Marketing
10 Tactics To Get More Google Reviews and Drive More Traffic To Your Business
Google Reviews are important because they provide a customer with an unbiased opinion on the quality of your business. With more reviews, you show potential customers that you have many other satisfied customers. Reviews are also great for SEO, which means that you will get more traffic and potential leads searching for your business online. Today, we’ll go over the 10 best tactics to help encourage customers to leave reviews and help them be successful in doing so.
1. Create A Google Review Link Shortcut
If you have a website, you can easily create a Google review link shortcut.
Your customer has to go online to write the review, regardless, so create a review shortcut link and put it on your website.
Using Your Google Account
Go to your Google My Business account, click the Home tab, and find the “Get your first review” (or “Get more reviews”) card. Click “Share review form” and copy the link to your clipboard.
Using 3rd Party Link Generator
You can also use an external party to generate the review link as well. Check it out here.
2. Create A Google Reviews Page On Your Website
Google doesn’t allow businesses to have reviews on their website. However, you can create a Google reviews page that will be available for all customers to see on your website. Your page will have all of the reviews that your business has received from customers in the past, leaving potential customers more confident about the quality of your business.
You can create a Google Reviews tab on your website that displays all the reviews that your business has received over time. Potential customers will be able to easily browse and read through these reviews and this can help them feel more confident about visiting or purchasing from your business!
3. Include A Google Review CTA In Your Website Footer
One strategy that can help you encourage customers to leave reviews is to ask them for their opinion on your business. You can do this by including a Google review CTA in your footer, which will direct them right to the platform. This also makes it easy for your customer as they don’t have to search anywhere else and they’ll know exactly where to go when they want to give feedback.
Once you get the review, you can show it off on your website or social media profiles. This will help build trust with new potential customers, and it may even help old customers come back.
4. Create “Leave Us A Review” Pop-Up On Your Website
One tactic to encourage reviews is to create pop-ups that ask customers politely to leave a review. These pop-ups can be placed on your website or on the bottom of your emails. When clicked, the pop-up will lead them to an automated survey for them to leave their feedback.
This way, you won’t have to deal with customers getting annoyed and not leaving a review. All you have to do is create a popup for your website or email and let it do the work for you!
5. Include Google Review Links In Your Customer Surveys
Encourage reviews is by asking customers at the time of purchase or shortly after. You could include a link to your Google Places page in an email receipt, on the back of your business card, on receipts you hand out, or anywhere else you think will be appropriate. This tactic works especially well if you’re trying to get reviews for restaurants or hotels because people are always asked to leave a review when they check out.
6. Ask For Google Reviews On Social Media
Another tactic for encouraging Google reviews is to use social media. It’s one of the easiest ways to get your customers to leave you a review on Google. In fact, 44% of consumers have used social media before to read reviews about a business. That number is only going up too.
When someone visits your Facebook page, mention how they can leave you a Google review by clicking on the link in your bio or ask them to find the review tab at the top of your page. You can also tag them in your post or share their post when they talk about their experience with your company as a way of thanking them for their loyalty and asking them to leave you a Google review.
For those on Instagram, tag people on posts that reference where they can find your Yelp or Google reviews. This will encourage them to want to check out what other people are saying and give you an opportunity to thank them for following or liking you online.
Moreover, don’t forget about Twitter and LinkedIn! Use hashtags like #googlereviews and #yelpreviews when posting on social media so that potential customers who are looking for these terms will be able to find you easily.
7. Run A Google Review Email Campaign
You can use your monthly email newsletter to run a Google review email campaign. You can set up your Google account to automatically send an email of thanks and appreciation to customers who leave you a review. You can also offer some sort of incentive for them to share their opinion with the world. Asking customers for reviews is one of the best ways to get more reviews.
8. Include Your Google Review Link In Your Email Signature
One of the best ways to encourage customers to review your business is to include your Google review link in your email signature. It’s a small step that can result in a big increase in reviews. When customers see your Google review link and then click on it, they will be taken to the reviews of your business.
This tactic is especially helpful because it’s one of the few tactics that have an immediate result. When you send out an email, your customer will quickly see their Google review link and be able to leave a rating and review without having to do anything else.
