Drive Modern Day Referrals with Google Reviews

By Clinton Houck, Senior Agency Marketing Consultant, State Auto Insurance

Positive Google reviews demonstrate that you are a true, local expert. Reviews show that real people have used your services, and your business met their needs. Getting regular positive reviews signals to Google that there is a higher probability that your business can help consumers get their needs met than other services. Studies have shown that 84% of consumers place as much value in a Google review as a traditional referral, and if a business has between 6 to 10 reviews, that the business is trustworthy. 

In fact, an agency I worked with recently started a Google review process in their office and a couple of weeks in I received this email: 

Strong Google reviews help make sure your business shows as one of the top three options on the map that appears above any other organic search results. An example is listed below: 

What's the first thing you notice when you look at this example? If you're like most people, it's the map. So, as a business, you want to show up on the map and one of the most powerful ways to do that is with regular, positive reviews. 

As a best practice, we recommend getting two or three reviews every month. How do you get started with reviews? Ask for them, just like you'd ask for a referral, something every agency is familiar with. Here is an example of a best practice process after signing up a new client: 

1. Before a client leaves your office, ask if they would be willing to leave a review on Google. Advise you will email them a review request link. 
2. NOTE: Do not have them complete a review on a computer in the office. Multiple reviews from the same computer are flagged as "fake" by Google.
3. That same day, email the client a request for an agency review. Make this request a standard communication with the following message framework: "Thank you for your business and trust. Please leave us a review about your experience with our agency. Here is a link to review our agency on Google." 
4. Track which clients complete reviews, and follow up in a week with a second email if a review hasn't been completed. 

Additionally, you can jumpstart reviews by having each of your team members reach out to their top 5 clients and request a review. This can get the business a foundation of reviews to build off of moving forward. 

The last step, before you are ready to start requesting Google reviews, you want to build your Google review link. This link allows clients to click and automatically be directed to the review section of your Google business listing. How to create a link directly to your Google reviews page:

Get the directions here, or contact us for help. 

This link will look ugly, so I recommend using a free link shortening service such as bit.ly to clean it up.