Latest / Amplify Your Marketing Message with Christine Campbell Rapin / 181 - Get Found: Reviews, Profiles, and AI Search
Transcript
- 0:03If you are a B2B service based business owner and you are
- 0:06looking to gain more clients, create more impact and more
- 0:09revenue in your business, TuneIn to amplify your marketing
- 0:13message with Christine Campbell Rappin.
- 0:15Every week we're going to take you through how to build an
- 0:17audience of buyers, mastering your marketing message, making
- 0:21offers, getting found is one of the most important things that
- 0:25every entrepreneur I'm speaking to right now is saying.
- 0:28It's changing a lot. It's getting harder to do this
- 0:32and I was super interested when I had the opportunity through
- 0:35the power of my network to meet the next guest on our show
- 0:39today. Because he's not just been doing
- 0:41this for a nanosecond. He's been doing this an
- 0:43incredibly long period of time. And he's got over news in his
- 0:47business. And he's going to show us how
- 0:50the power of starting can compound to that kind of
- 0:54crescendo, make you really relevant in this brand new year.
- 0:58To our guest today, Mr. John Dejong, welcome to our show.
- 1:02Super excited to have you here. Hi, Christine.
- 1:07Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.
- 1:09My absolute pleasure. So I want to talk about this
- 1:12because when I was reading your information that you had shared
- 1:14with me, I was like, wow, 900 reviews.
- 1:18And yes, your business has been around for years, but that's
- 1:21super impressive. And let's talk right out of the
- 1:24gate why it's so important to have reviews and to make that a
- 1:29core principle and how you've done it so effectively.
- 1:34Well, I think your clients, our viewers already know how
- 1:38important it is, every one of us.
- 1:41Well, I would, I would say this, 66% of you have looked at a
- 1:47Google review and seen an online Google business profile in the
- 1:52last three days. That's, that's what we do when
- 1:55we're looking for, you know, a restaurant near me or you know,
- 2:00the best podcast near me or an accountant or what have you.
- 2:04We look to our phones now. You know, when I bought this
- 2:07business 16 years ago, we were still paying money for Yellow
- 2:11Pages ads and we still had a fax machine.
- 2:13But times they are A changing. So Google reviews or being found
- 2:20online nowadays is not only a Google thing, it's also AI as
- 2:24well and that's how people are going to find your business
- 2:27nowadays. I'm curious because obviously in
- 2:30the traditional bricks and mortar, yes, it was imperative.
- 2:32I'm, I have friends from school, my early career days where they
- 2:36sold Yellow Pages and they would travel from small business,
- 2:39small business to get you listed in the listings.
- 2:42And I'm curious if you think it's as relevant to online
- 2:46business and if it matters at all between whether you're
- 2:49bricks and mortar or online in the space of AI?
- 2:54Absolutely. It matters what you know, the
- 2:57important thing for AI is to be is for AI to get the
- 3:01information. It's called an LLM or a large
- 3:04language module. And I'll try not to speak in,
- 3:07you know, tech talk. So, but basically a large
- 3:11language module is a phone book of all the information available
- 3:16about your business. Now that phone book used to be
- 3:19the Yellow Pages. That was the search index.
- 3:22That's where people looked for a business and they would look by
- 3:25categories. If you know, my dad owned an
- 3:28appliance business back in the 1970s.
- 3:30So you'd look under appliances and then it it would be found
- 3:33alphabetically after that. He also owned a bicycle
- 3:37business, so you look under B for bikes in there immediately.
- 3:42So there would be AA bikes and AAA bikes.
- 3:45So people would play games to try to get found.
- 3:48Well, it's exactly the same thing nowadays.
- 3:51For the last 15 years it's been Google and you needed to play
- 3:55the games or you know, work with the algorithm to get found.
- 3:59Now it's artificial intelligence.
- 4:03So we have, well, I've developed what I call AI squared.
- 4:08So that's my actual intelligence and you got to marry that with
- 4:12artificial intelligence. So artificial intelligence is
- 4:15the tool, but you still have a brain and you need to use that.
- 4:18You need to, you need to coach the tool.
