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Phoenix SEO – 10 Tips on How to Get Online Reviews

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Word of mouth is good, but potential customers will still Google your business to find out the online reviews of other people. That is why online reviews is important to your success. Here are the steps that may help you get started:

  • Do a Good Job. Doing your best in every job increases the possibility of having more reviews. Ask for a review after a transaction. Add a link to your Facebook page, your website, or your Yelp profile.  Showcase these important links in your business place.
Thumbs Up Gesture

More tips on how to gain positive reviews below.

 

  • Complete your online profiles and then verify them.
    • You really don’t need to sign up at every website. Choose what works for you and start working on your online profile!
    • Knowing your own industry will help you a lot. Choosing the right business partner is important. In Yelp, for example, there are over 100 million online reviews now. Aside from that, relevant results will show up when someone searches for your business or name.
    • If someone else did your business page, another person has added it for you. The next step is to take ownership of the page to have a certain control.
  • Know What You Are Asking.
    • Either you ask a person you have worked with or someone that you’ve done business with, but be selective. Ask customers that aren’t so ideal to give you a review through your email. This way, you know what to improve without going public.
  • Just the Right Timing.
    • It is hard to ask for reviews if the business has no physical location where display review stickers can be displayed. For businesses like real estate or insurance, one of the best strategy is to ask an online review after a completed transaction.
  • Ask!
    • There are many ways to do the asking for online reviews like texts, phone calls, emails,  and face-to-face. Make sure, you thank them for their effort. After all, their reputation is on the line.
  • Be Definite and Make It Easy.
    • After a job well done, you can ask your customer if he or she could help out with a review in your Facebook Business Page. If the customer agrees, send an email with a link to your Facebook page.
  • Give an Incentive.
    • You can ask customers for a review, give an incentive like a gift card or a voucher after. But be cautious, people might think you are paying people for a good review.
  • Always Follow-Up.
    • If the online review does not happen, remind them again, but be very careful in doing so.
  • Evaluate, Tweak, and Do it Again!
    • Review your approach the minute you get started. Assess everything, date, used email, text, phone, face-to-face and how successful you are in making people write your online reviews. Do it again and again until it becomes a business routine.

  • Don’t You Ever Stop!

    • You have done the short term by getting good reviews but what about the long-term? It is simple, keep in touch, and a referral might be on its way.

Psychological Tricks You Can Use On Your Website (Part 3)

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So, we have reached the last part of the different psychological tricks you can apply on your online business. If you want to review on the previous two blog posts, you can click here to go to the 1st part, or visit this link to read the 2nd part.

These concepts are not my own and this is inspired by the book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. Without further adieu,  below are the last 3 psychological tricks you can apply on your website to generate more traffic and gain more customers:

  • Price

  • Nowadays, it’s tough to convince potential buyers. They don’t purchase an item just because it’s the cheapest.  Now, customers after their money’s worth. They look for the best deal available online before deciding where to buy.
  • The classic example of using the “$19.99” tag is a very effective pricing strategy.  This tactic convinces buyers that an item is only $19 even though it’s practically $20. It manipulates customers that they are saving a lot, but the truth is that there’s not much price difference to be honest.
Price tag barcode

reading the price tag.

  • Right Timing

  • Amazon is able to perfect this strategy. For example, when you add a book to your cart, Amazon gives you other book recommendations. Once you are ready to check out, it will inform you that customers who purchased the book also bought these items.
  • Similarly, if you are selling action cameras, why not offer a extended warranty plan when they reviewing their cart. Perhaps, you can also offer camera accessories or micro SD cards for video storage.
  • Do not offer these extras if they are still pondering on what digital camera to buy. Some cameras are compact while some have waterproof features. It’s totally unnecessary to overwhelm customers with accessories at this point.
  • Once they have purchased an item, you can send a “thank you” email and include a list of compatible accessories for their chosen device.

  • Colors

  • Online shopping is mastering the art of persuasion and one way to persuade people is through the psychology of colors. Just by the appearance or color of your website’s CTA buttons, it could help you increase conversion rates. Thus, it could lead to more sales.
  • Color remains to be the strongest visual hint for online shoppers. In a one survey, 93% of consumers considered to buy an item because of its appearance alone. The remaining 7% is because of the item’s texture and smell.
  • Additionally, 85% of consumers admitted that they purchased a product because of its color. It’s no doubt that color influences brand recognition. Other factors aside from color, include: design, convenience, and the power of words.
  • To give you a more concrete example, the color red and orange can uplift your website and give a hint of electrifying and energetic vibe. Blue is a good color for weight loss. So, if you are selling food, avoid the color blue. Did you notice that the leading fast-food chains are never use blue? They’re usually red, orange, or yellow.
  • Blue, however, calms the mind and encourages trust. So, it’s ideal for services like banks, high tech products, and more. If you want to know more about colors, you can learn more about it here. If you need color scheme tools, this post will help you. Lastly, if you need tips in choosing the right color scheme, this article is for you!

