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Genius Success Story: Four Years of Growth and Expansion

Last Updated: October 19, 2021

We’re back with a new client success story!

This week, we’re showcasing the amazing progress of Professional Answering Service.

An answering service for businesses and organizations, Professional Answering Service joined our program in March 2017. They started with a CoreSite for a single location in Cleveland, OH.

Since then, in addition to their CoreSite, they’ve signed up for several other Prospect Genius products, including:

  • Google Local Listing Optimization
  • Directory Dominator
  • Press Release Writing and Syndication
  • SocialStart
  • AdTrax
  • MapTrax
  • Custom Web Services
  • CallTrax
  • Facebook Ads

Thanks to their investment in our program and their own commitment to quality service, they grew and grew. In 2021, they launched their fifth location!

Today, Professional Answering Service continues to outperform expectations and dominate their sector. Their monthly lead volume over the past year—a notoriously challenging year for small businesses—speaks for itself:

Monthly leads from September 2020 through September 2021

Congratulations to Professional Answering Service on their incredible success!

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HomeAdvisor Isn't Doing Enough for Your Web Presence

Last Updated: February 16, 2017

Are you one of the countless small business owners who pay a directory like HomeAdvisor, Angie’s List, or Thumbtack? We don’t blame you. When you’re actively using them, paid directory services can be super helpful in producing leads for your company.
Because you’re getting leads on a somewhat regular basis, some business owners make the mistake of only using a directory. They never end up investing in any other form of web presence, like their own website. Unfortunately, not owning any type of permanent platform for your business outside of a paid directory is a bad move.
One listing that’s essentially a landing page is simply not enough to sustain your business’s online marketing needs. Here’s why.

There’s No Other Way to Find You

If your HomeAdvisor listing is the only place someone can find you online, then you’re literally paying for any lead coming from the web. It’s fine to pay for customers who discover your business for the first time on the directory. But what about those customers who already know about you? They google your business name to find your website, but all they can find is your HomeAdvisor listing. So they call you via your listing, and you end up paying for this lead—a lead you would have gotten on your own anyway.
Doesn’t it make more sense to have a permanent place (your own website) where people can find you outside of that one directory? Otherwise, you’ll be stuck paying for all of your leads until whenever you end your enrollment—which begs the question: Then what?

You’re Stranded If You Quit

When you end your working relationship with an online directory, one of two things will happen:

  • The directory takes down your listing, OR
  • The directory leaves your listing up

Neither of these scenarios is great if your paid directory listing is your business’s only online platform. If your listing is taken down completely, then there won’t be a trace of your business anywhere online. Obviously, this is a problem because you want prospective customers to be able to find you when they’re searching for your services.
On the other hand, if the directory leaves your listing up, then your business will continue to attract prospective customers. However, because you no longer pay for the directory’s services, leads from your listing won’t actually come to you anymore. Instead, they’ll be forwarded straight to your local competitors. This is an extension of the typical directory model, which is to send incoming leads to multiple businesses at the same time and essentially have them compete for the job. So if you end your program and are no longer paying for leads, the directory will just forward your leads to other businesses in the same location and category as you. The only difference is that you no longer get the opportunity to compete for the job!
To sum it up: When a paid directory service is your only web presence, and then you eventually quit that program, you’re left with no presence at all or one that only helps your competitors.

Your Own Website Gives You Control

We want to be clear: There’s nothing wrong with using a paid directory service like Angie’s List, HomeAdvisor, Porch, and so on. Lots of businesses have great success with these types of services.
However, you must have your own website outside of the directory service. Owning a website means you have full control over all the information you put out there. Plus, you don’t need to pay anyone else for leads that come from basic Google searches for your services and/or business name.
Additionally, a website allows you to branch out and expand your online marketing to other, free directories like Yelp, Foursquare, Citysearch, Google Places, and Bing Local. You can link to your own website from your listings on these directories and increase your overall web visibility that way.
The bottom line? Don’t put all of your eggs in the paid directory basket. Make sure you own your web presence outside of paid directory services so you can control your own destiny.

How to Make a Great First Impression With Your Company Website

Last Updated: March 16, 2016

First impressions are everything. And if you’re a business owner, you want to be sure you’re making the best impression possible on your desired customers.
Most business owners already take steps to ensure this. You give your employees professional uniforms, make your storefront clean and appealing, and conduct yourself in a friendly, personable manner.
However, few business owners realize that first impressions happen before you even meet the customer. That’s because they happen online. From the moment prospective customers discover your company website in a search, they begin forming opinions. Do you appear professional? Do you seem like an expert in your field? Do you relate to your customers? Any visitor to your website will be asking these questions in their minds, whether they’re aware of it or not. It’s your job to answer these questions before they’re even asked.
So, how well are you representing your business online? What kind of first impression are you giving your customers?
In this post, we’ll give you tips on how to improve your company website so it represents your business in the most flattering light possible.

Make Your Products and Services 100% Clear

Have you ever visited a website and left after a minute because you couldn’t quite figure out what that business was offering? It happens all too often. So, to be safe, make your company’s products and/or services 100% clear. List every service in plain, simple terms.
Leave no room for doubt.
Even if you offer lots of different services in different categories, don’t be vague about it. Cover everything. Your site’s visitors should know within seconds what type of business you are and, more importantly, what you can offer them.

