A Halt in Traffic: Lack of Reviews is Effecting Your Business and Here’s Why

Reviews are a great way for your customers to get an idea of what your customer service is like. Through reviews they know what services your offer, how well you offer them, and the quality of your products without even leaving their home.

Reviews are also a valuable tool for a business to know what their customers think about them. It’s a convenient way to get honest feedback of your services and find out what you need to fix to keep your customers satisfied.

What your customers say about you is just as much advertising for your business as any marketing strategy you could employ. It’s unfiltered, honest, and sometimes a bit dramatic.

While reviews can be loud and sometimes deceiving, no reviews at all can garner the same effect. Are no reviews better than bad reviews? Read ahead to find out.

Is your business good or bad? No one knows…

90% of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business. If there are no reviews, there’s no way for a potential consumer to know whether your business is worth visiting or not.

Google has made it convenient to avoid businesses that have a bad reputation without setting foot near their actual establishment. Ensuring good customer service, professionalism, and reliability are now easier than ever.

While this has made the shopping process easier on the consumer, the same can’t be said for businesses. Why would a customer visit a business with no online reviews when they can find a place that people can confirm they will have a good experience?

Place yourself in the mindset of a consumer. When you’re looking for a product or service, chances are you are not in the mood to experiment with quality and service. A business with a lack of reviews leaves much to the imagination.

Unfortunately, reviews are one of those things that without them, people will stay away. How do you get more reviews to establish the authenticity and reliability that you know your business has?

• Encourage customers who buy a product to review your business at the check-out counter or shopping cart
  
• Follow-up with a customer to see how they like their product or service and ask permission to publish their responses or quotes

Customers can’t trust your business

As with anything, rather than jump into something they know nothing about, customers like to do a little research about a business before they visit. They want to know all about who you are, what you do, and how you do it.

It’s fair to say you wouldn’t hand your money over to a stranger. Neither would a potential customer trust a business they know nothing about.

For instance, if you’re looking to get your wedding cake made, an online review of a local bakery could go a long way. What does this bakery offer? What do their cakes taste like? Are the bakers experienced in making what I want? Will they deliver on time?

You’re not going to go to a bakery that has no reviews. What if you get stuck with a cake that looks terrible or tastes… not like cake?

Your customer is the same. 72% of customers say that positive reviews make them trust a local business more an 88% of customers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

Don’t make the review process a chore

It’s common for people to think “I had a good experience with this company. I don’t feel compelled to write a positive review because if my experience wasn’t positive, then I would let people know about it”.

This mentality follows the idea that people are more likely to post negative reviews rather than positive ones. You need to encourage your customers to move away from this mentality and share their good experiences, just as they share the bad.

Just because there are no positive reviews doesn’t mean there are no positive experiences—but your customers don’t know that. Increase the amount of positive reviews for your company by making the review process as easy and attractive as possible:

• Send a direct link to your profile on review sites
• Encourage your customer to rate your company on Facebook
• Provide incentive for posting a review
• Create a memorable customer service experience worth sharing

A few reviews are better than no reviews. Make it a point to share your positive reviews across social media platforms for maximum visibility.

The importance of online reviews

Business that are “comfortable” with their following and can’t complain about their profits tend to ignore online reviews. They are satisfied with what they can see in front of them, but they have no idea how the internet could ruin their reputation or stunt them from growth.

Online reviews influence:

• Buying decisions
• Online rankings
• Conversion rates

Customers are likely to spend 31% more on a business with “excellent” reviews. Businesses that neglect the importance of online reviews are missing out on profits. They’re not necessarily losing money but they could be making a lot more.

There will always be competitors. Online reviews affect how you fare against local competition and can keep you aware of your shortcomings.

The more honest reviews you have, the more your product will sell because customers must find out for themselves if what is being said is true. These reviews are sincere and show that your company has nothing to hide.

How to Market Your eBook to Boost Web Traffic

So, you’ve written an eBook and are excited about the prospects of boosting your website traffic and sales. But, what do you do when no one seems to be interested in purchasing your eBook? You need to ensure you’re doing everything you can to properly market your new eBook.

