If you think all marketing is expensive, stop right there. When was the last time your friend recommended a new food joint and you went to it? Have you ever looked on Yelp or Google to see what a doctor’s reviews were before going to them? Have you trusted a car brand because your family swears they are the best?
What all of these have in common is marketing! Marketing comes in all different practices, but one of the cheapest and most effective ones are reviews! People trust reviews because they are honest and by real people! You can assume that a business didn’t force people to say something about their company for an incentive. Instead, people actually like to write reviews because it’s easy to do!
88% of people trust online reviews like it’s a personal recommendation from a friend. If you answered “yes” to any of the 3 initial questions I asked, you should believe in getting online reviews for your law firm.
Here are 7 ways you can get reviews to entice potential clients and have a good reputation:
Simply just ask your existing customers to write you a review. If you have a good relationship with them and you delivered them good service, I’m sure they’d be happy to! It can even just be pressing how many stars they rate you or writing a couple of sentences.
Asking them once may not be enough, so simply ask again. People don’t forget things on purpose. Sometimes a little reminder is all they need.
Make sure that everyone is on board with what you are trying to do. Have your staff ask your clients to write a review as well. By doing it this way, it may also seem less staged since it is not coming from the head honcho themselves.
Receptionist: When your receptionist closes out someone’s appointment, they can mention how to write a review.
Make it apparent to your team that they each influence the business a great amount and they can make a big impact if they participate in getting reviews.
If you have an email list, blast out an email asking people to write a review for you. Make sure you list down all of the steps people need to take and make everything easily accessible. Make links easily reachable and don’t make it something that will take them a long time.
This is another way to keep your email list engaged and subscribed to you! When you do get reviews, you can blast out another email saying, “This is what people said about us!” You now have customer success stories.
If you don’t have a big email list, don’t worry! Here, we have ways to build your list.
Have a page on your website that says, “Testimonials/Reviews”. This will show what people said about you previously, convincing new clients that you are the right move and also reaffirming to existing clients that you were a great choice.
Make sure you are updating this page with your newest reviews so that people know what is to be true “now.” You also don’t have to only show your 5-star reviews. 4 stars are good too if you don’t have enough of the 5-star ones. It is best if people can see the star rating and why they chose that rating.
Make sure that you have signage where it is easily visible. How about the front door, in your hallways, in the bathroom, and on your desks? Your sign can say something like, “People love us on Yelp! Write us a review and let us know how we’re doing!”
You can also entice the reviewers with a little swag gift. If you see that your client wrote one, the next time they come in, give them a branded sticker or stress ball. This doesn’t mean you should pay for your reviews, but simply thank them for doing so.
Make sure your signage tells them where to go to write the review whether it be on Yelp, on your website, on Google, on Facebook, or elsewhere.
At the bottom of a receipt, ask them to write a review. People will likely read under the amount they paid, so put it where the eyes go!
If it’s not a receipt, put it on any standard paperwork that you give out. Make sure this is on the paperwork that people actually read so that it serves a purpose.
Make a QR code that people can scan so that they can easily write a review in real-time on their phones. If you don’t have a QR code, make the link short enough that the person can easily type it in.
Video is a lot easier to read than text! Make a video that you can email out to your clients or put on your social media pages. Even direct message people with the video!
Video is great because it’s entertaining, easy to engage with, and it’s almost as if you are talking one-on-one with them.
Along with the video, give them the links they have to go to so that they can do it then and there. Don’t let a distraction get to them first!
Use software to automate everything! You can send out emails and text messages without doing each one manually. You can even use it to follow up in case they forgot!
You can use chatbots coming from a post. It will automatically communicate with your client and give them the links they need to carry out the review.
With reviews, you can stand out from your competition. If someone is comparing 3 law firms and see one is rated 5 stars, another is rated 4, and another is rated 3, it is likely they will go with the 5-star rating. People also trust a rating if there are a lot of them. Imagine seeing a firm with 30 reviews and then seeing another firm with 150 reviews. The more the merrier.
People like to do their own research before committing to something, especially a big decision such as who should represent someone in a legal case. When they are doing research, testimonials and reviews will be somewhere they head to. Reviews by real people are real results!
On the business side of things, give people something to make a good review of!
If you want to see this blog in video form and share it with people, go to https://youtu.be/Q_j6rkBKltA
Schedule a call with us if you want to learn other ways to market your law firm efficiently.
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