Blog Articles from Fawkes Digital Marketing

Online reviews are the modern word-of-mouth -- and they're often the deciding factor between a customer choosing you or a competitor. In fact, over 90% of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business, and businesses with more positive reviews rank higher in local search results on platforms like Google.

In today's digital landscape, your business reputation is a critical component of success. A strong, positive reputation not only builds customer trust but also directly impacts business growth and online visibility. Reputation management is about proactively managing how your business is perceived online, ensuring that your brand message aligns with customer experiences and expectations. Here's why every business should prioritize reputation management—and how it can improve SEO as an added advantage.

Buying reviews, using AI-generated testimonials, and suppressing negative feedback are among the practices that could land you in hot water with the Feds.Lina Khan, chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), announced on Monday that a new ban on fake online reviews and testimonials has now gone into effect. The rules are aimed at protecting consumers from unscrupulous reviews, which could misleadingly influence their decision to purchase a product.

A few years ago, when we started working with marketing companies, we talked to them about tactics and what the best items to do were when it came to helping businesses grow and be found online without spending tons of money on paid ads. Most of these companies worked with medium-sized businesses while we focus on small business. This brought in a ton of different ideas and topics that helped all of our businesses grow. One highly talked about topic was review and reputation management for companies. The marketing companies we talked to were going "old school" (e.g. postcards, flyers, or letters) as they had specific business reasons and we were moving to the electronic frontier for our small business customers. Both methods are valid and I can say the marketing companies we work with in Illinois and here in Indiana are now all digital for several reasons but it did take them, and their customers, to realize the old school method was making them look like dinosaurs. I am going to look at three ways old-school marketing companies are (or were) doing review management and why it is hurting your business model if you are doing so.

You have either started or have had your small business running in towns like Valparaiso, Chesterton, Merrillville, Hobart, Portage, or (insert your small town here). You compete with great customer service, quality products, and that local small town flare. But how are you able to compete against big corporations that seem to have endless marketing budgets at their disposal? Today we are going to dig into some of the "tricks of the SEO trade" that we have used time-and-time again to help small businesses grow. Are you ready and willing to get more business and grow? If so, continue to read on and learn some of our proven techniques on growing your small business.