Online reviews of your business can be a blessing or a curse. It kind of depends on what they say about you.

Review sites are websites where your customers can review your business. They might talk about your service, your products, the experience of visiting your store, etc. The whole point is to tell other people before they go. These sites are basically the new ‘word of mouth.’

The biggies are Google Places, Citysearch and Yelp. On all 3 of these sites, you can ‘claim’ your business, and that’s the first step in managing your online reviews. When you visit your business’s listing, there’ll be a link that lets you claim it. After you claim your listing, you can edit the information and respond to reviews.

Building Online Reviews

Not to overstate the obvious, but you want as many good reviews as possible on these sites. They show up in search engines. One way to get great reviews is to offer the best service possible. Okay, you knew that already. Moving on…

You can usually get stellar reviews from your customers without twisting any arms. First, choose a main review site to use. Find out which of your business’s listings is appearing the most often in search engine results.

Then, put the URL of this listing everywhere – on print materials, menus, your website, receipts, place-mats, business cards, etc. Make sure they see it. Mention it to everyone because it’s a numbers game – only a certain number will actually follow through.

If you want great reviews fast, you can offer a coupon, discount or freebie for everybody who leaves a review. Make it a limited-time offer until you get the pile of good reviews you want so it doesn’t break the bank.

Online Review Damage Control

Now, here comes the tricky part – what if somebody leaves a scathing review on one of these sites and now everybody and their dog can find it in Google search?

First of all, some of these sites will let you ‘flag as inappropriate’ anything really bad. You can’t do this to make negative reviews disappear, of course, but if there’s anything insulting, nasty or inaccurate, you can get rid of it.

You can’t control what people say, but you can control how you react to it. Don’t go ballistic and call them any names or you’ll just look like a jerk. Instead, perform a little damage control.

Respond to all negative reviews and thank them for their feedback. If you can, ask them some follow-up questions so that you can make improvements. You actually can get valuable feedback from bad reviews. But even if the person is obviously just an idiot, you should solicit more information from them about their dissatisfaction. It says to people who read the review, ‘We messed up, but we want to know how we can improve.’

Keep Tabs on Your Reviews

It’s tough to keep an eye on all the new reviews and review sites popping up, but you can use a simple free tool that makes it really easy. Sign up with Google Alerts (google.com/alerts) and enter your business’s name. Whenever that name shows up online, it’ll notify you by email. This way, you can deal with it quickly and perform your damage control if necessary.

BURY ‘EM!

Here’s how to overcome secret to a unfair, crushing bad online review; have a ton of positive ones. I’m sure you’ve bought a book, chose a restaurant or went to see a show even after you read a bad review. Why? Because that one bad review was right next to a long list of great reviews. So, what does that tell you?

You need to start accumulating online testimonials for your business right now. You start by over-delivering and amazing your clients (the hard part) every time. You work hard to make every client happy – even when you screw up. And you do unexpected, nice things for them. You love and care your clients (really).

Then, you ask for reviews and make it easy for them to give one. I usually send my client a hand written thank you card and a thank you email  … and even a thoughtful gift. When they call or email me to thank me … I simply say, “Would you mind doing that online for me? It would be a really big favor to me and you would really be helping me out.”

I usually know if the client has a social media presence because I use the free tool https://rapportive.com/. From inside my Gmail account I can quickly see the client’s social media presence. So if they have a Facebook account, I ask them to “like” my page and leave a comment. If they have a Gmail account I ask them to leave a review on my Google Places page (map) … Google reviews are like gold. Get as many as you can!

You can ask if they’re on Yelp, LinkedIn etc. The point is – you have to ask.

I usually ask 2 or 3 times and that’s it. Only 30% to 60% of people will take the time to give you a review – even if they love you and your service. Sad, but true.

You have to ask a lot of people!

Now get started! The more happy reviews you get the more clients you’ll attract and the less damage any one reviewer can do.

photo credit: Jan Tik via photo pin cc

Trying to grow your moving and storage business? Instead of struggling to survive you can be rolling in more moving customers than ever before – if you have the right strategy and you take action. Here are some of the fastest and most cost-effective ways you can start attracting more customers. So, let’s get moving!

