How to Deal with Fake and Damaging Business Reviews

Online reviews are a natural extension of word-of-mouth marketing since customers who receive great service will often share their experiences with their peers. However, heavily negative reviews can harm your business and sully your reputation. Spammers, competitors, and upset customers may post fake reviews to sabotage your business.

How to Tell a Fake Review from a Genuine One

These are some things to look out for to recognize fake reviews if they show up on search engines, review sites, or social properties:

1. It Lacks Detail

Reviews that lack details and appear to be written in a rush are good signs of being fake. If the review is short and lacking in detail, it may be because the author doesn’t have much to say. 

For example, if a reviewer says that the food at a restaurant is terrible and the service is poor, there’s not enough information to verify the review. Instead, try to find reviews that tell you precisely why the food and service are terrible.

2. It Includes a Lot of Verbs and Fewer Nouns

The verb is the action word in a sentence, while the noun is the thing or person being acted upon. Fake reviews tend to be written using verbs, while genuine reviews include nouns. 

Real reviews use nouns and verbs to give a complete picture of the experience. For instance, an actual review may read, The fish tacos I ordered were served cold, which was the worst part. I ended up not eating them and ordered a hot dog instead.

3. The Review Has a Spotty History

Fake reviews typically are only posted on one site and aren’t shared locally or even nationwide. For example, if an angry customer writes a fake review about your business, it may only show up on Google, but not Yelp, Facebook, or even Google+ Local.

How to Get Fake Reviews Removed from Search Engines

As mentioned above, it’s unlikely that Google will remove fake reviews, but you can report them to Google, hoping that the search engine will remove them. If you report fake reviews to Google, it will take those reviews down from its search results.

However, Google will not do so automatically. Instead, you need to report the fake reviews at the individual websites hosting them. For example, you can use Yelp to report a fake review on Google. The business owner of Yelp will then check the review on Google and remove the review if it is fake.

Here’s how to report fake reviews to Google:

First, find out which site is hosting the fake review. You can do this by finding the URL of the review. You can do this by copying the URL from the search results for the review and pasting it into your browser’s address bar.

Next, you need to find the report abuse button to report the fake review. On Google+, for example, you need to click on the more button and scroll down to the bottom of the page.

Finally, you need to click on Report Abuse and follow the instructions to fill out the form. Most companies cannot do much against fake reviews, but there are some things you can do to protect yourself.

Conclusion

Fake reviews are a threat to small businesses, but you don’t have to let them ruin your reputation. Use these tips to help your business and protect yourself from fake reviews.

Silo Hill Media offers digital marketing solutions in the Treasure Valley in the state of Idaho and around the country. We develop an affordable and effective strategy that allows all facets of your marketing to work in a symbiotic way. We know you don’t have the time to focus on marketing, much less deal with fake negative reviews that harm your business. That’s where we come in! If you need reputation management services in Caldwell, ID, get in touch with us! Let’s talk!

Advantages of Online Reputation Management for Your Company

Your company makes every effort to satisfy your clients. To address the demands of your clients, you establish personal relationships with them and work relentlessly to develop new and improved products and services. 

But sadly, even if a company provides the best customer service, its reputation will and can be harmed from time to time. There are times that an angry customer leaves a scathing review on the internet about your product or services for all to see. Another possibility is that a negative media report goes far further than anticipated.

To help you with that, you need online reputation management.

You may minimize negative customer comments and maintain a positive online reputation by actively managing your reputation.

Online reputation management (ORM) is regularly monitoring online mentions of your business to respond to any unfavorable or misleading remarks.

It focuses on responding to unfavorable feedback from customers and negative news in the media (social and conventional).

So here we’ll discuss some of the advantages of having ORM for your company:

1. Increase the Visibility and Improves the Reputation of Your Company

When done correctly, online reputation management can help your business gain more visibility to the public. They do this by giving people more friendly and personal information about your company. The goal here is to make your company appear more trustworthy to the public. 

Online reputation management can help you craft a positive message that promotes your products or services. It can also help you counter any negative issues or complaints about your company.

2. Respond Promptly and With Empathy

The best ORM can occur before a negative review or comment is made public. Customers who contact you via email or social media expect an immediate response.

A survey found that 83% expect responses to their social media comments within a day or less, so don’t wait too long. Quick answers keep angry users from leaving bad reviews and show customers that you care a lot about helping them.

Responding with empathy is just as important.

Let the customer know that you care about helping them solve their problem and that you are there to assist in the end.

