lead generation

Customer Reviews and You

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

Got Reviews?

It used to be that just having a website was enough to set you apart from your competitors. But now, everyone has a webpage, and you have to set your site apart somehow… For many, the solution they choose is to make their website flashy and unique.
That’s good and fine, but when people are searching for a plumber, electrician, or other pro online, they’re not necessarily looking for the fanciest website or the one with the most bells and whistles. What they’re actually looking for is what other customers thought about your business. Whether you’re a roofer, car audio installer, or appliance repairman, online reviews can help show prospective customers what to expect from your company: the past satisfaction of other customers can predict the experience that future clients can anticipate receiving from you.
Customers can leave reviews for you in many places, including on Google Maps and on your business’s Facebook page. They can also e-mail them to you, and you can have the PG team post them on your microsite. In fact, the same review can do double duty if your customers put them on both Google Maps and your Facebook page, so encourage them to leave reviews where they can be seen in multiple places on the web. The most important thing is that the reviews are out there for prospective customers to find.
Perhaps you’re thinking that your customers aren’t going to take the time to write a review. While that might ordinarily be the case, you can make it worth their while to compose a review for you. Try offering them an incentive such as $10 off their next service. Not only will this help increase your stockpile of reviews but it can help assure repeat business!
Here’s an example of some great reviews on 919 Motoring’s website. Their reviews point out that:

Their prices are great.
They’re better than their competitors.
They’re honest and respectful.

Quite frankly, you probably couldn’t make up reviews better than these provided by their customers!

Faking It Isn’t Worth It

Speaking of making up reviews… Sometimes it might seem easier to just manufacture a few reviews and pretend they were written by customers, but that can get your company in serious trouble. It might look appealing to just dream up some reviews or “borrow” reviews from a similar company that’s, say, in another state, but this will end up biting you in the end.
Not long ago, the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) charged Legacy Learning Systems Inc. with disseminating deceptive advertising. This company, which sells a popular guitar lesson DVD series, settled with the FTC and will have to pay $250,000 to resolve the charges. The short story is that Legacy wasn’t even making up reviews: they were simply utilizing reviews written by a paid affiliate and promoting them as unbiased reviews. The full story is available here.
And the Legacy case isn’t an isolated incident: two years ago, a cosmetic surgery company got caught writing fake reviews. They were charged in New York State for forcing employees to write fake reviews raving about how fantastic the company was. They also settled, to the tune of $300,000 in penalties and costs. You can find the full story here.
In short, fake reviews equal real pain. When you’re obtaining reviews from customers, it’s probably a good idea to save a copy of the e-mail or at least save their contact info. That way, should you be required to prove the review came from a real customer, you’ll be able to!

Things To Consider When Outsourcing

Last Updated: April 29, 2011

There is a common misconception when it comes to outsourcing, many people think this means sending work overseas. However, this is simply not true. In reality, you probably “outsource” some of your business functions already to other local businesses. For example, if you pay an accountant to prepare your taxes or have your company vehicle serviced at the dealer, that’s outsourcing!
When deciding whether or not to outsource a function of your business, there are few things to consider. It helps to look at the cost vs. time and how cost effective each scenario will be. Most people forget to pay themselves when they consider doing it in-house. Your time has value! If you typically get $40/hour and the task will take 10 hours a week, that’s $400 your company will spend each week.
Another thing to consider is the value you will receive from doing it yourself or paying a professional. Outsourcing a task that you are not skilled at, whether it is online advertising, tax preparation or hosting email servers, could actually save you time and money. Take the above example, it could cost your company $400 to do a sub-par job in-house which could lead to complications or mistakes, or $480 to give the accountability to a professional who is trained in the area.
Once you have decided to out-source certain things, the problem arises of who to choose to work with. Simply, DO YOUR HOMEWORK! The simplest way to research a company is to go on Google and search the company’s name + “scam” or “complaints”. You can also check with the BBB for their assessment of the company. Doing these two relatively easy things can give you a pretty good understanding of the company and how their customers feel about their services.
There is an old saying we like to share: “Good is rarely cheap and cheap is rarely good.” Remember to ask detailed questions. Too good to be true offers usually are just that, too good to be true. Good luck!

Dial 1 for Business Success

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

Are you using your phone as effectively as possible to help your business get ahead? Here are a few ideas to harness the latest cell phone technology for your business.

