Increasing Leads with Google Reviews
by Ryan Steinolfson
Accelerate Marketing has been working in the fire equipment distributor niche for almost the same amount of years as we’ve been in business, a decade. Local SEO is very complicated, Google Adwords are expensive, and social media marketing results are tough to track. Nothing beats Google Search in generating results for our clients.
Imagine getting a consistent number of qualified phone calls from pre-sold customers ready to buy your services. Our client, Preventive Fire & Safety Equipment in Florida, has done just that. Over the last decade we’ve tripled their number of phone calls, website visitors went from 450 to 1,700 per month, and revenue has increased by fifty percent. So, how do you get your phone to ring with pre-qualified and pre-sold customers? Google Reviews.
Accelerate Marketing has been working in the fire equipment distributor niche for almost the same amount of years as we’ve been in business, a decade. Local SEO is very complicated, Google Adwords are expensive, and social media marketing results are tough to track. Nothing beats Google Search in generating results for our clients.
Imagine getting a consistent number of qualified phone calls from pre-sold customers ready to buy your services. Our client, Preventive Fire & Safety Equipment in Florida, has done just that. Over the last decade we’ve tripled their number of phone calls, website visitors went from 450 to 1,700 per month, and revenue has increased by fifty percent. So, how do you get your phone to ring with pre-qualified and pre-sold customers? Google Reviews.
Google Search Results
If you don’t have a consistent way to generate qualified leads month after month, then it is very tough to have the right number of employees on your team to get the work done. When we first started working with Preventive Fire, we started by optimizing their website so that Preventive Fire would show up on Google for top keywords like:
If you don’t have a consistent way to generate qualified leads month after month, then it is very tough to have the right number of employees on your team to get the work done. When we first started working with Preventive Fire, we started by optimizing their website so that Preventive Fire would show up on Google for top keywords like:
- Fire Extinguisher Lake Park
- Fire Extinguisher West Palm Beach
- Fire Extinguisher Delray Beach
When people do a search and type in a keyword, a phrase, or a service on Google, if your company doesn’t show up you miss out on a pre-qualified phone call. People are searching for your services on Google every day, and you want to show up in those results. Imagine getting pre-qualified calls just from being found on Google.
Local Search Engine Optimization (Local SEO)
The second phase of our goal was for Preventive Fire to show up in the top three when the main keyword “Fire Extinguisher Lake Park” is typed into Google Search. According to BrightLocal, approximately 50 percent of people make their decision on which business they use based on where they show up in the search results. If you’re showing up in the Google Maps 3-pack (the top three under the map) and if you’re showing up with a lot of reviews and a great star rating, it significantly increases the chance that you will get the phone call.
Local Search Engine Optimization (Local SEO)
The second phase of our goal was for Preventive Fire to show up in the top three when the main keyword “Fire Extinguisher Lake Park” is typed into Google Search. According to BrightLocal, approximately 50 percent of people make their decision on which business they use based on where they show up in the search results. If you’re showing up in the Google Maps 3-pack (the top three under the map) and if you’re showing up with a lot of reviews and a great star rating, it significantly increases the chance that you will get the phone call.
The Google Maps 3-Pack is a section of Google's search results that shows the local business related to the keyword typed in the search box. The Google Maps 3-pack consists of three organic listings and you can also pay for an ad to show up above the organic section. We know from experience if you pay for an ad but don’t have a better star rating or more reviews you will not receive phone calls. People know the difference between ads and organic and they most often choose the organic company.
To show up on Google Maps you must have a Google My Business Page. The search results that follow underneath the map 3-pack are known as “organic search results.” Preventive Fire shows up in key positions on the 3-pack and in the organic search results.
Preventive Fire is the only business that shows up for the keyword “Fire Extinguisher Lake Park” with 325 Google reviews (as of this writing). There are hundreds of keywords Preventive Fire shows up for along with all the different areas they serve.
Imagine showing up on Google maps 3-pack in the top position, organically.
Google Ads
There are also a few other ways to show up on Google: Google Ads and Google Local Service Ads (GLSA).
If you are a low voltage supplier, these GLSA ads apply to you. If you provide services like:
If you are providing these services you can show up as a “Google Guaranteed” company. This is a very powerful strategy because this is what’s showing up at the top of Google’s search results.
To show up on Google Maps you must have a Google My Business Page. The search results that follow underneath the map 3-pack are known as “organic search results.” Preventive Fire shows up in key positions on the 3-pack and in the organic search results.
Preventive Fire is the only business that shows up for the keyword “Fire Extinguisher Lake Park” with 325 Google reviews (as of this writing). There are hundreds of keywords Preventive Fire shows up for along with all the different areas they serve.
Imagine showing up on Google maps 3-pack in the top position, organically.
Google Ads
There are also a few other ways to show up on Google: Google Ads and Google Local Service Ads (GLSA).
If you are a low voltage supplier, these GLSA ads apply to you. If you provide services like:
- Burglar Alarms
- Fire Alarms
- Exit Lighting
If you are providing these services you can show up as a “Google Guaranteed” company. This is a very powerful strategy because this is what’s showing up at the top of Google’s search results.
All of your Google reviews from your Google My Business page get transferred over into a GLSA and you’ll also show up as a “Google Guaranteed” company. This means that Google will back your company with up to $2,000 if anything happens to the customer that hired you from the ad.
The beauty of this is you only pay for a qualified lead and pay only $20-$30 for each lead. Which is about one-third of what you’d normally pay for with Google Ads which have no “Google Guarantee” or reviews associated with them.
With GLSA you pay less and get more business. In addition to Preventive Fire having the most 5-star reviews, we are setting them up with a new strategy that will double their business (again) through low voltage. Fire equipment distributors normally don’t qualify for GLSA because fire equipment is not a category allowed to run these ads, but you can run GLSA as a low-voltage electrician. Once you convert the lead for low-voltage with GLSA you can then upsell them on fire extinguishers. This is a huge strategy that every low-voltage supplier needs to be implementing today.
