If you’ve enjoyed my other posts (here and here) about how I despise Yelp’s business practices and lack of ethics, here’s another one for you.

I’ve told you about Service Champions, a company that used to have over 750 five-star reviews on Yelp that “mysteriously” vanished once the company stopped paying Yelp for advertising.

Service Champions is now down to a measly 81 five-star reviews and a 3.5-star average overall.

What’s happening is Yelp is burying Service Champions’ five-star reviews in the ultra-small, inconspicuous “Not Recommended Reviews” section at the bottom of Service Champions’ Yelp page.

Reviews that are not recommended by Yelp don’t show up in a company’s overall score or review-score breakdown. And the average person will never notice the 1,000-plus great reviews hiding on Service Champions’ Yelp page.

The other day, my curiosity got the best of me—I just had to know how much the “Not Recommended” reviews were impacting Service Champions’ score.

So I paid a guy on Craigslist $40 to tally the “Not Recommended” reviews and calculate the overall rating.

(Gotta loves Craigslist.)

Here are the results (remember, their average for “Recommended” reviews is 3.5 stars) …

Number of “Not Recommended” reviews: 1,302

“Not Recommended” reviews score breakdown:

1 Star – 35 (2.69%)
2 Star – 4 (0.31%)
3 Star – 3 (0.23%)
4 Star – 40 (3.07%)
5 Star – 1,217 (93.47%)

Average of “Not Recommended” reviews score: 4.84 stars!

If we add the “Recommended” reviews to these, the totals become:

1 Star – 86 (5.85%)
2 Star – 16 (1.09%)
3 Star – 16 (1.09%)
4 Star – 51 (3.47%)
5 Star – 1,300 (88.50%)

Grand total average for ALL reviews: 4.68 stars!

The difference between a 3.5-star average (what Yelp says Service Champions has) versus a 4.68-star average (what Service Champions should actually have) is night and day.

Studies show a huge drop-off in prospect interest when companies dip below a four-star rating. That’s not just for Yelp, but also every other online review website.

Ninety-four percent of consumers said they would use a company with a four-star average, while only 57 percent of consumers said they would use a company in the three-star range.

What a difference one little star makes, huh?

This is why it’s important to constantly monitor your online reviews and generate new ones from satisfied customers. The amount of business you’ll lose out on with even an average online reputation is off the charts.

But how do you monitor your online reputation across 100-plus review websites AND generate a steady stream of new positive reviews… WHILE dealing with the 294 other aspects of running a business?

By having hired professionals manage your online reputation for you.

MYM’s Online Reputation Management (ORM) does everything you need to have a stellar online reputation that makes prospects want to contact you:

1. New Review Soliciting – We shrewdly and respectfully email your customer list that you provide us and direct them to leave you a review.
2. Subpar Review Interception – If a customer leaves you less than a three-star review (this number is customizable), it gives them a quick pop up that says, “Hey! Sorry to hear you had a bad experience. We want to make it right. Please call us.” This gives you the chance to take that poor review and turn it into a positive review.
3. Brand Monitoring – You’ll be alerted every time a new review is published about your company. This is not limited to reviews we generate through the reviews process, but any review across review websites. This makes it easy for you to respond to negative and positive reviews quickly. (Which is something you should be doing—here’s how.)

Click here to find out more about MYM’s Online Reputation Management. Also be sure to use the free Review Scanner at the top of the page to generate an instant reputation report of your business.

P.S. I haven’t shown you a new client website in a hot second. That’ll change next week, as we’re rolling out a bunch of awesome new projects over the next few weeks. Stay tuned.

“Guarantee” is scary word not just for contractors, but for any business.

Guaranteeing anything—great results, the lowest prices, etc.—puts you in a vulnerable position.

Because if you don’t deliver on your guarantee, you’re on the hook… BIG TIME.

But…

If you can actually follow through on your promise, there’s no stronger marketing statement than a guarantee.

That’s why we guarantee contractors PPC leads for two hundred dollars or less.

This is a pretty big deal. If you’ve ever dealt with a PPC company, you’ve likely experienced less-than-stellar results.

That’s because most PPC solutions just plain don’t work. I’ve talked to a ton of contractors who have been burned by PPC, so I’ve heard countless horror stories.

Not only do our PPC services work, but we guarantee they work.

