Social media has undoubtedly become a powerful communication and marketing tool. It allow businesses to connect with their customers on a more personal level. Social media also gives customers a voice to share their thoughts about a company or product.
While this two-way communication channel is beneficial for businesses, it can also be challenging. Negative comments are bound to happen. When they do, you should handle them in a way that won’t damage your brand or reputation.
Let’s discuss how to deal with negative comments on social media like a pro.
Make Sure You Respond
Dealing with negative social media comments can be difficult. However, it’s important to remember that ignoring them is not an option. When customers take the time to reach out to you with a complaint or concern, they expect (and deserve) a response.
Not only will a reply show the customer that you care about their experience, but it also shows others that you’re willing to listen to feedback and address any issues.
In addition to responding to negative comments, quickly take care of the issue that caused the comment in the first place. This may involve refunding their purchase or exchanging an item. Or, simply apologizing for any inconvenience they may have experienced.
Whatever the matter may be, it’s important to take care of it promptly and efficiently. Customers appreciate it when companies own up to their mistakes and try to correct them.
If you take too long, customers may think you don’t care about their issue or that you’re sweeping it under the rug. Delaying will only damage your reputation further, so it’s crucial to nip the problem in the bud as soon as possible.
Be Professional on Social Media
Although it may be tempting to lash out, remember that what you say on social media can be used against you. Therefore, always err on the side of caution and keep your responses professional.
This doesn’t mean that you can’t defend yourself or your business – but you should do so in a respectful way that doesn’t make the situation worse.
Try saying things like:
“We’re sorry to hear that you had a negative experience. We appreciate your feedback and would like to make this right with you.”
“Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We take these issues seriously and would like to look into this further. Please DM us your contact information and order number so we can investigate.”
Taking the Conversation Offline
In some cases, it may be best to take the conversation offline. This is usually the case when a customer is angry or upset. Or, if the situation could escalate if only addressed on your public social media.
When you take the conversation offline, you’ll have a chance to diffuse the situation without worrying about making it worse. You can reply to the comment publicly and let the customer know that you’d like to discuss their concerns further in a private message or over the phone.
This shows that you’re willing to listen and help resolve the issue in a way that is considerate of their privacy.
Address the Issue Directly
When responding to a negative comment on social media, address the issue directly. A straightforward response shows the customer (and anyone else reading) that you take their concerns seriously and are willing to resolve the problem.
For example, if a customer is unhappy with your product, you might say something like:
“Thank you for your feedback. We’re sorry to hear that you’re disappointed with our product. Can you please provide more information about what you didn’t like? We’d like to pass your feedback along to our team and see if there’s anything we can do to improve the product.”
This response shows that you care about the customer’s experience and want to help resolve the issue. It also gives you an opportunity to learn more about what the customer didn’t like so that you can make improvements in the future.
Don’t Be Afraid to Apologize
In some cases, the best way to deal with a negative social media comment is to simply apologize. An apology shows the customer that you understand their frustration and want to make things right.
Of course, you shouldn’t apologize for something that wasn’t your fault. But if there was a mistake on your part, or if the customer had a valid complaint, an apology would go a long way in diffusing the situation.
Some people just want to feel like they’re heard and that their concerns are taken seriously. In these cases, a simple apology may be enough to resolve the issue.
Use Positive Language on Social Media
It’s essential to use positive language when responding to negative comments. However, this doesn’t mean that you should ignore the problem or act like everything is fine. Instead, focus on finding a resolution rather than dwelling on the negative.
For example, instead of saying, “We’re sorry that you had a bad experience,” you could say, “Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We want to do everything we can to ensure your next experience is better.”
This response shows that you’re committed to resolving the issue while also setting a positive tone for the rest of the conversation.
Don’t Scrub Your Social Media Page of Negative Comments
While it’s tempting to delete negative comments or hide them from your feed, this is usually a bad idea. Not only does it make you look deceitful, but it also makes it seem like you don’t care about your customers’ concerns.
It’s okay to delete comments that are abusive or that don’t add anything to the conversation. But in most cases, it’s best to leave the comment up and respond directly. These comments show that you’re willing to listen to feedback, even if it’s negative. If you only have good comments or reviews, it might start to look suspicious!
Finally, it’s important to remember that negative comments can actually be a good thing. They provide you with an opportunity to improve your products or services and show your customers that you care about their experience.
As a business owner, you should always look for ways to improve. So, if you’re getting a lot of negative feedback about a certain aspect of your business, use it as a chance to make positive changes.
So next time you get a negative comment on social media, don’t panic. Instead, just follow these tips, and you’ll be able to handle it like a pro.
Here, we’ll get into a little more detail about Jay’s “serial entrepreneur” part of his impressive resume as we explore all the different services he’s created or put his own twist on to help business owners nationwide.
1. HowTo.Agency
If you’ve known us for a little while, you’re probably already familiar with this one; If not, JVI Mobile Marketing created HowTo.Agency because one day, Jay had an epiphany: some people who desperately need and/or want marketing help can't always afford to hire someone to do it for them… or sometimes they just would rather do it themselves!
HowTo.Agency is the perfect resource for business owners who want to take their marketing efforts into their own hands. We offer a wealth of resources, including tips, tutorials, and more. Our goal is to provide business owners with the tools they need to succeed — at no cost.
2. Local5Stars
If you're a business owner, then you know how important online reviews are. They can make or break your business.
With our reputation managementsoftware, you'll be able to collect online reviews from customers faster and easier than ever before. Plus, our software will help you track your online reputation and optimize your marketing strategy accordingly.
So if you're looking for a tool to help improve your business's online reputation, then look no further than Local5Stars.
3. The LENS Method
The LENS method, developed by JVI Mobile Marketing, is an effective social media strategy that can help you get the most out of your social media platforms. By following the LENS method, you can ensure that you are using social media to its full potential. These are the types of posts you should be putting out on your socials:
L- Listening
These are the types of posts where you’re asking your followers to engage with your content! If your post is intriguing enough, people will even do it on their own without you having to use the words “comment below”.
