No matter what kind of home services business you run, there are often the same issues that arise when it comes to growing your business. You need to find new customers while also keeping your current customer base happy with great service. You also need to have a local SEO strategy to get found in your local area, since you have a limited zone in which you service people.
Digital marketing goes a long way in helping you get discovered by the right people in your area. One crucial part of digital marketing is your online presence, and, more importantly, your online reputation. The way new leads view you online plays a significant role in whether or not they choose you as a home service provider.
Online reviews are a major component of your online reputation. Knowing how to manage those reviews helps you improve your placement and visibility in local search rankings, which are critical for your longevity and success. In this blog, we’ll give you some local reputation management strategies for home services contractors that can take your small business to the next level.
Understanding the Impact of Online Reviews
In digital marketing, word-of-mouth now often occurs with online reviews. People trust the opinions of others, even if they are relying on a stranger’s reference.
Think about the last time you purchased a product online. Did you just add it to your cart right away? Or did you look at the star rating and some of the top customer reviews before making your final decision? The fact is that 95% of customers will read online reviews before making any purchases, whether that’s for products or for home services like roofing, contracting, remodeling, or plumbing.
The better your reviews are, the more likely it is that people will trust that you do great work without ever speaking to you directly. This is especially true for local businesses, who need to have a great local reputation in order to get more business in the door. That means that online reviews are one of the best ways to localize your business’s online presence and boost visibility in the specific towns or cities you operate in.
At the same time, it also means that if you have negative reviews or unhappy customers, they can damage your business all the faster. Knowing what your strategy is for managing your online reputation helps you negate negative effects and boost positive results.
Steps to Localize Your Online Presence Through Reviews
Taking control of your online reputation doesn’t have to be complex. With just a few simple steps, you can put a plan in place that will help you grow your business with good reviews and a great online presence.
Build a Positive Online Reputation
The first step is to build a positive online reputation with the help of reviews. Encourage your customers to leave reviews for you, and make it easy for them to do so. Give them links in email communications for easy access, and provide several places to leave a review on your website.
It’s also important to respond to every review you get. If someone leaves a positive review, thank them for taking the time to write it and give a few details about the job. You can use this reply space to leave local keywords and details in it to further boost local SEO efforts.
If someone leaves a bad review, respond professionally and promptly. Apologize for the bad experience and offer a solution, like coming back to address the issue or give a contact number to discuss more details offline. Never get defensive or accusatory in your response, as this makes your business look bad to outsiders, even if you feel you are in the right. Someone coming across your reviews and seeing that you lash out at others will feel uncomfortable moving forward with your business.
Utilize Local SEO Strategies
The next step is to incorporate local SEO strategies into your online reputation management. Use location-based keywords like the name of your city, town, or neighborhood in the business description areas of online profiles. You can use those same keywords in your review responses as well for even more local SEO benefits.
It’s also important to optimize your online review profiles for local search algorithms. Make sure your page details on Google Business Profile, Yelp, and Facebook are fully filled out. Use images of your business to add more authenticity, and update your hours regularly for holidays or special events. Make sure all information is the same across all your profiles for consistency.
Leverage Review Platforms
Next, you’ll want to identify which review platforms are relevant to your business. Pick a few to prioritize at the start of your online reputation management, but also listen to customer feedback on which platforms they are the most comfortable using. Think about your industry and what platforms people go to first when making a decision.
You’ll need to create and optimize your profile on the chosen platforms. As mentioned above, you want to use images, detailed descriptions, and accurate information. But you’ll also want to add even more to encourage customers to leave reviews on their own, without any prompting from you. Things like a claimed and verified profile, recent reviews from customers, and prompt and professional responses will all work together to build a better online presence.
Encourage User-Generated Content
Another great example of local reputation management strategies for home services contractors is user-generated content. User-generated content is content that comes from your customers, not from your business. If someone posts a photo of your work or goes on their own social media pages to discuss their experience, you can leverage that for your own growth.
Encourage your customers to share photos and videos online about their experiences with your business. And, if someone does independently create a post about your business, showcase that on your website and across social media platforms.
Monitor and Analyze Online Reviews
Finally, it’s important to monitor and analyze your online reviews with the big picture in mind. Set up alerts for new reviews so you don’t miss any that come in and have access to real-time monitoring. You can analyze your reviews for trends and patterns about what people like and what they think needs improvement in your business.
This also helps you make informed decisions about how to better your business efforts moving forward. You want to ensure that your business decisions are grounded in real data with metrics to back it up. Using a tool to help you monitor reviews supports your efforts to grow your business locally using the power of online reviews.
Improve Your Local Reputation with the Help of Surefire Local
Managing your online reputation is crucial for local home services contractors. Without a strong online reputation, you’ll struggle to find new business. Having a strategy in place to gather more positive reviews and feedback from customers helps you grow online and in your local area.
Small business owners need to prioritize and actively manage online reviews, rather than sit back and hope they come in. At Surefire Local, we help small businesses with localized online marketing, including online review management and reputation building. Our platform provides a single location where you can check your current star rating, get alerts for new reviews across multiple channels, and respond to reviews accordingly.
We’re all about helping small businesses establish their online presence by creating local signals across platforms and profiles that make it easier for new customers to find them. Our platform is an all-in-one marketing solution for local businesses that want to proactively manage their marketing efforts. Some of our platform features include:
- Website & Local SEO Optimizations: Create geo-tagged content that is published on your website, blog, and social media profiles
- Directory Management: Claim your business, edit your posts, and publish new content like photos and other visual elements for your business across 80+ online directory listing platforms
- Content Marketing: Use tools to create locally targeted and relevant content on your blog, Google Business Profile, business directories, and social media profiles
- Social Media Management: Get tools for scheduling posts, tracking engagement metrics, and responding to comments and tags
- Local Online Advertising: Design ads to attract only the attention of the customers within your service area
- Analytics & 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: Watch webinars and read blogs designed to help small businesses learn all things about local online marketing
We want to help your home services contracting business grow with the right digital strategy for online reputation management. To learn more about how we can support you and help you grow, sign up to attend a Surefire Local demo today.