In today’s digital age, with online business reviews holding more and more swaying power over those who choose to invest time and money, it has never been more important to design a digital strategy for implementing online reviews into your marine business plan.
Why work to get online reviews for your marine business?
Quite simply, because glowing reviews can go a long way to helping entice new leads and enquiries directly to the door of your marine business.
Online reviews can help to improve organic search rankings, online conversions, and to impact purchasing decisions. Having good online reviews, and a good approach to dealing with any negative feedback, will ultimately help the boating community to feel more confident in doing business with you.
So, this New Year, don’t be afraid to ask your loyal customers for an online recommendation.
Here are some ideas for how you can generate online business reviews:
Send a polite request or friendly email
As a savvy marine marketer, you’re already likely to be carrying out account management somewhere within your business. Use this time to request an online recommendation or testimonial; follow up a phone call with a polite email or arrange a time to meet.
Whether it was an online sale for your boating products or a sale of a boat, if you know the customer was happy with their experience asking for the review will likely be well received and pay off for your business.
Create a web page, email signature or flyer
Alternatively, you could create a dedicated web page, pop up or email signature to refer people to your chosen review platform (which could include Yachtingpages.com or Google) and online forms. Furthermore, you could create a business card or flyer for those face-to-face meetings and trade events asking for reviews.
Make it easy for your customers to leave reviews – particularly for online sales that may not require a lot of direct interaction.
Respond to negative online reviews
Often with the positive feedback comes the negative. If you find your business the victim of a negative online review, make sure to keep cool and take steps to rectifying the situation publicly to re-instill good faith. Sometimes a negative review handled well can even be changed when the customers knows you have gone the extra mile to fix the problem.
Find out more in our guide on The Power of Online Business Reviews at Yachtingpages.com.
