The Power of Customer Reviews and Testimonials

Buyers are calling the shots today and ‘word of mouth’ reviews matter. A negative review on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube can cost your company customers. More and more buying decisions today are based on online reviews. Your existing customers are a great marketing resource, because their words of praise about your products or services have a major psychological influence on prospective buyers.

Reviews and Ratings Can Make the Difference

Online shoppers say that reviews and ratings influence their purchase decisions more than any other factor. Here’s how:

Business blogs are an excellent corporate tool to share a company’s expertise, offer a perspective on the industry, i.e. trends and developments, build additional web traffic, and connect with potential customers. Blogs are popular with online audiences because they offer fresh new voices and opinions. Business blogs can increase SEO ranking by on-page optimization, off-page optimization or link building, content creation and internal linking.

  • When people are looking to purchase a new product, visit a new restaurant, or hire someone’s services, what do they do? Most people search on Google, Amazon, Yelp, or even Facebook or Twitter.
  • However, when presented with multiple options, it is reviews that often influence the final buying decision. If product A has many positive reviews and product B has negative reviews (or few to no reviews), it’s a given that most people will go with product A.
  • Interesting reviews that go ‘viral’ are re-posted from blog to blog, site to site, and other social media platforms. This boosts your online reputation and provides more marketing exposure than any ad campaign can ever do.
  • Search engines reward websites that continually provide fresh, useful content with a higher ranking. Consequently, the more reviews you post to your website or on social media pages, the higher your page ranking, and the better your brand’s online reputation. Even negative reviews can add to that count! Include some negative reviews to foster authenticity, since online shoppers tend to distrust content that features only positive reviews.

Start Today!

WSI has partnered with LouderVoice, an industry-leading supplier of review technology to deliver an exclusive solution, tailored to the requirements of local businesses. It is now even easier to collect and display validated reviews either directly from within your website or via email.

LouderVoice provides a customer Review & Rate solution which can be embedded on any web-site in minutes. It provides the following proven benefits for web-site owners serious about their online activity:

  1. Increased sales conversion
  2. Invaluable customer feedback
  3. Distributed marketing on Facebook and Twitter
  4. Distinct SEO boost

To learn more about how customer reviews can deliver these benefits to your business, download this overview of the LouderVoice Small Business Package, and then call WSI Chester.

 

March 21st, 2012 | Tags: , , | Category: Online Reputation | Leave a comment

2011 Constant Contact All Star Winner – WSI Chester


We’ve done it again! WSI Chester has been named an All Star by Constant Contact!

This is based upon our email marketing activities and support for our clients in 2011.

To quote the citation “Your efforts last year to reach your clients and engage with them and their audience were exemplary.”

So a  BIG thank you to all our many clients who are actively using email marketing with Constant Contact to engage with their network of customers and potential customers!

Constant Contact is not just an excellent email marketing tool for SME businesses. It is also a great platform for marketing your events, and for customer surveys. Most recently they have had some exciting new functionality to enable you to run campaigns through your Facebook page.

If you would like to learn more, give your local constant Contact All Stars at WSI Chester a call today!

 

March 16th, 2012 | Tags: | Category: Email Marketing | Leave a comment

Someone is talking about you – Managing Your Online Reputation – Part 2

In the first post about online reputation management, we identified and reviewed two of the free tools available to monitor what people are saying about you and your business on the web generally – Google Alerts and Social Mention.

To round things off, here is an interesting free tool which will help you keep on top of mentions about your business on Twitter.

www.twilert.com

www.twilert.com  operates in a similar way to Google Alerts and Social Mention sending alerts via email based on keywords you wish to track.

Of course, if you wish to monitor Tweets in real time then dashboard tools such as TweetDeck or Hootsuite enable you to monitor your social media channels from a variety of devices.

March 13th, 2012 | Tags: | Category: Online Reputation | Leave a comment

Video – Four Fundamentals of Social Networking Success

First in our new series of short videos on internet marketing topics.

This video reviews four fundamental factors that can ensure a successful social networking campaign:

1. Plan Ahead
2. Understand the Social Media landscape
3. Be Patient
4. Measure, Tweak, Rinse, Repeat

Long term engagement is the goal, so get involved Today.

Need help? Call Andy Wooles, Internet Consultant on 01928 787026

March 8th, 2012 | Category: Internet Marketing | Comments are closed

What is a QR Code – Where to use a QR Code

You know those strange-looking square patterns on business cards, direct mails and posters? They’re called Quick Response codes or QR codes for short. A QR code is a two-dimensional code that contains information that can be easily scanned using a smartphone’s QR reader.

QR Code Andy Wooles LinkedIn

Scan Me!

Originally, they were initially utilised in the automotive industry for tracking cars through manufacturing stages. But because of its instant readability and huge capacity to carry data compared to the traditional ‘zebra stripe’  UPC barcodes, QR codes have rapidly and inescapably become popular in other industries, too. Today, they’re widely used around the world, particularly in the US, UK, Australia and Asia.

QR codes are now mainly used for marketing, branding and communication purposes. When a potential or current customer scans the code via their mobile device, the QR code will show whatever data the company embedded within it. This data can be a website link to an  information or landing page URL. Aside from URLs, QR codes can contain phone numbers, email addresses, SMS, photos, reviews, map directions, event information, RSS feeds, social media channels, vCards, etc. It is an open and very flexible standard.

For many, a Quick Response code is undoubtedly the newest, thus coolest way to promote a business. Its marketing possibilities are simply infinite and unimaginable. QR codes can be used to transfer/share contact information. They can help drive/boost traffic to your website or special offers/giveaways. And with so many smartphone owners these days, people are literally just waiting to discover your QR code, which can be printed on virtually anything—stickers, shirts, labels and more! Tip: Don’t be afraid to get creative with your QR code placements!

There are lots of fun and exciting ways to use Quick Response codes to market your business and engage your audience. Whether or not this latest phenomenon will last is yet to be determined. However, while they still have the attention, why not use them to your business’ advantage.

As an open standard, there are plenty of free resources on the web to generate QR codes. A good starting point is www.qrstuff.com .

Similarly there are reader apps available for all varieties of smartphones, including iPhone, Android and Blackberry. Most are free to download through the various Marketplaces. A number are also listed on the above QR website.

 

If you would like advice and guidance on using QR Codes as part of a specific marketing campaign, contact WSI Chester today.

March 6th, 2012 | Tags: , | Category: Mobile Marketing | Leave a comment
« Newer Entries  
  Older Entries »