- 4:20You need to supervise the tool. You can't just let some 18 year
- 4:24old kid working out of his mom's basement or someone you know,
- 4:29you know, a virtual assistant in a, in another country that
- 4:32doesn't know you at all take over your marketing.
- 4:35That's, that's unwise. Let me put it another way.
- 4:38That's cool. I'm so glad you said that we
- 4:41brought brains to school with us today because I think that this
- 4:44is, this is a problem. This is a problem I've always
- 4:49gobsmacked to use the British expression when people think
- 4:52that they would outsource their most valuable thing they own,
- 4:56which is their brain and their voice.
- 4:59And when somebody doesn't get you and you haven't taken the
- 5:03time to, you say to train, to model, to think about how
- 5:07they're showing inputs, driven outputs, it's unwise.
- 5:14Guys, you heard it here. Please, please, please, please,
- 5:16please think twice before you do that.
- 5:19But it's interesting that you talk about it being so relevant
- 5:22and relevant for all businesses. So how do you get reviews fast?
- 5:28Because we know we should do it. I think everybody can put up
- 5:30their hand as an audience member and say, like, I know I should
- 5:32do this. I recognize that I use it as a
- 5:37consumer, but somehow it's never high on the priority and that's
- 5:42a misstep. So how do we get there fast?
- 5:46Well, you're not gonna, you're not gonna get reviews fast.
- 5:50You're not gonna get a lot of reviews fast.
- 5:52I have over 900. So that's about 7:00.
- 5:55That's, I can tell you today it's 784 Google reviews on my
- 5:59Canadian site, about 60 odd on my American presence and then
- 6:04and 60 or 70 on Facebook. So the most important thing is
- 6:10a, you've got to start. I, I was just writing an article
- 6:13last night and Darren Williams is the guy who gave me my very
- 6:17first Google review. That was about 10 years ago.
- 6:20So all those reviews we have, while 900 sounds like a lot, it
- 6:25started with 1 and I had done, you know, we own a sign and a
- 6:29marketing company, bricks and mortar sign shop in Victoria,
- 6:32BC. And myself and my teammates had
- 6:35just finished putting privacy glass or privacy treatment on
- 6:40his law firm Windows. And Darren said to me, hey,
- 6:44great job, let me give you a Google review.
- 6:46So first of all, that was unique because most people don't
- 6:49volunteer to give you Google reviews.
- 6:51You got to ask and we'll come to that in a second.
- 6:53But I said, what's that? And I had been smart enough to
- 6:56set up a Google Plus account for my business, but I didn't know
- 6:59what it did. But he took me around the back
- 7:02of his desk and logged in and found my company and clicked on
- 7:06the on the 5th star. That's one of the things you got
- 7:09to do is make sure you click on the star in the far right so you
- 7:12get 5 stars, not one star. And then he pulled in a
- 7:16description and thanking me for the great work that we had done.
- 7:19And that's how you get a Google review.
- 7:21But so first of all, you got to start with one.
- 7:24The second thing you have to do is you have to ask.
- 7:27OK, I, I, I, I think that you're married.
- 7:30I'm married. I've been married for 39 years.
- 7:33You know what? When I met Barbara, she didn't,
- 7:35she didn't know me. She didn't like me.
- 7:37She thought she knew about me. She had some misinformation
- 7:41about me. And I had to ask her.
- 7:43And she said no, but I didn't stop it.
- 7:46No, no, I asked again and I asked again.
- 7:48So that's the second thing you need to do, is you need to ask
- 7:50more than once. We don't quit after the first
- 7:52time. And the third thing you need to
- 7:54do is you need to make it easy. So you know, I used to send an
- 7:59e-mail to my clients and ask them for a Google review.
- 8:03Then I got smart and I added a link to the e-mail so they could
- 8:05just click on it. It would go right to my Google
- 8:07business profile. Then I got access to the later
- 8:12technology. And you all have this, we all
- 8:14have cell phones. So your cell phone has NFC
- 8:17technology and that's near field connection.
- 8:21And so now they can just tap on a card.
- 8:24So if you have one of these cards, it links right to your
- 8:27Google business profile. And some people are, don't have
- 8:30their NFC turned on their phone, but you know, if you're paying
- 8:33with your phone nowadays, you got it turned on.
