For most businesses, their unsatisfied customers are the ones who are most vocal and splatter the Internet with scathing reviews on sites like Google Places, Yelp, and TripAdvisor.  This is to be expected as anger and frustration are strong emotions that can cause people to take action more easily than emotions of happiness and contentment.  To get feedback from your happy customers, you need to help them remember to share their satisfaction.

Using Reciprocity to Get Positive Feedback

In Robert Cialdini’s book, Influence: Science and Practice (Amazon Affiliate link), he writes about the power of reciprocity and how giving someone something without asking for anything creates a psychological obligation for that person to want to give back.  One of his examples is about the restaurant experience and how waiters who include mints or chocolates when they deliver the bill, often receive a larger tip than if they didn’t include anything with the bill.

I was traveling in Peru recently, and after our stay at the Casa Andina Private Collection Arequipa (highly recommend staying there — they took great care of us), the front desk gave us a small package that you can see below:

It’s a small packet with a message on the back thanking us for staying at their hotel.  When I opened the packet, I found this:

It’s a small llama pin.  Not the most significant a gift, but it’s relevant because you see these pins at the local markets, and it’s a simple souvenir.  Underneath the pin was a card:

It’s a small card that’s labelled as something from Tripadvisor.  Since I’m familiar with Tripadvisor (and I’m a Tripadvisor user and find value in the reviews), it put me in the mindset that Casa Andina was about to ask me for a favor.

And they did!

The left side of the card contains instructions to go to a URL at http://www.casa-andina.com/capc-a/ta which is an address that redirects to the hotel’s write a review page on Tripadvisor.

This process works because it has a few things in place.

1. Small, inexpensive gift that was relevant to my experience in Arequipa
2. Clear call to action on what is expected of me to help spread the word about my positive experience
3. An easy website URL that took me right to the review page without having to figure out how to get to the review page

Creating Your Own Review Process

What you should think about is how you can take this process and apply it to your business.  Your giveaway doesn’t need to be something physical like the llama pin, it can be information like tips or guidelines.  Try to think of something non-monetary, but highly correlated to the products and services you provide.

Be clear on your instructions and make then at most 3 steps.  Setup a page on your website or create redirects to easily get someone to your profile on the desired review site — something like http://www.yoursitename.com/yelp or http://www.yoursitename.com/google work great for getting people to your Yelp profile or Google Places profile.

I think Casa Andina is doing it right.  Positive feedback or lack of positive feedback can make or break your business so follow these guidelines to ensure your helping your happiest customers share their enthusiasm.

What would keep you from implementing a review process like this one?

Nothing hurts worse than getting your first negative review on Google Places or Yelp.  You panic and think about how your business is going to plummet.  You exclaim:  “That review is not true at all!”.

While not the end of the world, negative reviews need to be managed because you want to make sure your company and the products and services you deliver are accurately represented online.  No one is going to do this for you so you’ll need to have a plan.

Creating a Review Process

One way to manage negative reviews is to make sure that your company already has a process to request positive reviews from happy customers.  Google Places and Yelp are generally the most visible properties online where potential customers can read about your products and services.

The first thing to do is create a page on your website called “Reviews” that describes your review process and the benefits a positive review has for happy customers.  The page should contain links to your Google Places and Yelp profiles so it’s easy for people to get to your business profile on those sites to leave a review.  Make the address of the “Reviews” page something easy like www.yoursitename.com/reviews.

Asking for Reviews

Most satisfied customers are not going to leave reviews while unsatisfied or disgruntled customers will go out of their way to create a negative review of your business.  You can help collect positive reviews by asking your happy customers, if the could go to www.yoursitename.com/reviews and click on one of the links to leave a review.

Be specific in requesting either a Google Places or Yelp review so you don’t leave your customer wondering which one they should do.  Some will self-select, if they are already an active reviewer on that site.

Dealing With Negative Reviews

Inevitably, you will receive some negative review at some point.  If you’ve created a process to collect positive reviews, then this could look like an isolated incident.  One thing you should try to do is reach out to the customer who left the negative review and understand the root cause of their issue.  Never engage a negative reviewer publicly on the review site as this can easily turn into a public finger pointing exercise where no benefits, and you end up looking really bad.