Sprint and Google Voice: Expanded Technology for Your Phone

Here at PG, several of our staffers use Sprint cell phones, and as a result, we noticed an interesting announcement. Sprint recently publicized a new partnership with Google that will give all Sprint customers access to Google Voice on their phones. That means you’ll have fully integrated access to Google Voice’s free services right on your cell.
You can find out more about all of the different features Google Voice provides here, but one of the most versatile for small business owners is this: you can assign several phones to the same number and have them all ring when someone calls you. That means one phone number can ring to your office phone, your cell phone, your assistant’s desk… all at the same time. And whoever picks up the phone first, wins. Just think of all the possibilities this feature could offer in terms of staying connected with current and prospective customers. Google Voice also offers visual voice mail and a whole bunch of other features that can boost your ability to manage inbound calls.

Voice Mail of Doom

Tons of small business owners still let callers get their voice mail on a regular basis. Some of you may even send incoming calls straight to your voice mail inbox. But these behaviors can be a death sentence for your business! That’s because we’ve seen that the vast majority of customers won’t leave a message if they get your voice mail. Instead, they’ll just hang up and move on down their list—straight to one of your direct competitors. If you let your clients get your voice mail all the time, this is something you need to seriously consider changing.
Here are a few options for how you can shift away from relying on voice mail to make sure you’re not losing business by not answering the phone. Why not try:

An Answering Service
Google Voice (see above)
A Receptionist

Regardless of which option you choose, the important thing is to ensure you’re handling incoming calls as quickly as you can so you can avoid losing calls to the competition. Remember, very few customers will leave a message and those that do, probably also call someone else as well.

Turn Your Cell Phone into a Credit Card Processing Machine

If you’re tired of using those annoying carbon copy credit card slips or just plain not being able to accept credit cards when you’re away from the office, you may already have the answer to your problem right in your pocket…
Did you realize that there are applications available that allow your smart phone to process customer credit cards? No more purchasing a pricey point-of-sale machine or renting an expensive credit card processing terminal: all credit card processing can now be done using the technology you already have. All you need to do is download the application and you’ll have access to credit card processing at a very, very competitive rate.
For iPhones and iPads, the application you need is called Square. For Android or “Droid” phones, an application called Payment Max is available. If you have another type of smart phone, you can simply google “your phone name,” e.g. Blackberry, and “credit card processing” or “credit card reader.” These searches should pull up all of the available options for processing credit cards right from your phone.
From making and taking calls to processing credit cards, your cell phone is one of the most vital tools for the success of your business. Make sure you’re getting the most out of your phone with some of these easy ideas and tips.

April Madness: Save with PG Customer Referrals This Month!

Last Updated: April 5, 2011

March Madness may mean some great basketball, but here at Prospect Genius, we have April Madness for new referrals.
Starting April 1 and lasting until April 30, we’re offering an additional $40 off your May bill for every new referral. That means for each new referral you send to PG that signs up during April, you’ll receive a $40 discount on top of our regular $10 discount for a total savings of $50. Just think, if you refer four friends to Prospect Genius, and they all sign up before the end of the month, you can receive $200 off in May!*
And once May is over, you’ll still continue to receive the regular $10 off per month for each referral while you both remain PG customers in good standing. So those four referrals could ultimately save you $200 in May and then $40 a month (paid quarterly) until the end of the year. That’s a huge savings to you, and all you have to do is make a referral or two.
If you have friends, neighbors, or associates you think might be able to benefit from Prospect Genius’s lead generation program, send them our way! They can contact your account manager or customer service representative to sign up. And make sure they mention your name so you don’t lose out on the April Madness referral discounts!
* Minimum invoice amount for any month is $9.

SEO, Google, and Your Business

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

Changes at Google

As you’ve probably heard, Google made some algorithm changes at the end of February. Called the “Farmer” update in the media, these changes are designed to help Google produce higher quality results for their customers.
In short, the Farmer update targeted “content farms” to make it harder for these sites to rank highly in search results. Content farms typically feature low-quality content, so having these sites highly ranked can degrade the overall quality of the search results returned by Google. For example, a directory site that’s looking to increase online traction might solicit, or “farm,” content from external sources that, ultimately, may not have much value to a human audience. This creates the potential for businesses’ old contact information and locations to remain in circulation, decreasing the content quality on the Internet. Logically, this is an issue that Google is inclined to work against.
In implementing the Farmer update, Google’s goal is to improve the results quality to increase searcher satisfaction and decrease frustration. Before the update, consumers were frustrated by the poor information they were receiving while business owners were also frustrated by their inability to eliminate that old address or phone number, no matter how much new information they tried to circulate.

