How Important Are Google Reviews for Small Businesses?

Google reviews are a total game changer for any business, and they matter more than you might think. Most of us check reviews before trying out a new restaurant or picking a movie, right? Those little stars can really influence our choices!

Good reviews build trust and attract clients, while the not-so-great ones can send potential customers running faster than if they spotted a spider in the salad. Plus, I’ll share how to turn those reviews into powerful marketing tools that shine a spotlight on your business.

If you’re looking to boost your reputation and bring in more customers, don’t underestimate the power of Google reviews. They can be your secret weapon in standing out from the crowd and becoming the go-to choice in your industry!

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00:00:00 - The Importance of Google Reviews
00:01:47 - The Cultural Significance of Reviews in Decision Making
00:03:44 - Why Word of Mouth Marketing is Still Essential
00:05:54 - Leveraging Online Reviews for Business Growth
00:07:18 - Protecting Your Brand with Positive Reviews
00:08:24 - Marketing Your Testimonials and Reviews
00:09:58 - Creative Ways to Utilize Reviews for Promotion
00:10:40 - Final Thoughts on the Power of Reviews

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Transcript

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:23:03
Unknown
Why Google reviews are so important. By this point in time, we should be sophisticated enough to really know the obvious answer, but I wanted to go into it a little bit deeper because I still don't think business owners truly understand how important reviews are, but specifically Google reviews. There are tons of places to get reviews or to ask your clients you reviews, and they're all beneficial.

00:00:23:03 - 00:00:40:11
Unknown
As it stands, it's really difficult to get them to leave one review on one platform. So because of that, what I would encourage you to do is to focus on Google primarily. And if they really, really love you and they're motivated, then ask them to leave you review over on Yelp or AVO or wherever else that maybe you beneficial to you.

00:00:40:11 - 00:01:03:17
Unknown
And in your verdict, I would like to start off by asking you how often you do anything without checking the reviews. Whether it's watch a movie, go to a restaurant, go to the chiropractor, select a dentist, call a lawyer. You always will check reviews. So for me, the number one big reason is it's a part of our culture now.

00:01:03:20 - 00:01:26:06
Unknown
We want to make sure that the businesses, the movies, whatever we're about to invest our time and money into actually has some positive reviews. We don't want to go to something that a movie that is pretty much agreed upon by both reviewers and the audience. That is crap. We want to go see something that we will probably enjoy we at least want to receive.

00:01:26:11 - 00:01:47:08
Unknown
We at least want to give it the benefit of the doubt by having a few good reviews. Number two, what is better than you saying you're awesome? I mean, you could say you're awesome. I can say I'm awesome at what I do, but that's pretty pretentious. And of course I'm going to say that. So what's better than me saying it is someone else saying.

00:01:47:10 - 00:02:07:14
Unknown
And this goes back to word of mouth marketing. Word of mouth of the good old days. It's nothing. There's nothing better than being a referral from someone, you know, saying that this chiropractor down the street is the best chiropractor in town. How do they know? Because they actually went through the process, went through their entire program and improved their health or back pain, whatever, right?

00:02:07:20 - 00:02:25:17
Unknown
It's better that someone else say it other than the new number three, and I just alluded to it a second ago, was word of mouth marketing essentially 2.03.0. Word of mouth marketing has been around forever. And if you ask many business owners, they'll actually tell you that when you ask them, how do you get new business? Oh, word of mouth.

00:02:25:17 - 00:02:43:05
Unknown
Word of mouth is primarily word of mouth, which is fantastic. That means human beings actually love what you do and they have to tell others. But the challenge with word of mouth is that you're counting on that individual to say the right thing at the right time, to the right person who needs your service in that moment, which can be good.

00:02:43:07 - 00:03:11:08
Unknown
Ideally, your former client, patient, or whatever says, hey, I know a person, right? It's 1 to 1. However, with reviews, Google reviews, it's one to many. I can tell you a quick story about reviews and how they've benefited me, and how I was able to leverage online reviews, especially at the beginning when I when I was doing a lot of free work and I realized that I had done a ton of free work for a lot of people, but I had not got reviews from them.

00:03:11:12 - 00:03:34:06
Unknown
So what I decided some to do is to ask those individuals for who had done that work for it to please leave me a review to please go to Google, go to Yelp, go to what was the other one? I feel like there was a third one I forgot. Now point is, I asked them to leave me a review and at one point in time I had 30 or 40 reviews on Yelp and Google.

00:03:34:08 - 00:04:00:18
Unknown
It was fantastic and ever. And for a few years I would consistently get business from those reviews and from those platforms. Those reviews can live for essentially forever or until the platform collapses. Yelp isn't the powerhouse that it once was when it comes to to reviews, and I think a lot of it probably has to do with the fact that Google's top ranking ranking them as high for your business.

00:04:00:18 - 00:04:18:10
Unknown
That's why I encourage you to tell your people to leave reviews on Google, because it is the number one search engine in the world. And because of that, there's a lot of trust embedded into those Google reviews. Are you tired of burning through your marketing budget faster than you can say, ROI? Posting on social media. Crickets. Running ads.