Many negative reviews are posted in frustration or because of a misunderstanding, and once the offending issue is identified and a plan is put in place to “make good” on the issue, you can ask the customer who left the negative review to make an update.  If the customer refuses, then you will most likely have to live with the negative feedback.  This is why encouraging positive reviews regularly is so important.

Create a review process for your happy customers and make it easy for them to access your online review profiles through your website, and you will be in a good position should negative reviews happen to appear.

Image by krossbow

What are you doing to manage negative reviews that appear online?

Last year, online marketing for local companies crossed over from slightly overwhelming to completely overwhelming.  Figuring out how to create a consistent online presence across their website, local profiles, and social networks have left many local business owners scratching their heads and not knowing what to do.

Here are 5 local online marketing mistakes I saw and how they can be fixed

1. Static website without a blog — many local companies still have a brochure website that hasn’t been updated since 2006.  We know this because the copyright date in the footer is stuck in the past.  This problem is easily remedied by migrating the website to WordPress, a platform that has the ability to manage website pages and blog postings.
2. No call to action buttons on website — when I show up on your website and I read what you do, what next?  Give me a call to action button that offers something of value that will make me give you my email address so I can get access.  If you’ve given me something useful, I won’t mind hearing from you again in the future.
3. Unclaimed or incomplete Google Places profile — this is a big one because of the role Google now plays in local company discovery.  20% of all searches have local intent and by not claiming and completing your company’s Google Places profile, you give your competitors who have an advantage when Google determines which is the most relevant and authoritative company to display in the local search results.  Claim and complete your Google Places profile to give Google as much information as possible about your company as you can.
4. Missing address or phone number on website — this still happens and not only does it make it difficult for your website visitors to contact you, but it makes it difficult for Google to associate your website with your Google Places profile.  Any valuable content that you’ve added to your website can help Google better understand what your company is all about and affect when your Google Places profile is displayed in the search results.
5. No social network presence — Twitter, Facebook, and now Google+ are here to stay.  If you haven’t yet created a profile on each social network, then now’s the time.  Even if you’re not ready to start making updates, get the profiles setup so you can at least choose a profile name that’s consistent with your company name.  Upload your company logo so there’s a simple connection to your brand.

It’s not too late to make these adjustments, and they will go a long way to help you improve your overall online presence.  People’s expectations of how companies, even local companies, present themselves online has greatly increased and those companies perceived as “getting it” will be the ones who flourish in 2012 and beyond.

Image by TehLonz

What other online marketing mistakes have you seen local companies make?

Today, the biggest online marketing challenge for local businesses is not putting up a website, it’s knowing what else needs to be established online to give the business total ownership of their local online presence.

Franchise businesses that have the power of corporate branding and messaging have a definite advantage, but they must evolve beyond providing their franchisees with a stock landing page hanging off the corporate URL with the only differences being name, address, and phone number.

Here are 11 things national brands can provide their local representatives to enable them to create a comprehensive local marketing presence as defined in Local SEO – Owning Your Local Online Presence:

1. Ditch the landing page and give reps the ability to register their own domain on a simple hosting account and install WordPress with a single click
2. Provide a branded WordPress theme that can be installed and easily customized with local imagery either taken by the rep or provided through a royalty-free repository
3. Distribute a recommended site map and keyword-rich seed content so reps know what needs to be included on their site
4. Publish a list of relevant blog topics with examples of how they can be used during different times of the year — the same topic can often be used in June and January, but with slight alterations due to the season
5. Give instructions on how to claim and complete Google Places and Bing profiles for maximum visibility for specific searches
6. Provide a list of recommended local profile sites like Yelp, MerchantCircle, and Manta where the rep can publish an online business listing
7. Distribute a walk-through of how to create a Facebook page, Twitter account, and LinkedIn profile to build out a presence in social media
8. Teach reps how to create a Google Analytics account and implement tracking on their website
9. Create training on getting started using social networks, getting followers, and posting non-salesy, value-added updates
10. Develop email auto responder capabilities that can be plugged into rep websites to nurture leads into prospects
11. Provide reps with customizable presentations that can be used for webinars for local prospects

Ultimately, a successful local online presence that captures leads and converts them to prospects requires technology, content, process, and training.  Armed with knowing exactly what they need to do, local reps can do some of the pieces themselves or can easily turn to their nephew, assistant, or an outsourcer who will have a specific playbook to follow.