E- Educating
Give your followers fun facts or tips related to your product or industry! The more they can learn from you, the more they will trust you.
N- Networking
This is a “goodwill” post in which you talk about and tag other people or brands that are in your same industry. If you’re at a physical location, you can mention other stores or events nearby.
S- Selling
This is the one you’re probably already good at! It’s exactly what it sounds like – posting about your product or service with the intention of persuading someone to buy it.
By following the LENS method, you can maximize your social media efforts and achieve your business goals. Try it today!
4. Subscribestage.com
Subscribestage.com is a website built by JVI Mobile Marketing that gives people tons of information about all the different ways to get customers to and through the subscribe stage.
The subscribe stage of the customer value journey is when a potential customer opts in to receive something of value from you. This could be a newsletter, a free e-book, or access to exclusive content — to name a few.
There are tons of different subscribe stage strategies out there, and it can be tough to know which to pursue. That's where subscribestage.com comes in. We've gathered an extensive amount of information on all the various options, so you can make an informed decision about what will work best for you.
5. ManyChat Chatbots
ManyChat is a chatbot software as a service (SaaS) that can automate marketing campaigns on Facebook and Instagram and can be used in a variety of marketing campaigns.
These chatbots allow for real-time communication with your customers, which will help to maintain a personal touch with your audience in a way not previously possible without hiring in-house staff or using expensive outsourced software development services.
This is one of JVI Mobile’s favorite secret weapons, allowing them to help many companies become more efficient in reaching their audiences through automated marketing campaigns on social media.
When you go to Manychat's website just enter the email address associated with your Facebook Page, hit "Sign In", and then follow the steps to configure ManyChat.
6. AdvertisingGreensboro.com
Advertising Greensboro is a website created by JVI Mobile Marketing, meant to act as a directory for local businesses in the Greensboro, North Carolina area. The website includes a comprehensive list of businesses in the area, complete with contact information and links to the businesses' websites. Advertising Greensboro is a great resource for anyone looking for local businesses in Greensboro!
In addition to being a directory for local businesses, Advertising Greensboro is also home to Meet the Experts, a podcast hosted by Jay Vics of JVI Mobile Marketing. Meet the Experts interviews experts and owners of Greensboro businesses, providing listeners with valuable insights into the inner workings of these businesses. If you're looking for information on Greensboro businesses, Advertising Greensboro is the place to go!
7. Meet The Experts
As we just mentioned above, Jay Vics, Founder of JVI Mobile Marketing and HowTo.Agency, interviews experts and business owners about their businesses on Meet the Experts. This podcast is all about helping listeners learn from those who have succeeded in their fields while giving business owners a free "commercial" essentially all about them and their business!
Since this is a podcast, it comes at absolutely no cost to the interviewees. Also, Meet the Experts is a great way to learn new information while supporting small businesses.
Hear more about it from Jay himself!
8. Double Your Sales Discovery Session
This is a complimentary 90-minute session with Jay Vics, owner of JVI Mobile Marketing, where he will help you figure out how your business can get more customers and sales.
Most businesses want to double their sales but don't know where to start. This “gifted to you” session with Jay presents you with the perfect opportunity to get started. During this session, he will help you identify what's stopping your business from reaching its full potential and give you the tools you need to start making more sales. Don't miss out on this chance to take your business to the next level!
9. HowTo.Strategize – Digital Foundations Bootcamp
Are you ready to take your business to the next level?
If you've been through a Double Your Sales discovery session (mentioned above), then you're ready for the digital foundations bootcamp. Jay Vics of JVI Mobile Marketing leads this approximately 4-hour session that will start you on a path to predictability and profitability in your business or non-profit.
We will figure out your ideal client, your customer value journey, and your growth scorecard (which helps us figure out if it's working) to uncover any bottlenecks and opportunities in your current marketing strategy.
By the end of this bootcamp, you will have a solid foundation on which to build your digital marketing strategy. Register now and let's get started!
When you own an online store, getting new customers is an ongoing challenge. You may want to double your sales, but you are constantly trying new things to raise awareness about your store and your amazing products.
But — the things you try aren’t working like you thought they would.
You aren’t getting the interactions on Facebook that you hoped you’d get, your site traffic isn’t climbing, and sales are staying stagnant…
So what do you do?
We’re going to walk you through the steps we use with every one of our clients to help them double their sales and build loyalty with their customers using proven techniques that address every aspect of their marketing. By the time you are done reading, you’ll know exactly how to double your sales for your store and keep customers coming back for more.
Step #1: Plan for Sustainable Growth to Double Your Sales
Predictable and sustainable growth is the holy grail of any business. Can you imagine what it would be like if you could count on a certain amount of growth from one month to the next — how would that change your business?
The model that we recommend using to get you to that point is called the Growth Triad. As you can guess, it has three parts. As we start working with each of our clients, one of the first things we do is assess the three areas and then work to fill in the gaps.
Documented Strategy
Many business owners fall victim to something called “shiny object syndrome” — they constantly find and think of new things to do to help their business grow. So they jump in and make things happen and hope for the best.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t usually work out in their favor. Random acts of marketing rarely get the results you want — and definitely won’t double your sales. On the rare occasion that you do land on something, it’s often impossible to replicate again with the same success.
That’s why we recommend documenting your strategy before you start executing. When you have a plan for what you’re doing before you start out, it’s much easier to predict and track what’s going to happen.
Tools and Tactics
You will also require specific tools and proven tactics to help you execute your strategy.
This could include tools like:
Proven tactics can be anything that you’ve done previously with success or things that you hire an expert (like us) to implement for you.
Actionable Metrics
It’s important not to concentrate on vanity metrics. Vanity metrics are the stats that people seem to focus on because they seem like they should be important — but ultimately, they don’t have a direct impact on the results you’re trying to achieve.
For example, most people focus on things like website traffic and views on a social media post. Those metrics aren’t a great indicator of success.