Your Customer’s New Address

Years ago a moving company could do pretty well with a giant ad in the Yellow Pages and a team of aggressive sales people to rope the callers in.  In New York City a lot of moving companies thrived by hooking suckers with an impressive ad featuring super-low prices. They’d have a few sales sharks promise the client the moon with a dirt cheap price and do the old bait and switch. “You didn’t tell us you had stairs … you didn’t tell us you had more than one piece of furniture … so we’re gonna double the price and hold onto your furniture as ransom until you pay.” And it worked.

Sure, there are still a number of these crooks in the moving business but there days are numbered. Why? The internet!

Customers are online and before they do any sizable business with you – they want to check you out on Google. What are people saying about you on Yelp, Yahoo, Bing and Angie’s List? It used to be only the most determined and careful shoppers checked your references and now everybody is doing it.

How do you market your moving business now? Don’t try to avoid it – the trend is your friend. It’s time you mastered online marketing. For 10 amazing free tools that will get you more sales for your moving company (both residential and commercial moving) be sure to download a free copy of More Clients Now.

Success Plan for Selling More Moving Jobs

Step One: Be in the right place at the right time. You need to have your website at the top of the search results for maximum growth. One easy way to do that is with a custom installed blog platform which allows you to create LOTS of pages that will show up all over the web. For example, if you run a moving company that services the 5 boroughs of New York City, install a custom blog and create a page a day about moving and a neighborhood name. Write a 250 to 500 word article about “Moving Company in Marine Park, Brooklyn” on Monday and “Best Forest Hills Moving Companies” on Tuesday. Why? Because the big national moving companies that dominate Google for words like “Moving Companies” (which is a very competitive search phrase) do not have the resources to compete with you for these longer keyword phrases.

Step Two: Capture the Lead. Website visitors are worthless to you – unless you transform them into sales leads. That’s why when we build a custom blogging platform we always include a lead capture form on every single page. Notice this page? See how my offer to give you a free copy of “More Clients Now” is really obvious? You can’t miss it.

But a lead form is not all you need. You need to motivate people to opt-in to your list too. Going back to my own example, “More Clients Now” offers 10 powerful, FREE breakthrough tools  that you can use to start getting more clients. You want the report … you need the report … so you put your email in the box.

That is exactly what you have to do too. Offer people who are moving an irresistible offer! “Get 10 Free Moving Boxes” or “Free Moving Checklist” or “Free iPad App Makes Moving a Snap!” (Yes, I create apps as giveaways and they work great).

Do you see how your potential clients will be happy to give you there email address for that freebie?

Step Three: Build Trust and Credibility.  After you sign up for “More Clients Now” I don’t send spam! I don’t try to sell! I just keep sending really useful advice on how to sell more. Why? Because I know that over time my readers will get to the point where they need someone to help them with their online marketing. And I will be the first guy they think of! They already know, like and trust me. I don’t have to “sell” a thing!

As a sales manager for a moving company, how would you like to attract customers who are ready to do business? They don’t want to shop around – in fact they’re willing to pay a bit more because they like you!  How? Just follow my lead. After you send that prospect your free guide (we can write them for you) have a system that automatically sends out follow up emails that educate the buyer. Day one, they get your free report or the coupon for the free boxes. Day two, they get an email warning them about moving scams on Craigslist. Day three, they get advice on how to safely run a garage sale for the items they don’t want to move. Day four, you offer them a time limited coupon. And so on.

Over the course of two weeks your system will send out about 10 emails automatically spaced out day by day. Once you set it up it nurtures the leads and when they’re ready to do business they’ll be calling you!

Marketing for Movers

Now, there is much more to successfully marketing your moving and storage business on the internet and I will be sharing some more amazing pearls of wisdom with my email subscribers. Isn’t it time you grabbed your copy of “More Clients Now” so I can help you get all the business you want?

I got this question from a catering sales manager who works for a well established restaurant:

What are your thoughts on using twitter to improve our customer base. I know it takes a couple months to build up, but it seems like an inexpensive way to develop a more loyal customer base. I could use your help, Brian.

The Twitter idea may work if your market is actively using the platform – but your entire strategy can’t just be self-promoting blurbs. Nobody is on Twitter to read boring advertisements.

Build Followers

Without followers you’re talking to yourself. You want local fans only.