9. Get Google Reviews From Vendors And Partners
Get more reviews is by asking existing vendors/suppliers or partners to leave a review on Google. This will help them be more likely to leave reviews because they are happy with their previous service. The key here is to provide your customer with an excellent experience and then ask for a review as a form of gratitude. For example, you could prepare a post-event survey for your clients and ask if they would be willing to leave a review on Google.
10. Ask For Google Reviews In Person
One of the best ways to get more reviews is to ask your customers for a review in person. This might sound intimidating, but it can be done with a simple sentence like,
“Hey! I just wanted to know what you think about our service. Would you mind leaving us a Google review?”
Once you do this, you’ll have an opportunity to show your customer how easy it is and encourage them to leave a review after they respond.
Don’t know where to start? Check out our Google Review services.
10 Easy Ways To Improve Your Email Open Rate
You’ve taken the time to craft a well-written email, you’ve even spent the time to make sure that your email looks good, but all of your hard work can be for naught if your open rate is low. For every thousand emails sent, only 10% will be opened if you’re lucky.
This means that if you send out one thousand emails, only 100 people will see the message.
So what are some of the most common reasons for an email not being opened? Here are ten tips to help you improve your email open rate and ensure that your message gets delivered.
1. Regularly Clean Your Lists
One of the biggest reasons that people don’t read your email is because they are tired of receiving messages from you. This is why it is important to regularly clean your list and remove any inactive members. A common mistake people make with their outreach lists is to think about quantity over quality. The fact is, if you send an email to a list and nobody on that list clicks on the links or opens the message, then what was the point of sending it in the first place?
Before sending out an email blast, remove anyone who hasn’t opened your emails for six months or more. This will ensure that you aren’t wasting time on those that will never be interested in what you have to say.
2. Segment Your Lists Into Areas Of Interest
You can segment your list into areas of interest by including a link to a newsletter sign-up form, a blog, or a free trial offer. This way, you can target different types of people with different messages. For example, if you wanted to send an email about your new products and services to two separate lists, you could pair one list with the new product mailing and the other mailing with the free trial offer.
3. Do Your Research
Before you send your email, do your research. Find out who your target audience is and what their interests are. This can be done by looking at social media profiles, reading blogs, and doing surveys. Once you find out who your target audience is and what their interests are, you can craft a more tailored message that will appeal to them more.
4. Speak Directly To Your Audience Segment
One of the most common reasons why an email is not opened is because it is not relevant to the audience. If you are sending out a newsletter that does not apply to your audience, then they are less likely to open it.
For example, if you are sending out a monthly newsletter about your company’s products and services, but your company sells electronics and the recipient only buys clothing, they may not be interested in opening this email. You can use marketing automation to segment your list so that people who purchase clothing will only receive emails about clothing related items.
Not personalising emails
Customers like feeling like their opinion matters – for this reason alone, making sure that you personalize all emails you send can help boost open rates. This doesn’t mean changing the content; instead edit subject lines and senders’ names to show that you know them on a more personal level. Personalized emails get opened 11% more often than non-personalized ones!
Lack of urgency
Creating a sense of urgency with customers can also increase email opens. You can do this by giving discounts or free shipping for limited time only or by telling customers they need to act now before supplies run out. Plenty more ideas exist – try testing different time frames or offers to see what works best for your business!
Excessive promotional language
If there’s one thing people don’t want in their inbox, it’s another advertisement. Make sure that your email contains valuable information for readers rather than just
5. Make It Easy To Read
One of the most common reasons people don’t open emails is because it takes too much effort to read them. You can avoid this by making sure that your email is short and easy to read. Long paragraphs and sentences that go on for several lines make it difficult for readers to focus and skim through your message.
The best way to make your email easier to read is by using bullet points, short sentences, and breaking up long paragraphs. Breaking up your email will also help you keep the reader’s attention, which will in turn increase your open rate. Let’s talk copywriting.
Another way to make it easy for your reader to scan through your email is by using plenty of white space between each paragraph. Most people feel overwhelmed when they come across a large block of text that doesn’t have any white space between the paragraphs.
