Latest / Sharp Strategies Sweet Success / December 2025 - Building a Review Machine: The Systems, Scripts, and Psychology That Increase Law Firm Reviews

Transcript

December 2025 - Building a Review Machine: The Systems, Scripts, and Psychology That Increase Law Firm Reviews · Sharp Strategies Sweet Success

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Hello everyone and welcome.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to go ahead and get started.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: I know we still have some people joining,
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  but chat is open if you want to leave a message and or ask a
• 0:17
  question or just talk
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: to the other people in attendance.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Today, we are going over reviews.
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  SPEAKER_00: And when I was putting together the materials for this presentation,
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  I actually got really excited because reviews is something that
• 0:32
  I don't think we've
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  SPEAKER_00: talked about a whole lot in this group.
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  SPEAKER_00: And today,
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  I'm going to be breaking down and giving you a review system or
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  a framework,
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  SPEAKER_00: if you will,
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  SPEAKER_00: to implement at your law firm.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um,
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  so last month I talked a little bit about marketing plans for
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  2026 and I broke out
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  SPEAKER_00: my marketing plans into three categories,
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  SPEAKER_00: uh,
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  SPEAKER_00: referral marketing,
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  SPEAKER_00: which I feel like if you've been in this group a while,
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: you know why we talk about referral marketing.
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  It's probably one of the best ways to get in cases that have a
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  high case value rate.
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  Then we're doing marketing plans for the second category,
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  which is lead generation.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then the third category is authority building.
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  SPEAKER_00: And when I was looking at like,
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  what could we do in that authority building category that'll
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  really help these law
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  SPEAKER_00: firms,
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  SPEAKER_00: the law firms get more cases,
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  SPEAKER_00: get more leads,
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  SPEAKER_00: improve their SEO,
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  SPEAKER_00: local SEO,
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  SPEAKER_00: all of this stuff.
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  SPEAKER_00: And really all roads led back to reviews.
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  SPEAKER_00: And admittedly,
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  I feel like I've neglected reviews for a lot of my clients
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  because some of my law
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  SPEAKER_00: firms,
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  they're just either good at getting reviews or they're not so
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  good at getting
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  SPEAKER_00: reviews.
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  SPEAKER_00: And some people put like a huge importance on getting a ton of reviews.
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  SPEAKER_00: And some people put not that much importance on getting a ton of reviews.
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  And so I really haven't developed or I hadn't developed a
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  review system just until
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  SPEAKER_00: recently,
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  SPEAKER_00: just these last few months.
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  And really,
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  it was bringing together all of these like disparate elements
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  into one program.
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  SPEAKER_00: And that's what we're going to be going over today.
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  We're going to be talking about all of the everything that goes
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  into building a
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  SPEAKER_00: review framework for your law firm.
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  SPEAKER_00: So to start with,
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  SPEAKER_00: you know,
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  reviews fall under this authority building category because
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  reviews are what is
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  SPEAKER_00: known as user generated content.
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  SPEAKER_00: And if you're not too familiar with what that is,
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  SPEAKER_00: user-generated content is content generated by users on the internet.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's not the content that websites put out.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's not blogs.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's not company content or marketing.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's Reddit posts.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's reviews.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's any time somebody tags you on social media.
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  Anytime somebody creates content on behalf of your website or
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  your business.
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  SPEAKER_00: And,
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  SPEAKER_00: sorry,
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  Google and ChatGPT often look at user-generated content and see
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  it as being more
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  SPEAKER_00: authoritative than...
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  the website content we create or the content we post on our
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  website or the
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  SPEAKER_00: marketing content we make.
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  So user generated content really is kind of the gold standard
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  of the internet.
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  And user generated content also supplies a lot of data to chat
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  GPT and Google.
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  SPEAKER_00: And really,
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  you don't have to look very far to see an example of this
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  because ChatGPT and
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  SPEAKER_00: Google,
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  SPEAKER_00: I think,
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  SPEAKER_00: both have deals with Reddit.
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  SPEAKER_00: And if you do many different types of searches using Google,
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  SPEAKER_00: Reddit is some of the first results that will appear in search.
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  So generally,
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  the internet has decided that Reddit is an authoritative source
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  of information.
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  SPEAKER_00: And all of that is user-generated content.
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  And also just to give you another example of user-generated
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  content are on your AVO
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  SPEAKER_00: or Justia bios,
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  where they're asking us or the law firm to supply answers to
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  user-created questions
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  on their platform because they use that information to help
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  rank you on their
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  SPEAKER_00: platform.
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  SPEAKER_00: And also they use that user-generated content,
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  SPEAKER_00: the content you are creating,
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  SPEAKER_00: to make their platform better overall.
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  And so user-generated content is this kind of gold standard on
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  the internet.
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  SPEAKER_00: And for law firms,
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  SPEAKER_00: for us,
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  SPEAKER_00: for marketers of small businesses,
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  reviews are probably the most important type of user-generated
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  content that we're
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  SPEAKER_00: in charge of cultivating.
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  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna start with the very beginning.
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  Basically how I put this outline for this talk today is by
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  answering a lot of the
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  SPEAKER_00: commonly asked questions that we get about our reviews.
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  SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna start at the top and work my way down.
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  And so the first question kind of naturally is where should we
