Five Stars: Putting Online Reviews to Work for Your Business

The Smart Business Guide to Online Reviews From Yelp to Google to e-commerce websites, online reviews have the power to attractnew customers and encourage sales. With this comprehensive,hands-on guide, you'll quickly get upto speed on the tools, tactics andtechniques to cultivate positive reviews, show them off, and learn fromcustomer feedback to improve your business. You'll also learn the mosteffective methods for dealing with negative reviews, so that you can view them as an opportunity, not a catastrophe. With greater visibility and bettercontrolof your online reputation, you can finally let your reviews drive successfor your business! Get inside the heads of reviewersand understand what triggers positive and negative reviews Harness customer insights by monitoring feedback and learning from your reviews Follow key steps to bring in morepositive reviews and prevent negative ones Create a successful action planutilizing best practices and need-to-know tips Turn negative reviews into marketing opportunities with strategic responses Show off your positive reviews toensure that they're found Maintain momentum to continue tobring in new customers Praise for Five Stars This comprehensive book shows savvy business owners and marketers the techniques for getting the absolute most from online reviews. Apply these winning strategies and proven processes to gain visibility and customers. — Andrew Shotland , localseoguide.com Five Stars spills the secrets for getting, managing, and leveraging customer reviews to influence stronger reputations, higher pricing, and positive purchase decisions. It's a goldmine! — Barbara Findlay Schenck , Author of Branding For Dummies and Small Business Marketing Kit For Dummies Your online reputation is in the hands of your customers. Make great use of this book in understanding how that might work best for you. — Chris Brogan , Publisher of Owner magazine and Coauthor of Trust Agents This guide provides a handy road map to turning your customers' opinions into an effective marketing tool. It is a worthwhile investment for any business. — Gwen Moran , Award-Winning Small Business Expert and Author

Introduction xv Chapter 1 You Are Here: Understanding Your Opportunity 1 Online Reviews: An Important Marketing Channel 2 Know Where You Fit In and How to Focus  5 Brick and Mortar 5 E–commerce Retailers 8 Manufacturers, Brands, Software 9 Destinations and Activities 12 Service Providers 14 Charities, Nonprofits, Civic and Community Organizations 18 Chapter 2 The Online Reviews Landscape 21 Types of Online Reviews 22 Types of Review Sites, Platforms, and Services 27 Review Sites 28 Social Commerce/Product Review Platforms 33 E–Commerce Merchant Review Collection Services 36 Shopping Comparison Sites and Online Travel Agents 40 Reputation Management Services 45 Local Search 51 Fake Reviews 54 The Scale of Fake Reviews 54 Love for Sale 55 The Fight against Fake Reviews 57 Chapter 3 Understanding Reviewers and Reviews 61 Who Are the Reviewers? 62 Reviewer Demographics 62 Power Reviewers 63 Paid or Fake Reviewers 65 What Triggers a Review? 68 Being Asked 68 Social and Emotional Motivations 68 Customer Experiences That Trigger Reviews 70 Influencing Factors in Reviews  71 Variety and Volume 72 Reviewer Identity 73 Freshness 78 Chapter 4 Monitoring and Learning from Your Reviews 81 Why Monitor Reviews? 82 Review Monitoring for Best Results  83 Review Monitoring Tools  84 Learn from Your Reviews 99 An Honest Assessment 100 Taking Action 101 Chapter 5 How to Get More Reviews 105 Tools and Techniques for Getting New Reviews 106 Cultivating a Word–of–Mouth Mentality 121 Authenticity and Ethics 132 Staying Outside the Spam Filter 133 Staying on the Right Side of the Law 137 Complying with Terms of Service 139 Chapter 6 Review Venues: Need–to–Know Tips for Your Action Plan 145 Yelp 146 Claiming Your Listing 146 Filtering and Reviewer Verification 151 Troubleshooting and Support 153 Communicating with Reviewers 155 Promotion and Advertising Opportunities 156 Showing Off Your Reviews 165 Monitor and Measure 166 Google+ Local 168 Sorting Out Google’s Services 170 Who Sees Google+ Local Listings? 171 Claiming Your Listing 173 Filtering and Reviewer Verification 176 Communicating with Reviewers 178 Troubleshooting and Support 179 Increasing Your Visibility 182 Closing the Loop 184 TripAdvisor 185 Claiming Your Listing 186 Filtering and Reviewer Verification 187 Communicating with Reviewers 187 Increasing Your Visibility 189 Support 193 Angie’s List  193 Claiming Your Listing 194 Filtering and Reviewer Verification 196 Communicating with Reviewers 196 Increasing Your Visibility 197 Troubleshooting and Support 199 ResellerRatings . 200 Claiming Your Listing 202 Gathering Reviews 203 Managing Your Reviews 204 Bazaarvoice 205 Collecting and Displaying Customer Feedback 206 SEO Factors 208 Moderating and Responding 208 Alerts and Intelligence 210 Chapter 7 Navigating Negative Reviews 213 Discouraging Negative Reviews  214 Check In With Customers 215 Provide Nonreview Paths for Common Complaints 216 Set Realistic Expectations 217 Broadcast Your Willingness to Listen and to Correct Issues 219 Create a Process for Learning from Negative Feedback 220 Responding to Negative Reviews  221 Before You Respond 222 Public and Private Responses 224 Building Your Response 225 Responding in Social Media 233 Redress and Removal  237 Why It’s Not Easy to Sue Review Sites 237 When Can a Review Be Removed? 238 Chapter 8 Showing Off and Being Found 243 Show Off Your Reviews  244 Badges and Widgets 244 Review Excerpts 246 Visibility on E–commerce Sites 249 Amplification in Social Media 250 Testimonials and Case Studies 252 Marketing Communications 253 At Your Physical Location 254 Improve Your Search Results  257 Branded Search Results 257 Rich Snippets 261 AdWords Seller Rating Stars 263 Product Reviews and SEO 266 Chapter 9 Maintaining Your Momentum 269 Developing Your Plan  270 Local Businesses: Find and Update Your Presence on Review Venues 270 E–commerce Sites and Brands: Make the Most of Product Reviews 272 All Businesses: Monitor Your Reviews 273 All Businesses: Use Feedback to Improve 274 All Businesses: Respond to Reviews 275 All Businesses: Encourage New Reviews and Leverage the Ones You Have 275 Power Moves for a Time–Strapped Small Business 276 Reaching for the Stars 280 Index 283

Online marketing consultants Gradiva Couzin and Jennifer Grappone have improved the online presence of a wide variety of companies in entertainment, software, local services, non-profit, and retail for over a decade. They develop and implement thoughtful, results-oriented strategies for SEO, social media, and paid search by combining good writing, compelling content, search-friendly site design, and usability.