The Power of Online Reviews for Small Businesses

As a small business owner, you may be wondering why online reviews are so important. Online reviews can help build trust and credibility, improve search engine rankings, attract new customers, boost sales, provide valuable feedback, and offer social proof. Keep reading to learn more about the power of online reviews for small businesses.

Online reviews are important for small businesses

As a small business owner, you know that word-of-mouth is powerful. Online reviews are like modern day word-of-mouth recommendations. In fact, 84% of people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations from friends and family members. Online reviews are also important because they provide valuable insights into what your customers think about your products or services.

Did you know that 91% of customers between the age of 18-34 trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation?

Online reviews help build trust and credibility

One of the main reasons why online reviews are so important for small businesses is because they help build trust and credibility. In today’s digital world, potential customers are looking for reasons to trust a business before they make a purchase. Online reviews can help provide that social proof that potential customers are looking for.

As you’ll know, trust is hard to gain and easy to lose following a bad experience. 94% of all purchases are made for products with an average rating of 4 stars and above?

Online reviews can improve search engine rankings

Another reason why online reviews are important for small businesses is because they can improve search engine rankings. Online reviews are considered to be a type of “local SEO” signal, which means that they can help your business rank higher in search results. When potential customers do a search for businesses like yours, you’ll have a better chance of showing up in the results if you have positive online reviews.

Online customer reviews gain more weighting (6.47%) in organic local searches. What customers say in their reviews also mattered – ‘Negative Sentiment in Google Reviews’ is a negative ranking factor.

Online reviews can help attract new customers

Online reviews can also be used as a marketing tool to help attract new customers. When potential customers see that your business has positive online reviews, they’ ll be more likely to choose your business over a competitor that doesn’t have any reviews. Online reviews can also help you reach new customers by increasing your visibility in search results.

Over 9 out of 10 consumers (93% say online reviews impact their purchasing decisions. So it’s not an understatement to say that online reviews can make or break your company’s success.

Online reviews can boost sales

In addition to attracting new customers, online reviews can also boost sales. Studies have shown that businesses with positive online reviews tend to see a boost in sales. In fact, one study found that a business with a 4-star rating can see a 20% increase in sales. Online reviews can also lead to more repeat customers.

Up to 84% of consumers noted that reviews were important in their purchasing decisions. Additionally, 68% develop an opinion of a product or service after viewing between one to six reviews.

Online reviews provide valuable feedback

Another benefit of online reviews is that they provide valuable feedback. Online reviews can help you identify areas where your business needs to improve. They can also help you keep track of customer satisfaction levels. Online reviews can be a valuable source of feedback that you can use to make changes and improve your business.

Online reviews offer social proof

Finally, online reviews offer social proof. Social proof is the idea that people are more likely to do something if they see other people doing it. Online reviews can help provide social proof for your business. When potential customers see that your business has positive online reviews, they’ll be more likely to trust your business and make a purchase.

As you can see, there are many reasons why online reviews are important for small businesses. Online reviews can help build trust and credibility, improve search engine rankings, attract new customers, boost sales, provide valuable feedback, and offer social proof. If you’re not already using online reviews to your advantage, now is the time to start. Contact us below for more information.

Five Ways To Promote Your Business During Small Business Saturday

Small businesses play a big role in our economy and on Small Business Saturday, shoppers are encouraged to support them. This holiday shopping event occurs annually on the Saturday after Thanksgiving and is a great opportunity for Small Businesses to promote themselves. If you’re a Small Business owner, there are several things you can do to make the most of Small Business Saturday and attract customers to your store.

1. Get the word out there about Small Business Saturday

As a Small Business owner, you know that every sale counts. That’s why you can’t afford to miss out on Small Business Saturday – a day dedicated to supporting local businesses like yours. This year, Small Business Saturday falls on November 24th, in the midst of the busiest shopping season of the year. Make sure your customers know that you’re participating in this special event!

