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Best way to ask for a testimonial: Google, Facebook, Yelp

A testimonial is a powerful resource that can help boost companies past their competition. Testimonials are a public guarantee of an experience and product that your company has delivered and should be regularly sought after as part of an on-going feedback process to better serve clients. Let the work speak for itself: work with the Profitworks team to get your customer testimonial program in effect today.

We help you source regular testimonials to increase sales

We've heard time and again how our business owners want advisors that take the time and care to manage their marketing as if it was their own. Work with the Profitworks team to help more great products and services get discovered.

Executive Summary

 - Testimonials are by far one of the strongest marketing tools for a business to grow their reputation and impact sales

 - Businesses often neglect this crucial steps in acquiring qualifications from delivered work but in reality is a small step that can be appended to existing processes with relative ease

 - Asking for testimonials is a first step in brand maangement and has the secondary benefit of empowering customers to be your greatest advocates

Top reasons companies choose testimonials as their marketing arm

Organizations often seek to establish trust with prospects as part of sales cycles or marketing efforts. One of the best ways to do so is a testimonial provided by an existing or previous customer on their experience with your company and product. Testimonials work - across industries and channels, these are concrete trust artifacts that help prospects become sales. Testimonials have the following benefits for prospects when evaluating a new company:

• Reduces perceived risk in working with your company as others have taken the risk already
• Client references that are connected to the prospect sends even stronger signals as a prospect can fact-check
• Its easier to follow the crowd and a series of testimonials triggers prospects' crowd mentality

Best way to ask for a testimonial - general guidelines

Here are some quick tips to asking a customer for a testimonial:

1. Ask a customer for a testimonial after completing an order or service
2. Reduce overhead by asking the client to submit it through Google, Facebook, or Yelp
3. Recommend to the customer not to speak negatively about competitors
4. Provide guidelines that customers shouldn't reference team members by name for privacy and fairness to other clients as this would discourage customers when they don't interact with the "superstar"
5. Help them articulate their challenge and how the situation was resolved

Asking for Google Reviews

Requesting Google Reviews offers customers the most convenience and efficiency for their time. We typically suggest that customers consider using a Google Reviews request template after every service or successful interaction. To accomplish this the most important aspects are to allow one-click access to a Google Reviews page for your business compared to the 5-6 steps they would usually take.

One-click access to Google Reviews forms

To help your customers quickly get to Google Reviews for your business:

1. Make sure Google My Business is already set up for your location
2. Verify your business location to allow customers to enter reviews
3. Utilize a direct Google Review link generator 
4. Attach the link and instructions as part of your request template

Pro tips for managing Google Reviews

Here are a number of best practices for managing Google Reviews to help your customers see that you go above and beyond the call of duty in terms of responsiveness:

• Reply to all Google Reviews whether they are positive or negative
• For negative reviews always try to provide contact or a resolution to the issue
• For positive reviews thank the reviewer
• Continue to request reviews to maintain a steady stream with at least 1 new review in the last 3-6 months

Asking for Facebook Reviews

Facebook reviews is another metric that is sometimes used when a prospect conducts research into your company online. Google utilizes reviews from a variety of sources and Facebook is just one of the many social or review aggregators that are used to determine the first impression of your company to prospects. Facebook allows business owners to create their own business page to communciate and interact with their prospects and customers.

1. Setup a Facebook page and enable reviews
2. On your home page ensure the reviews section is visible
3. For every person that likes your page or post, send them a private message to thank them
4. If they are interested and reply back ask them to provide a review for your page
5. Share deals in store or on location for customers who write a review
6. Involve employees with requesting reviews during customer delight moments (instances where your team went above and beyond)

Pro tips for managing Facebook reviews

• Like and interact with the reviews provided
• Use Facebook as a way to communicate news to customers to grow your following
• Review your competitor's customer reviews and invite those customers to try or review your service
• Maintain your business review list to ensure reviews are at least recent to the year

Asking for Yelp Reviews

Yelp is a common place for restaurants and local businesses. It is one of another of Google's top choices in presenting a rich card of information to prospects. Yelp is a worthwhile focus because it is often neglected by businesses. Yelp operates in a similar fashion to Facebook business pages but requires more stringent verification along with far more reviews than Google. People trust Yelp just as much as they trust Google Reviews.

