that require login credentials), non-HTML content and private networks. Some estimates suggest the amount of information on the deep web (also known as the deep net, invisible web or hidden web) is 500 times greater than the surface web.

Within the deep web resides another area of the Internet called the dark web (also known as the dark net), where individuals can exchange information anonymously, and oftentimes do so nefariously.

Originally developed by the U.S. Navy as an avenue for secretive communications, today’s dark web is best known as a place for more illicit activities. On the dark web you may find individuals selling drugs, guns, illegal images and videos, and private data.

One important thing to note is that you are not going to wander onto the dark web by accident. You have to download a special browser, so you can’t get there from Chrome, Firefox or Safari and your toddler can’t access it on your iPad. (I can’t say as much for your teenager).

Several commercial insurance executives recently advised that cyber-security is the number one rising threat to businesses around the world. Security breaches, which can bring major reputational hits, should not just be the concern of big-name retailers, online sites like Ashley Madison or political entities like the Democratic National Committee.

Any organization that touches private information – credit card numbers, social security numbers, driver’s license info, medical records, and so on – is vulnerable to a security breakdown which could do irreparable harm to the business and its reputation.

For confirmation, speak with communications managers at Target or Home Depot if you don’t believe this should be a concern of the public relations and marketing professional. When millions of credit card numbers are stolen from a retailer, does this not cross-over from being solely an issue of cyber-security to one that impacts the company’s collective reputation? Of course it does.

Whether we like it or not, as professional communicators we must embrace technology and understand that cyber-security and reputation management are joined at the hip. If you have any questions about your company’s online vulnerabilities, on the surface, dark or deep web, contact an appropriate consultant sooner than later.

The dark web is an area of the deep web where people search and exchange information anonymously. The dark web is part of the deep web, but the deep web is not necessarily dark.

Known as the “deep web,” this includes dynamic web pages, blocked sites, unlinked sites, private sites (like those that require login credentials), non-HTML content and private networks. Some estimates suggest the amount of information on the deep web (also known as the deep net, invisible web or hidden web) is 500 times greater than the surface web.

The dark web is an area of the deep web where people search and exchange information anonymously. The dark web is part of the deep web, but the deep web is not necessarily dark.  Yet another place and way your company’s online reputation could be tarnished without your knowledge.

LocalAd Connection
1700 E.Sunrise Blvd Ste 1213
Ft Lauderdale, Florida 33304
Call Us Today: (USA) 1-954-266-0078

Call Us For More Info: (954) 266-0078

 

 

 

Copyright Disclaimer:  Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.

How Important Is Reputation Marketing To Getting New Customers

 

Today, Customers Tend To Trust Online Reviews From Their Peers More Than They Trust Advertising.

These reviews then directly correspond with your company’s reputation.

When deciding to make a purchase or not, a massive 70% of consumers trust online reviews. You are losing business if your company has negative reviews. LocalAd Connection, can help you improve your company’s reputation by using advanced reputation marketing skills.

Creating and maintaining a 5-star reputation online should be your company’s number one priority. All of the other marketing efforts done by your organization will mean nothing if you don’t have the reputation marketing to back it up when your customers go to look your company up online. Many business owners overlook reputation marketing.

Why is Reputation Marketing Important?

If they value customer service, but your company has several negative reviews about customer service, then they may choose to make their purchase from another company. When deciding between companies or products, they turn to reviews before making their final decision.

It’s ideal to have positive reviews across several review outlets. Many people tend to favor one review medium over another, i.e. Yelp over Yahoo. By ensuring that your company has a wide range of reviews then you are sure to have the greatest reputation marketing range possible.

One of the best things you can do for the reputation marketing of your company is to encourage your customers to post real reviews with specific details. You should always be encouraging your customers to leave positive reviews as a steady flow of positive reviews will greatly improve and maintain your reputation marketing. Customers are more likely to overlook a one-star review if you have hundreds of positive reviews than they are if you only have ten positives.

Customers want to see several high rated, recent, real reviews. This assures them of the quality, consistency, and reliability of your company. Reputation marketing then takes these reviews and builds upon them to create more business for your company.

Building upon Reputation Marketing

Many reviews appear locally to the area around the business in searches. If you want to expand your reach further then you will want to build your reputation marketing strategy to include more aspects to reach more customers. When people are searching for what your company offers, by using SEO to boost your company’s search engine rankings in the desired cities you will reach a larger audience.