There you have it! That wraps up the blog posts about the different psychological tricks. So, what have we learned? Understanding your customers is crucial in creating a persuasive website and compelling UX experience. Apply these tips when designing a new web page or when you are devising a new marketing plan.

Psychological Tricks You Can Use On Your Website (Part 2)

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Welcome to the 2nd part of the series. If you have missed the first batch, you can catch up here. I will still discuss how psychology helps in promoting your website. The concepts discussed on this post can found in a book called Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.

Knowing what encourages web visitors to click CTA buttons will help you design a website that fosters a persuasive user experience. In the end, these strategies will benefit both your business and your customers. Here are 3 ways to help you gain more web visitors:

  • Personalize

  • Customers tend to mistrust companies that are clearly after sales and profits. With that being said, do not focus too much on the business side of things. Connect with your audience and interact with them.
  • Nurture trusting relationships by genuinely caring for your audience. When they see how much you care, they will trust you. You are not some faceless website, but you are now a dear friend.
  • Before you blurt out words and send out emails, ask yourself first, “Is this something I would say in real life?” Read your blog posts, email messages, and status updates. Check if it sounds too scripted. If you can’t imagine saying it to another person, then, don’t include it.
  • Stop following a certain structure because this is you and you have your own personality. Frankly, you don’t have to follow or imitate a website just because they are popular. You have to show the unique you and don’t think too much about what others might say.
  • Remember the famous Latin proverb, “Fortune favors the bold.” When you restrict yourself and follow a generic path, it will never work. The cookie-cutter messages are boring and unconvincing. Add your personal touch by including actual expressions. Tailoring online posts and website content make you sound more human.
  • Who doesn’t like special treatment? So, add their names once you want to send a marketing email instead of writing a generic “Hello,” or “Good day!” Experiment with your available resources and you really don’t have to speak formally at all times. Showing your own charm and sassiness makes you less robotic.
Friends posing for a photo

Choose to be a caring friend and not some faceless business entity.

  • Authority

  • If a famous celebrity or renowned expert leaves a positive review, feature it on your website. Businesses nowadays share reviews of people, whether celebrity or not, on social media.  These reviews on Facebook or Twitter are effective because they are shared by actual people. To be honest, no amount of well-crafted sales talk can compare.
  • Never underestimate the power of a positive review. These seemingly unimportant people are actually important. The reviews help the undecided to give your products a try, and to trust the quality of what you are selling.
  • So, highlight those enthusiastic and ecstatic reviews and reply by saying thanks because it reflects your success and boosts your trustworthiness.

  • Limited-Time Offers

  • When a certain product is only available for a short period of time, people tend to rave about it. The demand increases because in people’s minds, they feel that they should not miss out on this exclusive offer.
  • It’s an effective marketing strategy because people are afraid of missing out of what others are doing. There’s always a desire to be updated and be in the know with all these rewarding deals online.
  • Thus, web visitors will always take action if they know that a sale ends in 72 hours. There’s a sense of urgency that will surely encourage them to participate.

Psychological Tricks You Can Use On Your Website (Part 1)

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In this article, I will discuss how psychology affects consumer behavior. Marketing and psychology go hand in hand in promoting an online business. The concepts discussed on this post are inspired by Robert B. Cialdini‘s book entitled, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.

You can understand more competently the concepts of a successful business strategy or the makings of a lucrative marketing campaign by studying consumer behavior. Thus, how you design your website can greatly influence more conversion and increase web traffic.