Why This Matters for Business Owners

Perhaps you’re wondering why the Google algorithm change matters for your business. Well, just consider: if your company was gaining good traction from websites like MerchantCircle.com, HubPages.com, or Business.com—it won’t be anymore. These sites are all reported to have been hit hard by the Farmer update, so your business can no longer count on them to provide the same results as in the past!
This algorithm change highlights more than ever why every business, large or small, needs to stay on top of Google changes. As the major search engines tweak how they rank results, it can dramatically affect where your company shows up on search engine results pages (SERPs) and directly affect how much online business you can generate.
If you were using sites affected by the Farmer update, now’s the time to seek out new ways and new directories to capitalize on to maintain your company’s online presence. Not sure if sites you relied on have been hit? Check out this site for an analysis of which directories and sites were affected most. Or, if algorithm changes and the changing world of web marketing are too daunting, let our SEO professionals help. Feel free to call Prospect Genius with any questions you have about the Farmer update and what we can do to maintain your web presence and popularity.

Not Even the Big Guys Are Immune

When it comes to Google and effective online marketing, there’s more to be aware of than just the latest algorithm changes. You’ll want to remember that all businesses are required to follow Google’s guidelines—or else!
The Google team is getting better and better at cracking down on “black-hat” SEO: what it considers underhanded tactics or bad behavior. And when they find a company that’s breaking their rules, no one is immune. From multimillion dollar companies (who spend substantial sums on pay-per-click advertising with Google) to small mom-and-pop operations, Google punishes black-hat violators just the same.
The New York Times recently reported that JCPenney got caught red-handed using black-hat tactics. Google discovered JCPenney trying to trick them by adding links on various sites across the web. These links pointed back to JCPenney’s website, and while some of the pages they linked off of nominally related to Penney’s products, most had no correlation whatsoever. For example, “black dresses” and a link to JCPenney were tacked onto the bottom of a site called nuclear.engineeringaddict.com. Other links included “evening dresses” on a site called www.casino-focus.com , “cocktail dresses” on www.bulgariapropertyportal.com, and ”casual dresses” on www.elistofbanks.com.
This may have seemed smart, at least at first, since JCPenney outranked Samsonite’s site itself for searches like “Samsonite carry-on luggage.” But the black-hat strategies ultimately backfired, as they virtually always do. When Google uncovered the violation of their guidelines, JCPenney lost any traction they had gained and more. Matt Cutts, the head of the Google spam department, commented that “strong corrective action” was being taken against the retail giant.
This type of corrective action ranges from a -10 penalty (causing a webpage to move back 10 spots in search engine results rankings) to a -40, -70, or -100 penalty. Penalties can even include being blacklisted from Google completely. Google draws a very clear line between black- and white-hat tactics, and outlines them in detail for everyone to see here. Whether or not the JCPenney hierarchy intentionally used black hat SEO, or they were led astray by unscrupulous web marketers, this latest move was deliberate on someone’s part, and it was a pretty bad move overall.

Play by Google’s Rules

The simple truth is that following the rules pays off when it comes to trying to promote your website—and your business—on the web. It can feel overwhelming to stay on top of the rules when algorithm updates and changes like the “Farmer” update roll out, but it’s critical to ensure your online advertising and promotional campaigns abide by Google’s requirements or you may find yourself facing nasty penalties just like JCPenney.
However, you don’t have to go it alone. White-hat SEO pros like Prospect Genius scrupulously follow Google’s guidelines, and you can count on our professionals to never cross the line into black-hat tricks. Our expert Internet marketers work to leverage your site to get you the maximum online exposure without violating any of Google’s rules. That’s the clear-cut answer for long-term success online.
For more information on how our SEO program works within Google’s guidelines or to sign up for our lead generation campaign, feel free to give us a call at 1-800-689-1273 or visit our website.

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Things To Consider When Outsourcing

April Madness: Save with PG Customer Referrals This Month!

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