It’s also vital to ensure that your company features a mobile-friendly website as many people now access information via a mobile platform. Having a site that is easy to navigate and read from a mobile view is extremely important. If you have a business that people may be looking for while they are out and about, this is especially true.

Other Benefits of Reputation Marketing

Reputation marketing has other benefits that come along with having a strong review base. When you set your company apart from others with consistently high reviews, you prove the worth of your company and your product.

With a large amount of consistently positive reviews, you will drown out the few negative reviews that your company will naturally receive. You can learn from negative reviews, but for the most part you want to focus on the good and ensure that your company’s reputation marketing is ahead of the game.

If they value customer service, but your company has several negative reviews about customer service, then they may choose to make their purchase from another company. It’s ideal to have positive reviews across several review outlets. You should always be encouraging your customers to leave positive reviews as a steady flow of positive reviews will greatly improve and maintain your reputation marketing. Customers are more likely to overlook a one-star review if you have hundreds of positive reviews than they are if you only have ten positives.

With a large amount of consistently positive reviews, you will drown out the few negative reviews that your company will naturally receive from some people who just can’t be pleased or your competition that wants to tarnish your otherwise stellar reputation.

LocalAd Connection
1700 E.Sunrise Blvd Ste 1213
Ft Lauderdale, Florida 33304
Call Us Today: (USA) 1-954-266-0078

How Online Reputation Marketing Will Get You New Business

Online Reputation Marketing and Reputation Management Services are Essential to Your Business’ Success

Online reputation marketing is the single most critical aspect of advertising or promotion for both small and large business owners. And with competition tighter than ever, businesses are seeing that Online Reputation Marketing is now a necessity. Part of having a positive online reputation is having at least 6-10 positive online reviews, (preferably in video form) and making sure your company brand presents a trustworthy, reliable, and credible image, everywhere your business appears online.

Online reputation marketing is one of the most effective forms of marketing today. Online reputation marketing is a combination of good public relations and savvy Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and marketing techniques, two marketing disciplines that require very different skill sets. Online Reputation Marketing will give you the edge that your business needs to brand you as a leader in your industry and crush your competition, resulting in greater online visibility, authority, and higher conversion rates, ultimately giving you more customers and increasing your bottom line.

Reputation has top importance in business. Reputation management helps you in building brand recognition while both building and maintaining a strong positive reputation.  You put a lot of effort in shaping your business and struggle to improve its online visibility. At times you feel that you have put in your 100% efforts. Yet, there are dissatisfied customers not pleased with your products or services and they publish negative reviews that often directly affects whether you will receive new customers.

For example, 97% 0f those aged 18 – 34 will consider online reviews in judging whether to hire a business. 88% of referrals from friends or family will search that business online to see what other people think about that business before calling them. With those and other impressive statistics, it becomes clear how essential a good online reputation is to any business.

Managing Online Reputation

Online reputation management is in part monitoring the status of your business on internet by managing the negative content that is destroying your reputation and using positive customer feedback to build or rebuild a good reputation. If you provide a great experience to your customers, they share it with their friends, the internet and the good words spread. If your business has good reputation, and you get the exposure online to make your target audience aware of your existence, your business will grow to generate more revenue.

Hence, every business should know what others are saying about you. Monitor the web by activating  alerts and automated or personal responses for all situations to catch a potentially bad review coming out or at least diffusing it through a variety of methods used by LocalAd Connection. See the negative content before it is published, react to it by engaging the dissatisfied customer to see if the negative experience can be resolved, or react to it in an accountable, responsible, reasonable and trustworthy manner, and manage searches for your business with links, proper and broad listings, and accurate business details on maps. Use customers’ feedback, testimonials and reviews to distinguish you from your competition in how you identify yourself and how customers view you. Read more here.

