How We Tripled Our Google+ Reviews in One Week

Okay, I admit we only had three reviews when we started but that does not take away from the fact that we hit our initial goal—double-digits—sooner than expected. Our strategy was simple and it’s easy to replicate. In case you’re curious, here’s what we did…

1: Choose the Top 30

First, we put together a spreadsheet of current and former clients with email addresses, URLs, and phone numbers. This is something most businesses already have—in one form or another—so the important part comes next.

Put your most satisfied (and most accessible) clients up top. In other words, sort by likeliness to endorse. We highlighted our Top 30.

Now I realize this makes more sense for some businesses than others, but the point is to maximize your energy when you start reaching out.

2: Pick up the Phone

This separates businesses that want reviews from ones that get them. You can send out mass emails all day and get nothing back or you can pick up the phone and make a few calls. People are so much more likely to say yes to a person than an email. It’s human nature.

Note: We had somebody relatively new to Glide oversee this project and make the calls (Me). I had no prior working relationship with any of the people I spoke to, which might seem like a handicap, but actually it worked out really well. It was a good chance for me to introduce myself as a new team member and let clients know there’s another person at Glide they can reach out to.

“Hi, this is Drew with Glide Design, how are you?”

It’s also important to be upfront—

“Good, I’ll get right to it … I wanted to ask how it was working with us, and I was also hoping you’d leave Glide a quick review on Google.”

Remember, you’re calling people that have been preselected as happy customers, so as long as you’re friendly and direct, the chances of success are high.

Note: Everyone I was able to get on the phone said yes. I’m not saying I did anything special—just that if you are able to speak to someone and they have had a good experience, then why say no. Also, I did leave voicemails when nobody answered, and a fair number of people called me right back.

“Thank you so much. I’ll email you the link as soon as we hang up.”

3: Send Follow-up Email

Here’s email I sent following a verbal confirmation:

— — —

Glad to hear you had a good experience working with Glide. Now, if you could just share a few of those thoughts with our online overlords at Google, it would mean a whole lot to us. A few sentences is perfect.

Here’s our page: +GLIDEAustin

(There’s a small ‘Write a review’ button in the right-hand column.)

— — —

Looking back, I was probably being more clever and wordy than necessary. You do want to make sure people know the review can be very brief, but past that, all they really need is the link.

Note: Make sure you link directly to the About tab of your Google+ profile, because where the reviews show up.

4: Pick up the Phone Again

A few days later I made another call to the people who didn’t answer or call me back. For the reasons stated above, I do believe it’s worth the time to try them by phone at least twice before blindly emailing.

But if that fails, send a (somewhat) personalized message.

5: Send Last-Ditch Email

Finally, I drafted a new email for the people I hadn’t spoken with, and wouldn’t-ya-know, it was even shorter than the other one.

— — —

SUBJECT: Drew from Glide Design – Google+ Review

Hi Shelly,

It would mean so much to us if you could give us a quick review on Google+. A few sentences is perfect.

Here’s our page: +GLIDEAustin

(There’s a small ‘Write a review’ button in the right-hand column.)

— — —

It might not look like much, but let me break down the key features of this message…

Subject line: Has my name in it, which they won’t recognize, and the company name, which they should. Who is this Drew … they might wonder, I can’t remember working with him. All you need is to pique their interest just enough so they open it.

To field: Has their name in it. I composed each email separately and addressed the recipient personally. You can use email software to create templates and mailing lists and so on, but this exercise was not about volume. It was about extending maximum effort to those who were most likely to yield a review.

Body: Super short.

Wrap-up

Getting people to review your website on Google is the single most important website marketing strategy you can do on your own—but don’t rush it. I’ve been steadily working my way through our Top 30 list and so far the response has been great. Also, never try to game the system or pay for reviews.

Google knows, Google knows. Google knows.