Review management helps improve your online reputation. Reviews are vital for keeping your business going, and they’re only going to become more important. Our internet marketing agency helps manage online reviews to improve your internet presence and encourage great experiences with your company.
Why Online Reputation Management from your Internet Marketing Agency is Essential
Why invest in reputation management services from our team? What’s the big deal about reviews, anyway?
Reviews are some of the most important pieces of social proof available today. Online reviews of your business can drive business to you or take it away.
Review monitoring services are a cost-effective and no-hassle way to handle reviews that impact your business.
Customers are Checking In Before Visiting You
Perhaps one of the most compelling reasons to work with our Houston digital marketing agency for online review management is that people are checking your reviews all the time!
In fact, many people view online reviews similar to personal recommendations from their friends and family. Studies show that about half of people are willing to go a little farther and pay a little more to work with a business with high reviews. About 92% of people surveyed won’t even consider working with a business that has a one or two star rating, and about 28% of people have checked reviews in the parking lot or right outside the door to decide whether they should enter a business or not.
Bottom line: online reviews affect your business.
People are always going to trust other people more than your brand. They want to hear what other people have to say. Reviews are also a great way to gauge what to expect from a business before giving them your hard-earned dollars.
So, people are definitely checking up on you before deciding to work with you. Your Houston digital marketing agency is here to help manage your online reputation and reviews to help you gain more business.
Gain Valuable Feedback from Online Reviews
Reviews are also an opportunity to get constructive feedback about your business. For example, let’s say you have a ton of positive reviews about one employee, but quite a few negative ones about another one. This information may give you an idea of who is offering great customer service and who may be missing the mark. You might provide additional training for the person in the negative reviews and make the one in the positive reviews employee of the month!
Simply put, reviews offer insights you might not otherwise be privy to.
At the most basic level, online reviews are customers sharing their opinions with you. Granted, some are more valuable than others. For example, there are some people on the internet who post unfounded negative reviews to try to get freebies from brands. These aren’t very helpful for your business.
However, authentic reviews may offer your business information on how you can better serve your customers. If a lot of people are happy about something, think twice before nixing it from your offerings. Our internet marketing agency keeps our ears to the ground through reviews and let you know about any trends we see.
Reviews Help with SEO
Trying to improve your search rankings and website traffic? Reviews also help with your SEO efforts. Reviews may influence your ranking on Google and other search engines. There are a few reasons why. First, review ratings can influence how search engines see your authority and trustworthiness. These are major ranking factors for the quality of your website.
Also, reviews often contain keywords and additional context for your business. Customers often use keywords in their reviews, which helps search engine crawlers tie your business to those terms. In your responses, you can also provide additional information about your business that search engines will pick up on. Remember, content is king, so the more content out there about and from your company, the better.
Our Internet Marketing Agency Responds to All Reviews to Help Your Business Succeed
So, what do you do with reviews? Just gather them up for people to see and forget about them? Absolutely not! Responding to reviews is key for your success.
Many businesses ignore their reviews, either because they don’t know how to respond, don’t realize they need to, or just don’t have the time to. Whatever the case, our internet marketing agency takes care of responding to reviews to improve your online reputation and presence.
Why respond to reviews? It shows people you care about what they have to say!
Responding to reviews gives you a chance to show current and potential customers that you appreciate the time they take to give your business feedback. Recent studies show that responding to reviews can help you gain more reviews and increase your ratings.
Also, keep in mind that negative reviews are valuable, too. It may feel like you should only seek positive reviews, but having one or two negative ones in a sea of positives won’t break your company. In fact, it can help show authenticity. Everyone makes mistakes, and negative reviews can help humanize your brand. The key is to respond to both positive and negative reviews in the right way to help market your business.
Positive Reviews
Many businesses today take a “squeaky wheel gets the grease” approach to responding to reviews. They only respond to the negative ones. This could actually be harming your business.
Think about it: you take time out of your busy schedule to give a raving review of a local business and thank them for helping you. Yours goes unnoticed, but a week later someone who bashes the business gets a three paragraph response. How would that make you feel? Unappreciated, maybe?
Responding to positive reviews helps you show gratitude to your current customers and inspire their ongoing loyalty. A quick and genuine thank you can go a long way.
Negative Reviews
When it comes to negative reviews, you also need to respond. In fact, many people today go straight to the negative reviews to see how your business handles issues. Did you fix the problem? Did you turn an unfortunate situation into a positive experience? Are you even listening? Responding to negative reviews can help turn angry customers into satisfied ones and show off your amazing customer service skills to potential customers.
However, you have to respond in the right way. Most businesses either get too defensive or are too quick to hand out coupons and freebies.
If you’re taking the first approach, you’re not gaining any points. The customer who left the review is likely angrier than before, especially since nothing gets resolved. What’s worse, potential customers can see these responses and may think you’re not good at fixing problems when they occur.
The other approach can open you up to fake negative reviews in order to take advantage of your generosity (or fear of negative reviews).
As a leading internet marketing agency, we regularly deal with negative reviews. Our Houston social media marketing experts know what kind of responses are necessary. In some cases, your response absolutely needs to be apologetic and helpful. In other cases, like unfounded negative claims, we may need to defend your business and explain your side of the story in a tactful, professional manner. We help your business walk this fine line to help manage your reputation online.
Work with an Experienced Internet Marketing Agency Today
No matter what industry you’re in, online marketing services help you take your business to the next level. As a top-rated internet marketing agency, we help Houston businesses find success on the web. Our goal is to help your business thrive with digital marketing services.
Whether you need more leads, reputation management, better conversions, or all of the above, our team is here to help you make that happen! We team up with you to help you grow your business. Ready to get started? Fill out our free digital marketing analysis or give us a call now at (832) 327-3230! We look forward to hearing from you!