Here’s how…

1. 1. To qualify for our guarantee, you have to spend $3,000 or more in PPC Ad Spend with MYM for a minimum of three months. This is because PPC takes about three months to optimize. (Note: sometimes the minimum Ad Spend that’s required may be more than $3,000 per cycle, especially in large and more competitive areas.)
       
   2. We guarantee you’ll receive at least a 15-lead-per-month average over the three-month period, totaling at least 45 leads during those three months. This works out to a Cost Per Lead (CPL) of $200. The leads will be REAL… not clicks or calls from people who don’t need your services.
       
   3. If we generate fewer than 45 leads for you when the three-month guarantee period is up, we’ll continue funding your campaign on our own dime until we deliver the 45 leads we guaranteed.
       
   4. The actual CPL is averaged over the entire three months and often less than $200… we have clients who get as low as a $75 to $125 CPL. If your CPL is lower than $200, you pocket those surplus leads!
       
   5. To make the guarantee fair to us, we require your lost opportunity rate be less than 15 percent. If it’s more than 15 percent, the guaranteed lead cost goes up $20 for every 10 percent your lost opportunities increases.
       
   6. For instance, if your lost opportunities come in at 14 percent, your guaranteed CPL will be $200. If your lost opportunities are 22 percent, though, your guaranteed lead price CPL will be $220. If your lost opportunities rate is 50 percent, your CPL will be $260. (Ain’t math fun?)
       
   7. If your lost opportunities are 50 percent or more, we might suspend your account until the problem is fixed. This is because we are all about leads, not just clicks. If you’re losing out on leads because you aren’t answering your phone, you must address the issue to remain a client in good standing. To help you out, we provide ultra-reliable phone-answering services for clients in need.
       

Bottom Line: As long as you’re good at responding to leads who contact you, you don’t risk anything with our PPC.

Let me show you a recent example…

The Door Store is a window and door company in Illinois. We launched their PPC campaign on January 5^th, 2016. Since then, their PPC campaign has generated 350 bonafide leads. That works out to 20 leads per month for a CPL of $162.36 (stats from 6-21-17).

And when I say “leads,” I don’t mean clicks. I don’t mean online chats inquiring about service calls. I don’t mean calls from people asking if the company repairs cracked iPhone glass. I’m talking about people who are actively looking to install new windows or doors, which is what the client does.

For more info about MYM PPC, visit our PPC page or get in touch with us. We’d be happy to put together a PPC proposal for you and analyze your current PPC efforts

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A bathroom contractor once submitted this print advertisement to me for feedback:

Two of my issues with this ad were…

1.) It was ugly.

2.) It looked exactly like the 56,432 other bathroom ads you see in newspapers and magazines.

But the most egregious sin this ad committed was who it targeted. Or, more accurately, that it targeted too many people.

I’ll explain.

The ad tries to reach several different markets at once. It wants you to know that the company can take on a variety of bathroom projects—from “beautiful baths” to “tub to shower conversions” to “walk-in tubs.”

As a result, the ad piqued no particular market’s interest. Thus, no one responded to it.

I had the following conversation with the bathroom remodeler about his ad’s lack of success…

Me: What percentage of your business are senior citizens, 60 years and older?

Bathroom Contractor: 60 percent to 70 percent

Me: Is that the kind of customers you’d like to continue to attract?

Bathroom Contractor: Yes.

Me: So why don’t you reach out to them specifically instead of throwing out this general stuff?

Bathroom Contractor: (head scratching)

Me: What is the biggest problem they have that you solve?

Bathroom Contractor: They can’t get their leg up over the tub to get in or out, or they are worried about slipping when they raise their leg.

Me: How about we just say that?

Bathroom Contractor: (mind explodes)

Eureka!

Sometimes the best ad is one that literally conveys what is going on in people’s heads. Because you’ve captured what they’re thinking, your message instantly becomes powerful and resonant.

After a little more digging, I found out that some of the company’s customers preferred to take baths, while others preferred showers—and that the company has products for either preference (walk-in tubs and low or zero-entry showers).

So I wrote the following text for the ad on the spot while on the phone with the client:

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“It’s Hard To Raise My Leg Over The Tub…”

Finally, An Inexpensive Way To Make Bathing Easy & Worry-Free Again.

Our Patented Walk-In Tubs & Showers Solve Your Problem For Good.

Let’s face it, just getting in and out of the tub can be a major challenge. Slips and falls can and do (and will!) happen. Don’t wait until you have an accident to remove your tub and replace it with a SAFER alternative.

