Developing, Marketing and Maintaining a 5-Star Reputation

Developing a 5 Star Reputation is more important than marketing your business. If you market online and drive people to your listings and all they see is negative reviews, you have wasted your efforts. Reputation must come first.

Hello, my name is Kelly Smith with The WebSmith Group and I want to welcome you to our online marketing training program.

Every day people look online for your services and products. Just go to Google, type in your business and your city—like “Dentist, Reno, Nevada,” “Chiropractor Sacramento,” “Electrician Chicago,” whatever it is you do type that in plus the city and you’re going to find searches done for that and you’d be surprised how many people are looking for these products or services. This is per month, mind you, everyday. Because this is where everybody goes, they don’t go to the Yellow Pages anymore, they go online and this is what they’re looking for.

Now, let me ask you a question, would you buy a product or service that has bad ratings and reviews? You’ve got to be honest here. Suppose there are two products that are identical. One has 10 good reviews. Another one has three good reviews and 1 bad review, which one are you going to buy? Obviously most people say the one that has 10 good reviews.

So I want to welcome you to Reputation Marketing Training. You see, the most important way you can market your business is by your reputation.

Your reputation is absolutely everything.

The online marketing game has dramatically changed and your competition doesn’t know about it yet so it’s very critical. You are at a very pristine time to get on board with this and get your reputation up there were it needs to be so people can be attracted to you instead of your competitor.

 

Check out your Online Reputation For FREE Right Here!

 

All right, let’s check this out. This is game-changer #1. As I mentioned, type in any company name and their city and what’s the first thing you’re going to see? A reputation. The reputation score now shows up all over the place and you’ve got to make sure that your reputation is what you want it to be.

Customer reviews are now a major factor in almost every type of online marketing. They’re in maps and Google+, they’re in pay per click, they’re in website rankings, organic rankings, local directories—you name it they’re in it. They’re all over the place now. This has only happened within the last eight or nine months.

Now I want you realize something, SEO, social media, pay per click, local marketing – none of it works anymore if you have bad reviews online! You’ve got to create a five-star reputation and then market your products or services. You see, what’s happening is all these other marketing techniques is bring people to your website or bring them to the review site, and lo and behold, what do they find? Negative reviews. You are paying to market negative reviews about yourself. We’ve got to get this in the right order.

Reputation first, marketing second!

Reviews send you pre-qualified, pre-sold customers because buyers trust reviews amazingly as much as personal recommendations. 72% of buyers trust reviews as much a personal recommendation. That’s an astonishing figure.

I want you to be careful to look at this slide. Notice that recommendations from people they know, people trust almost completely, 92%. And from people that post any kind of review online, positive or negative, they’ll believe 70% of that.

Now I hope you realize this is not something I created, this is done by the Nielsen Company, an advertising, marketing, brilliant company that monitors what people do online or on TVs and everything like that.

Notice right below that, editorial content like newspaper articles rate at only 58%. Branded websites, 58%. Emails that you get, only 50%. Ads on TV, only 47%. Do you realize what you’re watching here? Consumer opinions are 70%, way above an editorial in a newspaper! You can look at an editorial in the Wall Street Journal, the San Francisco Chronicle, the New York Times, the Reno Gazette Journal, people will believe an online review whether it’s positive or negative number more than an editorial about your company or about anything else written in a newspaper. This is an astonishing figure.

Why reputation is vital to a business.

Consumers look up an average of 6-10 reviews before making a decision. They want to see what your business is like and what people think of you. I just had a friend the other day tell me, “Yeah, that’s exactly what I did, I looked at all these reviews, and I decided not to buy it.” 70% of consumers, as we mentioned, will trust a business with a minimum of 6 to 10 reviews.

Okay, so this is important once you understand what’s happening here.

Without 10, 5-star reviews, your business isn’t trusted.

It’s not enough to not have any bad reviews, it’s important that you must have at least 10, 5-star positive reviews about your business, otherwise you’re not credible, you’re not real, you’re not something that they don’t want to trust.

Position yourself as a market leader in front of thousands of buyers with a five-star reputation. That’s the goal here and that’s the most important part. So how in the world do you create a five-star reputation? Let me give you our Reputation Marketing Strategy.