To get a bunch of real live, qualified buyers to follow you on Twitter, target the restaurant’s customers. You’ll need to give them a real reason to follow you. One idea is to have the wait staff offer a free drink or dessert on the spot to certain customers who follow the restaurant on the spot.

Get Attention

Your tweets have to be remarkable. You can’t say “$2.00 off cheeseburgers on Thursday!” and expect the world to give a hoot. People tune that out.

You need “wow, this is amazing and I’ve got to tell my friends!” tweets like searching twitter and rewarding the local softball champs with free dinner if they come by within the next hour. By going into Twitter and starting conversations you can build a following – but no sales pitches.

Invest

Effective Twitter marketing takes work. You’ve got to be building a community. Think of it like the bar at the restaurant where you build loyalty by paying attention to people and making them feel heard, felt and important. That’s what brings people back to the bar, that’s what keeps them paying attention to you on Twitter.

It’s not easy!

Crappy marketing is easy. Just get a Twitter account and bust out junk like: “Large 16″ Pizza with 3 toppings, 8 pcs buffalo wings and 2 liter soda for $19.99 All Day” and you get nothing. ( I just found that tweet on a Twitter user with 0 followers – not surprising )

Want to learn how to use Social Media and other powerful tools to grow your catering business? Download a free copy of More Clients Now. It’s a free report that will help you build a sound strategy.

Marketing Catering via Twitter

Now imagine you’re really part of the local Twitter community. You follow the top 500 companies in your region on Twitter and you follow the people who work there.

You listen. You respond. You help. You make friends.

No one likes to talk to the person who is always trying to sell. In fact, you avoid that person as much as possible. My friend’s mom got into a multi-level-marketing scheme and she steers every conversation into a sales pitch into becoming a sales rep. That’s obnoxious.

What is obnoxious in the real world is obnoxious on Twitter. So, do not try to sell catering via Twitter. Make connections, build relationships and promote tactfully.

It’s a conversation.

You act like a real person (no one really cares about brands) and you respond just like you would in the restaurant (avoid nasty politics, be careful not to piss off the Cubs fans even if you like the White Sox better, etc – or if you’re the owner, pick sides! Make fun of the Cubs and the Sox fans will love you)

Now that you’ve got real followers who actually read your stuff, you slide in some exciting pitches.

Tweets That Sell

“Who works for Northern Trust in downtown Chicago? Free catered lunch for the first 4 people NT employees who DM me … now!”

Imagine if you had 400 followers in Chicago. Do you think people would spread that tweet to all their friends? Of course! It’s valuable and urgent and people love to spread that kind of stuff. Nobody cares about $4 beers every Thursday.

“RT @AdvocateMasonic 92 docs at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital on U.S. News Top Doctors: Congrats! When’s the party?”

This tweet doesn’t give anything away except recognition. Do you think they’d follow you?

Follow and make friends. Target locals ( go to http://twitter.com/#!/search-advanced  when it works ) and seek out your neighbors, the people who work nearby, local writers, local Chamber of Commerce, etc.

There are lots of examples – but they all involve you listening and becoming part of the conversation. Twitter is not the fastest way to grow your catering business but it may be a huge driver for you if you put in the effort for 6 months.

Wrapping Up

Is Twitter a good way to promote catering? No, not if you expect to tweet today and get orders tomorrow. It doesn’t work that way.

If you need catering sales fast, pick up the phone and call every past client, buy some pay-per-click ads, do a Groupon, send out direct mail, cold call – in other words hustle.

If you want to build a long term army of loyal fans, Twitter can be tremendous.

Final Advice:

Go get yourself a copy of Gary Vaynerchuk’s Thank You Economy if you want to understand the power and potential of Twitter and other social media platforms. Gary built a small, local retail store from $4 million to $60 million using social media

And while you’re here, why not download a free copy of

A reader asked me …

I am the catering manager at a restaurant/night club, I am not the owner, but treat it like it is my own. My biggest problem is keeping the flow of new contacts going while keeping up with my current contacts and keeping them happy. I am a one man show, which I am currently working on, trying to find someone to fit the mold of a part time assistant to free up some of my time.