This will be a 3-part series of blog posts. Below are the first 3 ways to entice your website visitors and increase conversion:

  • Barter

  • The first step is to get their email addresses in exchange for FREE items. Once you obtain their email add, you can now introduce them your products. Market your products in subtly and offer them freebies like an FREE ebook or an 20-day premium to your softwares.
  • In this way, these potential customers will feel obliged to listen to you because you gave them a free item. Now, they will more likely read your emails and view your blog posts. When the time comes they will finally your product and buy it,  they will ultimately choose you more than any website out there, who never really gave them freebies.
  • The concept of reciprocity is the perfect example of Newton’s third law of motion. For every action you give to your audience, there’s always an equal or opposite reaction from them. You website will get more visitors once you give something first.
  • This system of barter has been proven to generate positive results. Anywhere on the internet, you are always asked for your email before you can access a website. You need to sign up first to fully access shopping websites like Amazon, Ebay, Etsy, and Walmart.
  • Web visitors will always ask the question, “What will I get from this?” If you selling a product, try offering a FREE shipping voucher. If you are selling VPN tools, consider educating people about virtual private networks.
Buying fruits in exchange of money

A typical example of barter: exchanging money for certain goods.

  • Commitment

  • One way to strengthen brand loyalty is to create a sense of commitment or pledge. If people follow your website, or if they follow you on social media, they insert themselves in your world. They have now publicly showed their support.
  • They can now easily know what you’re doing and keep up with the latest updates. Humans are known to oblige. So, once you give them exclusive offers for following you, they will also remain consistent to your brand.  They will promote and defend your product.

  • Influence

  • This is related to the 2nd item. One follower can indirectly recommend your products to their friends. You are more likely to have another website follower if you inform them that their friend is also registered on this website.
  • One notable website that uses this strategy is Facebook. The different product pages on Facebook are promoted in such a way that you are told that your friend likes this page. Perhaps, you may wish to give it a “like” too!
  • Influence is a used by, not only Facebook, but also different social media websites. These websites know the power of peer pressure and they know that it’s hard to say no to a friend’s recommendation. We have to admit that when a friend raves about a product on social media, it is notably convincing.

B2B vs B2C: Designing The Right Website

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When you are building your website, it is important to identify your target audience. Are you directly selling to businesses or are you dealing with consumers? Whether it is a Business-to-Business (B2B) or a Business-to-Consumer (B2C) website, you need to be distinct and straight to the point. The design and details of the website must depend on who the buyer is.

Planning

B2B vs B2C

Both B2B and B2C websites need to come up with an adequate marketing plan. There are instance when both strategies overlap so being aware with the two kinds of businesses will really help you ensure that your website’s marketing strategy is on the right track.

We are going to compare and contrast B2B and B2C companies. We will look into specific elements that are important in each side.

The Process

  • The buying process in B2C website is simpler compared to a B2B. Anyone can just freely browse a B2C website without any problems. The length from choosing a product to actually buying it is shorter.  Customers are guaranteed an easy and effortless shopping experience.
  • Nowadays, B2C websites do not require their customers to register in order to purchase a product or service. They can just quickly select the items they want and click the check out button. Your website will only stand out among the rest if you give your customers an uncomplicated way ordering items.
  • On the other hand, a B2B process is the exact opposite of B2C. It requires a lot of specific details like you need to meet up with a company representative. You will need to submit your proposed plan and the business will evaluate the proposal.
  • After being approved, usually, companies insert their own set of guidelines to be followed. This is common among B2B businesses. In order for another business to avail a product or service, they need to make sure that you can meet their demands. In B2B, it’s nearly impossible to complete a transaction without an initial meet up or a personal interaction.

The Elements

  • Relationships are important in B2B websites. These online businesses focus on a smaller market than the general population. Concentrating on a specific group of customers will help B2B companies to strengthen every relationship it creates.
  • B2B sales take longer than usual because you should consider the company’s insight. It’s more like a give and take relationship. Companies work with you not so much because of your brand’s identity, but it is mainly because of the personal relationship you both developed.
  • With B2C companies, you are selling to different kinds of people. For instance, you selling vegan cookies to the health conscious and double chocolate chip cookies to the chocoholics. There’s also rainbow cookies for kids! So, you have to deal with different types of consumers.
  • B2C companies focus on products instead of offering services. Usually, a B2C company will a variety of products to a very broad market. B2C purchases are shorter than B2B so you need to capture the consumers’ emotion right away.
  • If B2B value relationships, B2C needs a strong brand identity. In order to successfully entice customers, B2C websites should focus on imagery. Creating a need or desire for the product is important. Price drops and sales should be highlighted to get the attention of the customers.

Being able to distinctly identify the difference between a B2B and B2C website will help you generate a marketing plan that fits your business. Then, you can create useful campaigns that will convert website viewers to buyers. If you need B2B tips, just click here while the B2C tips are on this link.

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