[Free Training] Trust Signals Secrets | OnlineKix Digital Marketing

Hey, my name is Lauren, and welcome to Trust Signal Secrets. 

Today, we are going to tackle a common issue that affects many family-owned businesses – Revenue Inconsistency. 

I'll outline a discovery we made a few years back that our customers now use to grow their businesses faster and more consistently, with less effort. 

It's as simple as using trust signals as a growth strategy.

So here's what we're covering today.

Part 1: Unmasking Revenue Inconsistency – Why revenue droughts happen and breaking the cycle.

Part 2: The Power of Trust Signals and Social Proof – Transforming business credibility into a growth strategy.

Part 3: Mastering the 5 Key Trust Signals – What the top growing businesses are doing every week.

Part 4: Building Your Google Review Machine – How to set everything up, step-by-step, by next week.

If you think this is just about getting Google Reviews, it's not. It's much more. 

It's not just about getting those reviews, it's also what you're doing with them after you get them, and what you're doing online, and offline, with trust signals to help you grow your business more consistently by appearing more trustworthy and credible, everywhere. 

So let's get into it.

Why revenue droughts happen and breaking the cycle.

One of the worst things that can happen to any family-owned business is experiencing a 'new revenue drought' without having a strategy to get out of it. 

This can be caused by various factors, so let's cover the main 3 issues.

Fist is time of year.

Whether we like it or not, most folks don't think about the services we offer all year. And our industry experiences seasonal fluctuations naturally due to weather, peoples schedules, holidays, and external things out of our control.

Second is lack of social proof.

Our competitors with the best reputation typically have the most people talking about them behind their backs to their friends. 

If we don't have great online reviews and something to get the people who know us excited to talk about us to their friends, it can be difficult to have a constant buzz and a steady stream of word of mouth referrals.

Third is competition.

We all have to stand out in a crowded market.

It's no fun to think about, but if you're seeing revenue droughts, one of the biggest causes is that you're being outdone in the marketing department by your local competitors. 

Each of these situations contributes to a sudden drop in new revenue, but the root cause is almost always the absence of a reliable, proactive marketing strategy.

Marketing isn't expensive in the grand scheme of things, but if you're only relying on word of mouth alone to build your business, you're primed to be outdone by your competition.

Whichever of these situations that has caused the sudden drop or a feeling of things being slow, the reason that you're feeling it is almost always because you don't have a reliable, proactive way to keep your marketing engine going.

The top growing small business don't wait for new revenue to just happen. They make it happen.

The best businesses know how to turn on the "new revenue spout" on demand by having their marketing engine active and consistent running in the background.

In sort, it's about being proactive, consistent, and having a strategy. 

Make sense?

Now let's get into what we discovered a few years back that made all the difference for our customers.

Transforming your business' credibility into a growth strategy like how the top growing businesses are finding success.

Trust signals are elements that help build your business's reputation, credibility, and visibility online (and offline too). 

Social proof is the concept that people will follow the actions of others when making decisions. 

In the context of your business, these trust signals can significantly influence peoples' decisions to choose your services over your competitors.

We learned in our testing with our own customers that it's all about giving the "Big Tech" giants like Google, Facebook, and Instagram what they want, and doing all the things they see other credible brands doing.

We're going to get into this in a bit, and teach you the trust signals that can actually propel your business into getting more visibility on these platforms.

But trust signals are also about your professionalism face to face, everyday. How you communicate in email, text, even social media or responding to google reviews. It the power of the mundane everyday details that create gains in bigger opportunities.

And it's all about showing people you're the most reputable choice. 

When you showcase that others think you're great, you can  stand out over your competitors in a crowded market.

In doing so, your business appears more trustworthy to all the people who will consider your business in the future.

So the impact of getting this stuff right can be huge. Small changes in the habits of how a business is run every week can lead to big trust signals and social proof that unlock more revenue. 

It's all about using your reputation as a growth lever so you stand out against the competition and have an easier time winning people, and Big Tech, over with massive amounts of trust signals and social proof everywhere people see your business, online and offline.