00:04:18:10 - 00:04:41:18
Unknown
More crickets. Watching your marketing strategy. Flopping like a fish out of water while you quietly sob into your coffee. Fear not. This episode of the Teevee show Podcast, brought to you by, well, Me Teevee, the marketer founder of Rockstar. I'm marketing here to stop the madness. We take your marketing dollars and actually make them do something like work while I'm video content, and as a stop your audience from scrolling fashion and they stop for a baby panda video.

00:04:41:19 - 00:05:09:06
Unknown
Yeah, we do that so you don't setting your marketing dollars on fire. There's a rockstar marketing and let's turn those crickets into cash. The big point I wanted to make there is that for years I was getting business consistently from those reviews. Those individuals, my former clients, their reviews continue to deliver value to me. And it was a beautiful, magnificent thing that to this day, I'm incredibly thankful.

00:05:09:07 - 00:05:29:22
Unknown
So I would encourage you, if you don't have getting reviews, the activity of actually getting reviews embedded into your company culture and in your processes, then you're really, really losing out. Which brings me to the next few big important points. Number four, you want to protect your brand online. It doesn't even really matter how big you are. You.

00:05:30:01 - 00:05:53:19
Unknown
Maybe you just started out and you just started helping people. I would highly encourage you to start asking for reviews immediately because especially when you start out, you don't have any reviews. And I guarantee you and I used to tell this to my my law firm clients that you're only one bad review away from bleeding revenue and money, especially when you don't have any.

00:05:53:23 - 00:06:14:04
Unknown
Because if you if you just started and you have no reviews but that one -1 or 2 negative ones, I guarantee you people will run away. But if you have 30 or 40 reviews and then you have those 1 or 2 negative ones, well, people taken into account and they don't weigh it as much, they're not going to punish you for it.

00:06:14:04 - 00:06:34:17
Unknown
But once again, look at your own behavior. If you Google someone in a business that may have been referred to you and you Google them, you're going to find that and you find that they only have 1 or 2 reviews and negative ones at that. You're not going to give them a chance. Our time and our money is so valuable that we're not going to risk the possibility of going to someone that isn't viable and reliable.

00:06:34:20 - 00:06:58:12
Unknown
At least that's the presumption. That's the assumption we make in that moment. Number five, revenue is just straight up revenue. Given our current behavior, how we will Google anything and everything. It is in your best interest. On the positive side, you will close more clients. Even if a former client of yours gives a word of mouth or referral to someone else, that someone else is still going to Google you.

00:06:58:14 - 00:07:16:15
Unknown
Almost to confirm, years ago, I think I heard a stat that 75% of people that receive a word of mouth referral have said that they still Google them. I guarantee you now it's closer to 100%. We want to make sure that we can trust that referral. What what are other people saying about them? How are they being presented?

00:07:16:15 - 00:07:36:15
Unknown
What kind of content do they have? Are they professional? Are they well spoken? Can I vibe with them? You will close more business simply by just having some good reviews. That allows people to confirm that they can go with you, and they can trust that you're going to take care of them. Hey, remember earlier when I told you about Rockstar marketing and how we could stop your marketing strategy from flopping around like fish in the desert?

00:07:36:17 - 00:07:55:11
Unknown
Yeah, that's still true. But maybe you didn't catch that. Maybe you're thinking, oh, I'll just keep throwing money at random, as I'm sure sometimes they eventually. Right? Wrong. Spoiler alert it won't. Look, you don't want to be that business owner that keeps trying to solve their marketing woes with duct tape and wishful thinking. You need results. Need Rockstar, not marketing.

00:07:55:14 - 00:08:12:10
Unknown
So if you're finally ready to stop a slow motion train wreck, that is your current marketing plan. There's a rockstar that marketing. Let's make your business the rockstar it deserves to be. Otherwise, enjoy those crickets. And now back to our show. And now that we got to the end, I want to share this incredibly powerful tip for you.

00:08:12:10 - 00:08:46:22
Unknown
And here's my top recommendation as it relates to the is done this hard work. You continue to follow up with people to get those reviews. You got ten, 20, 30 reviews. The last piece of this is to market your reviews, market those testimonials. Don't just let them sit on Google, grab them, use them, market them, create graphics around them, create reaction videos around it where maybe your you have a screenshot of the of the testimonial of the review and you're talking about the story related to that individual that you helped as great piece of content, and it will give people another reason for them to go with you.

00:08:46:22 - 00:09:09:23
Unknown
Don't just sit on the on that testimonial and review and not market it as something that people completely undervalue and don't even realize that they could really benefit from as a product offering that I have for my clients is I'll grab those reviews and create content around them for free. Some image posts, I'll create some reels, something to allow them to get those reviews and that word of mouth out into the open and put money behind it.

00:09:10:01 - 00:09:34:01
Unknown
Your testimonials and reviews are going to be your biggest, most powerful marketing asset. You just have to really leverage and be creative about how to use it. And I said it a second ago and I touched on this a second ago, put money behind those graphics in those videos. I'm a big proponent of spending money in advertising to make sure that your, your brand and your service is in front of as many people as possible every single day.

00:09:34:03 - 00:09:43:09
Unknown
The best thing you can market, the best thing you can advertise is going to be those reviews. So but do that, but make it happen and get your get your brand out in front of everyone.