What else can I do to make sure I keep my current contacts I worked so hard for, while I am generating new ones? I am putting everything on paper to make sure my priorities are in order. I have felt the direct impact of becoming too busy to market and generate new business, and am hoping for this new assistant to be my salvation so I can get back out there and sell.

Any thoughts or ideas would be amazing!

What a smart question! Here’s what I’d do ….

Organize your current contacts into three categories; A,B,C.

A – The Top 10% – those who are the most profitable to you. Pick out the clients who spend the most with you (and produce a profit … not the ones who make you work for pennies!) And the ones who can refer business to you (they’re on the board of directors at several organizations, well connected in the community, etc)

B – The Next 20% – those who spend money and are likely to host more events.

C- Everybody Else

Then contact them accordingly;

A List: Personal Contact Once A Month; A PERSONAL email, PERSONAL letter, a helpful phone call. Do not automate contact with these people. What do you contact them about? Certainly not about you! Not about your catering services. They don’t care – and nobody will want a sales call every month. Call one client who loves golf to tell him about golf outing you’re catering and the celebrity golfer who will be there – would you like his autograph? Call another client who just moved into your town about the new summer program for his kids. Call another A-List about a job opening for her son who just graduated. Build a relationship with your A list by giving value – not by shoving menus at them.

B List: Personal Contact Once Every Six Months – send out promotional items once a year (nice gifts with your logo) and a postcard every 3 months (but take the time to hand write a note!)

C List: Send out post-cards & bulk emails throughout the year on auto-pilot.

Spend most of your time on the A List. Build warm, personal relationships by taking care of them!

Everyday you’ll contact one person on the A-List and one on your B-List.  Members of your A List should be scheduled to for contact every month.  B-List clients show up again once you’ve gone through the entire list. If you have 90 people on your B List, you’ll have personal contact with them every 3 months. Now, you’re making 2 calls a day but calling the right people at the right frequency.

Remember – don’t call them to ask for business, don’t call them to ask for referrals because they’ll stop taking your calls if all you do is take. Call them to refer clients to them, to help them find new suppliers, to help them solve their problems – not yours. You’ll earn more repeat business and referrals this way … and you’ll enjoy making the calls too.

Some event pros complain about “how tough it is” to make a living in the wedding business anymore. Others are having their best year ever.

Why are some event businesses closing up shop – while a chosen few are expanding as if they didn’t know there’s a recession going on?

Watch this video to find out now.

Do you want to know what makes the critical difference between those who succeed and those who fail? The answer; strategy and action.

The winners know what works and they put it to work, every day.

The losers stumble around, trying this, trying that and quitting.

If you want to attract more wedding clients like the leaders in the industry you need to find out what they’re doing right – and start doing it yourself.

If you want to learn the inside secrets from the event industry’s best marketers – NOW is your chance.You can learn how to position yourself as the wedding expert in your market, drive traffic to your website, generate sales leads for free and close bigger, better weddings faster and easier than ever before.

There is nothing to buy, no sales pitch. Click here for the details.

“The 6 Figures Wedding Business Summit,” will show you how to increase your visibility, attract more and better clients and teach you how to close bigger and better contracts. Go check it out – you have nothing to lose.

Watch the video on “The 6 Figures Wedding Business Summit”

It gets attention … but is it an effective way to get more clients?

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cwalker71/

Want to get more clients, but you don’t have a big promotional budget? Try public speaking instead. If you can manage to speak with enthusiasm and authority about your business to one person, you can do it in front of a group.

Are you scared to speak in public? Get over it. That’s my nurturing advice. Most people are too chicken to speak in public – most of your competition is too scared. That means opportunity.

For a bit more on the topic, check out this excellent post from BNI …

Referrals for the Difficult-to-Refer Business

Want to know how to set up your site so it can rank higher and attract all the clients you want? Settle down. OK, go get this free report from Google. It’s a good primer on SEO.

What? Not satisfied? OK, here’s another free report. It’s from a site you may not have heard of, but they’re very well respected. Get The Free Beginner’s Guide to SEO from SEOmoz.

Now, leave me alone.

If I gave you a powerful way to get more clients, would you use it?

You are about to learn a proven way to grow your business that is so simple yet so effective that if you put it to work right away you’ll be amazed at the impact it will have on your life.