How to ask for Yelp reviews

1. Use emails to invite customers to provide a Yelp review
2. Track customers that have not provided reviews on other channels and consider offering a promotion to first time reviewers
3. Include a direct link and utilize a URL shortener to make it easy for customers
4. Offer in-store discounts and promotions for a visitor to review your Yelp page

Pro tips for managing Yelp reviews

• Share reviews that are exemplary
• Message and thank the users for their Yelp reviews
• Find serial reviewers in your industry and invite them to try your service or product

Growing your business one testimonial at a time

Testimonials are a great way to grow your business and help share the best things about your team with the public. As we've seen, testimonials build great public prestige and trust with prospects who have yet to experience your company's work. Testimonials are a time-tested way to effectively get prospects off the fence.

Unfortunately, organizations often struggle with how to get testimonials and how to derive insight and hone their service based on the feedback they provide. Negative testimonials can also be a great source of reflection and help better serve customers. Testimonial acquisition is just one piece of the overall activities required to acquire new customers, some of which may have never heard of your brand or product before.

Profitworks helps organizations succeed with marketing

"I've found Profitworks to be tenacious and adaptable to the challenges our industry possesses."

-Blair - Business Owner & Customer

Read More About What Our Customers Say

We've helped companies across Canada and the US succeed with growth, because we believe in the beauty and meaning of every article written, email sent, and social media post crafted. Our team endeavours to create unique competitive advantages for all of our customers and would be thrilled to learn more about your mission and plans for your team. Profitworks provides marketing strategy, content marketing, branding, and social media management for great companies with a stellar product or service.

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Fake Marketing Companies Canada

Canadian enterprises face significant challenges like securing local economy and limited resources from the government for expansion and development. Yet one of the greatest challenges faced by Canadian companies is the lack of transparency and integrity from marketing companies. As a result, local enterprises have lost considerable resources and time being mislead by marketing agencies that may seem legitimate at first glance. Marketing is a crucial way to reach and engage your target customers and though there are challenges with finding the right provider the right marketing agency, however, can be a strategic partner in future and predictable growth. Consult with the team at Profitworks today. Utilize the lessons learned below to avoid marketing scams faced by Canadian businesses. 

Develop your competitive advantage with Profitworks

Companies work with agencies and marketing teams to develop a unique sales engine and brand to reach and retain clients. Work with Profitworks to become the market leader in your industry today.

Executive Summary

 - The main scams marketing companies use are directory listings and office supplies fee collections

 - Perpetrators of marketing scams utilize high-pressure tactics and alleged pre-approval by company officers to force companies to pay

 - Thankfully, a number of these companies have been shut down and their Chief Executives have faced criminal charges though some are still at large

 - Working with the right marketing agency helps promote sustainable growth while a misaligned partner can cause debilitation

Though marketing companies that offer entry-level jobs to new grads represent the largest segment of marketing company scams in Canada, there are subtle agencies that over-promise but fail to deliver on their growth metrics for their clients.

Montreal Telemarketing Scam - Express Transaction Services caused $170M in SMB Losses

A Montreal company defrauded hundreds of local businesses by sending out products that were not ordered and then having sales agents call to retrieve payment. This scheme generated over $170M between 2001-2007 as reported by CBC. The federal Anti Fraud Centre noted that thousands of businesses were impacted by this ruse and people connected to the organization faced criminal charges. The ploy hinged upon having aggressive collections officers call unsuspecting businesses 5-6 times a day asking the business owner to pay. 

Lessons Learned: Establish a paper trail, request proof of purchase along with the name of the officer in your company who approved the purchase. Do not pay for products just because there is an angry person on the phone. Small business owners would have benefited by calling the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre 

Newfoundland Government Sponsored Call Centre Scam - Michael Mouyal caused $136.8B in SMB Loses

Mouyal received a $200K grant from the Canadian government and used it to set up a call centre in St. John's Newfoundland to defraud Canadian businesses. The company operated under numerous business names noted by the Canadian Broadcasting Channel including Merchant Transaction Supplies, Merchant Supply Services, and International Business Directories. Through deceptive marketing practices, the company generated $136.8 Canadian dollars and defrauded hundreds of local businesses by representing that they were existing customers with a debt, often charging up to 700% the market value of products.

Lessons Learned: Request internal contacts that authorized the purchase, work together with other departments to confirm obligations prior to issuing any payments. Communication is key here and just because there is a difficult voice on the other side of the line does not mean professionals need to bend.

Alberta Company Ambus Registry Defrauded Charity and Not-for-Profits - Organizations lost $4M

Ambus Registry would often call up unsuspecting institutions and not-for-profit agencies to strong-arm them into signing contracts. These high-pressure tactics led to numerous concessions resulting in $4M in losses for businesses across the province.

Lessons Learned: Refuse payment if sourcing and procurement officers are uncertain of orders placed. Further cross check marketing place pricing for products to ensure fair and competitive costs are being carried.