First of all, do you know your reputation online? Do you know where to go? Here is a link here where you can find out exactly what your reputation looks like right now: Check Your Online Reputation. It’ll scan hundreds of places. Astonishingly, some companies have an amazing amount of bad reviews, hopefully you don’t have this many, but most companies have some. All right?

There are four types of reputations:

• There is a bad reputation, which nobody wants.
• There’s no reputation, which nobody trusts.
• There’s a good reputation, which shows you that things are fair.
• And then there’s a five-star reputation. That’s the goal, developing a five-star reputation.

All right, here is the strategy. Number one, develop that five-star reputation. Number two, market that reputation! Like I mentioned before, that’s where you’ve got to go. Five-star first, market second. Then you’ve got to manage it. You’ve got to make sure that things are coming in. That these reviews are being taken care of, that people are putting up reviews and that you’re responding to the negative ones and the things that happened.

Here is how our system works:

And now here’s one of the most important things of all, we want to create a reputation marketing culture in your business. Your employees need to know that whatever they do is going to affect what people say about them online and we want that to go through the whole company, we have all kinds of trainings that will help you do that.

Now, remember what we told you, if you have negative reviews we want to deal with that right away, but if you don’t have any reviews, we want to deal with that too, because you’re not credible if you don’t have any positive reviews or any reviews at all, so we want to make sure that you have that.

Next thing you can do is CALL US TODAY: 775-722-4949 and let’s get started building a 5-star reputation for your business.

Thank you very much, this is Kelly Smith signing off. Have great day.

Check out our latest Reputation Marketing Webinar or Seminar

reputation marketing, reputation management

Online Reputation Management for Veterinarians

Dear Veterinarians, I saw a negative review about your veterinarian clinic online. It was not pretty. Why should I take my dog to your clinic when you treat animals that way?

Has this happened to you? Do you have negative reviews about your business online?

1-Almost every veterinarian has suffered from some negative review about their practice. You cannot ignore these reviews. Most veterinarians don’t know what to do about them, but ignoring them is acting like an ostrich and will do you no good.

2-Get more positive reviews from your clients, but be careful how you do it. Do not offer them any kind of incentive as that can get you in trouble. We recommend a program that will help you with this issue.

3-Recognize that review sites now have a much greater impact on your Google listings than you realize. This is a big change in Google in just the last few months and most veterinarians are not aware that this is happening.

All 3 of these recommendations can be handled by one simple program: MpactMax, a system that helps prevent negative reviews and encourages positive online reviews without breaking the terms of service with Google or other review sites.

Our solution includes an iPad to use that you give to your patients while they’re checking out or paying their bill. This allows your patient a chance to answer 3 questions. It’s very simple to operate and all they have to do is push on the stars to give you a ranking. Now here is the secret-If there’s anything less than 4 stars the iPad will beep, sending a message to the front office staff that they have a problem.

This allows you an opportunity to make sure that everything is taken care of by the patient before they run out of the office and yell to the world the problems they had on social media.

This is the 1st step in preventing negative reviews.

Now suppose a patient clicks 4 or 5 stars on all 3 questions. A little window pops up asking if they would like to give a testimonial. They now have an opportunity to give their name and e-mail and a brief testimonial about your practice. Once they click the “done” button, a window pops up verifying that they have not been coerced or offered incentives in giving this review, and they also give you permission to use it for your practice.

This review is immediately sent to your office to see if they want to put it on your Facebook page and your website. You have the choice whether to use them or not.

Now the final step, and this is the most important one: an e-mail is sent to the patient thanking him for doing business with you today and for leaving a testimonial. The email then asks them if they wouldn’t mind taking a minute and putting another testimonial on one of 3 websites links in that email and are all websites you choose to have reviews on.

Of course, not everyone will do this, but some will and in fact, I have a client that in the first 2 days of having this program, received 6 positive reviews!

Another dentist who purchased this product has been so excited about what has happened after using MpactMax because he has now cancelled all other forms of advertising! He gets so many clients from these reviews that he doesn’t need anything else! Maybe the same thing can happen for you!

I’m sure you can see how easy this is and I am sure you can see the benefits that will come from this program.

