For businesses, do-it-yourself online reputation management is like herding cats. No matter what you try to do, your reputation seems to be running in ten thousand different directions. A yellow one runs left and just when you grab it, a calico one darts between your legs. Turn around to chase it, and the rest of the group takes off.

Before you know it, you’re all tied up in knots, and your online reputation is a mess. To add to the frustration, your competitors don’t seem to be facing the same problem. When you look them up online, all their reputation “cats” seem to be marching in a nice, orderly row.

So. What gives?

Well, it sounds like your competition has discovered the important trick of working with a pro. Someone who understands the ins-and-outs of getting those cats to march in a line, and has the tools to do it. Luckily, now you can, too!

At The Get Smart Group, we can help you deploy our proven system to manage your online reputation, and boost your SEO in the process. Sounds like a pretty good deal, right?

Customer reviews – the drivers of your online reputation – weigh heavily on consumer buying decisions. In fact, just one negative review can make up to 22 percent of potential buyers reconsider buying from YOU. Increase that to three negative reviews, and you’ve lost about 59 percent of your potential customers. Pile on more bad reviews and your pool of potential customers continues to shrink.

Once those bad reviews exist, there isn’t a lot you can do about them. It’s unlikely they’ll go away. If you can, you should reach out publicly (and professionally!) to the customer who left it and try to resolve the issue. But the absolute best course of action is to provide excellent customer service and get those customers to leave positive reviews. That’s what our system helps you do. Ask for reviews. Manage potentially negative reviews with service recovery. And put your business at the top of the reputation management mountain.

Yes, it’s a tall mountain. But The Get Smart Group can help you get to the top – with all of your cats.

Have you ever considered how your ad color/branding color choices affect lead capture for better or for worse?

At The Get Smart Group, we consider color choices very carefully. Certain colors can stimulate certain emotions. One can use specific colors to target particular demographics, increasing engagement and sales amongst those in that targeted buyer segment.

This topic is a reminder of one of the most famous (or infamous) examples of the consequence of color in marketing:

Edward Bernays, Sigmund Freud’s nephew and legendary (or notorious) public relations pioneer (or propagandist) saved/made unknown amounts of money for Lucky Strike Cigarettes back in the 1930’s by convincing American women through various publicity stunts (anonymously funded by Lucky Strike) that smoking was hip for ladies and that a certain shade of green was fashionable and hip at a time when said shade of green had been thought of as just the opposite.

Bernays, with the help of his friends in high places, endeavored to create the positive buzz surrounding that certain shade of green because it was the brand’s color and money had already been spent on packaging in that color. To discard the packaging would have been to discard the money paid for that packaging.

Ed’s understanding of “crowd psychology” and his efforts in that Lucky campaign started a green fad and a smoking trend among women of the era, nationally and perhaps even beyond – all in the name of saving money/making money for his employer.

Our suggestion is not that one needs to generate buzz around unpopular colors or fabricate social trends out of thin air, the point is simply to take heed of the power of color and social trends in regards to any contemporary marketing strategy.

Another example:

Do you think that a certain (115 year old) American motorcycle company would enjoy the success that it does today if instead of capitalizing on an assumed outlaw image, said company changed its colors, logo, and promotional materials in such a way that contravened the desperado image and departed from the brand’s celebrated history? You get the point…

So consider your own brand, your own history, your own customers – and your desired customers and their values. As younger generations grow into adults, professionals, and homeowners, you need to find ways to reach them whilst staying true to your company’s history, values, and niche.

It can be a delicate balance, but with solid branding and the right marketing (ever important color selection falls under both of these umbrellas) your business could someday celebrate a centennial.

Call The Get Smart Group for a FREE 30 minute marketing consultation. We want to help you forge your identity.

Peaceful mountain streams.
Peaceful snowfalls.
Peaceful walks through the park.

Some peaceful things like these are relatively easy to find.

While others, well, they can remain more elusive:
Peaceful night’s dinner out with a toddler.
Peaceful grocery shopping with a toddler.

Peace of mind.

That last one may be the most elusive of all. And yet, the one we look the hardest for. So how in the world do you find it, especially as a business owner when you’re working so hard every day to keep your business running, and spending hours on tasks that may not be the things you’re best at?

It’s pretty simple: You hire the experts at The Get Smart Group to handle that stuff for you.

Facebook and Google advertising not really your cup of tea? No problem! We handle this for our clients everyday, helping them achieve success and meet their sales goals.

Don’t consider yourself a marketing guru? We have you covered! From graphic design and social media planning to web content creation, radio and video project management, even corporate communications consultation and more, The Get Smart Group has the resources and expertise you can depend on.

Tired of trying to chase your online reputation and boost your SEO? Let us do it for you! We consistently employ a variety of tactics for our clients to help them obtain the results they’re looking for.

Need a robust CRM to track your marketing campaigns and leads, get insights into your web traffic and generate customizable sales reports? How about one that integrates with your merchant account to help you manage online store purchases? Yeah, we do that, too.

Think of us like the peace of mind fairies, waving our magic wand, solving your marketing problems and – yes – giving you that elusive peace of mind.

Just … don’t look to us if you also have a toddler in the house. You’re on your own with that, mate. 

At The Get Smart Group, we’re all about helping you succeed. When you work with us, we build an executable plan and deliver the tools you need so you and your team can function at your absolute best. Sure, we’ll schedule your Facebook posts. But we’ll also help you attract leads, close sales, and follow up – all without breaking a sweat.

Why? Because it’s what we do. After all, “Do More” is one of our core values.