Not knowing what needs to be done is what prevents many local business owners from establishing a successful local online presence, but a national brand has the resources to create and maintain the online marketing guidelines that will help their revenue generators be successful.

What else can national brands do to connect to a local presence?

Image by loop_oh

Local SEO master, Mike Blumenthal, put together an awesome infographic at the beginning of this year that clearly lays out the various assets and activities required to create a comprehensive local online presence.  The core begins with the business name, phone number, and domain name that can then be used to populate the primary local online assets — N.A.P. (an acronym for Name, Address, Phone Number which are key pieces of data for syncing local profile data), website, and blog.

Web Equity by Mike Blumenthal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.blumenthals.com.

Owning Local Web Presence in Search

The left side of the chart describes what assets / activities are help with search visibility.  The breadth of which are local directory listings which need to exist to allow links, citations, and reviews to be created and picked up by Google.  Creating local directory profiles on sites that are authoritative and relevant to your industry provide clear indicators to Google about the context of your company when determining to display your Places listing or website in search results.

Owning Local Web Presence in Social Media

On the other side of the graphic, Mike presents those components essential to owning your social media presence online.  If word of mouth is the lifeblood of many local companies, then social media is like word of mouth on steroids as it gives the business owner the ability to stay in direct contact with prospects and customers through social media updates focused on news, events, or just dropping knowledge on that companies area of expertise.

To really own your online presence, you must stake a claim on both sides — search and social — and engage in some level of ongoing activity.  The ubiquity of scale marketing which used to not be accessible to local companies is now an affordable option that can dwarf traditional direct marketing (mailers, flyers, postcards, etc.) in cost effectiveness and new business creation.

Have you fully claimed your local online presence?

I continue to be asked about Google+ pages and what businesses should be doing about them.

My recommendation is that, at minimim, business owners should create a Google+ page for their business and let their current followers know through their website and other social network updates.

If you see a significant increase in the number of followers of your Google+ page, then you know it’s a channel where your prospects and customers are gravitating towards.  If there is no increase in Google+ followers, then continue to publish in those channels where your followers are most responsive.

Here are some articles and resources from around the web about the recent Google+ update and what it means for your business:

Google+ Pages Now Open For Businesses, Brands, Places & More - Search Engine Land

Google Plus Rolls Out Brand Pages - Duct Tape Marketing

Introducing Google Plus Pages, Google Plus For Businesses & Brands – ReelSEO

HOW-TO: Create a Google+ Page For Your Company - Accelerated Online

How to Optimize Your Google+ Business Page [Free Ebook] - HubSpot

I recommend reading each of these, then creating your own Google+ page for your company.  If you’ve already created one for Facebook, the process is similar, if not easier.

Do you plan to create a Google+ page for your business?

About two weeks ago, Google released an update to the way it displays local results to give more prominence to Google Places data on the blended search results page.  In cases where Google can determine an exact match, typically for searches that include a business name and location reference, they are now displaying results like what appears below.

Notice the new look for the Places result:

1. Five images from the Google Places profile appear as thumbnails
2. A short snippet from the Places descriptions appears as “At a glance” info
3. The hours appear
4. In this case, the closest subway appears that displays the Google Maps page when clicked so you can get directions easily

Importance of Completing a Google Places Profile

In a previous on how to claim a Google Places profile, I talked about making sure the profile be completed as thoroughly as possible.  You can see why.

Both images and details are being surfaced in the blended search results, and when Google displays internal site links for your site, you can dominate most of the search results.  Mostly, this will only happen when people search specifically for your company name, but it demonstrates authority in the online world.

To make your business shine online, claim and complete your Google Places profile to take advantage of the prominence that Google now gives to its Places profiles in the blended search results.

Have you noticed the new Google Places look for your business or other businesses when searching?

Last week, Google released a highly anticipated featured to Google+ — business pages.  Now, any organization can create a presence on Google+ and use the Circle and Hangout features to connect to prospects and customers.  Similar to Facebook and Twitter, Google+ allows your to post updates about your business and interact with followers.

Does your business need to be on Google+?  Time will tell, but the first step is setting up a profile for your business and letting others know that your now setup on Google+.

Step 1) Start the creation process by going to http://plus.google.com and click on the Create a Google+ Page link in the right sidebar.