If you would like to start implementing this very simple and easy to operate program in your own veterinary practice, please give me a call at 775-722-4949 and let’s schedule a visit, whether in person or over the phone, or even online. Why wait one more minute for a negative reaction from a potential patient seeing a negative review?

And here is the best part: we offer a 60-day 100% Money Back Guarantee if not satisfied! Try it out and see how it works.

Get word of mouth working for you! Call today: 775-722-4949

This may just be the tool you need to help solve the issues of negative reviews in bringing you in more patients everyday. Order Now!

Here are 3 things you need to do to prevent this from happening:

The first thing you need to recognize is that your business is being discussed online and it can effect your reputation. (At the bottom of this message are 2 powerful videos that explain this in detail). In the old days, people went to Yellow Pages to look for someone who produces or sells your products and services. Nowadays, they go to Internet and look for references in such places as the Yelp.com, Google+, Merchant Circle.com and hundreds of other places. 80% of people will not go to business that has multiple negative reviews and it takes between 10-12 positive reviews to offset 1 negative one!

On the positive side, 87% of people will go to a business because of a positive review. Each additional Star on Yelp.com will equates to a 5-9% increase in Revenue!

This has become the single most important criteria today in doing business in an online world. Business owners who act like an ostrich and put their head in the sand are ignoring one the most valuable tools they have ever been offered before. They can also get in deep trouble by doing so.

In the old days, people could not comment on the printed book of Yellow Pages about your business and the experience they had with you. The only way they could say anything negative about you was to try and get a letter to the editor in the paper, pay for a Billboard to be put up so everyone could see or tell everyone they knew or met. Now, improperly treated clients will tell the world about how they felt in doing business with you and be able to do it in seconds. Sadly, competitors will also put up phony negative reviews about your business and they are almost impossible to remove.

The second thing that you need to realize is that it’s a brave new world out there and you have to be proactive about the issues. But it must be done in the proper way.

Some businesses have tried to “trick Google” into having friends post reviews about their business. Others have tried to offer bribes or incentives for people to post positive reviews or to “Like” them on Facebook. These short-term solutions can have long-term negative effects. Google, Facebook, Yelp and others somehow know that they had been tricked and will punish you for it. A friend of mine once owned a restaurant and asked a friend of his to possibly ask some of her friends to post some positive reviews about his business. Within 36 hours over 25 reviews were posted online. In less than 24 hours after that, his business was no longer listed online. He could no longer be found and was labeled a spammer by the review site.

The third thing you need to know: surprisingly, many business owners are not aware of what is happening in their own businesses or know how their customers feel about buying from them. Negative reviews can be a powerful wake-up call to owners who are willing to make the best of their business. If they find out that an employee has been mistreating customers in some fashion resulting in these negative reviews, the employee can be dealt with in a proper fashion. Something may be revealed on a review site about the way the secretary answered the phone; the way the shipping clerk improperly packaged the product; the lack of caring shown by the customer service representative; shoddy workmanship produced by the production department, etc.

What you need to realize is that although we don’t usually like or appreciate negative information about our company, you can learn from them and can use this valuable feedback to improve things. Giant corporations pay thousands of dollars (sometimes hundreds of thousands) each year to find out how they can improve their business. With negative reviews the only cost involved is dealing with the remedy.

So how can you deal with this issue? How can you use this powerful tool to benefit your business and reap the positive rewards of having positive reviews? How can you do this in an ethical, moral and non-intimidating fashion that will not cause you to lose your ranking, and still learn valuable feedback about your business?

The answer is proper reputation management.

Reputation management has been discussed several times over the last few years and it’s become somewhat of a buzzword. The problem with most companies who call themselves reputation management experts, is that they are doing things that are unethical and against the terms of service of most search engines and review sites.

We here at The WebSmith Group offer a unique and brand-new solution for those businesses that want to take advantage of the powerful features of positive reviews and to help improve their business at the same time. We offer a service whereby we give you an iPad* with 3 questions that are followed by 5 stars each. All the customer has to do is answer the 3 questions by choosing which of the stars they would rate you.