Ontario based DataCom Marketing - Defrauds companies of $158M

Using the business directory marketing scheme strategy, Bernard Fromstein and company convinced local busineses to pay out over $150M over the course of 10 years. They did so by alleging that a company officer had purchased a business listing and that someone in the company had already authorized the renewal. CBC reports that the Chief Executive of the company faces jail time as a result.

Lessons Learned: Vendors typically with work with warm contacts rather reaching out to another company officer. It is highly suspicious that someone else has approved a purchase and that you would be required to process payment.

Mystery Shopper Scam - Defrauds thousands of Canadians of personal information

The typical ploy runs the following course: a job applicant applies and received a new role as a mystery shopper. They are asked to deposit a cheque whereby they can withdraw funds for their mystery shopping assignments while forwarding money to another mystery shopper. Unfortunately what people will find is that after they withdraw and transfer their money, the original cheque bounces and the victim is left with no job and no money. This a common tactic used by fake marketing agencies to con unsuspecting job seekers as mentioned by Better Business Bureau.

Lessons Learned: A legitimate employer or client will never ask you to withdraw money from your own banking accounts, be wary of any requests of this sort.

Event Marketing Scams - 3 weeks of unpaid work for employees

A number of local event marketing companies employs entry-level workers to stand at a booth to introduce shoppers to new products and promotions. This is a common arrangement for new brands entering the Canadian marketing scene that require a direct marketing approach. Direct marketing involves having someone demo and display products while trying to entice shoppers of a department or bulk store to purchase the product. Often times the event management companies will take shortcuts in paying and training their employees. A number of employee reviews have been posted and job seekers should be aware.

Lessons Learned: Ensure companies that are offering you a role or contract are valid. Ask for references to provide better insight into the client or employer you will be working with.

Canadia businesses should stay abreast of scams and potentially harmful organizations -  utilize the Anti-fraud Centre's resources like the Black Book of Scams provided by the Canadian Government.

Fake Followers Scams - Supposed growth hacker selling fake followers on social media

Having followers on any corporate social media account is a sign of market support and confidence. There are an increasing number of social media marketers that offer companies the ability to rapidly grow their follower base. However, many companies do not understand social media let alone are aware that fake followers can be purchased. G Shift covered this issue along with great tips on how to spot fake followers or how to validate a social media influencer before you sign on with them.

Lessons Learned: Validate fake followers using social media auditing tools like Status People.

Resources for companies who have been affected by fake marketing

Here are some great resources to determine whether the company you are being contacted by is legitimate or otherwise:

1. www.ripoffreport.com - a single source of rip-offs and scams.
2. Better Business Bureau is another great website to check on the company that is soliciting or offering you something that sounds too good to be true
3. Trusted Marketing Advisor - work with an established marketing advisor to help you debunk a marketing hoax or scam.

Profitworks helps organizations move ahead of the competition

"I've found Profitworks to be tenacious and adaptable to the challenges our industry possesses."

-Blair - Business Owner & Customer

Read More About What Our Customers Say

We've helped companies across Canada and the US succeed with marketing because we believe in the beauty and meaning of every article written, email sent, and social media post made. Our team endeavours to create unique and competitive marketing advantages for all of our customers and would be thrilled to learn more about your mission and plans for your team. Profitworks provides marketing strategy, content marketing, branding, and social media management for great companies with a stellar product or service.

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Fake Marketing Companies US

American enterprises operate at a scale and speed like no other amidst the daunting challenges of the digital marketplace which is transforming legacy business models. Yet one of the greatest challenges faced by American companies is a lack of transparency and integrity from marketing companies in the country. As a result, local enterprises have lost considerable resources and time being misled by marketing agencies that may seem legitimate at first glance. Marketing is a crucial way to reach and engage your target customers. Though there are challenges with finding the right provider, the right marketing agency, however, can be a strategic partner in future and predictable growth. Consult with the team at Profitworks today. Utilize the lessons learned below to avoid marketing scams faced by American businesses. 

Get Return Clarity with Profitworks

We are a leading digital marketing agency that offers predictability in your marketing investment.  Work with agencies and marketing teams to develop a unique sales engine and brand to reach and retain clients. Work with Profitworks to become the market leader in your industry today!

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How do we choose a segment to target?

Choosing the right segment to target can make or break a new business venture or growth initiative. Learning from examples like Uber Eats and Cirque du Soleil, find out why it's important to segment well and how to avoid losing 30% of your revenues. This article offers theory and applications based on the perspective of a local car wash business. Let the work speak for itself: partner with the team at Profitworks to get your target segment laser-focused and cut through the noise.