Some ways that you can get the word out to your customers about Small Business Saturday is through your social media accounts, newsletters, email list, Google Business page or in-store signs.

2. Offer special deals and discounts exclusively for Small Business Saturday

This will entice customers to shop with you instead of at larger chain stores, and it will help you to stand out from the competition. offer discounts on your most popular items, or give away free samples of your products.

Like Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Small Business Saturday, consumers expect to see special deals and discounts on these days. That does not mean that you have to discount everything in your store. Just enough to make consumers feel happy that they are getting a deal.

One way to do that is to get new consumers to sign up for a loyalty program at purchase, providing you with an opportunity to engage with them throughout the year.

3. Create a festive atmosphere in your store

The holidays are a busy time for shoppers, and Small Businesses need to do everything they can to stand out from the competition. One way to do this is to create a festive atmosphere in your store. Decorate for the holidays and play holiday music to get customers into the spirit of shopping small.

You can also offer special holiday promotions and discounts to encourage shopper loyalty. By taking these steps, you’ll be able to tap into the holiday spirit and create a shopping experience that your customers will remember long after the season is over.

4. Make it convenient for customers to shop with you

In today’s busy world, it is more important than ever to make shopping convenient for customers.Whether it is extended hours, complimentary gift wrapping, or some other special service, businesses need to go the extra mile to make shopping easy for their customers. By offering these kinds of services, businesses can encourage customers to shop with them again and again. In today’s competitive marketplace, making shopping convenient for customers can be the key to success.

5. Say thank you

As a Small Business owner, you know that every customer counts. During the busy holiday shopping season, it’s important to show your appreciation to those who choose to support your business. Small Business Saturday is the perfect opportunity to do just that. There are plenty of ways to show your customers how much you appreciate their business. Whatever you do, make sure your customers know that you value their business. After all, they are the backbone of your Small Business.

Conclusion

Small Business Saturday is a great opportunity for Small Businesses to promote themselves and attract customers. There are several things Small Business owners can do to make the most of this event, including getting the word out, offering special deals and discounts, creating a festive atmosphere, making it convenient for customers to shop with them, and saying thank you. By taking advantage of these tips, Small Businesses can make the most of Small Business Saturday and ensure a successful holiday shopping season.

Fill out the form below to find out how Braveheart can help you get more customers.

How to Amplify Your Content in Four Steps

The latest B2B Content Marketing report from the Content Marketing Institute estimates that 73% of all marketers are utilizing some sort of content marketing strategy.

With so many brands producing blogs, videos, and whitepapers every day, companies can no longer rely on just developing compelling content to get their message out, which is why so many marketers are turning to content amplification—a strategy that focuses on increasing brand visibility across multiple channels.

There are a few key ways to amplify your website content via social media, and as a business owner, you should be utilizing all of them! Here’s a guide on how to do just that:

1. Use social media platforms to share your content

This is the most obvious way to amplify your website content via social media . By simply sharing your content on social media platforms, you’re increasing its reach and potential for engagement.

The B2B Survey indicates that 95% of all B2B marketers have used social networks within the last 12 months to distribute content. While the use of organic social media platforms has not changed much Year over Year, it is interesting to see that the use of YouTube increased by 5 points (65% this year vs. 60% the previous year), which is not surprising considering the rise in the use of video.

2. Use social media ads to boost your content

If you want to ensure that your content is seen by as many people as possible, you can use social media ads to give it a boost. This will help increase its reach and also ensure that your target audience is seeing it.

During the pandemic we saw the use of paid content distribution decrease from 81% to 67% as B2B companies moved money away from awareness and into mid-funnel activities like lead generation and direct advertising.

The one platform where advertisers significantly invested less money was Facebook, as the use of Facebook advertising decreased to 56% from 69% YoY.

3. Use social media influencers to promote your content

If you have a budget for it, another great way to amplify your website content via social media is to use social media influencers. This can be a very effective way to reach more people and get them interested in what you have to say.