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  get reviews?
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  SPEAKER_00: And the answer seems pretty obvious.
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  SPEAKER_00: Oh, hold on one second.
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  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm just making sure it was recording.
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  SPEAKER_00: Um, but that's Google, right?
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  SPEAKER_00: Um,
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  SPEAKER_00: Google is the gold standard of online reviews currently,
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  SPEAKER_00: although that could change,
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  SPEAKER_00: but they are certainly not the only review platform.
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  SPEAKER_00: Whenever we're looking at how do we increase reviews for our law firm,
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  SPEAKER_00: we're looking at all the different platforms.
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  SPEAKER_00: We're looking at Google,
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  SPEAKER_00: we're looking at Yelp,
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  SPEAKER_00: we're looking at Avvo,
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  SPEAKER_00: Better Business Bureau,
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  and other directory websites that may offer some sort of review
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  or ranking system.
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  SPEAKER_00: Really on all of these platforms,
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  SPEAKER_00: we want to cultivate a review presence or a review library,
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  SPEAKER_00: but Google by far is the most important.
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  SPEAKER_00: And it makes sense when you think about it,
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  because if you've ever pushed your SEO company or you yourself
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  have been pushed to
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  SPEAKER_00: get better results from Google business,
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  SPEAKER_00: the reply back to you or the law firm is usually more reviews,
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  SPEAKER_00: right?
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  SEO companies really lean on those Google reviews to make a
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  Google business listing
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  SPEAKER_00: perform really,
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  SPEAKER_00: really well,
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  SPEAKER_00: right?
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  So Google reviews aren't just a way for us to convince people
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  to hire us.
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  SPEAKER_00: They're not just used to evaluate our services.
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  They are literally a part of the ranking factor that Google
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  uses to determine how
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  SPEAKER_00: they place our business in the map pack.
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  SPEAKER_00: So reviews are important for that reason,
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  but they're also important because that's the place people go
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  to check on your
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  SPEAKER_00: reputation.
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  SPEAKER_00: And we'll be talking a little bit about that later in the talk today.
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  So we're looking at all of the platforms and we're trying to
• 7:02
  increase our view
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  SPEAKER_00: count on all of these,
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  SPEAKER_00: including Yelp.
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  SPEAKER_00: Business owners, all of my business owners, really hate Yelp.
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  SPEAKER_00: If we've never talked about Yelp and I bring up Yelp,
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  SPEAKER_00: the first thing they say is how much they hate Yelp.
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  SPEAKER_00: If you hate Yelp, type it in the chat.
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  SPEAKER_00: Yelp is kind of notorious.
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  SPEAKER_00: If you get a review on Yelp,
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  it's probably like got a 75% chance of going into the not
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  recommended folder,
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  SPEAKER_00: right?
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  And whenever reviews land in that not recommended folder,
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  people don't usually see them.
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  And so you can work really hard to get a legitimate Yelp review
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  and it not
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  SPEAKER_00: recommend or it not be recommended on the platform to viewers,
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  SPEAKER_00: right?
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  So you can put all that work into getting that review and then
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  not do anything for you.
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  And the factors that influence if a review shows up on Yelp
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  largely has to do with
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  SPEAKER_00: how active that person is on the platform,
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  SPEAKER_00: right?
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  SPEAKER_00: So when we talk about how do we cultivate Yelp reviews,
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  SPEAKER_00: we're usually talking about,
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  SPEAKER_00: okay,
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  SPEAKER_00: we have to figure out,
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  SPEAKER_00: are they Google users or are they Yelp users?
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  SPEAKER_00: Because if they're Yelp users, we need to send them to Yelp, right?
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  But that's hard to do,
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  and we'll get into some of the automations and stuff a little
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  bit later.
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  SPEAKER_00: But Yelp is still very important.
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  SPEAKER_00: In certain pockets of communities,
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  Yelp is probably more authoritative as a review source than
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  Google Business at
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  SPEAKER_00: large,
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  SPEAKER_00: or Google in general,
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  SPEAKER_00: right?
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  And Yelp,
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  or not Yelp,
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  I'm sorry,
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  Avvo also has reviews where people can leave reviews.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now, we haven't really collectively, we, the legal industry,
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  I don't feel like has really paid a whole lot of attention to
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  Yelp until maybe the
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  SPEAKER_00: last 16 months or so.
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  SPEAKER_00: Because Yelp is one of those platforms that influences ChatGPT.
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  SPEAKER_00: And when you ask ChatGPT who are the best lawyers in my region,
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  SPEAKER_00: they're going to look at AVO,
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  SPEAKER_00: they're going to look at Justia,
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  SPEAKER_00: they're going to look at all of these other super lawyers.
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  SPEAKER_00: They're going to look at all of these directories.
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  SPEAKER_00: And if you're a super lawyer,
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  SPEAKER_00: or you have a lot of AVO reviews,
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  SPEAKER_00: or you have a lot of Justia reviews,
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  ChatGPT is going to use that information and potentially reach
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  the conclusion that
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  you are the best attorney in that category and present that
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  data to people querying
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  SPEAKER_00: ChatGPT.
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  SPEAKER_00: So we haven't paid much attention to Yelp,
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  but Yelp is still a place that is important in this whole
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  review ecosystem.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then there's better business bureau.
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  SPEAKER_00: Um,
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  SPEAKER_00: I didn't really have too much to say about better business bureau,
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  SPEAKER_00: except it's a high domain authority site.
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  SPEAKER_00: You should have a profile there.
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  And it's always nice if you have some good reviews on better
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  business bureau.
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  SPEAKER_00: Um,
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  SPEAKER_00: and then actually just this morning,
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  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if he's here on the call,
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  SPEAKER_00: but I was talking with one of my marketers who,
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  SPEAKER_00: uh,