When was the last time you asked your customer to leave a Google review? If you don’t even remember then you’ve got some serious work to do.
In today’s video we breakdown why it’s so important to get consistent and authentic Google reviews. Some of the benefits include your Google LSA (Local Service Ads) ad rank, map rankings and social proof.
Hey, what’s up everybody. Welcome to the Ironclad Marketing Minute. My name is Benjamin Ricciardi with Ironclad Restoration Marketing. And today’s Marketing Minute tip is all about your online reputation. That’s right, your rep and how it looks to your target customers.
Now, one of the most important things you can be doing for your restoration business or any home service business that relies on leads coming in from the internet is making sure that you are getting consistent Authentic Google reviews to your Google business profile.
These reviews are paramount and crucial. And if I had to start a restoration company tomorrow with limited to no budget at all, the first thing that I would be doing is establishing a Google business profile and getting as many Google reviews as I could on a consistent basis that were authentic to the type of jobs that I was doing.
Now, Google reviews are so important for your business because they do a few things. Do they show amazing social proof to your business, basically telling people that you are a legitimate, trustworthy company for them to do business with, but they are also tied into your Google Maps rankings and your LSA rankings.
So if you’re spending money on any type of digital marketing, there’s a good chance that your Google reviews are going to affect those modalities in a negative or positive manner if you’re getting them done consistently.
Now for social proof, how many of you out there, and I know that I’m not going to be able to see you, but I’m just going to pretend that I can see all of your hands to everybody that’s watching this video.
How many people out there use Google to find a new product or service in the last week, whether that be a restaurant or looking up some sort of product that you need to replace in your home. I’ll wait.
I can see that probably every single one of you raves your hands and use a search engine to find those products or services. And the same thing for home services like the restoration industry. When somebody needs restoration done on their property, or if it’s commercial, they’re going to go into a search engine and they’re going to look up somebody near them.
Now they’re going to populate some results and the next thing that they’re going to do in this buyer’s journey Is vet out these companies by looking first at their google reviews now studies are showing that 93 of consumers that use search engines are making their buying decisions based off of google reviews.
And google has the lion’s share of all online reviews 75 and growing of all online reviews Including Facebook, Yelp, Angie’s List, 75 percent of those are going on to, that’s why we concentrate on Google mostly when we’re talking about SEO, social proof, and getting reviews. 89 percent of those users read recent Google reviews to help make their buying decisions.
So, if you’re like a lot of companies out there, that set up a Google business profile or my Google, my business or a Google plus or Google places, depending on what year you set it up and you did the typical thing where you would have everybody you know leave you a Google review and then just really never address your Google reviews ever after that, you want to pay close attention to this, especially if you’re spending money on digital marketing.
I mentioned before, that your google reviews are a great way to convert eyeballs into sales. Meaning it’s showing social proof other people are talking about how great of a company you are. At the same rate, the Google reviews are tied into your maps rankings to your Google business profile. And now based off of a recent algorithm update, those maps rankings are now tied into your organic search rankings.
So if you’re spending money on SEO, you’re spending money on Google business profile management. You’re going to need to make sure that you have systems in place to be able to get consistent authentic reviews from your customers.
Now if you’re running Google ads and specifically the LSA program, these Google reviews also affect that. In fact, you cannot get approved for an LSA program for your restoration company until you have at least three.
So if you have not built systems into your company to be able to get Google reviews for your company on a consistent basis, then you need to start thinking about how it is that you can do that or you can partner with a bunch of reputation management companies out there.
We like to talk with Liftify to help you get your online reputation back healthy and getting you those reviews in consistently to be able to affect in a positive way, your ex SEO, your Google business profile, your LSA, and giving you really good social proof to be able to convert that traffic into sales for your business.
One of the best ways that you can get Google reviews for your business is it is just asking for that Google review and can continue to ask your customer for that review until they tell you to pound rocks or they leave you the review. One of the best ways is to just text them a Google review link.
You can generate these links right from your Google business profile that’ll give you a shortened URL that you can text, email, even print out on a QR code and give to every one of your customers when they are the happiest.
Now, for some of you, the happiest time for them might just be getting you in the door to help mitigate their problems for others that are maybe into more of the reconstruction. It’s when you’re leaving the project and you’re leaving that customer in a good space.
They’ve just gotten their kitchen back after a fire or a flood. They’ll be more apt to take action and leave you a review. 75 percent return on those reviews using that style. of tactic to get the review back. Also, there’s statistics out there that show that 70 percent of people will leave you a review just because you asked.
So if you’re afraid to ask for a review or you don’t have systems in place for your techs or your project managers to get reviews, you need to really start thinking internally and how you’re going to build those systems into place to get reviews from your customers to help grow your online footprint and give you some really good kickstarts on getting better results when it comes to conversions. That’s it for today. We’ll see you next month.
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Benjamin Ricciardi is the founder of Ironclad Restoration Marketing, A digital marketing agency that specializes in the Restoration and Cleaning industry based in South Florida. Benjamin is the author of The No Bulls**t Guide to Internet Marketing for Restoration Contractors and hosts The Restoration Rundown Podcast, a podcast that is focused on everything related to marketing and owning a Restoration and Cleaning Business. Connect with Benjamin and Ironclad Restoration Marketing on social media for the latest tips and tricks on how to grow your Restoration Business.