The 2022 Influencer Report found that finds that 86% of B2B brands say that their influencer marketing campaigns are either moderately or very successful.

A third of businesses report influencer marketing has led to increased revenue, and 85% believe interest in working with influencers will increase in the next 12 months.

4. Use social media groups to get your content seen

We see more and more marketers use groups and communities to distribute their content. The data shows that 26% of marketers (versus 22% last year) use their organization’s branded online community to distribute content.

If you do not have a branded online community the most popular groups for B2B marketers are LinkedIn groups and Facebook groups.

LinkedIn groups are a place for LinkedIn users to gather around a specific topic, interest, or industry. LinkedIn Groups are a great way to build relationships and grow your business and provide a space for like-minded individuals to connect with each other, share ideas, collaborate on projects, and more.

Facebook Groups on the other hand tend to be more of a private forum where members are invited into the group. These private groups provides a place where businesses can share information and promote their brand. They’re an incredibly useful tool for businesses to get feedback from their customers and grow their audiences.

Conclusion

There are a number of ways to amplify your website content via social media. As a business owner, it’s important to utilize all of them in order to reach the widest audience possible. By doing so, you’ll not only increase the reach of your content, but also the engagement levels. So what are you waiting for? Get out there and start amplifying your content today!

If you need help amplifying your website content via social media, contact Braveheart Digital Marketing. We’re a social media agency in Manchester NH that can help you reach your target audience and achieve your marketing goals. Contact us today to learn more!

How To Pick A PR (Public Relations) Agency

This is a really difficult time for businesses from a publicity standpoint. A global pandemic, mass layoffs and a presidential election are taking up most of the media space, both online and offline.

What should a business owner, who is looking to get publicity for their business do? Should they keep their PR in-house, or should they go and hire a PR agency?

To answer that question, and talk more about how do you pick a public relations agency, I spoke to PR expert Karyn Martin from Golden Thread Agency.

Do you stay in-house with a PR team or a person or do you bring in a PR agency? There’s a number of factors to consider here in making that decision. Certainly budget, bandwidth…

Whether you’ve got somebody in-house or an agency team or person, there’s a financial commitment there that you’re making to public relations.

Certainly I’ve been an agency person for decades and now I’ve stepped out on my own, and I’d like to think that the position that I’m in now I’m best suited to be helping clients make decisions like this, to suss it out based on those factors that we can look at.

And while I do think that financially it’s going to be probably less expensive to go with an in-house person, you have to look at the trade-offs for that.

One of the trade-offs is losing the technology resources that a PR agency has access too. If you manage your PR in-house, can you afford to invest in the tools needed to accurately measure the success of your PR efforts? That’s why you have agencies who spend tens of thousands of dollars, if not hundreds of thousands when you get to the bigger agencies on technology.

Hybrid Model

One popular option is to hire a consultant or small PR agency to work with internal teams. The Consultant or agency can develop the strategic approach and PR blueprint, that the inside team can then go and execute against.

Six Questions To Ask Before Hiring A PR Agency

1. Is there a fit?

Your PR agency is your voice to the outside world so who will be working on your account is critical. In a big agency, the top manager pitching the agency’s service may not be working directly with you. The agency may assign the job to less experienced professionals. Ask to meet all team members who will work on the account to examine their backgrounds and track records. Meeting all the personnel will give you an idea of the chemistry that will evolve between the agency and your business.

2: Big agency versus small agency?

There are advantages to both small and large agencies. Small pr agencies offer direct, personal service. Small firms are usually more flexible on pricing. The individuals who actually do the work are usually the same individuals who pitched you. Larger firms usually operate in teams that offer more viewpoints, varied talents and experience, flexibility and manpower. They usually take on clients with larger budgets.

3: Agency and Industry Experience.

Does the PR agency have proven experience and results working with similar companies to yours? A PR agency that has experience in your vertical will be able to get results quicker, than someone who has not worked in your market before. Beware of conflicts of interest if other clients are direct competitors, and agencies that cannot differentiate your company from competitors in the sector.

