Using Your Online Presence to Close Word of Mouth Referrals

Use A Strong Online Presence to Close Word of Mouth Referrals

When talking to potential clients about increasing their online presence with a website, and various methods of online marketing. I often get the 'I get all my clients through referral'.

Be sure to check out a more in depth post I wrote on this recently.

How can a strong online presence work in conjunction with referrals and word of mouth?

Let me explain.

Say I am talking to Jim, and Jim is raving about the tile job that ABC Tile did for his new patio. I take a mental note of it of course, but chances are, within a few minutes or hours that mental note is all but forgotten. Maybe I'm even given a card for ABC Tile, and I put it on my dresser, or in my office. But, either way, I am not thinking about ABC Tile anymore.

Fast forward to 6 months down the road when my wife and I are contemplating redoing our bathroom and we need some tile work done. Best case scenario, I remember my conversation with Jim, but the most likely scenario is I have forgotten this conversation. So what do I do? I do like the other 97% of people searching for a service, I go online to find somebody.

So, like most people I go to Google, and type in "Tile Salt Lake City", or "Tile Contractor Utah", something to that effect. Now, here is where a strong online presence plays an important role. If I have forgotten the conversation that I had with Jim, but I see ABC Tile on the front page of Google, I will be like: Oh ya, I remember them. Jim was raving about them, I'm going to give them a call.

If I have forgotten the conversation with Jim, and if ABC Tile isn't on the first page of Google then I most likely won't find them, because most people don't go past page 1.

IMPORTANCE OF PAGE 1

In fact page 1 of Google gets about 80% of the clicks. So, if ABC Tile isn't on page 1, do you think they will get my call? Probably not. Most likely what will happen is I will check out the reviews on page 1, (which is done via their Google+ Local page), I'll also check out their website to check out their work, read testimonials, and see why I should choose them.

I will then pick up the phone and call whoever I feel is the best fit. Criteria I use: reviews, pictures of work, accreditation's, etc. Some unconscious reasons why I may decline to choose somebody may include: over powering website colors, website layout, slow loading website, unprofessional website (Go Daddy, Wix, or Weebly do it yourself site), etc.

So keep this in mind, a strong online presence will help you capture more referrals, and grow your business. A business that services the public and does not have an online presence is essentially making it harder to do business with them; which of course is the last thing you want.

If you need any help improving your online presence, contact me, I will work with you to determine the best way to accomplish this.