How To Get Reviews To Promote Your Business

One of the biggest challenges facing small business owners, especially new ones, is selling products or getting clients. No big revelation here. So how do you do it? How do you get people to hand over their hard-earned money to you? You must prove to them that your product of service is worth it. Again, no big revelation.

Where do you start? First, you must understand where the buying process begins in the 21st Century. That place is the internet, usually with a Google search. That means you need a website that is optimized to attract the clients or customers you want (a post for another day). Let’s assume you have an optimal website. In order to get clicks on your website, or people that will respond to your call-to-action, you are going to have to appear at, or near the top of the first page of said Google search. Your potential clients or customers are not going to scroll and scroll and scroll to find you. If you’re not on page one or two, you essentially do not exist. Harsh? Perhaps. Reality? Definitely.

So how does the buying process work? Your potential client or customer will type in a keyword or a key phrase in the search box. Let’s say you are looking for a bookkeeper in Daytona Beach, Florida. You’d simply type into your browser something like “bookkeepers in Daytona Beach Florida”. That takes you to the Google business listing page for bookkeepers in Daytona Beach. First you would see several sponsored ads of bookkeepers. They may or may not be any good. They just paid to be listed first. After that, you’ll see a heading “Businesses” where you can click “more businesses”. There, you’ll see the list of bookkeepers in Daytona Beach. The ones at the top all have one thing in common: they have a ton of reviews. Since most people won’t scroll past the first ten or so, who do you think gets all the calls? If you’re not one of the top ten, it won’t be you.

So, what do you do, especially if you’re new and just starting out? Glad you asked. You offer something of value for free in exchange for a review. If you sell a physical product, offer a free sample to everyone you know so they can leave you a review. In our bookkeeping case, offer a free 15-minute consultation on how QuickBooks Online can benefit someone’s business. Perhaps you offer outsourced CFO Services where you can give a free consultation on, I-Don’t-Know, how to get reviews for your business! The key is to offer something of value, which makes them legitimate reviews, not just asking friends or trading reviews with someone else. These are not legitimate reviews, although if a friend is confirming your work ethic or character, then it would be. The beauty of all of this is that you only need do it once.

Before you know it, you’ll be at the top of the page…….and getting all the calls!

As always you can contact me for a free consultation.

Dream Big. Think Big. Go Big.