We help choose a segment to target and reach them profitably

We've heard again and again how our business owners want advisors that take the time and care to manage their marketing as if it was their own. Work with the Profitworks team to help more great products and services get discovered.

Executive Summary

 - Choosing a segment to target is important because it can help you improve competitive positioning while avoiding unnecessary competition

 - Defining your current customer segment helps you ask tough questions that ultimately can enable you to better serve and retain your customers

 - Great companies create customer segments but better companies ask for feedback and validate their assumptions

 - Most companies need to overlay segmenting criterias (like geography, preferences, and personal aspirations) to orchestrate an effective customer profile

 - Ultimately, segmenting and reaching customers will help enterprises grow and remain focused on serving customers the way they would like to be served. Otherwise, middle platform brokers may take as much as 30% of your revenues, as seen in the restaurant industry

Why choosing a segment to target is important

Choosing the right market segment can help create an improved and sustainable market positioning for your team. It also helps you strategically choose a competitive arena to operate in, which has led Cirque du Soleil to create entirely new industries and failure to do so - led to the demise of household brands like Sears. Most industries like local enterprises may feel they are not affected by poor segment targetting because they have also had a referral network of business. Yet the greatest threat is not technology or a new startup -  the most prominent risk facing local businesses is losing touch with their core customer base or failing to recognize an upcoming demographic that they could serve. In this article, we explore the strategies that can help companies segment existing customers to better serve them and ways to position themselves to new segments.

Defining your market segment

Defining your market segment is a challenging task because it forces an enterprise to try and empathize and understand who they are serving. To define your market segment, an enterprise must answer these questions.

1. Why the customer works with our team
2. What is the customer trying to accomplish with our product and service
3. What about our product or service retains the customer
4. What are things that can make the customer leave

Once these 4 questions are answered, an enterprise can create a customer segment profile. In the case of a car wash business, here are examples to each of the segment dimensions:

1. Customers choose ABC car wash because we pay attention to small cleaning and detailing issues that can cause long-term issues in their motor vehicles.  Our customers know and experience our detailed care.
2. Customers want to keep their cars in top visual form to ensure the comfort and safety of family and their own clients.
3. We keep track of the weather and communicate optimal times for cleaning so that a customer's car looks better longer. We allow customers to clean their car right after a bad rain storm or flurry before a break of great weather.
4. Price can affect our customers and limited knowledge of cleaning products may cause them to assume that every car wash is equal. Further, location and changes in commute routes will affect our business.

Forward thinking companies will create a segment profile, but great companies will take their initial sketches of their segment and test it against actual customers. Market leaders would have a conversation about each of these areas and understand their customer base by asking them these questions that they themselves may not consider. The second benefit to this is that this is an opportunity to have customers be affirmed in their aspirations - as in this example, where a customer's aspiration is about client and family comfort.

Identifying a market segment

If you are considering a new business or expanding your sales efforts, identifying new market segments to target is a prudent way to plan and supplement business strategies and market entry initiatives. Business Dictionary expands on market segmentation by approaching the topic in 5 dimensions:

Approaches to subdivision of a market or population into segments with defined similar characteristics. Five major segmentation strategies are (1) behavior segmentation, (2) benefit segmentation, (3) demographic segmentation, (4) geographic segmentation, and (5) psychographic segmentation.

What does this all mean?

Behaviour segmentation is how a consumer intereacts with your product or service. For our car wash customers, either they are reactive or proactive in how they utilize a car wash services.

Benefit segmentation is defining pools of customers based on what advantages are afforded. For our car wash customers, people enjoy the convenience and clean experience of having someone else do their car detailing.

Demographic segmentation is a classification of a customer or prospect base by age or economic standing.  

Psychographic segmentation denotes how prospects/customers view or value the service based on their worldview or cultures. For some cultures, like the European and Asian cultures, having a nice clean car is a reflection of your societal stature. Others may simply see the upsides in having a clean and well-maintained car.

Finding new ways to target existing customers

The 5 dimensions previously mentioned can be further multiplied based on any number of these common factors. For businesses that are confined to specific locations like a local car wash, this makes things simpler. Yet because industries continue to change, businesses should consider taking on a new venture mindset so as to not fail to capture opportunities or lose marketing positioning. One example that highlights this challenge is the fact that most restaurants are increasingly facing a sloping competitive position because of delivery services like Uber Eats and Foodora. Restaurant owners have lost the ability to better understand their customer's preferences. Now, dining revenues are reduced by 3rd-party platforms by as much as 30% on a delivered order, while also losing direct communication with their customers. This occurred because restaurants didn't take the time to segment and better understand their customers when they wanted more simple and immediate delivery options.