If they gave you at least 4 or 5 stars on every one of those 3 questions, a window will pop up that then asks them to write a review about your business. Once they select this it will be automatically posted on your Facebook page and a special place on your website. The customer will then be sent an e-mail thanking him/her for the opportunity to be of service to him and asking him if he would post a positive review on a few chosen websites. Obviously, not everyone will do this, but even if you had only 1 out of 10 do it, it is far more than you’re getting now. Since the latest algorithm of Google is highly dependent upon reviews, this can dramatically affect your page rankings for your industry online.

I hope you realize what you just read. Google has changed how they view and rank websites and they take a look at reviews of your business to determine where to place you. This is an extremely powerful feature.

What happens if your customer only gives you a 1, 2 or 3 stars? Here is the beauty of our program. If they select anything less than 4 or 5 stars, the iPad will beep alerting the secretary or person nearby that they were unhappy with some service that you had provided. This will give you an opportunity to ask the question, “What may we do to receive a higher ranking from you?” This also gives you an opportunity to prevent them from running out of your office and blasting to the world something that they did not like.

CAN YOU SEE WHY THIS IS SUCH A POWERFUL PROGRAM? CAN YOU SEE WHY WE ARE SO EXCITED TO SHARE THIS WITH YOU?

Now this brings up another powerful question, “How much is one customer worth to you?” If the customer is worth $100, $1000, or $10,000 per year to you, would it not be worth spending a couple extra minutes to make sure that this unhappy customer was taken care of? Not only do you want this person to be happy, but also you want a positive review about the experience and the opportunity for more new customers to have that same experience. Obviously, the higher value customer you have, the more time you may need to take to make sure that they are satisfied.

We now offer to you a system whereby you can prevent most negative reviews from being posted about you, you can learn about things that you may need to improving your business, you may get far more positive reviews about your business posted online on a much more regular basis, and you can get higher page rankings for your business because of the new algorithms of Google. All of these things can result in more new additional clients, patients or customers.

What would something like this be worth to you? What are you currently paying now for all of these things to be done?

I don’t know exactly what you’re thinking, but I’m pretty sure you have a fairly high number in your head. The good news is that I’m almost certain it will surprise you at the actual cost of such a system. We would like to make you an offer: First of all, watch this video to see exactly how the system works:

If you feel that this is a feature that you can benefit greatly from you can order this online and have a new iPad shipped directly to your office, fully loaded with all the proper information and ready to go right out of the box (with only a few minutes of adding links), in less than 5 days. We will also send you 3 powerful online marketing tools that you can use in your business just for taking the time to consider this.

Here is a testimonial from a Doctor who has been using this system for the past 2 months and wanted to share his wonderful results:

To order this powerful tool, there are 2 payments options: an Annual Contract or a Monthly one. Remember when I asked you what was one customer or client worth to you? Here is the beauty of this system: for only $1497 set up and $397 per month (which is usually far less than most customers, clients or patients are worth) you can have this power program working for you, sending out positive reviews and increasing your website rankings!

And here is the best part: there is a 60-day 100% Money Back Guarantee to make sure it works for you. You just have to make sure you return the iPad in perfect condition. One of my clients, a Dentist got 6 reviews in the first 2 days of using it and that were posted on his website! He is very excited about it and is keeping it forever. We are certain you will feel the same way too and that is why we are making this offer.

Setup: Only $1497

Monthly Investment: Only $397

You can also save money by purchasing it on an annual basis which will save you approximately $714 so it’s worth doing so if you can recognize the value of this system and take advantage of that.

Proper Reputation Marketing can make your business soar! It can energize your profits and make you glad you got in business in the first place! It can be a powerful marketing tool to bring in new customers and boost your website rankings.

 

Why Delay? Order Today!

 

Feel free to call me with any questions:
Kelly Smith, (775) 722-4949

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*iPad is on a loan basis only and ownership is retained by Mpact Magic.

**Mulitple Locations (above 10) receive a discount. Additional discounts are available for 25 stores or above 100 stores. Multiple iPads in the same store can also be discounted.

The Most Important Job of Every Business

There are a lot of important things that every business needs to do in order to survive. What would you think would be the most important one?