You already have everything you need to make it work. You don’t have to buy anything; you don’t have to spend hours learning the latest online marketing fad – and you can get started right now.

When I “discovered” this and put it to work, it had a profound impact on my business.  It helped me grow my business steadily and with peace of mind.

Then for some silly reason I stopped using it.

I did the same thing when a friend gave me a very simple diet that helped me lose 30 pounds. I followed the rules, lost the weight and then fell back into old habits.

My pants were growing but my business was not.

Thankfully I caught myself – I went back to what worked and got the results I wanted. I lost the weight and the business doubled.

Now, I will give you the big secret – but I guarantee only a few people reading this will give it a try for at least 30 days. Most will just nod and say, “That sounds good,” and take no action. Others will try for a week or two and give up.

To grow your business, do this:

1. Set an aggressive but realistic revenue goal for the year.
2. Divide it by twelve to get your monthly goal.
3. Divide that number by the number of working days in the month. Now you know what you have to hit every day.
4. Figure out what actions you need to take to get reach that goal. How many leads? How many phone calls? How many letters do you need to mail? How many sales appointments do you need to schedule?
5. Keep your goal and your daily tasks in front of you.
6. Review them in the morning – review them every night.
7. Plan out your day the night before and stick to that plan.
8. Make marketing your top priority. No excuses.

Be honest with yourself and take consistent action. Plan your work, work your plan. Everything else is bullshit.

And the diet?

Don’t eat cheese, bread or butter. Eat less red meat. Take more walks.

That’s it.

Don’t overcomplicate things!  Get started.

Are you frustrated by low quality sales leads? Tired of chasing leads that never return your calls? Have you bought sales leads from Eventective and Decidio and wondering if they’re scams?

As the world’s leading self-appointed business marketing genius, I get this question a lot from caterers, planners and event vendors. They say “I bought those leads, I followed up and nothing. No sales, no responses. It’s a scam.”

I know it’s frustrating when you feel like you’re wasting time and money chasing down leads.

Here’s what some people are saying about these leads …

“eventective.com is another in a long line of internet scams. They have crawled the internet looking for websites of wedding professionals and listed those sites on their service, in most cases without permission.”

Source: Michiana Weddings

Hello everyone! I have actually had a good experience with Eventective! I listed my business for free on the website. I receive leads maybe 3-4 a month and ignored them for about 6 months. Two weeks ago, I decided to pay the $2.50 for a lead. I met with the bride on the same day and she hired me as her wedding planner. $2.50 for an $1,800 contract. I’m feeling real blessed by eventective!

Source: Henry Shoots comments

“We get leads every other week or so and NEVER have anyone reply back. I am guessing it’s a scam too. Most all the budgets are coming in way too low, not worth the time at all! We are done with  them.” Decidio.

Source: FredMiranda.com Forum

“The word SCAM comes to mind when I hear Decidio. They still send me “leads”….to nowhere.”

Source: TexasPhotoForum

“As for Decidio.com being a scam, I beg to differ. I’ve secured 2 lucrative contracts from the service this year.”

Source: OurDJTalk.com

So, what is the truth? Are these scams?

Let me go on the record, I do not have any affiliation with either company. I don’t have a vested interest in Eventective or Decidio. I’m not paid to promote either service.

Are The Leads Are Weak?

I know established, successful event professionals who make money off these leads, and I know lots of struggling business owners who’ve never made a single sale from them. The people who struggle the most are the people who hate to sell. They’re afraid of calling strangers. They’re disorganized and they have horrible websites. They don’t offer a real reason to buy from them and not a cheaper clone.

Before you blame these lead sources, answer these questions …

• Why should customers choose you? Please don’t give “great customer service” and “high quality” as your answers. What makes you different, what makes you better than the competition?
• Do you have an irresistible offer or you pretty much like everyone else?
• Are you effectively communicating what makes you the best choice for that customer?
• Do you make claims or do you provide proof?
• Is my website as effective as it can be?
• Are your email subject lines exciting and interesting?
• Do your emails create urgency and give a real reason to call you right now?
• Are the voicemail messages professional, friendly and compelling?

Once you’ve answered those questions correctly, then you can blame the lead generators.

If you don’t have a sales lead follow up system and you don’t know how to sell a cold lead, don’t complain … fix it.