Comments on: Leveraging Small Business Customer Reviews and Testimonials Online

By: jeffatrackaid

jeffatrackaid — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:29:10 +0000

I use a service called Ratepoint to collect customer feedback. This has made it easy for us to manage this process and gives us a constantly growing stream of quips to add to our site.

Also, in some user testing, we had 60% of respondents specifically mention the use of testimonials. We have them setup to rotate on each page.

However, this is not what we have been doing:

“Use select customer testimonials and place them strategically on your website. ”

We’ve just been pulling from a pool but I think if we craft pools targeted to each service they will be much more effective.

By: Paul Dumas

Paul Dumas — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 04:55:29 +0000

Couldn’t have said it better myself. The impact on customer reviews in organic local search simply cannot be overstated. As the internet gets more and more inundated, customer reviews continue to be the simplest means for a local business to stand out in a crowd. It seems like each update to the Google Maps algorithm places more and more emphasis on reviews. Just wish more business owners would realize the benefit. Thanks for the resource!

By: Seh

Seh — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:45:41 +0000

Another way to build trust and credibility through testimonials, would be with video testimonials. Then you could upload these videos to several video sites. My favorite right now is http://www.adwido.com just because of the attention they give to marketing. Plust the account is free, it’s perfect for the small business owner and marketer.

By: Offices

Offices — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 02:56:06 +0000

Too many SEOs worry about keyword density if users are allowed to type their own reviews etc.

They really should stop worrying as the google algos look like they can give great credit to sites that offer reviews.

By: Rod DeVar

Rod DeVar — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:05:48 +0000

Thanks for the great tips, Steven. As you’ve mentioned, Direct Mail is a great way to share customer testimonials – and part of what makes it so effective is that it gives customers a personal and tangle way to interact with your brand. Consumers like to receive Direct Mail – in fact, research shows that 55 percent of consumers look forward to discovering the Mail they receive and 67 percent feel mail is more personal than the Internet.

Most marketers agree that Direct Mail is not only a great way to go, but an undeniable value leader for customer acquisition and retention.

Rod DeVar
Manager, Direct Mail
United States Postal Service

By: Alvin Cordeiro

Alvin Cordeiro — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 16:07:55 +0000

What a great post. You started off by saying… “Referrals from happy customers have always been the best method for generating new customers. The next-best source is well-written, satisfied customer reviews and testimonials, another kind of referral.”

I whole heartedly agree however find that most people put the cart before the horse by trying to get that ever so elusive customer referral first. Getting customer referrals is much easier after your happy customer has taken the time to write a glowing review and solidified their commitment to tell others about their experience with your company.

On another note, I’m always amazed at how many business owners I run into that are afraid to have their business listed on a rate and review site. The most common fear is that one of their customers decides to right a less then positive or even perhaps a bad review. I try and explain in simple terms that not all bad reviews are a reflection of a bad business, many times its simply just a matter of a bad match between a customer’s tastes and preferences and the businesses offerings or service. Similar to how people gauge the quality of a movie differently.

By: Steven Brier

Steven Brier — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 13:02:58 +0000

Keith what you presented is a truly great resource. The correlations are wonderfully useful as the search engine relations.

However I would argue that optimizing free listings is least about your estimated 13 hours of submissions and much more about the research and writing before the submissions so you stand out.

To do all that is required in order to be both found by local search engines and be sales-worthy to humans is the real challenge. Overwhelming I believe for most non-professionals and many professionals in local search.

By: Keith

Keith — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 05:24:45 +0000

Hey Steve,
Great Post again. To augment your list of “Well Trafficked Websites & Local Business Reviews”, there is a great ranked list of Local Search Engines, Directories and Providers at http://www.eMarketing Matador.com. We created the list for our clients but it is out there for all.

By: Cube

Cube — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 18:48:29 +0000

More than anything I find that new customers look for lists of current clients on sites – if nothing is there that signs a problem of some sort or a marketing issue for the site owner. I found in the beginning this area dificult as I did not want to ask – training one self is a must.

By: Erin

Erin — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:35:33 +0000

Steven, what do you recommend for someone like me who has small local business as a face painter for kids parties. Right now my husband does PPC advertising for me and it’s worked pretty well but I want to get more exposure.
Thx