It’s an understandable reaction; we’re used to reading books with tons of white space in between the pages and columns in order to give us a break from all the words on a page at once. This same concept applies when we’re scanning through an email inbox; we want some white space so we can stop every few lines rather than trying to scroll down one long page with no breaks in between.
To add even more white spaces, use numbered lists instead of bulleted lists—why not? Numbers are easier for humans to digest than bullets because they come naturally in sequence without having to count each time you see one. And lastly, don’t forget about headings!
6. Include A Clear Call-To-Action
One of the simplest things you can do to improve your email open rate is to include a clear call-to-action. A call-to-action might be an offer, a date and time, or a link to another email. You may want to add in a strong call-to-action if you’re trying to get someone to book with you for an appointment. This way they know when and how they can reach you. Check our Shopify’s article about lead magnets for more subscribers.
7. Send At The Right Time
The most common mistake is sending an email at the wrong time. One study found that emails sent between 3 and 5pm on Tuesday had higher open rates than any other day of the week. So what does that mean for you? If your customer base is in North America, then send your emails after 3pm on a Tuesday. If you have a global customer base, then send your emails on a Friday evening.
8. Resend Your Email To Unopens
If you’ve sent an email and it’s been a while, then you might want to check if that recipient opened it. If they haven’t opened the email by clicking on the link, then it could be because they either moved to a different email address or deleted your contact from their list of contacts.
In this case, you can resend your email to them by going to “Contact” > “Recipients” > “All Contacts”. You should also double-check your contact management system for any discrepancies. Sometimes people might have moved to a different business but kept the same email address. This is another great way to improve your email open rate.
9. Make Your Subject Line Pop
The most important step in making your email effective is the subject line. The subject line should be eye-catching and concise, and it should also give a sense of what the email is about. But make sure you’re not being too cryptic or misleading with the subject line. If you’re going to use a pun or a joke in your subject line, make sure it’s clear what the joke is.
10. Avoid Spam Filters
One of the most common reasons for an email being labeled as spam is because it contains words that are considered to be spammy. Unsubscribe links, promotional text, and offers are all potential red flags for email filters. What does this mean for you?
Well, much like how websites with pop-ups that demand visitors fill out lengthy forms or surveys are often blocked by browsers, your emails will also be blocked by these filters if they contain spammy language.
Before sending out an email blast, remove anyone who hasn’t opened your emails for six months or more. This will ensure that you aren’t wasting time on those that will never be interested in what you have to say.
Let’s talk about how to improve your email open rate.
Top 10 Marketing Ideas To Drive Your Success in 2022
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of brands competing for your attention. A big part of marketing is building relationships with your customers, and social media is an excellent way to do that. It also helps you learn what your customers want and get feedback on your products and services. However, between all of the different channels available, it can be difficult to figure out which one is best for your business.
Here are the top 10 marketing ideas you can use in 2022:.
1. Send Hand Written Or Personalised Notes
With social media, you can create a personalised message and send it to your customers. You can also send them a virtual hug or make them feel special by sending them a personal note.
This is a great way to connect with your customers and get them excited about what’s coming. It’s also a great way to show that you care about their needs and want to offer excellent customer service.
If you’re looking for ways to show that you care, then sending out handwritten notes is the best way. If you add in some of your business logo stationary, this will add an extra touch of appreciation!
2. Run A Competition
Running a competition is an excellent way to engage with your followers. Social media has made it easy for brands to post photos or videos asking their customers to vote or comment on which one they like best.
This is a great way to get ideas from your customers, and it can also increase brand awareness.
One company that successfully used this strategy was the clothing retailer Puma. The company has over 2 million followers on Instagram, and when they asked people to vote for their favorite Puma sneaker in a social media contest, they got more than 1,000 comments in just 24 hours!
3. Launch New Products or Services
If you’re launching a new product or service, social media is the perfect place to tell your story. You can build anticipation for your launch around an announcement on social media, then promote your product or service to get people excited.
You can also use social media to show off how your business operates. If you’re running a restaurant, post pictures of the food and interior design. If you’re selling software, share screenshoots of your app in action. Showing customers what they’re going to experience when they buy from you makes them more likely to buy in the first place!