Prefer To Take Baths? If you prefer to take baths, convert to our patented WALK-IN TUB. It has a low-step door that perfectly seals water in while your bath remains perfectly safe. No more worrying. Stress-free bathing.

Prefer To Take Showers? We can pull your old tub out and replace it with a low-step (4 inches) or roll-in (zero inches) entry that eliminates the stress of getting in and out. Both models have optional seats & grab bars (recommended!) and non-slip surfaces for your safety.

We’ve been creating perfect bathrooms solutions for 40 years—we are preoccupied with perfection. We are adamant about excellence. We are fixated on flawless. Let us help you solve your bathroom safety concerns today.

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Next, I had MYM’s design team put this text into an eye-catching advertisement. I couldn’t find a photo I liked for the ad, so I had my artist produce an illustration that captures the essence of the ad perfectly.

Here’s the final product:

Wham, bam, thank you, ma’am: Now THAT’S an ad that reaches out and grabs readers. But not just any readers—the RIGHT readers.

Moral of the story: When it comes to marketing, speak directly to your target audience!

If you need ad creation that resonates with your audience and hits their “buy” buttons, you know who to turn to.

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In terms of ranking well on search engines, sometimes less is more.

Google used to base a large part of their ranking signals on update frequency. But that’s not necessarily the case anymore.

Now more than ever, the Google Gods place more value on QUALITY of content over QUANTITY.

This means one stellar piece of content has more search engine “oomph” than, say, three or four average-quality blog posts.

Case in point…

To accommodate Google’s former thirst for frequency, we’ve been creating 15 blog posts a month for our SEO clients. We’d post this content on their blogs two or three times per week.

The posts themselves were well-written, but not earth-shaking or anything.

And they weren’t meant to be. Like I said, we were going with what would make clients rank the highest. And that involved creating new blog fodder constantly.

Here’s an example of this type of content we posted to a client’s website on April 25th, 2017. As you’ll see, it’s written well but lacks substance.

Until very recently, this rapid-fire blog-posting strategy worked. The posts would rank well, and everything was peachy-keen.

Over the last few months, however, we noticed the blog posts were not ranking as well as they once were… not even close.

Why? Because Google launched another algorithm update, as they’re so fond of doing.

We’re always on our toes to keep up with Google’s constant mood swings (i.e., algorithm changes). So as soon as we saw what we WERE doing was no longer working as well, we created a plan to fix it.

As a result, we’re overhauling our SEO content strategy for our upgraded clients…

Instead of providing our upgraded SEO clients with 15 smaller blog posts per month, we’re going to start delivering four premium, high-quality blog posts per month.

The outcome is going to be better, cornerstone content that is powerful, informative, interesting, sharable, and laced with all the SEO elements Google eats up.

We’ve already begun testing this out on a few clients… to great results. Here’s an example of the kind of meaty blog content (Posted June 23rd, 2017) we’re NOW producing. You’ll see it’s MUCH more comprehensive and captivating to the target audience.

To create such strong content for ALL upgraded SEO clients, we’ll be setting up one-on-one time (in 90-minute blocks) with our content writers and clients.

We’ll reacquaint ourselves with our clients’ goals, what they want their blog to do, and what kind of content is relevant to their specific businesses. We’ll talk about every keyword, potential pieces of content, and how hard they want to sell that keyword.

Not only will we be having these “reintroduction content strategy” sessions with clients—but we’ll be doing check-ins every quarter to see what products or services they’re pushing that season, if they’ve noticed any big questions customers have asked that we want to answer in a blog post and re-strategize for the next three months.

Our new, improved SEO content strategy will roll out as beta on July 15th for five to seven clients who have agreed to be guinea pigs.

Then August and September, we will begin bringing our remaining upgraded clients into the fold.

Visit our SEO page for more info about our services. Then, get in touch with us if you want to take your search rankings to the next level.

P.S. Don’t get me wrong… quantity IS still important for search rankings. Your website needs a steady stream of content to remain relevant in Google’s eyes. But that content must engage your audience. If it doesn’t, no one will read it… and your rankings will go down like a sinking ship.

P.P.S. So, what happens with our Bundle SEO clients (clients who aren’t upgraded)? Clients on Bundle-level SEO will still get their two blog posts per month. But they won’t get the high level, hands-on experience that we reserve for upgraded SEO clients who truly want to Monopolize their Marketplace.

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