Almost every person would answer this question depending upon the position that they hold in that company. A production manager might answer proper training; the shipping department might answer something about better on-time delivery; the accounting department might say something about better record-keeping, and the vice president of some department my say something entirely different.

How you answer that question will tell you where you fit in your company and what your priorities are.

The most important thing and the Number 1 job of every single business always must be to acquire more customers and make more Sales. Unless everyone in the company knows this, it is doomed to failure. 

Some may scoff at this remark but that will only reveal a limited view on what they think is important and an incorrect view of the harsh realities of business. Some may also say that they already have as many customers as they can handle, or they have had the same customers for the past 20 years, why try finding more?

Unless a business focuses its efforts on acquiring new customers it will eventually go out of business. It doesn’t matter how stable the company is or how profitable it is, it must always be trying to find more customers. Your existing customers, that may appear loyal and devoted to you, can disappear over the silliest reason. Your relationships that have gone back generations can come apart when things go bad.

Have you ever heard the phrase, “if you’re not growing you’re dying?” Let’s look at nature for a moment: do trees ever stop growing? No. They will continue to grow and continue to send out roots and branches as far as they can, year after year. They may eventually only grow to a certain height but will continue to add rings every year and produce seeds that will be scattered in the wind in order to grow somewhere else.

A business needs to follow that same plan.

But finding new sales and new customers is the hardest part of any business. That’s why so many people sit back once they have enough customers and stop growing. It’s hard work. Sales, marketing, advertising and promotion is tedious, time-consuming and expensive. But to that person, CEO, leader or entrepreneur, to the one who has the vision of what they are doing and what it can become, they don’t look at it as hard work, they look at it as absolutely essential for their future survival. They don’t look at it as expensive or even a cost, they look at it as an investment.

What is astonishing to me is how many times over the years I have watched that when difficult times come, sales and marketing expenses were the first thing that are cut. The next thing that is cut is training for their employees. Like a turtle being attacked they withdraw into their shell and wait out the opposition.

But businesses aren’t Turtles. Every business must keep moving in order to survive. Every business must keep producing something and selling something every single day in order to pay its expenses, employees, taxes, insurance and the host of other things that are on their backs. Why cut back on the one thing that is going to help them meet those needs and pay those expenses better than anything else with new sales? Why? Because it’s reactionary. It’s going into survivalist mode.

May I suggest another option? The next time you’re faced with a difficult financial decisions in your company ask yourself this: “How many more customers would I need to cover this expense?” Let’s say that your average customer brings in $1000 per year in profits. Let’s imagine that you just got hit with a $10,000 bill or fine somewhere. By answering the question it would be easy to show that all you needed was 10 more customers to cover that problem.

But most people don’t look at it this way. They look at it by saying, “What can I cut in my current business that will save me those $10,000?” For some reason it seems to be easier to say, “let’s eliminate this employee or let’s stop buying from this supplier, that will save us the money we need”. Now they just lost two valuable resources that they’ve already invested in: an employee who understands their business and a vendor who has serviced them before. How much did it cost to train that employee? How much time did it cost you? How many times did that vendor give you deals in the past and what have they sacrificed before for your benefit?

I’m suggesting that the cost of those 2 options would be far more than just the $10,000 problem you face. Next time take a more proactive approach instead of a reactionary one and try to find a way to earn that money to cover that problem instead of the knee-jerk reaction of cutting things.

Now, not only have you saved the expense of replacing that employee and probably that vendor, you’ve gained new customers. You are growing again. You have continued to expand and build a future and are moving forward.

Sales to New Customers are the First Job and Lifeline of every business.

And everyone in your organization needs to understand this from the Company Operator, the Receptionist, the Production Manager, the Floor Sweeper and the Shipping Manger-all of them need to know that SALES COMES FIRST. Otherwise, you will not have the sales you need to reach your potential.

If you would like to find a way to acquire new customers, ones that are actually already searching for your product or services, call Kelly Smith at 775-722-4949 and let him introduce you to several online methods of acquiring sales. You can get a free download of his excellent book, “How to get 20 New Customers Every Month” just by calling him today. Call now. What are you waiting for?

And if your company needs sales training, please call Jeffrey Benjamin at (775) 337-1600. 