Step 2) Select the type of organization you are.  Different information will need to be completed and will be displayed depending on the type of your organization.

Step 3) Complete basic info about your organization including your page name (use your company name here), website, business category, and privacy settings.  For most effectiveness, leave the privacy settings on the default “Any Google+ user”.

Step 4) Write a brief tagline or statement that describes how your company helps its customers.  Add an image or logo that will represent your company visually on Google+.

Step 5) Tell people in your existing circles on Google+ about your new company page, and give them a reason to start following you.  This message will come from you and not your new page.

Step 6) You’re all set!  One last thing to note, you can act as your Google+ page or as yourself when creating posts and following others.  There’s a toggle on the left side of your page that allows you to easily switch back and forth.

Are you going to create a Google+ page for your company?

The value proposition behind an inbound marketing campaign is the acquisition of new customers which means new revenue.  Along the way to acquiring new customers from your inbound marketing efforts, there are several other important metrics that can be used to measure the success of your efforts.

Number of Website Visitors

When you first launch your company website, you won’t have any visitors so you’ll need to tap into sources of visitors where your target customers are already online.  This may include search engines, online directories, blogs, forums, and social media sites.

Having a search-friendly website that is updated regularly will allow you to build out your online presence and provide Google with page inventory that can appear in search results when your target customers are looking for ways in which you can help them.  Depending on your industry, this process of increasing traffic via search can take from 3-12 months.

As the number of website visitors builds, the goal is to convert as many as possible to leads through compelling offers, call to action buttons, and landing pages.  If the number of visitors is increasing, but the number of leads is not increasing, then this can mean that there is a disconnect between the website visitors and the compelling offers.  Without clear feedback on what’s missing from an offer, the next step would be to launch another offer that may be a better fit for your website visitors.

In this scenario, there has been success in increasing the number of website visitors, but there is still a gap between the number of website visitors and the number of leads.

Number of Leads

As the number of leads increases, the goal is then to convert those leads to sales.  In industries that have a very short sales cycle, then it makes sense to contact the lead quickly to further assess their needs, and to figure out exactly how you can help.  For other industries, that have a longer sales cycle, following up with the lead with an invitation to a webinar or sending an automated email sequence with valuable information can be the next step.

If you find your leads are not converting to customers, then you may want to look at several criteria such as the characteristics of the leads as well as the product and service you’re offering to make sure they are in close enough alignment.

Besides number of new customers, the number of leads and number of website visitors are two important metrics that can be used to measure the success of your inbound marketing program.  Making adjustments over time will help ensure that your investment is ultimately converting into new revenue for your company.

Image by jayneandd

Are there other ways you measure the success of your inbound marketing program?

Last week, Google announced that it will start encrypting all searches that originate from Google.com from users who are logged in.  In addition, for these users, Google will no longer pass detailed referrer information including keywords to websites that are clicked through from the Google search results.  This announcement has ruffled feathers in the SEO world, but what does it really mean?

Loss of Data for Decision Making

In the search engine marketing world, search engine optimization specialists (SEOs) use keywords and keyword volume data to determine how people are searching online so they can formulate strategies to achieve visibility for their clients for searches that are relevant to their businesses.  Keyword data is acquired from a variety of sources — Google AdWords Keyword Tool, Google Analytics, WordTracker, SEOMoz, Raven Tools.

The idea that keyword data collection will be inhibited by Google scares SEOs as it will make planning their SEO strategies harder and more difficult to measure.  For SEOs who rely only on keyword metrics to substantiate their value, this will be a real challenge to their business.

Continue Marketing Your Content Online

For most people marketing online though, they won’t be affected.  Directional keyword data will continue to be available in the Google AdWords Keyword Tool.  While it’s not the most accurate source of information, it provides enough relative guidance to make informed keyword targeting decisions.

If you’re already creating content on a regular basis against a list of target keywords, continue doing so.  While you may lose some insight into the exact number of clicks you are receiving for each keyword phrase, you will still have relative measurements as not every search from Google will originate on their site from logged in users.

As concerns about online privacy and security increase for a company like Google that has mountains of data about what people are searching for online, expect further revisions in their policy.  As long as Google’s mission remains “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” businesses and consumers will need to evolve along with Google.

Image by Kapungo

How do you think Google’s recent announcement will affect your business?