4: Media Connections

Has the agency achieved the type of media placements that you expect to get across print, broadcast and online media? Is the agency well-versed in managing remote media interviews?

5: How do you incorporate social and digital media in your PR campaigns?

PR is now closely integrated with social media. Look for a PR agency or consultant who is familiar with these trends and, more importantly, knows how to harness them for PR. Ask for specific examples of how they’ve used digital or social to help a client reach their goals.

6: How do you measure success?

How will you and the agency measure success? Learning what metrics they prefer will help gauge their PR measurement abilities. High-quality PR agencies now use PR metrics such as share of voice, message resonance and changes in brand sentiment over time.

Fill out the form below if you are interested in learning more about our PR services.

How To Improve The Performance Of Your Facebook Business Page

A recent article by Neil Patel on quicksprout.com titled How to Steal Your Competitor’s Facebook Fans highlighted one of my favorite Facebook analytics tools, Fan Page Karma .

Fan Page Karma allows you to analyze any Facebook business page as well as compare any two Facebook business pages head-to-head. The software offers tremendous insight into what is working and what is not working with a company’s social media marketing strategy.

When we first meet with clients to talk about their current Facebook business social media strategy they usually have two main concerns:

The first step in analyzing the performance of a Facebook business page is to compare it to a competitor’s. When we do that with Fan Page Karma, this is the type of data that we get:

What I like about the data from Fan Page Karma is that it gives me a high level view about what is working and what is not. What is the growth rate of the fans? Are they engaged with the content? Is the company interactive with fans or are the interactions one-way?

From those results, I can dive further into a more in-depth review. For example, one of the things we analyze is the type of posts that clients make on Facebook?

For example, the data tells me that the client (bottom right) mainly posts pictures on Facebook, while its competitors post a lot more links and status updates.

So what type of content is right? To answer that question you need to know what type of content has the highest level of engagement.

This is a familiar four-section quadrant with the upper right quadrant being the most desirable one. From looking at the engagement level it is clear that pictures (red) do provide the highest engagement levels while video (green) and links (yellow) have the lowest level of fan engagement.

Based on this data, one of the recommendations to our client was to continue posting pictures and to cut back on posting videos and links as their fans were not as engaged with that content.

To find out more about how you can produce more engaging content on Facebook, contact us today.

Want More Live Conversions From Your Google Ads?

Years ago I was talking with a client about a new campaign we were launching. I asked him how he would measure success. He pointed to the telephone and said “that will ring more often!”

Fast forward to today, business owners still want their marketing efforts to make the phone ring. Nearly half of all marketers say that driving phone calls from paid search ads is their top priority. Today Google Ads allows us to build “connect to call” features right into your ads. These ads are perfect to make it easier for potential customers to reach you. Would you like to get started? Let’s Start Strong together! Start Strong is our new Economic Recovery program to maximize and optimize your marketing efforts.

What is Google Connect To Call?

Google’s Connect To Call feature (also called Google Ads Call Tracking) allows you to track the number of prospective customers called your business after seeing or clicking one of your paid ads. Paid ads include Google search ads, Google call only ads and Google My Business listings.

Why implement Google Ads Call Tracking in your ads?

Did you know that 43% of all search-related conversions happen over the phone? And that 65% of businesses find their most valuable customers are calling them because they are ready to do business?

People actively searching for your products and services are doing their research. When they are ready to buy, they are ready to talk. You can make it easier to start the conversation using Google Ads Call Tracking features.

What are the benefits of Google Ads Call Tracking?

In addition to providing you with a reliable, accurate and quantifiable way to track the effectiveness of offline conversions and phone conversations, Call Tracking also gives you actionable insights and comprehensive reporting on the true return of PPC investment – leads.