In that spirit, we wanted to tell about some free Google tools that can help you take your business to the next level. No, these aren’t related to SEO and analytics – these are straight-up business tools Google spent years researching and designing to help business owners, managers, and entrepreneurs be more effective. And Google uses these tools themselves. Give these tools a look, and put into practice what you can. We think you’ll find real value here.

Manager Feedback Survey: This survey lets your employees offer developmental feedback on your managers (or, on you). The only way to improve as a manager is to learn what your employees really think.

New Manager Training: These customizable tools are designed to help people new to management learn the necessary skills.

Career Conversation Worksheet: Having regular career conversations with your employees is helpful to them, and to you. Use this worksheet to help focus your conversation.

Job Interview Rubric: A rubric can help you assess candidates fairly and consistently, and easily compare answers. Rather than developing one yourself – just use Google’s!

Job description Checklist: Writing good job descriptions that are clear, structured, and consistent isn’t always easy. A checklist can help you make sure you include everything you need to.

This is just a sampling of the tools Google has made available. To view them all, plus tons of great content about working, managing, hiring, and innovating in today’s business environment, check out Google’s reWork blog.

Have you ever looked around your store and wondered, “Where did all this inventory come from?!?”

It’s OK. Most business owners do. (It can really sneak up on you, can’t it?)

Maybe you bought too much of something that sold well at first, but then the leftovers were moved to the back when you needed the display space for something else. Maybe the items you bought never really sold well at all. Or, maybe, you just had to make room for the next year’s models.

Either way, extra inventory sure is easy to accumulate. Getting rid of it? Well, that’s another story. But there is a solution – an inventory clearance sale can be a great way to reduce the stock on your shelves and liquidate your inventory before the end of the year.

Stop looking at the calendar – there’s plenty of time! (With our expert help, of course.)

The Get Smart Group can help you put together a one-time inventory clearance sale show that will maximize your promotion budget and drive traffic to your event so you can capture leads, boost sales, and make plenty of room for next year’s inventory.

We work with our customers to build their sales from the ground up, helping them decide on strategy and promotions. Then our team really gets to work, building custom web domains, Google display and search ads, and a targeted Facebook advertising campaign designed to reach exactly the right audience.

Custom, mobile-friendly landing pages? Yep.

Targeted social cover images? Yep.

Personalized phone number, just for your show? Yep.

Why do we do all this? To build interest and drive foot traffic to your event, so you can have a successful sale and Move. That. Inventory.

Intrigued? Contact us today.

Certain things happen this time of year. Temperatures begin to drop. Leaves fall from the trees. (Well, in most areas of the country.) Smoke rises from chimneys and the scent of woodsmoke is in the air. Our thoughts turn to the holidays (even though most of us don’t want to admit it), and winter coats come out of hibernation.

Yep. It’s show season.

Sure, for the rest of the country it’s time to think about pumpkin pie, raking leaves and cozy evenings by the fire. But for us, it’s time to help our clients drive traffic to every show they’ll attend this season, and to “wow” all those potential customers when they get there.

Lucky for us, we’ve got this in the bag.

Using proven techniques in information gathering, asset development and online strategy, The Get Smart Group focuses our talent, expertise and resources on what your business needs to achieve show success.

We work closely with you from the start to generate ideas for your show and develop all the creative. We make sure you sign off on everything before we take the campaign live, from targeted online ads to custom website landing pages and a custom phone number.

Once we’re up and running, we’ll help you track call leads, follow-up leads automatically using our Infusionsoft CRM or an email system, and create a custom form so you can capture leads on a tablet computer at your event.

Smooth. Easy. Slick. And no lost leads.

When the show is over, we’ll meet with you to review the results of the campaign. What worked? What could work better? Let’s talk about it, and learn from all of it to make the next campaign even better.

Then, when the trees have that first blush of green, when tulips and paperwhites are just beginning to poke through the fallen leaves still scattered on the forest floor, when the winter coats return to hibernation and the rain boots make their annual appearance, you’ll know what time it is.

That’s right. It’s pool-digging, spa-installing season. And thanks to that successful show, it’s gonna be a busy one!

Let’s face facts. Online reviews play a huge role in the way consumers make their buying decisions. Some research indicates as many as 90% (!) of consumers say positive reviews influence their purchasing choices. Plus, the user-generated content of positive reviews can really help your SEO.

You know what that means. It’s time to get off the sidelines and into the game.

Have you ever checked your online reviews? Go on. Don’t be afraid to look. Filter the view through your fingers if you have to. We’ll wait.

Take your time. Don’t mind us …

So. How was it?

If you’re lucky, they weren’t too bad but maybe offer room for improvement. But if you’re like most small business owners, your reviews are either non-existent or shockingly poor. It hurts, doesn’t it?

Walk it off. It’s time to move the ball down the field.

On your own, there are some things you can do to begin improving your online reviews today:

• Consistently providing amazing service and an amazing product is one thing, sure.
• If you get reviews – both negative and positive, you should respond honestly and openly. If the review is positive, make that enthusiastically!
• Encourage your happy customers to leave reviews for your business.
• If you can make it easy for them with an in-store kiosk, even better.

These things are all a great start, and will help. But if you really want to make a difference, there’s still plenty of time left in the half to save the game. Take the field with Get Smart Reputation and get immediate insights into your online reviews, learn how to increase the testimonials you receive, and be alerted to potential negative feedback so you can stop it before it ever hits the internet.

It’s not a Hail Mary pass. It’s how champions play the game.