- 8:35So we, we make it really easy. They can also scan the QR code
- 8:39on the back. So getting Google reviews is
- 8:43also about making it easy. We're reducing the friction.
- 8:45So you may have heard me say before, you can get a Google
- 8:48review and as little as 3 seconds.
- 8:50And this is exactly how you do it.
- 8:52You you have an NFC card that does stands tap or Stan.
- 8:58This is because it's true and and I think so often, you know,
- 9:02we've said there's a big difference between follow up and
- 9:04follow through. And if we make it easy, we're
- 9:07more likely to get the result and we have to ask more than
- 9:09once. And the beautiful thing, when
- 9:11you've had great service as a person, please volunteer reviews
- 9:15and take the time to do reviews for people you're doing.
- 9:17It matters enormously. What I would say to my clients
- 9:20is it matters over a period of time.
- 9:22So if you know, most people only go to what we would call
- 9:26recommendations or testimonials and they know it really from
- 9:28LinkedIn as a business employee. And they're like, when I lose my
- 9:32job, when I changed jobs, I suddenly have this flurry of
- 9:35reviews because I'm it's top of mind.
- 9:37And I said, think about the fact that if you can have 1/4 for the
- 9:41lifetime of your business, what that says to somebody about your
- 9:43longevity, your ability to, to stay relevant.
- 9:47And as you're looking at a brand new year, I've said this to all
- 9:49my clients, I want you tracking reviews in the first month of
- 9:52the year so that it's current to the current year because that
- 9:55matters to the shopper. That matters to the buyer.
- 9:58And I love how simple this is. Equip yourself, get your ass on
- 10:03and stay with it in order to see the result.
- 10:06And once we've got the reviews, you, you used an acronym when we
- 10:09were chatting earlier and I'm curious about it and I don't
- 10:11want to get too technical in the language, but you said that you
- 10:14have to optimize something at GBP.
- 10:18What is that? So GBP used to be Google Plus
- 10:24and then it morphed into Google My Business and it's now Google
- 10:29Business Profile. So when you do a search, you
- 10:33know, on Google you it'll come up on the left with about, you
- 10:36know, 1.6 million hits in about, you know, 1.2 seconds.
- 10:41And usually if there's a very specific company that Google
- 10:45thinks matches your needs really, really well, it comes up
- 10:49what they call a Google Card and that has photographs of the
- 10:53business and it has little map next to it that shows you where
- 10:55the business is. And then it has underneath it
- 10:57how many Google reviews they have.
- 10:59And then it'll have a list of their products and services.
- 11:01And that's what I was saying, that 66% of us have clicked on
- 11:05one of those in the last three days.
- 11:06So we're, we're pretty much all familiar with it.
- 11:08Well, that GBP needs to be optimized.
- 11:12Now, people like me, like told you 10 years ago, I had this
- 11:16Google Plus profile, but I didn't do anything with it.
- 11:20What you need to do now Google gives you 1000 characters for
- 11:24you to optimize whatever products it is you sell.
- 11:27Then if you're a service business, it gives you 300
- 11:30character service and you can have 10 services.
- 11:33You can have 50 services in there and the, the more
- 11:36optimized or complete that profile is, the more Google
- 11:41information you're giving Google to say, hey, this person suit
- 11:45your needs. And then now AI is they don't
- 11:50have direct access to that. But you should be duplicating
- 11:55everything that's on your Google business profile to your
- 11:58website, as well as getting information and everything
- 12:01that's in there. Now, you know when you, when you
- 12:05do a search and AI spits something out like you might be
- 12:09talking to ChatGPT, you might be talking to Grock, you know,
- 12:12there's multitude of them out there.
- 12:14It spits out a summary of from three or four different
- 12:17websites. Well, the more information you
- 12:20have about yourself on there, the better information it can
- 12:24give to the person who's searching.
- 12:26Well, I think, I know it's so easy to start it and forget it.
- 12:31And I can relate to, I've had a Google business profile and
- 12:35that's where it's changed its names many times and not
- 12:39maintained it to the level that creates the best momentum.
- 12:43So guys, if you're like me, it's time to take a deep breath and
- 12:46say, OK, how do we systematize both of these things?