Effective online reputation marketing tools

You can easily measure any celebrity’s success by one thing: their reputation. Celebs with questionable track records tend to star in less movies and make less money. This same notion can be applied to your company. By investing in the creation of a well-liked and interactive online reputation, the chances of skyrocketing towards success is a mere hop, skip and a jump away. Here are some tried and tested reputation marketing tools that LocalAd Connection has employed and you should consider:

5 Star Video Review Commercials- Satisfied customers write or give video 5 star reviews commending your business for the excellent service and value your company has given them. Some customers are uncomfortable being in the video or it is inconvenient for them to do so. No worries, LocalAd Connection specializes in producing 45-60 second video review commercials are a powerful reputation and branding strategy because we:
– Use professional spokes models
– We shoot in a Hollywood style studio
– We professionally edit and brand each video to position you as a market leader in your niche
– We promote your reputation by highlighting a 5 star review you have received
– We create primetime graphics and animation, as well as create an on-location view of someone reading about your 5 star reputation. Since Google acquired YouTube having such a video on Google+ and on your website will enhance your search engine results page (SERP) rankings. Moreover, 90 billion videos are watched each month and visitors will spend 88% more time on your website if it has video.

Benefits of a Good Online Reputation Management

online_reputation_marketing

Reputation management on the web is not just about countering negative content and generating positive reviews. It’s about building a reputation that makes a brand synonymous with its core values and the primary needs of its target market. This is precisely why businesses need to have a comprehensive online reputation management strategy in place.

A solid positive reputation has several direct and indirect benefits for businesses:

  • A strong and well-managed online reputation ensures that businesses have a great first impression on their prospects. It focuses on building a positive brand image by identifying the key customer needs, desires, anxieties, fears, goals, motivations, and assurances while using them to build positive first impressions.
  • A comprehensive online reputation management strategy not only highlights the strengths of a business, differentiating your business from the competition, but also effectively counters any negative propaganda by its competitors and its own negative reviews.
  • A strong online reputation that increases trust, which translates into a higher chance of cold visitors turning into customers.
  • A good online reputation helps businesses establish themselves as perceived leaders in your industry and the “go-to” source for all industry-related problems. This helps businesses earn free media coverage and elevates them above the competition.

In sum, online reputation marketing is the single most important manner of advertising or promotion for both large and small business owners. Online Reputation Marketing and Reputation Management can be used either for increasing positive brand and keyword content driven search results or dissipate negative content that appears within search engines through brand or keyword searches, or both.  Online reputation marketing will ensure that positive reviews about you will dominate the online world! Online reputation marketing is a complex process, but it is also tantamount to your business’ success as much as reputation management.

Visit LocalAdConnection.com to see how online reputation marketing and reputation management can help your business increase its bottom line. Isn’t that really the bottom line?

LocalAd Connection
1700 E.Sunrise Blvd Ste 1213
Ft Lauderdale, Florida 33304
Call Us Today: (USA) 1-954-266-0078

Call Us For More Info: (954) 266-0078

 

 

 

 

Copyright Disclaimer:  Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.

 

Local Ad Connection Your Online Reputation Marketing Solution

Reputation Marketing is an Absolute Must for local businesses…

 88% (Of Consumers) Say They Trust Online Reviews As Much As Personal Recommendations.
But here is the REAL QUESTION?
“Do reviews affect consumer buying habit?” …YES, of course!

97% (Of Consumers) Aged 18-34 Read Online Reviews to JUDGE a Local Business Online RATINGS.

92% of consumers look at online reviews before a purchase.

Consumers read an average of 10 reviews or testimonials before making a decision to buy from a business.

If you don’t have at Ten 5 Star Reviews, your business is losing customers to your competition…. Lost Sales and Lost revenue.

Question:   Why Reputation Marketing?

Answer:  To Crush your online competition and brand your company as an industry leader in your field.  In short, it gets your phone ringing and video 5 Star Reviews go a long way in building that positive online reputation.

88% (of consumers) stayed on a website longer when there was a video.

Since Google acquired YouTube, and approximately 80 million videos are watched each day, just having 5 Star Video Review Commercials will boost your ranking in searches done by targeted audiences.  Hence, it is also an effective SEO technique as well as solving your reputation issues.

Want A Video Like This for your Company?

Online_Reputation_Marketing

Call For a “FREE STRATEGY CALL” Session with one of our Senior Producers Today!   Be part of this Limited Time local business beta program.

Call Us Today:
LocalAd Connection
1700 E.Sunrise Blvd Ste 1213
Ft Lauderdale, Florida 33304
(USA) 1-954-266-0078

Call Us For More Info: (954) 266-0078

 

 

 

 

Copyright Disclaimer:  Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.