Instead, if you want to double your sales, you should focus on metrics you can actively impact and that are measurable. For most initiatives, you will want to track a mix of lead and lag metrics.
Lag metrics are the numbers that happen after success or failure. These are things like revenue, profit, quality, and customer satisfaction. They tell you how you did, but only after you’ve already done it.
Lead metrics are the things you can impact along the way. For example, if you are trying to increase sales by the end of the month (lag metric), and you know that posting daily on your Facebook page will get the sales you need, then your lead metric would be the number of posts per day on your FB page.
Step #2: Know Your Customers
Next, you will want to really get to know your customers. Most people focus on overarching demographics like age, marital status, homeownership, income, familial relationships, etc.
Knowing those things is good, but the most important part of your customer avatar is their story — their motivators, fears, inspirations, and goals.
A customer avatar is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer. To create a complete customer avatar, you’ll want to identify the following:
Their goals and values — what do they want to achieve, and what do they consider to be important values?
Where they get their information — books, magazines, blogs, conferences, gurus, and other sources of info.
Their demographic information — name, age, gender, marital status, number of children, and location.
Any challenges and pain points — the things that are holding them back and how they feel about those things.
Their objections and their role — do they have the authority to hire you, and if so, why wouldn’t they want to?
Once you have a firm understanding of where they are now in their life, you can help communicate to them where they can go if they buy your products. We use a simple tool called a Before and After Grid to help us map this out for your target customers.
The Before and After Grid documents their journey from before having your product to after they’ve purchased your product. This handy tool helps us clarify the marketing messages that will resonate with your audience.
The Before and After Grid includes:
What They Have — the things they physically have before and after buying your product.
How They Feel — the way they feel with and without your product.
What Their Day is Like — what their average day looks like with and without your product.
Their Status — how they think about themselves before and after buying your product.
Good vs Evil — the evil is what’s plaguing them before they purchase and the good is what’s created in their life after they purchase.
We’ll have the language we need to help them understand how a purchase will transform their lives from where they are now to where they want to be.
Step #3: Plan their Journey
The customer value journey is a framework that helps us understand how to build loyalty with customers (allowing you to double your sales). It’s about understanding what moves your customers along the customer value journey from the first time they buy from you to the time they buy from you again and again. It is with this framework that we turn complete strangers into raving fans in any business.
The customer value journey is about more than just digital marketing. It’s about bridging human relationships with the entire customer experience. This includes everything from the first time a total stranger encounters your brand to the time they go to make a purchase, leave a review, and send you referrals.
The Customer Value Journey
First, we need to get to the bottom of how the customer value journey is different from marketing. Most marketers today think in terms of platforms, tactics, or activities. This makes sense because their focus is on making the most of the available resources to create more conversions. It also means their focus is on growing the top line, increasing profits, and increasing shareholder value.
But this is not the entire picture. A brand can give customers a great experience across all the touchpoints between awareness through purchase, and then to reviews and referrals.
But first, it is important to look at this journey as a human-to-human relationship. There is a sequence that must be followed. Think of it like dating. Many digital marketers try to do too much on the first encounter with a stranger. They try to sell them something too fast. This is the equivalent of asking,
“So, I was thinking… On our first date, while we are having our coffee, why don’t we determine how many kids we are going to have and pick out their names?”
Definitely not the best first impression, and I imagine you won’t get very many dates (i.e. conversions), if any. Marketers and brands do this every day, and then think that online marketing doesn’t work at all. The sequence is important. We go into this in great detail during our half-day program “HowTo.Strategize: The Digital Foundations Bootcamp”.
Understanding the Customer Value Journey
As an entrepreneur, you are always looking for ways to cut costs, but also double your sales. At any given moment, there are probably thousands of things you could do to cut costs and increase revenue. Maybe you could run fewer ads or use lower-quality landing pages. Maybe you could implement a cheaper SEO campaign. But as a small business owner, you should look at the largest opportunities that can offer the highest return on investment.
One of those opportunities is the customer value journey. It’s the proven framework used by thousands of companies that helps you understand how to build loyalty from scratch. What Is the Customer Value Journey? You can think of the customer value journey as a roadmap to understand how and why your customers engage with your business and how to make the relationship more valuable to you and your customers.
The Customer Value Journey Map
This framework was designed by the world-class digital marketing training company, DigitalMarketer in Austin, Tx.
DigitalMarketer’s Customer Value Journey Framework is an eight-stage customer journey that thousands of companies, including several Fortune 100 companies, use as a guide to build their marketing strategies. It will help you identify what actions to take at each stage and when so that the content and campaigns are based on a cohesive strategy. The Customer Value Journey Map lays out the journey a customer takes from stranger to raving fan, through the lens of a business’s digital marketing channels. Once you master this, you can definitely double your sales — often!
We will start with the way a stranger finds out about your brand and finish with that same customer telling all of their family and friends or colleagues about your services.
Awareness
This one is obvious. Prospective customers need to learn about you and your products, so they know you exist. Prospects find out about you through organic or paid search. We will discuss the 4 best ways more in the next section, but for now, this is typically where most businesses wrongly stop marketing and immediately start selling.
Engage
This stage is all about them showing interest in you — interacting with social posts, reading blog articles, etc. When someone finds you, what is the first thing you want to show them? This is called content marketing and it is much different from selling. Sales come later. This is about building enough trust and credibility that they take a real look at you.
Subscribe
Notice we haven’t started talking about selling anyone anything yet? This stage is basically asking someone for their digits. You know, not literally. Once trust has begun to build, you can ask for a small commitment like giving you their contact information in exchange for something valuable like a webinar, free samples, or downloadable guides/checklists/books. Maybe even an e-book or a mini-course.
What is the cornerstone of our Customer Value Journey Framework?
Creating great landing pages, building valuable lead magnets, and keeping your new subscribers engaged. These elements make up the “Subscribe Stage” of our 8-stage, 1-page digital marketing strategy.