4. Get Personal With Your Content
The best way to get your customers engaged with your business is through content. But, how can you get personal? One of the most effective ways is by sharing your personal stories.
You may not think that you have anything in common with your business’s target audience, but that’s not true! You probably share interests and experiences with them. For example, if you’re trying to reach moms, then you should share stories about being a mom yourself. Share photos or videos of yourself with your kids or mention them in posts. Showing the human side of you will make it easier for people to relate to what you’re saying and want to hear more about what you have to offer.
5. Create A New Irresistible Offer
Social media is an excellent way to create new offers and discounts for your customers. You can use it to promote birthday or anniversary specials, or other promotions that are relevant to your business.
For example, let’s say you’re the owner of a bakery. Along with posting about the delicious cakes you offer, you can also post about upcoming deals like Mother’s Day breakfast in bed or Father’s Day dinner at home.
6. Host An Online Event
If you’re looking to reach a large number of consumers, hosting an online event is the best way to do it. It’s great for making announcements and demonstrations. You can also use your social media channels to advertise that you’re hosting the event and get people interested in participating.
Hosting an online event:
- is a great way to make announcements and demonstrations
- allows you to advertise and get people interested in participating
- gives people who need your product or service a chance to ask questions or make requests
- helps create relationships with customers
- makes your company feel more accessible
- provides a platform for new employees to showcase their skills.
7. Spark Curiosity In Your Brand
If you want to be successful on social media, it’s important to spark curiosity.
Social media is all about building relationships and providing value. Brands can use social media as a platform for two-way communication with their customers. In order to be successful, you need to spark curiosity in your brand.
Here are a few ways that brands can do this:
- Create a username that stands out from the competition
- Include real-time updates
- Include behind-the-scenes content
- Offer giveaways and discounts
8. Update Your Website
While not strictly social media, it is a great way to use your website to build rapport with your consumers.
You should update the content on your website regularly to keep up with all of the latest developments in your industry. Use this space to promote some of the new products or services you have, but also give customers the opportunity to interact with you.
For example, you might post a picture of someone who has just had success using one of your products and then ask them to share their story on social media. This will get them engaged in your business and promote your product or service at the same time!
9. Get More Online Reviews
Getting honest feedback from your customers is one of the best ways to grow your business. Social media gives you the opportunity to get more reviews by creating a new review tab on your website, or even integrating social media with your customer service system. This way, it’s easy for potential customers to leave feedback about their experience with you.
10. Ask Questions
You can grow your followers by asking questions. It’s a simple strategy, but one that works well.
This strategy works because people love to answer questions. You can easily find out what your customers want and get feedback on your products or services through the answers they give you. This is also an opportunity for you to get to know your customers better and build stronger relationships with them.
A popular question to ask is “What are you looking for in a product?” If someone replies, then you know that they are looking for something specific. You might have that same thing available! You could then offer them a free trial of the product they’re looking for, if it’s within your budget.
Let’s chat about implementing the top 10 marketing ideas today.
What’s New In Zoho CRM 2021
Build Everlasting Customer Relationships.
Nothing should get in between you and your customers. The latest features bring you everything you need to eliminate barriers and stay relevant to your customers. Great customer relationships should last forever. Here are the 17 newly updated CRM features you can’t live without. Check out The Best CRM Software of 2021 comparison article.
The Three Central Foundation Pillars.
1. Insight 2. Experience 3. Intelligence
1. Customer Segmentation
- Segment your customers based on their purchase patterns using the RFM model (recency, frequency, monetary value).
- Utilize this information to build targeted marketing campaigns that result in higher conversions.
- Identify unique upselling and cross-selling opportunities while improving customer engagement.
2. Webform Analytics & Testing
- Analyze webforms with statistics based on total leads generated, lead source, form abandonment rates, and more.
- Generate visual charts to get a quick picture on the performance of all your webforms.
- Conduct sophisticated webform A/B tests, with control over parameters such as traffic and test duration.
3. Marketing Attribution
- Link sales and marketing data together to identify marketing campaigns with high ROI.
- Identify which campaigns work best at each stage of your pipeline.