3. Increase in Sales

A good image of your company can help you improve your sales and boost your revenue because it can make your company more accessible to new customers.

Online reputation management promotes your products or services through trustworthy resources. This can help you make more sales and gain more customers over your competitors. People are more likely to do business with you.

4. Personalize Your Social Media Privacy Settings

Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter allow you to control your privacy settings. You can control who sees what you’ve posted on your page. Online reputation management will enable you to decide what you’re willing to share with people about your company.

You can also control who sees the negative comments about your company. You can also monitor your online reputation and respond to statements related to your business.

Conclusion

Online reputation management is a valuable tool that allows you to control the information about your company that’s posted online. It’s an intelligent way to manage your brand or personal image and prevent damage to your company.

It’s simply a matter of making sure that the information about your company is in your hands. It gives you the power to craft a positive image about your company and promote it to the world.

Take advantage of online reputation management benefits by employing a company that provides digital marketing services in Boise. Silo Hill Media creates a cost-effective plan that allows all aspects of your marketing to function. Work with us today!

Avoid These Common Pay-Per-Click Advertising Mistakes

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a type of advertising that allows you to choose the keywords and phrases you want to be associated with. These keywords will then have Google, Facebook, or other networks show your ad to people who search for those keywords. 

Investing in PPC advertising can be a highly effective way to bring in targeted traffic for your business, and it’s one of the most effective marketing channels available. However, like other promotional efforts, doing it incorrectly could end up wasting valuable resources. 

To help you get it right, this article highlights the most common mistakes we come across when reviewing PPC campaigns. Here are the ones you should watch out for:

1. Ignoring Geographic Targeting

PPC advertising can target people in specific locations. Most networks will allow you to target specific countries, cities, or even regions within a country. Once you have decided on your target location, you can choose the area you want to focus on to either increase sales or grow a local audience.

2. Not Using the Right Match Type

When it comes to match types, there is no one correct answer. Choosing the right match type can significantly impact your campaign’s performance. Here are some types you can consider:

  • Broad Match: This match type allows you to target broad keywords and phrases. This allows the most expansive reach possible but will also grab some irrelevant searches. This is best used in situations where your ads are new or if you’re not concerned with keyword relevance.
  • Phrase Match: This match type allows you to target individual words within a phrase. This will enable you to be more specific with your searches but will also be more expensive as you’ll pay for more clicks without an increase in traffic. This match type works best for advertisers that want to be more specific about their searches to avoid irrelevant traffic.
  • Exact Match: This match type allows you to target exact phrases, which means that it’s essential to have your keywords and exact match keywords in the same order. It doesn’t allow you to use single keywords, so it limits the size of the audience and is typically more expensive. However, it does allow for precise targeting, so it’s suitable for advertisers whose main goal is to gain and convert relevant traffic.

3. Failure to Use Long-Tail Keywords

Using long-tail keywords can increase your click-through rate and conversion rate while keeping costs low. Long-tail keywords are phrases instead of single words, which means they’re more specific and have better chances of garnering qualified leads. When using PPC advertising, it’s best to use a combination of long-tail keywords and single-word keywords.

4. Not Utilizing Negative Keywords

Negative keywords are a great way to keep your ads off irrelevant searches while saving your budget. For example, if you’re selling a brand of wine, but you don’t want to appear for searches that may be irrelevant, such as “cheap wine,” you can add “cheap” as a negative keyword. These work best when you’re struggling to get rid of unqualified traffic and can significantly increase your conversion rate.

Conclusion

PPC advertising is a great way to get targeted traffic. While it’s important to avoid these common mistakes, it’s also important to remember that not all mistakes are created equal. If you’re unsure of where to start or are looking for more in-depth advice, consider hiring a professional who’s experienced in PPC advertising to help you out.

Employ our digital marketing services in Caldwell, ID, and take your digital campaign to the next level. Our specialists will identify areas and keywords you’ll be able to use and create strategies that will help scale your business. Get in touch with us today!

5 Easy Email Marketing Best Practices for Lead Generation

Everyone wants leads, but when you don’t know where to start, it may be tricky to get the leads that you need for your business. One of the best ways to start getting leads for your business is through email marketing

Email marketing allows you to connect with your customers easily and generate leads for your business. Here are some of the best tips on email marketing that you should know. 

1. Be Flexible

You have to be flexible with your email marketing. Email marketing is a marketing tool that can be used for many different purposes. The email allows you to send out a message to people who have already requested to hear from your business. 