The subscribe stage could be the most important step in your marketing strategy, especially to double your sales. This is the third stage of the CVJ and it typically consists of 3 main components:
The opt-in is the point of conversion. This could be by way of a web landing page, chatbot, or text message opt-in form. The lead magnet can be any valuable content you are willing to give in exchange for permission to follow up with your new subscriber. An introductory email drip sequence should try to re-engage and start connecting with these prospects as quickly as possible, so they know, like, and trust you more before expecting them to buy from you on their own accord.
The most important thing is that you have something valuable for the person for giving their email address (lead magnet) and they are captivated by what you have to offer enough to give up an email in exchange.
A great landing page will also encourage prospects to take the next step: getting them on your list or newsletter as well! This can be done with social buttons like “Get Offer Now”, which allows people who want more content from you to automatically subscribe when signing in to one of our platforms. It could also be encouraging visitors to sign-up with exclusive offers, early access deals, discounts–whatever it takes. The more people decide to take advantage of these offers, the great chance you have to double your sales!
Convert
We’ve made it… After a few phone calls, we finally got the “first date”! Ok, in the digital marketing world, those “phone calls” are probably just a series of emails to build more trust, but in each one, the goal was to lead someone to make a commitment to you. This is their first investment of either money or time. You can do this with a high-value, low-risk entry-point offer Some folks call this the tripwire, others a loss-leader. We call it a conversion. As soon as someone takes this step, the whole relationship changes. This stage could be a low-dollar offer or a workshop. Now, what do we say on the “date”?
Excite
Now that they’ve made their initial investment with you, it’s time to get them excited about working with you. We are on stage 5 of 8, and we still haven’t sold this person our core offer yet. However, this is the stage where the magic happens… This magic is called the “AH-HA Moment”. The goal of the last stage was to get a commitment, so we can take our offer from a nice-to-have to a must-have and deliver this ah-ha moment that makes people say,
“SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!”
Ascend
Finally! 6 stages into this process, and we can talk all about customers buying our core offerings. What took so long? At this stage, you are aiming for repeat purchases and larger purchases. You want to move them from the initial purchase up the ladder to being a loyal customer. It takes time to earn trust, and get people to know, like, and trust you enough that they are willing to become a customer. This is where we look at ways to additionally maximize our offers to include cross-sells, upsells, and retention-based deals like subscriptions or retainers.
Advocate
Do you look at online reviews when you travel, go out to eat, or need services for your car or home? Just about everyone does. Nothing says a business is good like a testimonial or an online review. Customers in this stage will happily give testimonials and make referrals when they are asked. There are some great software tools out on the market that can make the review collection and reputation management process a breeze. We know because we own and market a product that does this well. Typically, if you don’t want to spend money on a fancy digital tool, you could just ask people verbally for them to write a review. But are you really going to follow up?
Promote
No deal is easier to close than a warm referral. Who is sending you new customers? Networking is great, but if you can get existing customers to refer new customers to you, you’ll easily be able to double your sales. Better yet? Put a system in place to incentivize people to tell others. These customers are happy and will enthusiastically recommend you to others without being asked. Secret strategy? Stickers and T-shirts are magical. By the way, in 2021, face masks are the new t-shirt!
The Big 4 — How Do Strangers Find You Online
The awareness stage of the Customer Value Journey is made up of four traffic generating places our friends at DigitalMarketer.com refer to as “The Big 4”. They are:
Probably no coincidence that this list is actually just 2 companies since Facebook owns Instagram and YouTube is owned by Google.
Fun Fact: The world’s 2nd largest search engine is YouTube, so Google owns the top 2 search engines on the planet!
How to Turn Your Fans and Followers into Paying Customers (and thus double your sales!)
You’ve got a big following on social media.
So what?
Unless those followers are paying you for products or services, they don’t mean much. It seems more of a “Vanity Metric”. I’m not saying that social media followers aren’t important in some ways. Having a lot of followers sends a signal to potential customers that you have a popular brand. It can help you get more traffic and attention.
That said, sales and profits are the names of the game. If those followers aren’t buying from you, they’re not doing anything for you in real terms… and they certainly won’t help you double your sales.
The solution? Take those fans and followers and convert them into paying customers. Here’s what to do.
Get to Know Your Audience
As the owner of a small or medium-sized business, you may not have given a lot of thought to what makes your customers tick. And yet, customer analysis is the key to turning casual fans and followers into customers.
Creating a detailed customer persona can help you understand your audience. Your persona should include:
Demographic information, including the age, gender, educational background, and income of your ideal customer
Psychographic information, including what your ideal customer likes and dislikes, and most importantly, the pain points that led them to look for your product or service.
I should point out that you will likely need more than one customer persona depending on what your business is. For example, if you sell products for both children and adults, you might need a Parent Persona and a separate Adult Persona for people without children.
Provide Value to Your Target Customers
Once you know who your target customers are, your next mission is to give them what they want. Here, I’m talking about entertaining and ACTIONABLE content that provides tangible value to the people you want to convert.
In other words, be generous with your knowledge. It doesn’t matter what your business is, you know it better than anybody else. Give some thought to what brings your customers to you — and what would convince them that your product or service is the best option to solve their problems.
You can provide value in a variety of ways. Here are some examples:
Write blog posts that address common questions and offer real solutions.
Do a live Q & A on social media.
Create a lead magnet that demonstrates your authority and provides a solution to a common problem.
Regardless of the type of content you create, your goal should be to make it immediately and undeniably useful to the people you most want to reach.
Interact with Your Followers and Fans
Having a large following is one thing, but ultimately, we all want to feel valued. Your job as a business owner is to make your fans and followers understand that you value them and care about them.
The answer is communication. That can mean a lot of different things, but here are some effective tactics that have been proven to work.
Ask your followers’ opinions and use the responses to focus your content on their needs.
Integrate your social media with your customer service, empowering your employees to respond to questions and complaints quickly.
Create a chatbot to provide immediate help when someone messages you or visits your website.
Create a lead-nurturing email sequence to inform subscribers about your product and give them an incentive to buy it.
Ultimately, consumers want to feel that the companies they buy from care about them and want their business. Without communication, you can’t demonstrate the importance of your customers… and you can’t double your sales!