- 12:51Asking for reviews with every client and people were
- 12:54interacting with. It's not just about the paid
- 12:56clients, it's about your collaborative partners, the
- 12:58people who've seen you in work, how you show up in your life.
- 13:01All of those things are in the know, like trust formula.
- 13:05And how do you make sure that you are ensuring that your best
- 13:09foot is forward? And so guys, I like systems.
- 13:12As you know, I would encourage you to have this dialed in as a
- 13:16process so that you don't miss the low hanging fruit because
- 13:21truthfully, people are still going to, whether it's now the
- 13:24AI generated search or still Google, you cannot afford not to
- 13:29have control over current data. And that current data should
- 13:34really reflect how awesome you are because your next client is
- 13:36looking for an awesome service provider.
- 13:39So I love that we need to do this.
- 13:41So you also now lead me into the comment about the website
- 13:44because AI is not pulling from Google because you know, state
- 13:47and church are two different things.
- 13:48They don't want to pull from somebody's competitor data set.
- 13:51But you talk about the website. So where does the website come
- 13:54into it? And how do we look at a website
- 13:56from the perspective of search so that we get found on both
- 14:00platforms? Because if we want to win, we
- 14:01want to win on both sides. Yeah, that's a great question.
- 14:07So if you've ever watched any of my videos on my YouTube channel,
- 14:11you hear me talk about optimizing a website that used
- 14:15to be called search engine optimization.
- 14:17Well, I call that BSO because you don't need to optimize for
- 14:22search engines because most people are just searching on
- 14:25Google. So it's one thing, but it's
- 14:28changed now because of AI and Google holds all of its cards
- 14:32close to its best. So AI doesn't, not all the AI's
- 14:36have access to that. So as I said, you need to
- 14:39duplicate that onto your website so you get search everywhere
- 14:44optimization. So I'm backing off of my BSO
- 14:47days back to SEO, but it's changed a little, but it's got
- 14:50you gotta be able to be searched everywhere.
- 14:53So one of the, you know, more important things is it's not so
- 14:57much about getting your website found, but it's, it's now about
- 15:01again, optimizing, keeping people on your website.
- 15:04HubSpot says that the average person only stays on the web or
- 15:09the average stay on a website is only 54 seconds.
- 15:12Now, that's after a person has searched dozens and dozens of
- 15:15websites. But remember, I told you my wife
- 15:18Barbara didn't want to go out with me at first.
- 15:19She did not. I had made a negative first
- 15:21impression. You know, we all do it, but, you
- 15:25know, like, turns out, you know, thank God she got past the first
- 15:28impression and here we are. Yeah.
- 15:30But you know, it's your website. You've got 3 seconds to make a
- 15:34first impression on your website.
- 15:36So if you can have a video of yourself popping up on there,
- 15:41you know, it's for those of you who are hearing us on a podcast,
- 15:44that's, that's one mode of input, which is your ear.
- 15:48But visual, we're, we're all visual people.
- 15:51We, we like, you know, we like sunshine rather than clouds and
- 15:54rain, right? We like bright colours rather
- 15:56than dreary things. Well, when we can look at
- 15:59someone eye to eye or face to face, even if it's just a 2
- 16:03dimensional projection on a screen that that makes a a
- 16:09neural pathway in your brain, it makes a chemical connection.
- 16:12So I have on my websites something I call the website
- 16:16concierge and what it is, it's a little pop up video of myself
- 16:20and it says, hey, it's I'm John. Welcome to alley cat signs and
- 16:24marketing. If you're looking for digital
- 16:25marketing, click on this button here.
- 16:27If you're looking for signs, click here.
- 16:29If you want to see our Google reviews, click here.
- 16:32And you can have three or four or five buttons on it.
- 16:34So I recommend putting a little video on there.
- 16:38There's lots of great tools out there.
- 16:40I happen to have some, but that's a really important thing
- 16:43is getting the first impression because you've only got 3
- 16:46seconds to make it. So everybody to shift gears is
- 16:51where cleaning house we're pruning, we're we're stepping
- 16:55into the now to really hear what he's just said.
- 16:59It is imperative that you don't set it and forget it.