Google Ads Call Tracking allows us to:

Set up the minimum length of call before it becomes a conversion. This allows us to filter out non-buyers meaning we can focus on reaching the people most interested in your product or service
See which keywords, ads, ad groups, and campaigns are best at driving the most valuable phone calls to your business.
Understand your return on investment (ROI) and make better informed decisions about your ad spend.
Use automated bid strategies (such as target CPA) that automatically optimize your campaigns according to your business goals.

Types of phone call conversions you can track

There are three types of phone call conversions you can track via Google Ads:

1. Calls from ads: Track calls made directly from call-only ads or call and location extensions used in your ads. You set a minimum call length, and every call that lasts at least that long is counted as a conversion.
2. Calls to a phone number on your website: Track calls made when someone clicks on your ad, then calls the forwarding number we display on your website. You set a minimum call length, and every call that lasts at least that long is counted as a conversion.
3. Clicks on a number on your mobile website: Track calls made when someone clicks on your ad, then clicks on a phone number, button, or link on the mobile version of your website. In this case, we can only track these clicks, not the phone calls themselves.

What’s possible for your business if the phones ring more often now? Would you like to get started? Let’s Start Strong together! Start Strong is our new Economic Recovery program to maximize and optimize your marketing efforts. Let’s have a conversation!

Not sure if you are ready to advertise yet? Then check out our post on 4 Reasons Why You Should Be Advertising Right Now.

If you’re looking for help with your Google Ads campaign, contact Braveheart Digital Marketing. We’re a PPC agency in Manchester, NH that can help you create a successful campaign and achieve your business goals. Get in touch today to learn more!

The Art Of Storytelling Through Data

In this episode of Five Questions with… I am talking with JLA Analytics founder Julie Alig about the art of storytelling with data in business and how to present complex stories with data. This is part two of the interview. You can find the first episode on Visual Storytelling With Data here.

How do you come up with the question that you're going to tell the story around?

Definitely in a conversation, it’s a back-and-forth with the customer. That’s the way I do it. That’s the way I’ve found the strongest results come out.

I might be the person in the room who has the most experience with research methodology, with statistical tools, this, that, the other. I’m not the subject matter experts of what my clients are. In my mind, any good research project – kind of like this – needs to be a collaboration between the subject matter expert and the people with the tools and expertise.

Working with my clients, I really like to have that kind of conversation or communication continue, and if anything I like to over-communicate, because I want to make sure that I’m going in the right direction. I think I responded to one of your posts on LinkedIn and said something like,”Let your client, or their questions, be your North Star.”

That needs to be what I’m focused on. That’s where I find the best results with my clients.

Four Tips To Successful Storytelling

I sit in all these meetings, I get Powerpointed to death, with slides with a gazillion data points on them. We spoke about taking this data, understanding the North Star, answering the questions, pulling it together so you can tell a story with it, but now you have to deliver it.

What’s your tips and tricks for boiling that down, putting it onto paper so that people in the room can understand it and so when it gets passed around outside the room they can still follow the story.

That’s the question isn’t it? That’s the 64 million dollar question!

I think that’s where a lot of your skill and expertise come into play. You really have to distill down all the findings into something very short and small. I forget who but there was a British author who said,

"I would've written a shorter letter if I had the time."

1. You have to be concise and get right to the point.

I would say the tip is: A – keep going back to those original questions and make sure that you’re still focused on those. B – I really get a lot out of visuals.

2. Communicate so much with visuals

I was just on a call with a colleague last week, and she was talking about a process, and I whipped out my journal and drew a little picture, and held it up for her, and she was like,”that’s exactly it!” She got it.

So I think we’ve all been in those situations. The danger though is that you’re going to load up too many ideas and too many concepts into one poor little graphic or image. I really like using maybe a couple of visuals to tell a story, and in a storyboard kind of manner.

3. Stick to the basics, and throw everything else in the appendix.

That’s kind of what I used when I was writing my dissertation in grad school. All those great supporting analyses, stick ’em in the appendix.