What is Chatbot Marketing
Another way we’ve acquired new opt-ins is through chatbots. What is a chatbot? Great question. Chatbots are an automated chat service that can answer questions, process orders, and provide other valuable information, like lead magnets. They are an important part of the future as they will be able to handle customer communications 24 hours a day with no break!
Chatbots are a relatively new way to collect user information without sending them to another page. The most common form of chatbot is through Facebook Messenger. You can use a service like Manychat and when people comment on a post or click on an ad, you can have your chatbot begin a conversation with that person, offer your lead magnet, and add the user’s email to your email provider. This will kick off your drip sequence.
What is an Email Drip Sequence?
The intro drip sequence needs to be designed to re-engage prospects who might have dropped off down the funnel and get them back in contact with our brand. Different emails can offer different benefits: for example, we could send a content-rich article about building prospect relationships or an exclusive discount code that new subscribers can use as soon as they sign up with us! This is also where you introduce yourself–“Who are you? How will this relationship work? What do I need from you? Why should I trust you? How often will I hear from you again?”
Curate Content
Do you know that feeling when you walk into a store and a salesperson pounces on you before you have time to draw a breath? Very few of us enjoy that feeling, and the chances are good that your customers don’t, either.
While your social media content can and should focus on what you and your products can do for potential customers, it’s important to keep the direct sales pitches to a minimum (even though you want to double your sales). The solution? Curating content from other sources.
Content curation means pulling content from:
Social media pages from other companies (just don’t share things from your competitors!)
Make sure that the content you choose to share is highly relevant to the people in your target audience. While there’s nothing wrong with (occasionally) sharing content without adding anything to it, I think the best way to curate content is to add your take on it before posting.
Here’s a quick example. Say you own a gym and you find an article about the health benefits of exercise. If the article left anything out, you could mention it in your post. Or, you could elaborate on something that’s in the post to add your own take on it.
It’s a good rule of thumb that no more than 20% of your social media content should be direct sales pitches. The remaining 80% should offer value, information, and entertainment.
Use Retargeting to Double Your Sales
Retargeting is one of the most cost-effective forms of advertising because it focuses on people who are already engaged with your business and interested in your products.
By using a Facebook pixel, for example, you can target people on Facebook who have:
Visited your website or read your blog
Put items into their cart without checking out
Followed you on Facebook or Instagram
Clicked an ad
You probably know the statistic that says it can take between five and seven “touches” from a brand or company before conversion. The more often you can get your name and products in front of people, the more likely it is that they’ll eventually become customers. It’s a numbers game and retargeting can help you win it. I’ve focused here on Facebook retargeting, but you can also retarget on Google – something to keep in mind.
Remember, your social media followers are following you for a reason. They are interested in you and your company. It’s up to you to give them a reason to take the next step and become customers – and the tips I’ve listed here will help you to accomplish that goal, plus double your sales.
Step #4: Get the Support You Need
All of these steps seem fairly straightforward and easy to follow — but like most things, there’s a learning curve.
You can try to implement everything we’ve discussed here on your own, or you could skip the learning curve and move straight to doubling your sales and getting the sustainable and scalable business you want.
For years, we’ve been working with businesses and brands to help them with their online marketing efforts. We have seen firsthand the struggles that website owners go through when trying to find ways to generate more leads. We’ve also seen a common pitfall that many of them have when building their campaigns – they simply don’t know how to create great landing pages, build valuable lead magnets, and keep subscribers engaged.
Don’t take our word for it — download our case study and see how we generated 96 new leads and 18 sales in just 24 hours with Facebook Messenger Marketing Chatbots.
After reading, we’re sure that you’ll want results like those for your business and we look forward to talking to you.
Conclusion
The customer journey is one of the most misunderstood frameworks in the marketing and business world. What it isn’t is simple or simplistic. Using this framework, you can turn what seems like a weak business into a leader that is truly making an impact on customers. Creating value for your customers isn’t easy, but it’s worth it. Once you start to understand your customers’ needs, you can tailor your products and services to be exactly what they want. You can focus on delivering value to your customers by making them part of the story you tell about your brand. In doing so, your customer loyalty (and bank account) will blossom!
I hope this blog post has helped solidify some insights into how we create great landing pages that generate quality leads to double your sales through our CVJ framework!
If you would like more information about how the CVJ can be used for your business, please contact us. As a Certified Partner Agency of DigitalMarketer, we can help you build your Customer Value Journey as it applies to your specific company.
You may be wondering how to target local customers using geolocation marketing.Local businesses have special marketing challenges. Namely, it’s your job as a business owner to make sure that the people who are most likely to patronize your business – the people who live in your service area – know what you have to offer and where to find you.
One way to accomplish that goal is to use geolocation marketing. Here’s what you need to know.
What is Geolocation Marketing?
Let’s start with the basics. Geolocation marketing is a type of marketing that’s location-specific. By that, I mean that you can connect with potential customers who are near your business and target them directly with offers and ads.
The benefits of geolocation marketing are clear:
You’ll have access to a highly targeted audience of people who are likely to frequent your business
You can attract new customers by reaching out to them with offers that appeal directly to them
You can learn about the shopping habits and preferences of your existing customers. Use what you learn to grow your business
You can reward your most loyal customers with special content and offers designed to turn them into brand ambassadors
In other words, geolocation marketing can help you to tap into a resource base of your existing customers and potential customers in your area, allowing you to connect with them and market your business in a way that’s likely to yield a high return on your investment.
Tools to Use for Geolocation Marketing for Your Business
There are three kinds of geolocation marketing that you can use depending upon your needs. They are:
Geotargeting. This is the broadest form of geolocation marketing. It uses the IP addresses of your customers’ web browsers. In practical terms, you can’t use geotargeting for precise target audiences because it can’t pinpoint your audience’s location exactly. It’s best suited for marketing to general regions, cities, or states.
