Get your testimonials online and make the most of the digital age
Director of Discovery Finance Group, Joshua Vecchio has written over $250m, using techniques and tips being shared on his website Top Broker.
Let’s face it, people are more connected than ever these days. Recent studies have found over 74% of new customers rely on social media and online research to inform their purchasing decisions, and it has been proven time and time again that people trust recommendations over advertising… and unsurprisingly I’ve also found my customers agree!
A few months back I asked a few of my existing customers how and why they decided to go ahead with me and found quite a high proportion were looking up reviews and vetting me online (using sites other than my own) before catching up!
So how do you look to new prospects online? Are you getting customers to review your services post settlement? Check out my top 8 review sites to help move your testimonials to the digital age and generate leads online.
1. Facebook Reviews
Did you know that every day over 9 million Australian’s log onto Facebook (including 7.3 million that log on via their mobiles), scroll through their news feed and post a photo of what they ate for breakfast. Did someone say opportunity? You can get clients to leave a review on your Facebook Page (they can rate you between 1 and 5 stars) which also shows up to their friends within their own network – referrals at work!
2. Google Reviews – https://www.google.com/business/
We’ve already talked about the power of Google on our 3 Tips to Generate Leads today article but I wanted to mention it again. If you aren’t on Google Reviews/Business then you aren’t on Google Maps if ever someone searches for a mortgage broker in a specific area, and obviously harder to be found online. Don’t be a rookie and get online now, it takes 3 minutes.
3. LinkedIn endorsements
The businesspersons social media platform. According to LinkedIn they have over 50 million members residing in the Asia-Pacific region, and over 5 million registered users in Australia – that’s over 5 million potential home loan customers for you! I personally find customers use LinkedIn more as a way of checking you out and pre-vetting you before an appointment – SO make sure your details are up-to-date and you have lots and lots of endorsements and recommendations.
#pb#
4 & 5. Kudosto – http://www.kudosto.com.au/ and Product Review – http://www.productreview.com.au/
These are both great tools that don’t rely on being linked directly to your Facebook and LinkedIn accounts but provide a third party to collate reviews from your customers. Anecdotally I think they’re good to have from an SEO perspective they show up fairly high on Google. Worth checking out, the only negative is you need to ask your clients to sign up for an account for each respective page which can be a bit of a muck around.
6. White Pages / Yellow Pages – http://www.yellowpages.com.au/
Kicking it old school, although I haven’t physically seen a White Pages or Yellow Pages in years I think it is still worth listing your business with them to help with search engine presence – it is another website that advertises your business on Google, Bing or whatever when a client searches “ABC Home Loans”. It doesn’t cost anything for a basic free listing and takes about 4 minutes to do. Free + doesn’t take much time = A good deal in my opinion.
7 & 8. TrueLocal – http://www.truelocal.com.au/ and Yelp – http://www.yelp.com.au/
Again some other great (and free) online directory listings. Yelp is pretty massive in the states and not as big here, but still a decent place to advertise yourself online.
Overall these sites are great tools to generate new business and also beef up your online presence with little cost. As social media continues to evolve, so too will the way customers decide on which mortgage broker they use and I think consumers will spend more time researching YOU online. Even today these peer reviews can make or break your online presence so if you aren’t already, I suggest you definitely check out a few of the above.
How are you building your online peer review presence? Do you ask your happy customers to go online and write about their experience on Facebook? Have you looked at ways to create a raving customer base? What’s holding you back? It all starts today.
This article originally appeared on Top Broker, a growing online space where tips and strategies are shared by Australia's top mortgage brokers.