You don’t want your hard work to go to waste. The longer your eBook goes without any purchases, the less effective it will be. Before you upload your eBook to Amazon or begin self-distributing it, make sure you know how to market your eBook.

Create Landing Pages for Your eBook

Create targeted landing pages to entice visitors to want to purchase your eBook. These landing pages should target a specific demographic, which is why you should create more than one. Focus on a demographic and write as if you’re writing directly to your target audience.

Towards the bottom of your landing pages, you should include a call to action that links to an opt-in form. Start building an email list. As the release date for your eBook approaches, you can send your subscribers email updates.

Start Blogging About Your eBook

Along with landing pages, you should use blog posts to help promote your eBook. This is similar to using a landing page to help with marketing. Except, instead of creating website copy, you’re creating an article discussing a topic related to your eBook.

Readers that enjoy your reading and the information that you provide may be interested in learning more about your eBook.

Before you’ve released your eBook, include an opt-in form at the end of your blog posts. After the release of your eBook, link to the location where they can purchase or download your eBook.

Offer Your eBook for Free for a Limited Time

After releasing your eBook, consider giving it away for several days, as part of a promotion. This should provide you with a handful of downloads. These early readers are more likely to leave positive reviews, as they received the eBook for free.

With a handful of good reviews, you’re on the path towards an increasing interest in your eBook. If you decide to release your book through Amazon, you’ll be able to set up a period where your eBook is available for free.

Create a PPC Campaign for Your eBook

Once you’ve released your eBook, use a PPC campaign to help attract more readers. PPC campaigns provide a cost effective solution for marketing your eBook.

Google owns about 67% of the PPC market. But, they’re not your only option for paid advertising. You could also advertise on Facebook or promote your tweets on Twitter.

Add Positive Reviews to Your Landing Pages

Once you start getting positive reviews coming in, include several excerpts on your landing pages. This is similar to adding testimonials to a landing page. It shows visitors that you have something of value.

You should also look for any other beneficial details to include on your landing page. For example, if you happen to make it onto one of the bestseller lists, make sure that you mention this on your landing page. If you have sold thousands of copies, then mention the popularity of your eBooks.

Marketing an eBook is similar to marketing any other product or service. You need to develop your strategy before you release your product or service.

Creating an eBook is an effective way to reach more customers. Use these tips to market your eBook. Get the most out of your eBook and start establishing yourself as a voice of authority in your market. For additional online marketing tips and a lead generation system, be sure to check out my done-for-you system.

Burying Bad Reviews with Better Reputation Management

Your online reputation can make or break your chances of success. You need to maintain a positive image, whether you’re selling affiliate products or producing your own items.

When a customer leaves a negative review, it can cause potential prospects to reconsider their decision. You could lose sales due to these negative responses, which is why you need to bury them as quickly as possible.

Typically, you can’t make bad reviews go away. Once they’re posted online, they are there to stay.

But, with better reputation management, you can start to bury these reviews and limit their impact on future business.

Dealing with Negative Responses on Social Media

One of the biggest forums for negative feedback is social media. People love to share their experiences on Twitter and Facebook. You should have an email alert to let you know when someone mentions your brand in a post.

When you notice a negative response on social media, you should respond quickly. A fast response can diffuse the situation and this could be one of the few opportunities that you’ve got to actually remove a negative response.

Respond to the person leaving the negative response by sending them a direct message. Send them a message to find out how you can resolve their issue. If corrective action is taken, and they’re happy with the results, then you can publicly comment on their initial comment.

This public comment shows that you’ve resolved the issue, but it doesn’t include any details of the conversation that you’ve had with the customer.

Dealing with Negative Responses on Review Sites

If the negative response was left on a review site, you probably won’t be able to get the review removed. But, you may be able to keep the customer.

