The Future of Marketing is Credibility
“It’s who you know,” as they say. But I disagree. It’s not who you know, it’s who trusts you. The same principle applies to marketing. It does not matter how many people know about your business if no one trusts it.
The future of marketing is credibility, and there is one specific way to start showing your customers your credibility; you need to gather reviews. People trust other people’s reviews much more than they trust what you have to say about your own business. When a customer has a great experience, they will tell the world about it. When a customer has a bad experience, they will also tell the world about it. Do not be deceived by its simplicity, reviews are very powerful at influencing purchasing decisions.
Just to be clear, reviews do not build credibility, running an honest and great business does that. Reviews are the tools utilized to show the world that your company is credible.
Now that we can all agree reviews are important, all you must do is start collecting them. Enter Google My Business.
Got Reviews?
Everyone knows what Google is, but have you heard of Google My Business? It allows you to create a business profile and get visitors to your business through Google Maps, a website link, or a phone number. It is basically a high-tech phone book.
Google My Business is one of the best places to start collecting reviews. Not only are your company’s reviews displayed for many to see, but these reviews can even help your listing rank organically, meaning, for free on Google. Having a listing with great reviews is key to keeping your business visible in search.
Once you start gathering reviews, it would be a good idea to start learning about local search engine optimization (SEO). This is just like normal SEO (getting your website to rank for free on search engines), but with a local emphasis. Gathering reviews is one of the many steps of local SEO, which adds up to creating great online visibility for your business.
The world of search engine optimization is vast, but its principles are simple; convince search engines to show your website to its viewers by optimizing your website and Google My Business profile.
But Wait, There’s More
Did you know you can create a Google My Business profile for free? This is a great place to start building a portfolio of reviews. Your customers are already on Google, researching for their next purchase. They are using credibility as one of their main tools to sort through many listings. If a business does not have any reviews, potential customers might not purchase anything. On the internet, not many people will take a chance with an unknown (therefore, not credible) business.
If you do not already have a business profile on Google, go to the Google My Business website or download the Google My Business app from the App Store or Google Play Store. Once you set up your business profile with all the necessary information, such as business name, address, phone number, and photos, go to the section titled Home, then scroll down to the box titled Your Business Is On Google. Once you are there, click Share Your Business Profile and copy the link. This is the link you can share to request reviews.
A Long-term Investment
Marketing takes time, so be ready to work on gathering reviews for the long run. The goal is to generate word-of-mouth marketing, which can be greatly impacted by your company’s reviews. Word-of-mouth marketing is the most lucrative and low-cost form of marketing. As amazing as it sounds, it is funny that genuine word-of-mouth marketing can only be earned through the credibility of your business.
Implementing this new marketing tactic may seem overwhelming, but it’s a necessary step for the future success of your business. Maintaining your Google My Business profile will be extra work, but it is worth it. If you are too busy to properly maintain this profile, consider delegating this task to an employee who specializes in marketing or communications.
For your business to be successful on the internet, you must invest a lot of time and effort. To build credibility, you need to work on gaining reviews for the long run. Understand that this is an investment that will take time.
Credibility takes a long time to build. The ones that succeed in ‘credibility marketing’ are those that run honest and great companies that continually seek high-quality reviews for years on end, never giving up.
One review is not enough, you need many reviews to influence your company’s success. All these efforts described are for the purpose of jump-starting an amazing phenomenon; once you can prove your company’s credibility, more people will trust it.