Geofencing. Geofencing is more precise than geotargeting, allowing you to target specific neighborhoods and even streets. Don’t think that limits you, though – it can also be used for entire towns or cities. Geofencing uses mobile devices’ GPS locations instead of IP addresses. That means you can track your customers’ locations even if they move. It’s ideal for attracting foot traffic but not as effective for tailoring specific marketing campaigns to your target audience.
Beacons. Beacons are by far the most specific option for geolocation marketing. A beacon is a small device that you’ll put inside or near your business. It collects data from Bluetooth signals in smartphones. They’re ideal for use in places with poor Wi-Fi reception because they’re used for close communication. The Bluetooth technology allows you to send messages and offers directly to customers who are in range.
The type of geolocation marketing you choose depends on what you hope to accomplish with it. If your business is highly dependent upon foot traffic, you may decide that geofencing is the most cost-effective and useful form of geolocation marketing.
Tips for Using Geolocation Marketing
Now, let’s talk about some specific tips to help you make the most of geolocation marketing and grow your business. There are lots of ways you can use this technology. Here are some suggestions.
Target people in a venue or at an event. If yours is the type of business that relies on foot traffic and you’re near a popular event venue, such as a stadium or theater, you can set up a geofence to target people who are at the place you specify. For example, a bar could target concertgoers at a nearby theater. You can also use this option to target office complexes and neighborhoods.
Set up a geofence in your delivery area. If you own a business that delivers – whether you’re delivering Thai food or furniture – you can easily use geofencing to target the people who live in the area you service. Those people are the most likely to buy from you and they may not know about your business – until you use geolocation marketing to tell them what you have to offer.
Use geotargeting to map out your audience based on where they are. While geotargeting is a more “big picture” type of geolocation marketing, it can be extremely useful to help you find people who are nearby. For example, if you sell a luxury product, you can use geo-targeting to get your message to people who live in upscale neighborhoods.
Use geolocation marketing to learn about your target audience’s buying habits. For example, you might have a nearby competitor and use geotargeting to provide potential customers with an incentive to visit your business.
Beacons
Use a beacon to attract foot traffic to your store. What if you own a retail store or restaurant that relies heavily on foot traffic? You can set up a beacon to ping your customers when they’re in range and then target them with specific offers. For example, if you own a restaurant near a busy downtown area or office park, you can send out an offer about your happy hour, including information about special deals on appetizers and drinks.
Speaking of beacons, you can also use them to send you an alert when a repeat or loyal customer is in your store. Imagine how flattered and grateful your customers will be when you show up at the door to greet them by name and show them what you’ve got to offer! This is a terrific tool for personalized marketing that can turn loyal customers into brand ambassadors.
The bottom line here is that geolocation marketing allows local businesses to use GPS technology to connect directly with the customers – and potential customers – who are most likely to frequent their stores.
The key to geolocation marketing is to determine which method will deliver the returns you want. That means defining your marketing goals and choosing the tech that’ll allow you to achieve them, whether it’s a beacon or a geofence.
Want to attract more local customers to your business? JVI Mobile can help.
If you’ve been wondering what the big deal is aboutonline reviews, you’ve come to the right place. Here you'll learn how reviews affect your search rankings, when you should remove your reviews (spoiler alert: not very often) and how to earn more positive reviews to keep your business booming.
Can Reviews Affect Your SEO Rankings?
You already know that local SEO is the name of the game. It’s essential to send Google signals – through keyword use and other SEO techniques – that your business is local. You also want them to know who it serves and where it is.
What you might not know is this:
Your online reviews play a direct role in your business making the cut to appear in the Google local three-pack.
The Google 3-pack is a collection of businesses that appear at the top of Google’s SERP when someone searches a keyword. It turns out that one of the keys to landing a coveted spot in the three-pack is getting good reviews. Here’s what you need to know.
The Proof That Reviews Matter
How can we tell that reviews make a difference in SEO rankings? Google’s algorithm is proprietary and the known ranking factors (keywords, links, and Google Rankbrain, to name a few) don’t include reviews.
Local SEO experts have been saying this for years, but it’s actually fairly easy to see that online reviews are important. Google any local business category and you will get a list of results with a three-pack at the top. When you look at the businesses that made it into the three-pack, you’ll most likely see the following:
Star ratings pulled directly from online reviews of the business
Keywords in those reviews
For example, if you searched for the keyword “Spokane hair salon,” you would see reviews that related to that keyword. That’s all the proof we need to know that reviews make a difference in determining which businesses appear at the top of the SERP.
The Local SEO Guide found that local reviews were the second most influential factor in determining search rank in their 2017 Local SEO Ranking Factors study. The influence in this study appeared to be limited to reviews that specifically included the keyword searched. Customers, however, are likely to use the most commonly searched terms naturally.
In addition, LSI keywords that are related to the search term may also play a role. Try Googling your top keyword and looking at what’s highlighted in the reviews in the three-pack. You may notice that reviews that use semantically-related words show up even if they don’t use the precise term you searched.
You want your business to be in the top results when customers are looking for businesses like yours near them
The Reasons Google Likes Reviews for SEO Rankings
There are some concrete reasons that Google thinks reviews matter. They’re directly related to the ways that Google’s algorithm has evolved. In the early days of the internet, it was possible to get a page to rank highly on any search engine by stuffing it with keywords.
That changed because it omitted any concern for the experience of a user who clicked through to a site. After all, if you could click on a site because it ranked for a keyword only to find that it was useless to your needs, you wouldn’t revisit it. You might even resent the search engine that directed you to it in the first place.
With that in mind, here are:
The Top Three Reasons Google Likes Reviews for SEO Rankings
It trusts outside sources more than it trusts you (at least when it comes to the relevance of your site.) This first reason is related to the ongoing importance that Google places on authority backlinks. It stands to reason that it would accept mentions and references from other sources as proof that your site is relevant to certain keywords and topics.
Google uses written content as a way of determining authenticity. When customers write reviews, they describe your business. They may even include information that’s not on your website. Even if you don’t list reviews on your site, these things can help flesh out the information on your site and give Google more context for its interpretation of your site.
