How to get positive online reviews for your company
Kham Inthirath is the founder and president of InThink, a Worcester marketing agency focused on helping local businesses find and connect with their target audiences. Reach him at kham@inthinkagency.com.
Not too long ago, my team posted an article on our site outlining how we helped one of our clients – an HVAC company based in Malden – rank in Google's coveted Local 3 Pack. The Local 3 Pack is a top-spot on results pages that includes a company's reviews, directions to their business and more.
If you get in that 3 Pack, you're bound to get qualified traffic funneled to your site.
The breakdown of how we got our client into the 3 Pack in just a few days is pretty extensive, but what I wanted to do here was give you some actionable highlights so that you, too, can get more positive reviews which, in turn, will increase your chances of being featured in that Local 3 Pack.
1) Set up Google My Business page
There are a ton of places to build reviews for your business. But for our purposes – getting our clients' ranking to improve on Google – it made sense to focus energy on boosting Google Reviews.
For that you need to set up a Google My Business page. Getting set up takes a few minutes.
2) Segment your contacts into past customers
If you're savvy with email marketing, you may already have separate lists for past and current customers, as well as leads. If you don't, no worries. Take some time to go through your old contacts, and move your past customers into their own list.
In fact, take it one step further – only add happy/satisfied customers into your past customers list. This minimizes the chances of negative reviews.
Pro tip: You'll want to use an email marketing software for this job. We recommend MailChimp for most local businesses (the free version is all you'll likely need).
3) Send an email to your past (happy) customers
Here's where being savvy with marketing and words matter; and we break it down into detail on our site. But you want your email to sound like it's coming from, well, you. Don't overdo the marketing lingo. Be straightforward.
A good subject line might be, “Mind letting us know what you thought of our work?”
Then, you want the rest of your email to be short and sweet. Ask your customers to help support local businesses by leaving you a review. Then, give them the link to the page where they can leave your Google review. It's not actually that easy to find that link, so if you struggle, let us know. We can help.
4) Monitor your reviews
Lastly, monitor your reviews. Address any that are negative, and promote all that are positive (on your Facebook page, for example).
If you do get a lot of positive reviews, your business will very likely rise in the Google ranks, perhaps all the way into that coveted Local 3 Pack.
Kham Inthirath is the founder and president of Inthink, a Worcester marketing agency focused on helping local businesses find and connect with their target audiences.
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