- Associate deals with the appropriate campaign and tailor future interactions with your contacts accordingly.
4. Cohort & Quadrant Analysis
- Classify sales and marketing data into cohorts and identify useful patterns across different groups.
- Discover useful metrics, such as customer retention during different periods, lead conversion trends, and more.
- Organize information into matrices using quadrant analysis, and identify underlying trends in your sales data.
5. Analytics App
- Access the Zoho CRM Analytics app to view all your CRM dashboards on the go.
- Dashboards remain synced so you always have the latest metrics at your fingertips.
- All dashboards are interactive so you can lay them out based on your selected parameters.
6. Command Centre
- Lead customers on personalized journeys from their first interaction with your brand, up to the point of purchase, and beyond.
- Create complex flows across modules and integrate third-party app actions when needed.
- Monitor metrics about each journey. Identify any unseen bottlenecks or delays that may be hindering your customers in their journeys.
7. Prediction Builder
- Create predictions for any field, in any module of Zoho CRM.
- Fine tune the default predictive model based on your chosen parameters to improve prediction accuracy.
- Make improved sales decisions based on predictions.
8. Zia Recommendations & Assignment Suggestions
- Improve lead conversion rates and deal size through intelligent suggestions.
- Route prospects to the best available rep automatically, based on Zia’s analysis of a rep’s interaction history.
- Receive recommendations for cross-sell or upsell opportunities relevant to a particular lead.
9. Automation Wizards
- Simplify complex record creation efforts with data collection wizards.
- Build a sequence of small contextual data entry forms to help sales reps capture information efficiently.
- Set up automated actions between stages or upon submission.
10. Multiple Pipelines
- Manage sales processes unique to various product lines, geographies, or other parameters.
- Customize each stage of your pipeline to suit your organization’s requirements.
- Get detailed reports to help you analyze the performance of each sales pipeline.
11. Review Process
- Verify and approve all data before it is entered into Zoho CRM to ensure accuracy.
- Create a review process and designate team members as reviewers.
- Empower reviewers to verify record information before approving or rejecting it, and allow them to add comments where appropriate.
12. Services & Appointments
- Utilize the new module dedicated to service-based businesses to improve service delivery and customer experience.
- Create a detailed service catalogue for your business.
- Manage all related activities and information like appointments, invoices, and job cards.
13. Call Customisation
- Record detailed, contextual information on all your calls to improve the quality of your conversations with prospects.
- Track pertinent details like the call purpose or outcome, and even add custom details to all incoming and outgoing calls.
- Use this information to refine follow-up conversations as needed.
14. Call & Email Workflows
- Utilise an expanded set of triggers for all call and email workflows, and customize actions based on various parameters.
- Receive missed call notifications, automate call reschedule emails, and more.
- Trigger email notifications, fine tune follow-up emails, and more.
15. Workflow Suggestions & Reports
- Identify automation opportunities with Zia’s workflow suggestions.
- Improve productivity by quickly setting up workflows customized for your organization.
- Understand the effectiveness of your workflows with detailed performance breakdowns of each action in the process.
16. Customer Signals
- Get a complete view of every touchpoint your customer has with your business.
- Create custom Signals for customer interactions on third party apps.
- Customize how signals are displayed to make them more meaningful to you.
17. Zia AI For Email
- Get the best out of your emails with Zia’s in-depth analyses.
- Gauge customer sentiment in all incoming emails to help prioritise your responses.
- Create activities and events from emails, enrich customer data from email signatures, and more.
Contact Informatix if you’d like more information about implementing your new CRM system or fine-tuning your existing one. Take it for a test drive today
Top 10 Ways To Make Sure Your Customers Keep Coming Back
Keeping Your Customers As Happy As Possible.
Everyone strives to keep their business as healthy and successful as possible. Providing unique and relevant products and services and then marketing those products and services correctly and at attractive price points, to the right people are all big parts of that equation, but the most important aspect of keeping your business running on all cylinders is as obvious as it’s often overlooked: keeping your customers as happy as possible.