Mobile Marketing: Can Your Customers Find Your Business On Their Phone?

 

The use of mobile phones has exploded in recent years and there are now more than 5.6 Billion phones on the earth, almost as many as there are people on earth. The mobile phone is no longer just a means of communication; it is a way to connect with others socially, send text and photo messages, search on the Internet, send and receive e-mails, get directions and maps for current locations, take photos and videos of important or silly events and even have a conversation with, like John Malkovich does on that iPhone commercial.

And, things are not slowing down but speeding up.

Here is one of the most important things that every business needs to realize when it comes to mobile phones: can your business be found using mobile search? As your potential patient or customers are driving down the freeway at 65 miles per hour and they yell at their “Bluetooth” device to “find a dentist,” or “where can I get a hair cut in Sparks, NV?” who shows up? It is astonishing how many business listings are incorrectly noted with old or outdated phone numbers, addresses, contacts, locations, etc. Many do not even have proper photos or directions.

Most businesses couldn’t be found with a personalized mobile Google bot on steroids!

Look, you know that going online is a must for every business and is unavoidable. It’s just so hard to keep up with one more thing to deal with in local Internet Marketing. Your eyes get glazed over just thinking about trying to update anything. So, lets start with the basics.

The first place to go for any business is now Google+.

Really you ask? Yes. Google+ is going to become the business social center and is determined to make a dent in Facebook’s current standing, especially with business because money is involved and it isn’t about the latest cat video.

There are at least 3 other major apps that people use to find local businesses: Yelp.com, Foursquare.com, and Dibbs (at gotdibbs.com). They all know that this is the next battleground that needs to be won for the heart and soul of businesses who are listed online.

There will come a day when it will be more important to be found on the first page of the mobile listing than the current search engine listing on your computer. Why is that? It is predicted that 85% of all searches for products, services and businesses will be done from mobile phones before 2015.

I hope you just realize what you just read. That is a dramatic shift away from desktop and laptop computers towards mobile phones and iPad-like devices. These searches are not the same type of listing as “first page rankings” you are familiar with. It has to do with “proximity” to the users actual physical location. Most mobile searches are for products and services that are close to where they currently are while they are using their phone and the internal GPS gives away their location to the invisible satellites above.

That presents another major problem.

Most websites are set up for easy viewing on desktop or laptop computers with a minimum screen size of around 15 inches. They do not work well on 3 or 4-inch screens. Someone who finds your business’ website that is not optimized for mobile viewing has to do a lot of scrolling, zooming and searching to find what they’re looking for. In our increasingly impatient world it’s very easy to lose a customer because of this.

Obviously this must be dealt with, but it isn’t as complicated or expensive as you might think. To get a proper mobile version of your website can usually be done in less than a week and it will be easily viewable on any device. Here are some things that you want to keep in mind:

1. Make sure that very clear and proper information is easily viewable and is fairly large.
2. They must be easy to navigate with large tabs that can be clicked on by a person’s thumbs.
3. It’s best to have large, clearly marked buttons for the map, driving directions, “email us” and “call now” instructions.

It is also advisable that you have an easy way for people to shop and buy your products on their phone, as this is becoming the preference for more and more people. For those who charge for their services, the ability to take credit card and payment information on a phone has never been easier. Gone are the days for the need of a bulky credit card reader to swipe them as they can be easily slipped through a small device attached to your phone.

The costs associated with creating a mobile website from your existing website are fairly minimal and the advantages are obvious. In most cases the increase of just one new customer a year would cover the expense.

By following this advice you will be ready for the onslaught of the number of people trying to find your website on their phone. I have watched the analytics of a number of my customers and seen a rather rapid increase in the number of searches done from mobile phones. When I inform my customers about this they are always surprised because most of them did not think that anyone was searching for them on mobile phones. Most of them think that it’s just for businesses like restaurants, bars, hair salons and gas stations.

That just isn’t true anymore.

Kelly Smith is president of The WebSmith Group in Sparks, Nevada. If you need help with either getting your website properly listed in the appropriate search engines or creating a mobile website that will drive more customers to you, please give him a call at 775-722-4949. You can also reach him at http://www.TheWebSmithGroup.com (and yes, even on your phone).