When you get this right, it makes everything else you're already investing in work that much harder for you.

What we're talking about here is not hard at all. The hard part for business owners and staff is consistency. 

Make sense?

So let's get into the specific little-known trust signals you need to be aware of and specifically how they can work for you to grow your business faster.

What the top growing businesses are doing every week that make them stand out and get more visibility.

Trust Signal #1: Generating Fresh Google Reviews

Google is the only platform you should be trying to get reviews. 

It has a direct link to better search rankings and 9 out of 10 people go there to research local businesses. 

92% of consumers research Google reviews before making a local business buying decision.

Review signals on Google make up to 15-25% of how Google ranks a business.

People need to like what they see on Google. On average, consumers read around 10 online reviews before making a decision about a local business (but expect to see 50-100 minimum).

And people only trust the most recent reviews. 85% of consumers think local reviews older than 3 months aren’t relevant.

All this means is that no matter how many reviews you already have, you always need a steady flow coming in every month. 

Trust Signal #2: Responding to all positive and negative reviews

...quickly and consistently is a little-known trust signal that slips by most of your competitors.

Responding to reviews is important because consumers are reading the responses as much as their reading reviews.

Not to mention consumers (and Google) expect reviews to be acknowledged and responded to in less than an hour. Don't take for granted that this is also a ranking factor for Google. 

Businesses that respond to reviews tend to earn 33% more revenue from appearing more trustworthy and by gaining more online visibility.

It's also common for consumers to change a negative review or overlook them when owners write 5-star responses to negative reviews.

Trust Signal #3: Marketing your reviews as social proof on your website and social channels is huge.

Many business websites do a poor job of making these reviews stand out on their website and it could be the reason so many visitors leave to go back to google to find someone who looks more reputable.

Adding social proof can make your website more sticky and credible, increasing conversions up to  270% -- and the best part is that means you'll get more out of the traffic you're already getting without spending more in advertising.

Plus Facebook is known for rewarding consistent and frequent posting schedules, so why not leverage your reviews as a way to post more often? You'll look more active to people and the platform will boost your visibility and social search rank. 

Not to mention, google can pick up on this activity too  -- which is more goodness.

Trust Signal #4: Promoting a referral program is something the top-growing businesses are doing.

Companies with formalized referral programs experience 86% more revenue growth and the Referred customers tend to have a 16% higher lifetime value.

What's interesting is that 8 out of 10 satisfied customers are usually willing to refer products and services, but only 29% actually do, so formalizing a program to encourage and incentivize them to do so can be incredibly powerful.

Trust Signal #5: Using Smart Business Cards 

This is an innovative in-person strategy that works really well to boost trust signals in the right moments. Just using them makes you look professional, earning you credibility.

These are all the rage in the business community right now because they have some hidden features that can help you earn revenue. You can even use them to get more reviews. 

They work just like hotel key cards and tap to pay.

A lot of busy owners we talk to gave us feedback that they'd been meaning to get one of these setup, but just hadn't gotten around to it. 

So we started setting these up for all our customers as something cool to level up in-person trust signals. 

If all you do is keep one in your wallet for the right moments, and activate your staff with them too, they are quite a powerful tool when used correctly in every day interactions.

How to set everything up, step-by-step, by next week.

Take a look at this diagram. (see image above)

Imagine if all these trust signals were working together in harmony to unlock your business's growth. 

Fresh reviews and responses feed into local search rankings.  Credibility on your website, social sites, in-person networking, and a referral program keep new people coming to you.

Together, these elements create a robust marketing engine that keeps your business growing.

But at the center of it all. The most important piece is getting your Google Review Machine set up.

Would you be interested to know step by step how to get it working for your business by next week?

We've put together a special paid workshop that is going to walkthrough all of the knowledge and tools you need to do it yourself. 

It's an inexpensive workshop that will walk you through what to do in under an hour. I'm really excited about the experts we've pulled together who will walk you through how to "Level Up Your Business with Google Reviews".

You can enroll in this workshop and access additional resources from this page.

Thank you for joining us on this presentation today and thanks for watching. 

Have the best day!