When you go online to search for a local business, one of the first things that appear in the search results is the reviews of nearby establishments. A business with less than three stars is unlikely to get any clicks, even if they do everything else right in order to show up at the top of results. It’s clear your online reviews play a crucial role in determining your place and visibility in local search rankings.
As a plastic surgery office, you understand more than most that reviews of your services and your practice generate new business. But if you aren’t staying on top of your online reviews, your online reputation may slip away from you. Thankfully, there are local reputation management strategies for plastic surgeons that help drive better communication and relationships with your customer base.
Understanding the Impact of Online Reviews
Online reviews are an essential part of how we make decisions as consumers. Think about the last time you tried a new restaurant or wanted to order a new product online. Did you just go into the decision blind? Or did you take a look at what other people had to say about the business before you spent any money?
Reviews can either guide people toward a business or scare them away. Managing online reviews is a critical skill for any local business, including plastic surgery offices. Local businesses in particular are dependent on what the local community thinks of them and what the public perception is about the services provided.
In addition, online reviews are one of the best ways to localize your business’s online presence to boost visibility in the specific cities or towns you want to be found in. With over 99.9% of customers looking at reviews online and 91% of young adults trusting them as much as in-person recommendations, no business can afford to go without a reputation management strategy.
Steps to Localize Your Online Presence Through Reviews
Now that you know more about why online reviews can be valuable or detrimental to your business, let’s explore some of the steps you can take to localize your online presence through reviews and improve your local reputation management strategies.
Build a Positive Online Reputation
The first step is to build a positive online reputation. The more positive reviews you have, the more trustworthy your business appears to people who search for your services online. Encourage your satisfied customers to leave reviews. The more people you get to leave positive, glowing reviews, the more likely it is that your brand will get more online visibility.
Make it easy for customers to leave reviews. Have links to review apps in your email signatures, website footers, text messages, and social media profiles. The more opportunities you give your customers to leave reviews, the more likely they are to take advantage of it. You can also send reminder notifications after client visits to remind them about the links and request reviews.
It’s also crucial to respond to reviews professionally and promptly. Thank people for leaving positive reviews, and offer solutions to any reviews that are more negative. Don’t get defensive or upset if you get negative reviews. Take them in stride and listen to the feedback you receive while genuinely apologizing for any mistakes on your end. You can also include local details like your location, your city, or your neighborhood in the replies to get even more local search benefits.
Utilize Local SEO Strategies
Next, you can incorporate local SEO strategies into your online reputation management approach. Use location-based keywords in your business descriptions on online review profiles and sites. By using these keywords, you can generate more traffic through local SEO.
It’s also important to optimize your online review profiles for local search algorithms. Your Google Business Profile, Facebook page, Yelp listing, and any other profile should be completely filled out, with locations, hours, contact information, photos, and details about your services. The more detailed the profile, the more legitimate it is to audiences.
Prioritize Review Platforms
It’s also important to leverage review platforms to get the most benefits out of using them. Identify relevant review platforms for your business, like Facebook or Yelp. Pick a handful to prioritize as you start growing your reputation, but also allow customers to pick the platforms they’re most comfortable with by having profiles available on more than one site.
After you’ve picked the platforms you want to focus on, you can create and optimize your profiles on these sites. Ask yourself key questions like what your customers want to see on your profiles that’ll encourage them to leave a review of their own, or how detailed can your profile be in order to get the most results?
Most customers want to see a claimed or verified profile, so they know the business is legitimized and accurate. They also want to see recent reviews from other customers, so they know you are active and people are currently enjoying your services. Finally, they look to see what your responses are, so they know you are active, trustworthy, and professional.
Encourage User-Generated Content
User-generated content is, as the name suggests, content that comes from your users: ie customers, not your internal marketing team. User-generated content tends to be more trustworthy and more affordable than the content you create on your own.
Encourage your customers to share photos online and document their experiences, like before and after photos of their surgeries. The more your audience engages with you, the easier it is to find great user-generated content. When you do get some, make sure to showcase that user-generated content on multiple channels, like your website and social media platforms.
Monitor and Analyze Online Reviews
Finally, you need to have a process to monitor and analyze your online reviews. It’s important to use reviews as a way to explore the sentiment your business has in the local community and understand your online reputation. Set up review alerts on your marketing platform, so you can monitor new reviews on multiple platforms in real-time.
It’s also important to analyze the trends that come in through your online reviews. The patterns and common words and phrases help you develop an understanding of your brand sentiment. It also allows you to make more informed decisions about how to better your business. For example, if “poor customer service” continually shows up in reviews, you know that training your staff can be a way to address the common issue.
Improve Your Local Reputation with Surefire Local
Managing your online reputation is essential in today’s competitive business world. The more positive and recent reviews you have, the more likely it is that new customers will explore your plastic surgery business and want to know more about your services. By taking control of your online marketing and prioritizing and actively managing your online reviews, you can take your business to the next level.
In order to stay on top of your online reputation management, it’s important to localize your online presence and stay on top of new reviews. At Surefire Local, we help small businesses like plastic surgery offices with localized online marketing by creating local signals across platforms and profiles that make it easier for new customers to find them. Surefire Local is the all-in-one marketing platform for local businesses, with every tool you need for reputation management in one place, including:
- Website & Local SEO Optimizations: Create geo-tagging content that is extremely localized and published on your website, blog, and social media profiles.
- Online Review Management: Use Surefire Local to send review requests, write responses to reviews, and analyze your brand sentiment to learn what customers really think about your business.
- Directories Management: Claim, edit, and publish new content like photos or a special offer for your business across 80+ online directory listings and platforms.
- Content Marketing: Use Surefire Local’s tools to create locally targeted and relevant content on your blog, Google Business Profile, business directories, and social media profiles.
- Social Media Management: Find advanced tools for scheduling posts, tracking engagement metrics, and responding to comments.
- Local Online Advertising: Create ads designed to attract only the attention of customers within your service area.
- Analytics and Reporting: Gain transparency into campaign performance and how much revenue your marketing dollars are generating, with AI-generated recommendations on specific actions you can take to see improvements.
- Educational Resources: View webinars and blogs designed to help small businesses learn all things local online marketing.
Are you interested in improving your online reputation and growing your plastic surgery business? Want to learn more about the Surefire Local platform and how it can help you make the most of every review your business gets? Attend a Surefire Local marketing demo to discover all the features of the tool and how it can apply to your business.