Click-through rates also influence Google’s ranking algorithm. That might seem obvious, but what you need to know is that a business with lots of good reviews is, inevitably, going to get more clicks and traffic than a business with a few mediocre reviews. It’s in your best interest to encourage online reviews if you want to boost your Google rank.
These three things explain why reviews matter to Google. The key takeaways here is that Google takes outside resources into account to help it determine the authenticity and usefulness of your website. Users “vote” for your site by writing reviews and describing your site. Just as web users trust peer reviews to help them make buying decisions, Google trusts them to help it make recommendations of which sites are most likely to be useful for the keyword searched.
How to Make the Most of Your Reviews
Here are some quick tips to help you make the most of your online reviews:
Claim your listings on all relevant review sites. This includes Yelp and Google My Business, as well as local review sites. You want to make sure that you use keywords in your listing, link to your site, and include relevant information that will help people find you.
Link to your review pages directly from your website so customers can leave reviews if they want to.
Put a reminder about online reviews on your receipts or comment cards. Remember that dissatisfied customers are often motivated to leave online reviews, but happy customers will do so if you make it easy for them.
Send a note to your email list with a link to your review sites and ask them to leave a review.
Reply promptly to negative reviews to try to resolve them and get the reviewer to update their review.
These things will help you dial up the impact of your reviews and help you get into the coveted local three-pack for your most important keywords.
Reviews matter…
You know that, and now you can do something about it. Organic traffic is increasingly difficult to come by but encouraging and highlighting your reviews can help you get the biggest possible bang for your marketing bucks.
Not too long ago, business reviews were written by subject-matter experts and printed in well-known publications. In today’s world, that’s simply no longer the case. Nowadays your customers can easily voice their opinion and experience they had with your business online for the world to see.
But that’s actually a good thing – and there are plenty of good reasons why your business should be listed on review sites. The first is that you get to add a link to your website which will boost your traffic – and secondly, people can also get some basic information about your business such as the name of your hours of operation, where it’s located, your phone number and so on.
But most importantly it’s the customer reviews on these review sites (they call them review sites for a reason!), that makes them so important, but it also can be a double-edged sword.
Positive reviews can do wonders for your business, as review websites are considered more credible than any form of advertising. But negative reviews can have disastrous consequences to your bottom line. The complaint can be serious enough to significantly derail your business. Like a report about seeing bed bugs in a hotel room or a cockroach in an entrée at a restaurant. What’s really frustrating is when the report is not true and no merit at all.
But the question is, when should you remove reviews – reviews that make your business look bad?
Advantages of Removing Negative Reviews
Purging negative reviews can be a good thing. First of all, it limits the number of people who’ll ever read them – keeping the damage to a minimum. After all, it’s not unusual for a potential customer to reconsider their choice after reading just one negative review over a dozen positive ones.
Another benefit to removing negative reviews means that your average rating will go up. Studies show that a high customer rating means a potential increase of 55% in sales. According to Yelp, a restaurant with a 4-star rating is 63% more likely to be full at any given time than a restaurant with just a 3-star average rating. And a one-star increase in the average rating can bump up your revenue by 5 to 9 percent.
So it’s blatantly obvious why anyone who runs a business would want to remove negative reviews.
Disadvantages of Removing Negative Reviews
But these reasons alone for removing negative reviews doesn’t mean you should necessarily do so. In fact, websites like Yelp, Facebook, and Google don’t make it easy for you to remove negative reviews for one very simple reason— it damages the credibility of the site and the business
Removing reviews is to remove trust People trust review websites because they believe that by and large the reviews are honest and unbiased. To most people it’s an obvious red flag if they only find positive reviews. There’s got to be some contrast. You can’t please everyone and consumers know that. They will become suspicious if all you have is raving reviews about your business.
In this way, negative reviews are helpful because almost 7 out of 10 consumers are more likely to trust the reviews when they see that there is both positive and negative reviews in the mix. In fact, it’s been found that shoppers who read negative reviews are actually 67% more likely to convert than the average consumer.
What to Do When Slapped With Negative Reviews
First of all you need to understand that unless the review is inaccurate, a fake review, or violates the policy of the review website in question – you don’t stand a very good chance of actually getting the review removed.
To start with, you need to keep an eye out for online reviews – whether they are positive or negative. But if you can’t spend the whole day manually monitoring these website, it’s a good idea to consider using an online tool like reviewpush.com to help you monitor the sites automatically.
If you want a free alternative, setting up a Google Alert will pretty much do the same thing.
Once you have been alerted to a new review, it’s best if you can respond to it right away, good or bad. When you respond to positive reviews, it shows that you’re a gracious business owner who acknowledges the importance of your customers.
But when you are responding to negative reviews or complaints, you have several options. For example, if a customer felt your business fell short in some way then you should apologize and promise to do better.
But you can turn a negative into a positive while by taking responsibility but also emphasizing how you’re going to do better next time to balance things out.
Or you can even engage with the customer and ask ideas from them. Apologize for any inconvenience caused and then ask if they have suggestions on how you can do things better.
Whatever you do:
Just be polite.
The good thing about responding to negative online reviews is that 33% of the reviews are amended and become a positive review instead when they get a response from business owners. So it’s a win-win solution.
Negative reviews with inaccuracies or negative comments of your business that are flat out lies posted maliciously–often by competitors, or disgruntled ex-employees are the reviews that you’ll have the best chances of getting removed – but there must be a legitimate reason.
How to Remove Online Reviews
Each review site has its own rules and guidelines, but for most reputable sites you can’t just remove a review simply because it says negative things about your shop. However, you can take a peek at the guidelines governing such reviews, and you can flag a negative review if you think it has violated a rule or guideline.
For Google local reviews, check out the Google local review content policies and see if the review violated any one of its guidelines. If it has, you can flag the review and bring it to Google’s attention. Examples include offensive content, advertising for your competitors, or conflict of interest such as a review which was written by a competitor.
