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No Online Reviews? Your Losing Money

If you own a establishment, then you should comprehend the importance of the internet, SEO, and customer reviews.Customers read reviews and trust a business with a lot of positive reviews.  Most consumers who find your business online will look at the customer reviews to see how you have treated your previous patrons.

I am making the notion that you have a web site. I’m also assuming that you have spent the time to optimize your website to be search engine friendly.  If you have not… then that is a good beginning.

Let’s discuss what we know.  We know that online reviews separates you from you competitors and generates more firm.What are the steps to getting more reviews?  The simple answer… you ask your clients.

Let’s look at a transmission repair shop as an example.  Depending on your part of the country, there is a lot of competition in the transmission repair business.  You have your transmission repair website.  You have set up your local listings with google, yahoo, yelp, etc… Now is the time to start getting reviews.

You have a steady stream of clients.Customers come in and shell out the money for their repair bill.  You ask them to post a review for you.  Here is the problem… most of your customers forget.  You have the right process in mind, but it isn’t working like you want it to.

Now we change our approach.The buyer comes in and pays for their repair.  You have fashioned a follow up letter with a spot to fill in their name and email address that they give back to you.  Now you follow up with them a week later with an email. You ask them if their vehicle is running smoothly and then ask them to post a review.  The email is already formatted and has all the links they need to post the review.  {You notice that you are now getting much more reviews than you were before}.You are ready to become a profitable firm.

Click! Click! Then click again! Determining how social media for business ‘works’ is more important to your future marketing strategy than you might think! Think! Think! And think again! Even if your business doesn’t have a website, people are talking about you. If you don’t have a website you’d better have a darned good answer.

Socializing via the web isn’t going away anytime soon. That’s a fact. More important is the fact that if you’re not a player in this realm your business is simply at the mercy of those that do. Think about that. People are talking about you and your business on Yelp! and on Yahoo whether you’re aware of it or not.

Surveying a small number of local business owners, it’s easy to find many who just aren’t up with the times. Survey their customers and you’ll find that most people want to do business with an enterprise that is hip, green and online. The world is changing and if your business is still sitting in the dark ages you’re future success is up for grabs!

Gone are the days when people merely looked to networking sites as a resume posting vehicle. Small business and big business alike are dedicating a large chunk of their marketing strategy and budget into developing communication tools for the future. Today, they’re using popular networking platforms such as Twitter, MySpace and Facebook.

Maybe you have yet to even setup a website. Well, shame on you! In a retail enterprise, talk and gawk are the keys to success. If multi-million dollar businesses think online presence is important, then why have you hesitated to follow suit? You’re only killing your own business if you think that socialized networking, online marketing campaigns and enigmatic online advertising are only for geeks.

One problem that many business owners have in using social networking is the time commitment that is required to administer a well optimized social media campaign. Fortunately, there are resources available that allow you to automate many of the most tedious of those chores. A couple of those are Miracle Traffic Bot and GooBert, which we have reviewed elsewhere.

But what’s that you say? Your business is highly localized and can’t possibly be hurt or helped by a global presence such as LINKEDIN or Facebook? Silly you for thinking so small. The world has changed as much as advertising has changed. People located in Bali might well seek your business out the next time they visit San Francisco. That is, if they even know you exist. That local crowd, who visits your shop now and again, they’re LINKEDIN even if you’re not. They’ll think better of you if they know your business is approachable online as well as offline.

Nobody wants to have to work harder to get customers or retain the ones they have. But for you ‘Mom & Pop Ops’ out there who think that you can continue to grow without online intervention. Think again. Then click into the future by using social media for your business. Like most things, you can use it or lose it! But with social media one thing is for certain, if you don’t use it well, it will use you and ultimately that may not be such a ‘good thing’ after all.