Do you Google yourself and like what you see? Over 70% of potential customers who are considering a purchase or service do a search of the business before buying.   Over 80% have changed a purchase decision due to a bad review they saw on the internet as well.

What is Reputation Marketing?

Your online reputation is important.  Ten years ago the buzzword and way to pickup easy business was to ask for referrals.  These days, equally important is that you have a stellar reputation online. With the majority of consumers searching online to evaluate businesses, bad reviews about your business can gravely affect their purchasing decision. This is why it is critical to monitor your online reputation and take a plan of action to aggressively monitor your reputation as well as make sure you look better than the competition.

Why Monitor Your Online Reputation?

Your business can be at the mercy of online commentaries – good, bad or neutral, they can hurt or make your business. You can choose to “let the chips fall as they may”,  or you can monitor and market these reviews and use them to your advantage! Online reputation monitoring allows you to respond to negative comments the moment they appear on the Internet, as well as promote the positive reviews by helping them “go viral” and spread like wildfire.  You need a system in place that notifies you of public reviews on a daily basis, or you can simply fall behind.

Also, 44% of online adults have sought out reviews about someone whose services they seek in a professional capacity, like a dentist, lawyer, roofer, or plumber. You should give an impeccable “first impression” online.

What Do We Do?

• Build a directory presence – There are many “directories” on the internet that have almost put the traditional “Yellow Pages” out of business. Sites like Yelp, Angie’s List, Yellow Book, Kudzoo, Merchant Circle, and many others. These are not only directories, but review pages as well. Having a presence on these pages is critical. We’ll make sure you have a directory presence on highly visited directory sites. A plus to this, is these sites are commonly found when people do a search for your services on Google, Bing, and Yahoo. When combine reputation marketing and SEO for a company, in addition to getting their website and Facebook pages on page one, we also work to get these on page one, so our companies can be on the first page multiple times.

• Public Review Monitoring – We’ll check every review site online on a daily basis and report any new reviews, both good or bad back to you by email. This way you can take action if you need to on any “not so perfect” reviews, or thank your customers for the great reviews immediately as well.

• Custom review page– We build a custom review page designed for your business that will act as a “catch-all” review site. Rather than let your customers post reviews on their own, you’ll actively send your clients to this special review page . This way we can aggressively control the review process. We’ll also automatically send them an email thanking them personally, as well as one to you letting you know it was posted.

• Hide Negative Reviews – Any reviews 3 stars and below will not be posted anywhere at all… but you and your client will still be sent emails, yours letting you know some damage control is needed, and the client will get one asking them to contact you so you can remedy the problem. This is reputation damage control at its finest… you don’t want one person who has a chip on his shoulder (or a competitor!) hurt your reputation.

• Make positive reviews viral– We then market the good reviews- In addition, when a positive review comes in, we’ll convert it to an image then post these reviews on your website, Facebook page, send them out by Twitter, put them on Pinterest, Flickr, Foursquare and Photobucket, and when we get enough create a video for Youtube. This lets us aggressively market the good reviews and put them in front of potential clients, and hide the “not so good” ones. So… the program hides poor reviews, and spreads good ones all over the internet!

• Custom Review App– We build a custom mobile app that you put on a tablet or smartphone and have your serviceman present it to a customer when the work has been done. As they leave, you have them ask the client “to give us feedback” and hand them the tablet. The app then posts all 4 and 5 star reviews to Google+ or Yelp. Like the custom review page, any reviews that are 3 stars or lower will not be published.  This helps you get more reviews, and like the review page, sorts the good from the bad.

• Custom Marketing Materials – We build you a portal online where you can order custom biz cards, popups and other materials pre-designed with your company graphics. You choose which materials you need and can order them directly through the site. You can mail these postcards to your clients after the job is done, have your people leave them with a business card, or display these in your place of business. They ask the clients to go leave you reviews, and provide them with QR codes they can grab with their cell phones that take them directly to your review sites.  It’s another tool to separate you from the competition.

• Monthly Reporting – We’ll send you a monthly report that shows you the number of reviews that have been posted about your company for the prior month.

• Employee Training – Build a culture of success. We give you access to a website where you can have your employees go to and watch a series of videos that explain how important it is for your business to have as many or more reviews than the competition. They watch the videos and take a test at the end.  I know to some that this sounds corny, but it’s important to create an atmosphere in your business that is focused on getting a 4-5 star review from every customer.

Which One are You?

More than 75% of consumers “Google” a company before doing business with them, and over 80% of people have changed their minds about a purchase due to a poor review, or lack of good reviews. It’s critical that when someone is comparing companies you have as many or more reviews than the next guy.

On Google, a company with those little stars next to their name stands out… and people trust the accuracy.