- 17:03It's imperative that you think about the human side of this
- 17:08combo that's happening because at the end of the day, never,
- 17:11never mistake people choose to do business with people 1st.
- 17:14And that what that's why you need to make sure it's not just
- 17:18I've done a website, it's not just I did SEO, it's not just I
- 17:22wrote my business profile with Google.
- 17:25It is really a recognition that I have to be effective at it.
- 17:28And that means that we don't do it once and forget it, but we
- 17:31really hone our craft. Because I will tell you, you
- 17:35have so little time to make influence, but somebody is ready
- 17:38to buy. And if they're not going to buy
- 17:41with you, it's a missed opportunity because they're
- 17:43going to go to the next. And if they just focus on the
- 17:46effectiveness equation, guess what will happen?
- 17:49They're gonna win disproportionately to you, and
- 17:51you can control that. So step up my friends, because I
- 17:55want you winning, I want your serving, and I want you not just
- 17:59doing it once, but doing it repeatedly, consistently for the
- 18:03longevity so that you 2 can be like John and say we've built
- 18:06this through time and we're very proud of our reputation.
- 18:09And the more we can put out that curates effectiveness,
- 18:14truthfully, the happier clients are going to be because they get
- 18:16what they expect. And so I want to ask you a final
- 18:19question here because you have been nominated and won a big
- 18:23award for your Business of the Year.
- 18:26What's working right now for you to win clients to gain in the
- 18:30marketplace? You've been in the business a
- 18:32while, but what's working right now?
- 18:35Yeah. Thank you so much.
- 18:37So I just want to clarify that because, you know, I, I was
- 18:41nominated for Business of the year for employees with our
- 18:44companies with one to 10 employees.
- 18:46We were finalists, we came in second.
- 18:48OK, well, you know what, I will take that because that's a huge
- 18:51accolade to be first nominated and to to work on your silver
- 18:55award. Congratulations.
- 18:56But I, but I think what I'm talking about here is integrity.
- 18:59It would be disingenuous for me to, to just accept the, oh, she
- 19:02made a mistake. And just, I think it's really
- 19:04important to clear the air. I think when you make mistakes,
- 19:07it's important to clear the air and what's working for me and
- 19:10what will absolutely work for you and where other companies
- 19:13your competition are shooting themselves in the foot is by not
- 19:18responding to Google reviews. I have 900 reviews and I have
- 19:22900 responses personally written by me, not by AI.
- 19:27Now you can train AI and actually do that for some of my
- 19:29clients. I train the I AI to speak and
- 19:32reply on behalf of the clients. And we can, we can do pretty
- 19:35good. True training it in your voice.
- 19:38But think about this for a second.
- 19:40If you went out to a restaurant and you know, my favorite
- 19:43restaurant, I have a son and daughter-in-law that live in
- 19:45Phoenix. We were just down there.
- 19:47If we go to smoke and Joe's great, great rib place, you
- 19:50know, finger looking good. And I see the chef coming out
- 19:54and and, or the pit boss and he's been back there, you know,
- 19:58since 6:00 in the morning stocking the fire, smoking
- 20:01brisket, smoking ribs. And I as he's walking by, I, I
- 20:05grab on his tugging his shirt sleeve and they say, Hey, Joe, I
- 20:09just wanted to say thank you so much.
- 20:11That dinner was awesome. I love coming here with my
- 20:14family. I'm going to recommend to all my
- 20:15friends to come back. And Joe just turns around and
- 20:18walks away. Yeah.
- 20:20What? What?
- 20:21What did Joe just say to me? He he, he said, I don't care.
- 20:26So when you, you know, get a client that leaves you a Google
- 20:29review and you ignore it, you've just insulted that client and
- 20:34you've told thousands of other clients that, hey, Joe thinks
- 20:36I'm OK, but you didn't reply to that.
- 20:39So it it every, I tell people, every sign sends a message,
- 20:43every review sends a message and a five star review is great.
- 20:47But if you don't reply to it, you've just left so much money
- 20:50on the table. You can, even if they don't say
- 20:52what they did, I replied to reviews.
- 20:54That's that. You know the client, sometimes I
- 20:57have to track down through my database who that person was and
- 20:59and say, oh, thank you so much for doing business with us and
- 21:02allowing Alicat science to make your new a frame for your
- 21:05business, XYZ laundromat and all those are keywords that you're
- 21:09able to build back into the review.