Focus on ways to add value to your existing customers by orchestraing and sequencing segmentation dimensions.

Identifying a segment is tough but well worth the sweat and trials because finding profitble target segments helps a company define a competitive advantage. Continuing on with our car wash example, if the local business previously was only able to conduct car washes on site, it may want to consider other channels to service.  Most local car washes work with residential and personal vehicle owners, yet understanding a commercial fleet owner would provide an opportunity for car washes to service large volumes of customers on a predictable basis. Logistically, a company should also weigh the increased challenges in operational complexity by offering on-site vehicle maintenance and after hours staff shifts.

Another segmentation approach is to understand how these segmentation dimensions play off one another. The behaviour of customers as they wait for a car to be detailed is idling or thumbing through magazines, while the location/geography of conventional car washes are based in the car wash's location/facility. In the traditonal flow of events, a customer has to intentionally come to a car wash, perhaps while driving to or from an errand or work. Yet if our business-savvy car wash owners enabled access to the detailing service at destinations customers visit, that would certainly increase access to customers while offering patrons the ability to do other things while they wait. One such example is offering a car wash at mall parking lots. Customers can have the convenience of dedicated and predictable parking while receiving the added benefit of a car wash.

Finding new customers to target

A common approach to innovation marketing or segmentation is utilizing existing resources in new applications. During the introduction, Cirque du Soleil was mentioned as an example of why effective segment targetting is helpful. Cirque du Soleil used something called blue ocean strategy to target a completely new segment that was previously not interested in the typical carnival circus routines. They combined theatrical drama, sound design, stage design, and did away with a star performer. This led to the reinvention of the circus for modern viewers as a premium experience unlike a music concert or live stage performance. Instead of competing with existing circuses they invented a new market. This led to them being the undisputed market leader in the market they created.

Finding new customers to target with your existing resources and equipment can be a great alternative to edge a crowded market. This is particularly impactful for our car wash owner who is finding that his market is highly competitive and also cyclical, which makes growing his business tough during the off seasons. Here are the steps to looking at how to market services to new customers:

1. Inventory the different resources on hand
   -Fixed and mobile cleaning equipment to maintain vehicles or polycarbonate surfaces.                                                                                         ---  --Staff that are knowledgable about cleaning practices and different types of odours or moulds in an enclosed space.
2. Other customers who may need property or surfaces cleaned
   -Car owners who have multiple cars and want a reason to drive their exotic vehicles. Car washes may offer a subscription plan for multi-vehicle owners.
   -Snow boarders typically go on weekend trips together. One new segment that can be targeted are groups of snow boarders returning from their trip.
   -Food truck owners may also find value in having a car wash focus on their needs as their exterior appeal often has an impact on their business.
3. Determine the profitability of this segment
   -Car owners who have multiple cars are profitable and in fact less costly to acquire repeat business since they already utilize the car wash's services.
   -Snow boarders are a seasonal crowd and may not provide the adaquate profitability as a large volume of snow boards may need to be cleaned while the alternative of self cleaning is always an option for boarders.
   -Food truck owners rely on aesthetics and apperance to win trust and customers. This is a value that could be offered by car washes and provide significant revenue.

Based on this brief analysis, food truck owners may be a profitable segment to select and target for future marketing promotions. The subtlely in marketing to this demographic is not simply providing a service but helping their business be more successfull by always presenting them in the best light as they meet with customers during lunch hour. This will allow your company to compete on best serving intangible and aspirational values that are often times more valuable than absolute cost competition. Most luxury brands appeal to this kind of mentality and can be helpful in supporting a sustainble business model rather than competiing on low cost provider services.

Growing your business one market a time

Determining which segment to target is great way to begin the process of growing your business. Yet, without experience and proven results, business owners can often be discouraged from venturing beyond their current markets or sales channels. As we've learned, however, from the restaurant industry, one cannot hide from innovation but rather should be open to experimenting and growing their sales through keen understanding of their customers and offering new ways to provide value to them.

Profitworks helps organizations succeed with targetted marketing

"I've found Profitworks to be tenacious and adaptable to the challenges our industry possesses."

-Blair - Business Owner & Customer

Read More About What Our Customers Say

We've helped companies across Canada and the US succeed with growth, because we believe in the beauty and meaning of every article written, email sent, and social media post crafted. Our team endeavours to create unique competitive advantages for all of our customers and would be thrilled to learn more about your mission and plans for your team. Profitworks provides marketing strategy, content marketing, branding, and social media management for great companies with a stellar product or service.