Contact the website’s webmaster, requesting them to remove the content, or at least indicate to Google that it shouldn’t crawl or index the page. They will probably require a compelling reason to remove reviews, so back up your request with as much proof as possible.
Whether you plan to keep or dispute a negative review, your main priority should be to boost the trust of your customers. Remember, positive reviews can make them trust you, but the presence of negative reviews doesn’t always mean that they will trust you less.
It may be better to simply respond to negative reviews in a proactive way than try to remove them. When you show to your customers that you value them by making every effort to give them a positive experience, then even bad reviews can be used to your advantage.
We have 6 tips for you to generate more positive reviews in a smart way. Who doesn’t love receiving positive reviews from a satisfied customer? Every business owner knows the value of positive reviews – and they’ve never been more important than they are right now.
Did you know that more than 80% of all consumers say that they trust a product review from a stranger as much as they would a personal recommendation from a friend. Not only that, people trust user reviews more than the official descriptions of products.
If you’re thinking of customer reviews as something that you can’t control, think again. Business owners can do a lot to encourage reviews – and of course, you can increase the chance that you'll have mostly positive reviews by providing excellent quality and service.
Still, those things aren’t enough. You can’t afford to sit back and hope that customers leave reviews of your business.
Fortunately, you don’t have to take a backseat to your customer’s whims. Here are six smart ways you can get more positive online reviews.
#1: Email Customers After a Purchase
Do you send customers an email after they make a purchase?
I’m not talking about the confirmation email where you send them an order number if they order online. I mean an email where you specifically ask them how they like your product and request that they write a review.
This is a practice that’s become increasingly common – and for a good reason. Some people automatically leave reviews for everything. They’re the well-known Yelpers who have thousands of reviews.
Many people need a reminder. They’re not going to leave a review of their own accord – but they just might if you ask them nicely. This is the review version of the call to action on your website. It’s a specific request to take a specific action.
Try sending your review request email a week to ten days after the purchase. That way, the customer will have had a chance to use your product and may be ready to offer an opinion.
#2: Empower Your Employees to Ask for Reviews
Sometimes, making the right request at the right time is all it takes to get the reviews you want. That’s why it makes sense to have your employees ask for reviews.
Some Uber drivers do this. Just before they arrive at their passenger’s destination, they ask about the review. The simple request puts the idea of leaving a review in the customer’s mind and greatly increases the chances that they’ll comply and leave a review.
Why ask at the point of service? When a customer has just made a purchase or used your service, the experience is fresh. A cashier who provides a friendly checkout and some banter is ideally placed to ask for a review because they have an opportunity to build rapport with the customer.
If you decide to use this method of getting reviews, consider printing cards asking for reviews and putting links to your review pages on your website. You don’t want customers to be confused about what to do – so eliminate the guesswork and you’ll reap the rewards.
#3: Use a Reviews Provider
The benefit of using a reviews provider like JVI Mobile is that they can get you a bunch of reviews at once. They’re real reviews from your real customers and they can give your page instant credibility.
These providers are a good option for start-up businesses because they can make your website appear to be well-established and popular. As you go, you can supplement the online reviews you get through a service with new online reviews from your customers.
#4: Try to Get a Google Local Guide to Review Your Company
Google Local Guide is a program owned by Google that designates certain reviewers as local experts. The process of getting a local guide can be a complex one, but here are some tips to help you do it:
Make sure your Google My Business listing is up-to-date and active
Join Google Local Guides on your own – you can write reviews of local businesses and raise your visibility provided you don’t use the platform to promote or favor your business
Attend local events with other guides
Invite other guides to come to your business
This isn’t a quick fix, but the nice thing about Google Local Guides is that when a local guide reviews your business, their designation shows up in the review and that gives it more weight than it would have otherwise. Another benefit is that Google requires guides to use their real names, so there’s less of the anonymous ranting that shows up on Yelp.
#5: Automate the Asking Process
If there’s a way for you to automate the process of asking for online reviews, why wouldn’t you do it?
Automation means that there’s no worry that a stressed-out employee will forget to ask. It turns the process into part of your customer service – a hands-off way of encouraging customer feedback and garnering the kinds of online reviews you want.
Here are a few suggestions to help you automate your system:
Set up an autoresponder to send an email requesting a review. Instead of manually sending those emails, link the date of a customer’s purchase to their email and have it go out on schedule. If you link customer purchases to your email marketing provider, you can rest easy knowing that every customer will get a request for a review.
Print up review request cards and put them in the customer’s bag at checkout. This method eliminates the need for your cashier to ask for a review, and makes it simple to do even at times when you’re busy and have a line at the register.
Put review links on your product pages. That way, when a customer makes a purchase they can easily read reviews of it – and it may help to remind them to leave a review after their purchase.
With JVI Mobile's reputation management platform, you can have your review process automated using our tools. Automating your review request system makes good business sense because it eliminates the guesswork.
#6: Set Up a Review System in Your Company
Even if your business is small, you shouldn’t fly by the seat of your pants when you’re requesting reviews. The method you use to ask for online reviews should be part of your company’s standard operating procedures.
Your review system should:
Specify whose job it is to ask for reviews
Specify the language to be used when requesting a review
Specify methods to be used (email, conversation, links and printed cards, to name a few)
Specify the timeframe for requesting reviews
Lay out procedures for responding to both positive and negative reviews
If you codify your system for requesting and managing reviews, you can be sure that there isn’t any confusion and that customers always get the request you want them to get.
Don’t Sweat the Negative Reviews…
We’ve focused here on garnering positive reviews for your business, but don’t get too stressed about negative reviews. If you handle them properly, they can help your business too!
Respond quickly and graciously and offer solutions. Don’t get defensive. Many businesses use negative feedback to demonstrate that they care about their customers.
If you’re getting so many reviews that you’re having trouble keeping up, you may want to consider using an online review management system to help you – and having too many reviews is the problem you want to have! That’s how businesses grow.
See how your business stacks up! Get your FREE Review Scan here to generate an instant reputation report and check out how your business appears on local review sites.