It’s a lot better to keep the customers you have as happy as clams than to watch your company become a revolving door of customers. You want your customers to fall in love with you so they stick around, and it’s this process of building that loyalty that’s so crucial in today’s highly competitive business marketplace.
That’s why we’ve collected 10 of the best ways to make your customers absolutely fall in love with you for years to come!
1. Share Annual Customer Satisfaction Data
Any company worth their salt knows that it’s important to get a snapshot of their long-time clients at least once a year. Collecting customer satisfaction data is obviously important, but what’s not so clear is that you have to share this data so that these results can be discussed. This means more than just celebrating successes – you also have to analyse any customer service failures on your part in order to prevent the same mistakes in the future. Just because the feedback might be temporarily embarrassing doesn’t mean that it’s not incredibly useful for learning how to do better next time!
2. Keep Lines of Communication Open Monthly
Your customer database needs to feel like they’re being kept in the loop when it comes to how their product or service provider is doing. You can accomplish this by publishing relevant blog articles on a monthly basis, sharing them with your database as you do so. In addition to keeping these crucial lines of communication open with your customers, monthly blog posting can also help you push your search engine ranking just that big higher. This helps you get your key messages across to existing customers and new prospects all at the same time!
3. Live Chat Is a Necessity
People are over leaving phone messages and waiting for email responses. They’re especially over dealing with automated customer service solutions! Be sure that you enable and manage live chat on your website correctly. This helps you turn frustrated or upset customers into appreciative ones when you deal with their questions, comments, or issues right there on the spot in real-time. Even if you can’t resolve their issue right then and there, customers chatting with a real person remember that you’re willing to go the extra mile for them.
4. Use a Good CRM Platform
Customer relationship management (CRM) is the name of the game, and that’s why you need a good CRM platform to manage that customer relationship! You can’t be expected to keep track of all your sales leads, customers, and digital marketing all through a simple spreadsheet or two. Instead, an all-inclusive CRM platform can help you systematically manage all your customer touch-points in a way that you can see where you are at a single glance. Take our CRM for a free 15 day test drive.
5. Leverage and Evaluate your Digital Marketing Efforts
Before you go all-in when it comes to your digital marketing efforts, it’s important to make sure they’re actually cost-effective when it comes to generating real leads. Investigate the ROI on your Google, Facebook, and Instagram marketing performance. If you’re getting leads and sales from this activity, keep it up – if it’s underperforming, you may want to consider using those marketing funds differently.
6. Build Your Social Media Presence
Social media is huge, and it’s getting bigger each and every day. This isn’t going to change anytime soon. If you’re not publishing social media posts regularly, you’re leaving money on the table as well as letting your customers down. It only takes landing one lead to pay for your social media expenditures and then some – and not only that, your customer base will see your social media visibility as a positive!
7. Leverage Videoconferencing Methods Constantly
Meeting with customers is always important, but so valuing both your time and the time of your customers. Whenever possible, opt out of face-to-face meetings and instead use telephone or video conferencing as much as you like. This not only minimises travel time and meeting time wastage but it makes it easier to spend time getting to know your customers and really understand what makes them tick. You can’t build that same level of rapport simply over email!
8. Everyone Loves Free Stuff
Go above and beyond for your customers, and do it for free. It will leave them feeling absolutely delighted. It doesn’t have to be big and expensive, but it does have to be relevant and something that holds intrinsic value when viewed through the lens of their own corporate culture. It’s a touch like this that will show your customers that you value the relationship you’ve built with them.
9. Research and Share New Discoveries
Your customers will stick to you like glue if you periodically spend some time researching new technologies, strategies, and tactics that your customers could benefit from. Sharing this knowledge with them will fill them with the kind of appreciation you can’t get anywhere else. Show them you’re thinking of them as more than just a pay-check!
10. Share Feedback and Testimonials Publicly
When your customer leaves you glowing feedback or a particularly fantastic testimonial, it’s natural to want to share that on your website. Go one step further and make it as public as possible by linking back to each and every one of your happy customers’ websites. This will help their own search engine ranking, pushing up lead generation for their own business. It’s what we call in the business a “win-win”!
Contact Informatix if you’d like more information about making your customers fall in love with your business or just want to implement one of these 10 strategies.