One of the most successful forms of marketing is actually free. The old saying that you’ve got to spend money to make money seems to always hold true, but not here. We know, we know. Get to it already. The answer is…word-of-mouth advertising! When potential customers hear or read positive feedback from past customers, they feel confident that they will have a similar experience because they aren’t hearing about it from a paid ad. Well, in most cases. More on that later. Plus, the more positive reviews you have online, the higher you appear in search results when people use Yelp, Google Reviews, and more.

So how can you generate a bunch of positive reviews in a short period of time? We’ve got a few secrets, but you have to promise not to tell anyone. Deal? OK, here we go:

Please Don’t Make This Difficult

The first step in generating reviews is to make the process of leaving reviews as easy as possible. The more time or steps it takes to leave a review, the less likely a customer is to review. Use your social media pages and other sites to get the ball rolling. People can leave reviews directly on your Facebook business page and via LinkedIn recommendations, then you can use your other social media pages to point customers in that direction.

Consider this: Have you ever left a review for a local business? If you haven’t, you’re probably missing out on some sweet incentives and discounts. (Not to mention that you’d be helping out local businesses AND customers.) If you have, where did you leave the review? Was it a complicated process or was it easily accessible and only took a few minutes? These are things to think about when you’re trying to generate reviews. Here are a few places you should exist:

  • Facebook Business Page
  • LinkedIn Recommendations
  • Google My Business (This is our personal favorite!)
  • Yelp – claim or add your business to start getting reviews
  • Manta
  • Yellowpages – No, not the big old yellow book. The online version.
  • Better Business Bureau – not applicable to businesses of all sizes, but you can check to see if your business is listed and then claim it.

There are a few other niche sites you can check out, depending on your industry. A couple of examples of those are TripAdvisor in the travel/tourism niche or Four Square for those in hospitality. A quick Google search can show you any review sites applicable to your niche.

You Got A Website, Don’t Ya?

It might seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how many small businesses don’t have a section for reviews on their website. Ideally, you’ll have a separate page where people can leave reviews and both your navigation menu and blog posts should clearly direct people to that page. If not, set up a small section on a main page where people can quickly leave reviews. Most sites like Wix, Weebly, and WordPress have easy to use tools to set up a review section or page.

REply With A REview

If you’ve got an email list of past and/or potential customers, we’ve got some good news. You can use that list to generate some reviews. Look at you being all prepared and stuff. Teacher’s pet. If you don’t have an email list, you should really consider implementing a process of building one. It’s pretty simple and can definitely make you some money and get you some reviews. It’s as easy as setting up an opt-in section on your website and using your social media pages and your mouth to direct customers to it. When we say your mouth we mean it literally. If a customer comes into your business, let them know where they can sign up to receive incentives, deals, and discounts on your products or services. Put it on your business card. Post about it on social media. You get the gist. Bonus points if you can organize where these people came from when they signed up. Did they buy something from you or are they just interested?

Now that you’ve got a few emails on your list, start by sending those who have bought something or used your services in the past. Simply ask them to let you know how you’re doing. Their feedback can help you adjust to customer needs and be more effective than ever before. We can help set that up if it sounds intimidating.

Pay For Reviews… Not Really, But Kind Of

Remember that thing we said about paid ads in the intro of this article? Here we are. If the above tactics don’t seem to be achieving the results you expected, or you just like the idea of rewarding your loyal customers, it’s time to incentivize reviews. Would you say that your time is pretty valuable? We would too, but your customer’s time is also valuable to them. That means you’ve got to give them a reason to leave a review. (Other than your fantastic customer service and sparkling smile, of course.) Discounts, coupons, gift cards, or contest entries are just a few ideas to get you started. Get creative with it. Come up with a loyalty system with points if you want.

That’s what Birchbox did, and they’re doing pretty well for themselves. No matter what it is, make it as enticing to your customers as a juicy steak is to your dog. Sure, they like their dog food, but it’s like a green bean compared to a donut. This is making us hungry, brb. Getting a steak and a dozen donuts. Set up your review-generating systems while we’re gone.

No, we aren’t sharing… sharing secrets is one thing, sharing food is where we draw the line.

Need some help generating reviews? We suggest you START with a Google Business profile. Or feel free to Reach out and we’ll put your business where it belongs – in the Limelight.