It also allows you to send out messages to people who have not heard from your business. No matter what you want to use the email for, it is important that you are flexible and willing to do whatever works best for your business. You are not going to get the same results if you are emailing people and not giving them the information they want. 

2. Respond Quickly

Just like you want to respond quickly to your customers when they contact you, it is always good to respond quickly to the emails that you send out. You should formulate your email marketing plan and then try to shoot to respond to the emails on the same day that you send them out. 

You should also acknowledge the message and let the recipient know that you are going to respond to the message as soon as possible. 

3. Quality over Quantity

It is not a good idea to send out mass emails that include a lot of advertisements that do not personally relate to the recipient. This will only end up in annoyance and aversion, which are the opposite of what you want. When it comes to email marketing, quality is always better than quantity.

When you are emailing out emails, it is important that you take the time to address issues, concerns, etc., that relate to the recipient personally. 

4. Keeping It Clean

Even though you want to make your email marketing campaign fun, there are some things that you can do that might make it so clean and professional. You want to make sure that you keep the layouts of your emails simple. 

You should also make sure that no one is offended when you send out your emails. You want your email marketing campaign to be memorable, but you do not want your email marketing to be offensive. 

5. Take Advantage of Automation Tools

There are many different ways to automate your email marketing campaign. You want to make sure that you are taking advantage of the best tools that are available to help you automate your campaign. 

Some tools even let you create a template to follow when you are sending out your emails. This is a great way to keep your email marketing campaign simple and easy to use. 

Conclusion

When you are trying to develop an effective email marketing campaign, it is important that you use the tips that have been provided to you. If you take the time to follow the tips, you will be able to have a successful email marketing campaign that will help you to generate leads and increase the revenue of your business. 

Silo Hill Media helps businesses generate more leads through email marketing services. If you are struggling to get people to contact you for your business, email marketing might be a great way for you to generate more leads for your business. Let us help you to generate more leads for your business so that you can grow your business—contact us today to get started!

Level Up Your Email Marketing Game with These 5 Strategies

Email has become a necessity in the digital age, so it’s not surprising that email users are continuously growing at an astounding rate. Since the importance of email cannot be ignored, business owners should not neglect email marketing strategies. Now is the perfect time to maximize email and use it as an opportunity to connect with your customers and target audience.

If you want to level up your email marketing game, here are some things you should do to stand out.

1. Keep Your Subject Lines Short

If you want to capture the attention of your target audience, crafting compelling and engaging subject lines is the best way to do it. The shorter you can make your subject line, the better.

There are no hard and fast rules about long subject line lengths. Some say that the ideal subject line length should be at least 40 characters. If you want to capture their attention, do not exceed 60 characters.

Your goal is to get your readers to open your emails, so you have to make sure your subject line interesting. Use strong action words that will compel them to click on your email.

2. Use Segmentation on Your Email Subscribers

If you are concerned about your current subscriber list, you should segment it first before pumping your email out to as many people as possible. You can segment your list to send out special offers and discounts to your current subscribers.

For example, you can segment your list according to the products they bought from your store. You can also segment it according to geolocation. Segmentation is a way to personalize your relationship with your subscribers in a meaningful way.

Once you segment your list, you will be able to reach out to them better and provide them with more value. The more value you can offer your subscribers, the more likely they will do business with you again.

3. Use a Mobile-Friendly Layout

With the increase in mobile devices and mobile apps, you must create a mobile-friendly email layout. The layout of your email should be highly responsive and should fit more nicely on smaller screens.

You should always use an email template that has been optimized for mobile devices. If you plan to use an email template from a third party, make sure it’s mobile-friendly, too. 

4. Personalize, but Don’t Go Overboard

The most effective way to correctly personalize your emails is to gather information about your subscribers and create a subscriber profile. You can segment your list to create more personalized and targeted emails.

You must personalize your emails because it makes your prospect feel like you care about them and their needs. If you do it right, your prospects will never forget you, and they will continue to buy from you.

5. Know Which Times Work Best

You have to know your target audience’s preferred times of reading and sending out emails. If you send out your emails too early or too late, you will probably lose most of your subscribers.

Final Thoughts

Having a well-executed email marketing strategy will help you grow your business. If you have not yet started email marketing, it’s time to introduce it to your business. There’s no better time to start than now!

Get the help you need to conquer email marketing for small businesses with Silo Hill Media in Caldwell, ID. We offer custom-made solutions to help companies like yours reach their goals and widen their reach. Schedule a call today to learn more.