Marketing ROI - Generate More Sales With This Overlooked Strategy
It's easier than you think to get more customers when you have the right strategy to grow your business.
Most businesses focus on the front end. Filling the funnel and such. Some will work on conversion, while others might seek to improve retention. But many overlook one opportunity that can generate more business.
What if I told you there is a way to get customers to help do your marketing for you?
If you provide decent product or service and good customer experience, you could be a prime candidate.To have customers do your marketing involves setting yourself up beforehand, and once you're in position, it's your move.
Word of mouth referrals have the potential to grow your business, and a scalable strategy to utilize. Using online reviews allows a business to not only generate more referrals, when distributed through social media it can help build the channel and your following. Additionally, the management of online reviews also help with local search to further improve customer acquisition and should not be overlooked.
For any business or brand with an online presence, an often overlooked aspect of marketing is reputation management, which inlcudes online reviews and search results. The referral is also a high value customer that tends to spend more, and make more repeat purchases.
For consumers searching your brand name, they already know of you.
But for consumers searching for a restaurant or plumber or some other product or service would be early in the customer journey of selecting a business. Being part of those options can turn a consumer into your customer.
Without knowing a specific brand, most consumers begin their research online to fill their needs. Over half of all searches are related to local, and reviews appear for near 95% of those results.
Yet about a third of businesses take advantage of this, which presents the opportunity for those that take the plunge to generate their own success with referral marketing and online reviews to increase their visibility and customers.
The path is simple, ask customers for an online review, and most are happy to do so. While maybe half eventually follow through, the key is to remind them a few times.
Developing a referral strategy is something many are missing from their marketing plan and online reviews provide social proof to consumers that your business is worth considering when they're in research mode.
Your customers can become advocates, and some of your best marketers. It all starts with asking them for referrals and reviews. If you've earned them, this is your chance to see a return on those efforts.
When it comes to reviews, most consumers look at the overall star rating and number of reviews. But there is another item they also look at, and that is the recency of the review. Over half of consumers believe that if a review is over three months, it's no longer relevant, which is why you also need a steady stream of new reviews. This tends to be an even bigger consideration for restaurants and hospitality.
To effectively implement this strategy, it's recommended that using review management software with automation to send those reminders is used. Without it, the task can quickly become unmanageable. From sending invites to reminders, it doesn't take long before you have dozens of emails to send each week.
It also helps to make customers aware that you would appreciate their feedback by placing signage within your place of business, along with on invoices or other similar points of contact with them.