How Can I Educate My Clients on the Benefits of Review Management?

Advance Your Agency is a brand-new BrightLocal series, designed to equip you with the skills, knowledge and advice necessary to take your agency operations to the next level.

This month we focus on review management – a key component of local SEO success.

Local SEOs know just how important online reviews are when it comes to gaining prominence in local search. 

According to Moz’s most recent Local Search Ranking Factors Study, review signals make up around 15% of local pack factors. Put simply, having a high quantity of recent, diverse, high-quality reviews means Google’s local search algorithm is more likely to favor your business and surface it for relevant search queries.

As an agency, though, it can be difficult to explain to clients just how important review management is and what the benefits could be to their businesses.

For example, how many times have you spoken with clients who believe that online reviews will just come flooding in on their own? If only things were that simple, eh?! 

In order to help your clients succeed in local search, you’ll first need to get buy-in on a solid review generation and management strategy — and that all begins with education.

In the first issue of our Advance Your Agency series, I’ll teach you just how to educate your clients on the benefits of review management. And by the end, you’ll be able to inform even the most skeptical merchants of why they need reviews.

Contents Review Management Explained What is review management?

Firstly, if your clients aren’t already aware, you’ll probably want to educate them on what review management is in the first place.

Review management generally consists of four key components:

  1. Generating reviews
  2. Monitoring reviews
  3. Responding to reviews
  4. Leveraging reviews.

It is sometimes referred to as ‘reputation management’, although more often than not clients will refer to review management simply as ‘bad reviews’, ‘online reviews’, or just ‘getting better reviews’ — and it can often be useful to mimic this language when talking to your client, in an attempt to demystify review management from the get-go. Whether it’s in pitch decks or phone conversations, always try to mirror the language of your client. (Not sure where to start with a review management pitch deck? Take a look at our free, white-label templates.)

Where should you get reviews?

Reviews can be gained on any site that suits your client’s business. For example, a hotel would want to generate reviews on TripAdvisor, while a lawyer would find reviews more useful on Justia, and so on. Targeting niche review sites is certainly important — after all, you’ll want your client’s business to appear anywhere that customers may be searching for them.

But, for the purpose of this article, I’m going to focus primarily on Google reviews.

Why? Well, it’s more or less a given that all local businesses will benefit from generating reviews on Google My Business — first and foremost because this is the place that customers are most likely to see first. Say I was to search “plumbers near meâ€, the first thing that will appear will be the local pack, complete with Google My Business reviews for plumbers — you guessed it – near me.

Secondly, GMB reviews are important because Google is naturally going to favor its own reviews above third-party sites, and therefore building reviews via Google is more likely to boost your placement in the local pack.

With these reasons in mind, focusing on Google Reviews will be by far the easiest sell.

How to Educate Clients on the Benefits of Review Management

There are near hundreds of stats I could (and most likely, will) share with you about the importance of reviews, but when it comes to appealing to clients, you’re going to want to play on the emotional factor of reviews. Any agency can spew out a handful of facts about reviews, but that should come later, once you’ve established the real-life impact reviews can have.

The Worst-Case Scenario 

First, level with your client; explain to them what not having an effective review management strategy could do to their business.

Let’s use an example of what could happen when a client receives a bad review.

Here, I’ve found a recent low-rated review from a New York-based restaurant:

Bad Google review

Now ask your client, what’s the worst outcome that can come from getting a review like this? First and foremost, you’ve got an unhappy customer – they’re not going to visit your place of business again, put any money in your hands, or spread any positive news to their friends. 

But, beyond that, this customer is acting as an active deterrent to any other potential visitors. In fact, they explicitly say “Go eat somewhere elseâ€. Not exactly a glowing review, right? And so, in the worst-case scenario, you’re losing out on potentially hundreds of customers, which means lost profit.

Well, while there’s not a lot you can do to correct this customer’s bad experience (in the words of Cher, if only we could turn back time!), with the help of review management you can improve this outcome drastically. 

If the restaurant provided a response to this negative review (it hasn’t), apologizing for the customer’s negative experience, offering to look into the issue for them, and providing some kind of incentive to return, then not only might they win over a lost customer, but they’d also be showcasing their great customer service to anyone who sees the review.

Think of it as damage control. No business is perfect, and even if your client’s business is running like a well-oiled machine, they’re likely to encounter a fair few negative reviews over time. Responding to reviews in a timely manner means you’re going to limit the amount of damage that negative feedback can do.

When explaining this scenario to your client, don’t be afraid to use one of their real-world reviews as an example. And even better, if you can compare the results with a client who has taken up review management, can you explain how it improved their results or helped them to reach their goals? Taking every opportunity to back up your argument with evidence is the masterstroke that will win you business.

Missed Opportunities

If your client isn’t quite so worried about receiving negative reviews, then you’ll want to appeal to them based on the opportunities they might be missing. 

How could review management take their business to the next level? What are they missing out on by not managing online reviews?

Here, I’ve used a search local to me, “plumbers near me†— and for context, I’m based in Brighton, UK.

Plumbers near me Brighton

Now, here there’s a plumber ranking in the top spot. But as a consumer, am I going to ring them? To give them my hard earned money and custom? Not a chance!

The position in the local pack might sway me if I’m looking for a low-stakes purchase like lunch, but when it comes to industries that present more risk to me if I choose unwisely, such as plumbing, I’m going to pick the plumbing business that can prove that it has the best reputation, the one that leaves a flood (pardon the pun) of happy customers in its wake. And that’s the one with the best review rating.

So, even though the business is ranking in the second position, on this occasion my custom will be going to AC Plumbing, rather than Small Job Plumbing.

If Small Job Plumbing was your client, what would you say to them? They’ve just missed out on business for the sole reason that they’ve not got enough positive reviews. This is a prime example of opportunities missed due to neglecting review management.

Once again, explaining this scenario to a client using real-world examples of their search rivals will only make it more effective. Do they have a competitor that they just can’t seem to shake? Compare the two businesses’ review profiles and see who comes out on top. How good would your client feel knowing that not only that they’ve come out on top in rankings but they’ve also beat their competitors in the process? 

These are the kinds of examples that are really going to appeal to your client, so where possible, always relate it back to their own feelings and goals – you start with the emotional argument then build towards the rational.

Industry Relevance

Although I believe that review management is important for all businesses, there are definitely some businesses that will need reviews even more than others. And you’ll want to explain this to your client in a way that appeals to their specific industry.

For example, YMYL (your money, your life) businesses are much more likely to need reviews in order to gain the trust of consumers.

If you’re dealing with clients who operate in YMYL industries such as health, finance, or business, then you’re going to need to drive this fact home even more – without review management you will lose out on customers.

Again, ask your client to put themselves in the consumers’ shoes. Would you contact a lawyer, a medical professional, an account, who didn’t have a shining review profile? 

Using the search query “Immigration lawyer Texasâ€, almost every single ranking business has hundreds of reviews with an average of 4-5 stars. Chances are, if your client doesn’t have a high review volume and star rating in an industry like this, neither Google nor consumers are going to give them a second glance. Sure, it’s a packed market, but without reviews, your clients can’t even enter the ring, let alone perform the knockout blow.

In short, if you’re speaking with clients in YMYL sectors, it’s vital to emphasize that review management is essential.

When looking at industry relevance, it’s also worth thinking about industries that are more likely to receive positive reviews. For example, Kick Point Inc’s President, Dana DiTomaso, has found that any business relating to pets is going to get heaps more positive, and more detailed, reviews than other industries.

Think about it. People love their pets, so of course, they’re going to leave rave reviews if they..



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