- 21:12But more than that, a negative review has to be replied to.
- 21:18Remember I said to you how Google allows you to put 1000
- 21:23character description for a product and 300 for a service.
- 21:26They give you 4000 characters to reply to a Google review,
- 21:32whether it's positive or whether it's negative.
- 21:34Now I will tell you that I have a five star rating, but I have
- 21:37several one star reviews and usually they're not about our
- 21:40product. Usually they're about me and my
- 21:42personality because I'm a little bit strong.
- 21:44I might have an opinion or two and I'm I might not be shy of
- 21:48sharing that with you because I've got 45 years of sales and
- 21:51marketing experience. I'm going to tell you what I
- 21:53think might work better for your business.
- 21:55Some people don't like that. That's OK, but the better you're
- 22:01able to communicate and tell your client, OK, I'm sorry I was
- 22:05wrong. I come across abrasive where I
- 22:07might have made a mistake or we were too late.
- 22:10I apologize for that. Let me make that up to you and
- 22:13then tell your side of the story.
- 22:16A negative review with a really positive or clear rebuttal or
- 22:22explanation. You're not making excuses.
- 22:24Please don't make excuses. Tell your side of the story,
- 22:27take responsibility and you will.
- 22:30You will build much more of a positive rapport with your
- 22:34perspective clients and possibly rebuild the one with that peeved
- 22:39off client by taking responsibility and standing up.
- 22:42That's what's working today because most people aren't doing
- 22:45it. So set yourself apart.
- 22:46I think it's a really good tip about how much space you have to
- 22:49seed words, to seed a response. And yes, you guys stay in
- 22:53integrity with your service. And, you know, I think there's
- 22:57always a question. And I know there's been a lot of
- 22:58change in the landscape about ensuring reviews are authentic,
- 23:02that they're not stuffed the ballots, that they are really
- 23:06people with real responses and what a golden opportunity to
- 23:10engage with them. So I think that's a fantastic
- 23:12tip, John. How do people find you?
- 23:15How do they learn more about you're doing and how do they get
- 23:17support along the way? Hey, the easiest way to get in
- 23:20touch with me is oh, right over there I get youfound.com.
- 23:24I've taken everything that I've learned over the years and I've
- 23:27put it into a simple checklist to help you get found and you
- 23:30can just download that. It's free and all I ask for is
- 23:34your e-mail address. And then fair, I'll even
- 23:37redirect you to my YouTube channel.
- 23:39Everything that I teach my clients or that I do for my
- 23:42clients, I will teach you how to do for free.
- 23:44If your business is doing under a half $1,000,000 a year, you
- 23:48should probably start by doing this on your own.
- 23:50But you know, you can also hire us so we have a a done for you
- 23:55or do it yourself service start at igetyoufound.com or you can
- 23:59go to our website alleycat dot marketing.
- 24:02OK, go connect to John. The fact that he is willing to
- 24:05train you to get started is just a measure of his character.
- 24:09And I want to say thank you. I applaud you for doing that.
- 24:11And really when you do start to build momentum, staying current
- 24:15is the key because how to get found isn't optional.
- 24:18We said it's not enough now to say I did it.
- 24:21We have to do it well. And I want you to game yourself
- 24:25into a real commitment to 1% better. 1% better can make a
- 24:29huge difference for the compound effect and it's how you stay in
- 24:32business and beat the odds. So John, it has been an absolute
- 24:35pleasure to have you as our yesterday go connect to him.
- 24:38I get youfound.com, connect to him and celebrate another great
- 24:42Canadian doing great work in the world.
- 24:44You guys, did you hear not just local, but international as
- 24:46well. So go connect to him.
- 24:48Thank you for being our guest. I'm ready to go get found and go
- 24:51update my Google profile. Thank you for the tips.
- 24:54Thank you. That's a wrap on another amazing
- 25:01episode of Amplify Your Marketing Message with me, your
- 25:04host, Kristine Campbell Rappin. Be sure to subscribe on your
- 25:07favorite podcast platform so you don't miss another great
- 25:10episode. see.