Our strategy, that has been approved by Google which allows us to work closely with a Google rep, is to set Preventive Fire up as a vendor that can show up in the “Google Guaranteed” section with all of their tech’s generalized home locations as locations for his business. This is a very powerful strategy.
What that means is Preventive Fire’s GLSA can show up as a local business for every location their tech’s trucks are parked in addition to Preventive Fire’s business locations. Their Google Local Service Ads will triple in showing up on Google with this strategy.
Google Reviews
One of the reasons why Preventive Fire has done so well is because they have over 500 Google reviews total from five of their business locations. The reason why Preventive Fire has gotten so many reviews is because we’ve trained his staff on six different occasions over the past four years on how to get Google Reviews. We call this a “Review Culture Training.” We have quadrupled visitors to his website but have also tripled the number of phone calls as a result of people finding Preventive Fire and going to their website.
One of the ways we have taught Preventive Fire to get Google reviews is to leverage what we call a “Google Naked Link.” Having this link will take you directly to the “Google Review Box” where someone can easily type their review and post it. This is much quicker than having to search for the company on Google Maps, tap the screen to pull the company up, scroll down to the review section, and finally find the little button that says “review us” to leave a review. The Google Naked Link is simple so someone can click the link, leave a star rating, maybe add a photo and leave a review. That’s it.
The beauty of this is you only pay for a qualified lead and pay only $20-$30 for each lead. Which is about one-third of what you’d normally pay for with Google Ads which have no “Google Guarantee” or reviews associated with them.
With GLSA you pay less and get more business. In addition to Preventive Fire having the most 5-star reviews, we are setting them up with a new strategy that will double their business (again) through low voltage. Fire equipment distributors normally don’t qualify for GLSA because fire equipment is not a category allowed to run these ads, but you can run GLSA as a low-voltage electrician. Once you convert the lead for low-voltage with GLSA you can then upsell them on fire extinguishers. This is a huge strategy that every low-voltage supplier needs to be implementing today.
Our strategy, that has been approved by Google which allows us to work closely with a Google rep, is to set Preventive Fire up as a vendor that can show up in the “Google Guaranteed” section with all of their tech’s generalized home locations as locations for his business. This is a very powerful strategy.
What that means is Preventive Fire’s GLSA can show up as a local business for every location their tech’s trucks are parked in addition to Preventive Fire’s business locations. Their Google Local Service Ads will triple in showing up on Google with this strategy.
Google Reviews
One of the reasons why Preventive Fire has done so well is because they have over 500 Google reviews total from five of their business locations. The reason why Preventive Fire has gotten so many reviews is because we’ve trained his staff on six different occasions over the past four years on how to get Google Reviews. We call this a “Review Culture Training.” We have quadrupled visitors to his website but have also tripled the number of phone calls as a result of people finding Preventive Fire and going to their website.
One of the ways we have taught Preventive Fire to get Google reviews is to leverage what we call a “Google Naked Link.” Having this link will take you directly to the “Google Review Box” where someone can easily type their review and post it. This is much quicker than having to search for the company on Google Maps, tap the screen to pull the company up, scroll down to the review section, and finally find the little button that says “review us” to leave a review. The Google Naked Link is simple so someone can click the link, leave a star rating, maybe add a photo and leave a review. That’s it.
This is leveraged with what we call the remote review strategy. This is a strategy that is used when people are not in front of your techs. The more powerful strategy is the “In-Person Review Strategy'' which is why we do the Review Culture Training. Every tech on your team should know exactly how, when, and where to ask for a review and the reason why. If the customer has their phone on them, the tech can walk them through how to leave a review explaining the experience they received. That is how Preventive Fire has gotten so many reviews.
Preventive’s office manager has told us several times that their numbers in inbound phone calls have quadrupled since they started getting reviews. The reviews have significantly grown their business and have made Preventive Fire a much more valuable company in the eyes of their colleagues, potential customers, and current customers. This year we are continuing to focus on getting more reviews and implementing our new strategy with Google Local Service Ads. Imagine getting a consistent number of qualified leads at a fixed price while getting a THREE times return on investment.
The amazing part of all of this is that if they ever want to sell the company, they can sell the current book of business separately from the future lead generation business that is going to continue to come in from Google no matter what. The reason for this is because Preventive Fire has a book of business and they’re adding on business in an automated fashion every single month because of the foundation that we’ve established.
Preventive’s office manager has told us several times that their numbers in inbound phone calls have quadrupled since they started getting reviews. The reviews have significantly grown their business and have made Preventive Fire a much more valuable company in the eyes of their colleagues, potential customers, and current customers. This year we are continuing to focus on getting more reviews and implementing our new strategy with Google Local Service Ads. Imagine getting a consistent number of qualified leads at a fixed price while getting a THREE times return on investment.
The amazing part of all of this is that if they ever want to sell the company, they can sell the current book of business separately from the future lead generation business that is going to continue to come in from Google no matter what. The reason for this is because Preventive Fire has a book of business and they’re adding on business in an automated fashion every single month because of the foundation that we’ve established.
Ryan Steinolfson is the CEO/owner of Accelerate Marketing. He can help you become a Low Voltage Google Guaranteed company by taking you through the process free of charge. He can also help get you more Google reviews by supplying a Google Naked Link. Visit www.firewatchoffer.com to get the PDF of this article, the “Google Naked Link cheat sheet,” and a guide on how to sign up for Google Local Service Ads. Or call/text 561-309-0050.
Article published in Firewatch! March 2020. Copyright with the author. Do not reuse without permission.