I love that storyboard analogy. It’s like these are the ones you can always pop out and say, “Okay are we gonna use these images in this order? Is it telling the story that we want?” Instead of “well there’s a slide, and now there’s another slide…”

4. That you and your client or customer are on the same page.

So, especially from that first slide, statement of the problem, statement of the question, and what you’re going to do with it.

What is Geofencing?

Geofencing marketing is location-based ads where a user’s location is recorded via the internet, and advertisements are only shown to people in a specific location target.

Marketing professionals use geofencing to pinpoint specific advertisements based on the target audiences exact location.

The targeted users participate in location targeting when they use applications or programs where they are prompted to enter their location or allow a web service to access their location.

Geofencing ad campaigns are ideal to find consumers based on exact locations and serve “hyper-local” advertisements and messages. Geofencing campaigns can be set up across multiple types of online advertising campaigns, such as search engine advertising, display advertising, remarketing, and video advertising.

Here are some examples of how businesses can use geofencing to enhance their digital marketing efforts and unleash the full power of geofencing marketing:

A retail store could create a simple geofence in an area surrounding its physical location
An auto dealer could set up a geofence which is aimed at targeting individuals who are leaving a competing dealership after browsing for a vehicle.
Artists and musicians and their managers could also establish geofences around different tour stop ahead of time.
Another possible application would be an attorney, lawyer, or law firm setting up a geofencing advertising campaign to target specific areas of interest such as hospitals or jails to reach their target client.

Geofencing advertising is supported by Google Adwords, Facebook and Instagram. Once you select Locations you can expand the geofencing options in the Google Adwords campaign.

For most local geofencing marketing campaigns, you will select the option of entering a location. Most of the tools have preset locations already loaded, especially large or highly populated areas.

The best part is Geofencing is incredibly affordable. Neither Facebook nor Google Adwords charges any additional fees to set up geofencing campaigns.

Not only is geofencing cheap and relatively easy to do, it’s effective. You add more specific targeting layers to local online marketing campaigns, which boosts performance.

For local businesses, the more locally targeted your message is, the better it’s going to perform when your customers are local.

The Power of Online Reviews for Small Businesses

Online reviews are important for small businesses

Online reviews help build trust and credibility

Online reviews can improve search engine rankings

Online reviews can help attract new customers

Online reviews can boost sales

Online reviews provide valuable feedback

Online reviews offer social proof

Recent Posts

Five Ways To Promote Your Business During Small Business Saturday

1. Get the word out there about Small Business Saturday

2. Offer special deals and discounts exclusively for Small Business Saturday

3. Create a festive atmosphere in your store

4. Make it convenient for customers to shop with you

5. Say thank you

Conclusion

Recent Posts

How to Amplify Your Content in Four Steps

1. Use social media platforms to share your content

2. Use social media ads to boost your content

3. Use social media influencers to promote your content

4. Use social media groups to get your content seen

Conclusion

Recent Posts

How To Pick A PR (Public Relations) Agency

Hybrid Model

Six Questions To Ask Before Hiring A PR Agency

1. Is there a fit?

2: Big agency versus small agency?

3: Agency and Industry Experience.

4: Media Connections

5: How do you incorporate social and digital media in your PR campaigns?

6: How do you measure success?

Recent Posts

How To Improve The Performance Of Your Facebook Business Page

Recent Posts

Want More Live Conversions From Your Google Ads?

What is Google Connect To Call?

Why implement Google Ads Call Tracking in your ads?

What are the benefits of Google Ads Call Tracking?

Types of phone call conversions you can track

Recent Posts

The Art Of Storytelling Through Data

How do you come up with the question that you're going to tell the story around?

Four Tips To Successful Storytelling

1. You have to be concise and get right to the point.

2. Communicate so much with visuals

3. Stick to the basics, and throw everything else in the appendix.

4. That you and your client or customer are on the same page.

Recent Posts

What is Geofencing?

Recent Posts

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