As with the previous tip, you’ll want to respond to these reviews as soon as possible. Always respond in a friendly manner and ask how you can solve their problem. You may need to offer a refund or a discount. But, that’s a small step when it comes to your online reputation.

Encourage Satisfied Customers to Leave Positive Reviews

The next step for burying bad reviews is to encourage your happy customers to leave good reviews. When you send an invoice to a customer, it should include a small thank you, along with a reminder for them to leave their feedback online.

You don’t have to directly ask your customers to leave a good review. But, you can encourage them. You can also leave these reminds on your order confirmation page or contact page.

Make a List of Negative Responses

You should also start compiling a list of negative responses to the products or services that you’re trying to sell. Make notes about the most common complaints.

If you start to see similar feedback from multiple customers, then there could be a problem with the items that you’re selling. These notes will help identify the main issues with your products or services.

If you’re responsible for the development of your products or services, you can use this feedback to improve your offerings. By delivering a better product or services, you can gain more positive reviews and comments.

In the end, the best way to overcome negative reviews to get positive reviews. At the same time, you can attempt to keep your customers happy. Respond to their negative comments in a timely manner. And, remember to encourage your satisfied customers to leave their feedback.

Along with these reputation management suggestions, you can find even more marketing tips and ideas, along with a system for generating conversion-ready internet prospects, by clicking here to learn about my done-for-you system.

4 Ways to Offer Proof in Your Online Marketing Claims

No matter how honest you are with your marketing efforts, consumers aren’t so quick to accept your claims without proof. When you say that your product or service offers a specific benefit, consumers want some sort of evidence that backs your claims.

Including proof isn’t hard. It’s an extra step, but it can go a long way towards increasing conversion rates. From customer testimonials to verifiable statistics, learn how to offer proof in your marketing.

Customer Testimonials

The most used and well-known form of proof is customer testimonials. The concept is simple. You’re including actual comments from people that have actually used your products or services.

There are multiple ways to obtain these testimonials and to use them in your marketing. For obtaining comments and testimonials, consider the following options:

• Social media comments
• Ask for customer feedback
• Offer free evaluations

The easiest solution is to pull social media comments. Look for positive comments and reviews about your products or services on Facebook, Twitter, and other sites.

Another option is to ask for customer feedback. Send a survey out to your customers via email and ask for their input.

Just make sure that you let them know that their comments will be used in your marketing material. You can even include a section to allow them to choose whether they want their name to be used.

Some businesses send out free products or services and ask for customer feedback. When using these evaluations, you need to mention the fact that the customers received the product for free.

Along with obtaining testimonials, there are different ways of displaying them. The methods listed above are among the easiest. But, you could also film customer testimonials.

Think of the last infomercial that you’ve seen. They always include customers on film discussing what they liked about the product or services.

You can film customer testimonials and include them on your landing pages. Though, that’ll require a little more work than the other options.

Online Reviews and Ratings

The next form of proof is similar to customer testimonials. Using online reviews and ratings from review sites, you can offer potential customers proof that people have used and enjoyed your products or services.

Adding these reviews to your landing pages or marketing material is different from customer testimonials. You would normally include a summary of these reviews and then link to the actual page containing the reviews.

Showcase Badges or Certifications

Certifications, badges, and seals can also be used to offer proof of your abilities. You’ll see these certificates at the bottom of various landing pages.

This could include BBB accreditation, awards, and other proof that builds credibility. These should always link to a page where visitors can learn more about the certificate or badge.

Link to Stats and Figures

The majority of the previous steps are aimed at showing proof of your abilities or the effectiveness of your products or services. This last step is designed to show that you know what you’re talking about.

For example, if you claim that more people now use mobile devices for browsing the web, you should link to a study or a web page that backs up this claim.

Offering proof is becoming increasingly important. It helps prospects weed out the scams. Without this simple step, you could be missing out on a portion of the marketplace.

Use these suggestions to offer proof of any claims that you make. If you’d like to have access to more powerful marketing solutions, along with a method for generating conversion-ready internet marketing credprospects each month, then click here to learn about my done-for-you system.