Choose Simplicity Over Razzle-Dazzle

Remember: Less is more. Don’t overflow your company website with bells and whistles. Don’t auto-play music upon entering the site. Don’t have Flash graphics. Don’t use hard-to-read fonts or blinding, neon colors. All of these elements run the risk of overwhelming your site’s visitors and turning them away.

Showcase Your Expertise

Prove you’re knowledgeable, reliable, and experienced. Discuss your training, industry-specific licenses (if applicable), and any other qualifications that make you an ideal choice for your prospective customer.

Match Your Image to Your Desired Customers

If you offer manual services like paving, appliance repairs, plumbing, electrical, and so on, then you probably work with a wide range of customers. In that case, it’s best to keep your website right in the middle of the road in terms of design. Don’t make it too primitive, or prospective customers won’t take you seriously. But don’t make it too chic, either, or they’ll think you’re too expensive. Think Goldilocks.
On the other hand, if you work in a high-paying field, like tax resolution or IT consulting, then it’s a good idea to demonstrate your professionalism with a sophisticated, elegant website design. Prospective customers will perceive your value through your website, so take this opportunity to show (not tell) how much your services are worth.

Use a Professional E-Mail Address

Last but not least: your e-mail address. To be clear, we don’t recommend displaying your e-mail address in plain text on your site. This sets you up for mountains of spam e-mails from bots. Instead, we recommend having a contact form for visitors to fill out.
However, just because you aren’t displaying your e-mail address doesn’t mean you don’t need to worry about how it looks! After your prospects have e-mailed you, you don’t want them to see a response from an unprofessional e-mail address. This could seriously lower their opinion of your business.
For this reason, an e-mail address at a corporate domain is ideal. A corporate domain makes you look like an established, successful business. At the same time, though, it’s not realistic to expect every single business to have access to a corporate domain. So, at the very least, you should have a company address from Gmail or Yahoo. These addresses are free and they look way more professional than your 15-year-old AOL address.
Read more about company e-mail addresses in our previous post, “Why You Should Give Your E-Mail Address a Makeover.”

Understand What’s Attractive—and What’s Not

Overall, many business owners misunderstand what’s “attractive” to the average consumer. It’s not about having the flashiest or most elaborate website design. Instead, it’s about having clear content that will make a prospective customer want to hire you. After all, you don’t make money from people spending time on your site. You make money from people who ultimately decide to call you and hire you. And quality content, not those flashy, “gee-whiz” features, is what drives people to call you.
Ensure your site has quality content by knowing who your desired customers are. Know what they’re looking for and what you can offer them. Then, present this to them through your company website. You only get one chance to make a first impression, so make it count.
 

HomeAdvisor: Helping Large Companies Crush Small Ones

Last Updated: December 22, 2014

multi-tasking man being stepped on by a shoe
Are you using HomeAdvisor to locally market your appliance repair company? You’re joined by hundreds of other nearby appliance services, many of which are at a huge disadvantage. You’ve probably gotten this feeling already—that the game is rigged in favor of larger companies with greater resources—and we’re here to confirm your suspicions. HomeAdvisor is bad for small businesses like yours.
Let’s start off with the most obvious pain point: the speed at which you’re forced to respond to leads. By now, you’ve realized that the only way to be successful on HomeAdvisor is to respond immediately to any and all leads that come your way. However, as a small, one- or two-man operation, that means you have to balance your work with answering the phone and hunting down leads. As you know firsthand, it’s awfully difficult to answer the phone when you’re already on another job with your hands inside a dishwasher or squeezed behind a refrigerator. Frankly, it’s unrealistic for a small appliance repair outfit like yours to land these jobs unless you happen to be free at the moment the call comes in. This is where big businesses get a huge leg up on you.
While this unrealistic demand for immediacy is enough of an obstacle, there’s another major problem with HomeAdvisor: the cost. At the start of your program, you agree to pay a certain amount per lead. But based on the feedback we’ve heard from many of our clients (who are small business owners like you and former HomeAdvisor customers), leads are often shared with as many as five to ten other businesses. You probably already had a feeling that the odds were stacked against you, but let’s do the math: If leads are shared with five different businesses, then that means you have a one-in-five chance of closing each lead. So, if you think about it, you’re actually paying five times as much for every lead you finally do close. On top of that, we’ve heard reports from our clients that HomeAdvisor would occasionally charge them far more than what they were told they’d be charged per lead. Has that ever happened to you? Clearly, HomeAdvisor is rigged in favor of big businesses with big budgets, because most small companies like yours are hurt by such an expensive, unpredictable investment.
But that’s not even the most frustrating part, is it? You know that even when you do respond to a lead in time, there’s a significant chance that the prospect on the other end is looking for a service that you don’t even provide! That’s because HomeAdvisor is fundamentally incentivized to send you as many leads as possible, even if they’re barely relevant to your company. The reason for that is simple: The more leads HomeAdvisor sends you, the more money it makes. Since HomeAdvisor will still charge you for a bad lead, you’ll not only be taking time away from work to track it down, but you’ll actually be losing money on it, too. Again, big companies might not have a problem with this, as they have plenty of room in their budgets. You, on the other hand, really feel the consequences of HomeAdvisor’s poorly designed services.
It’s no wonder HomeAdvisor has a one-star rating on ConsumerAffairs.com.
Prospect Genius took all of the above pain points into account when we created our lead generation program. We take great care to ensure that our goals are the same as your goals, that our success is dependent on your success. Unlike HomeAdvisor, our Core package uses SEO (search engine optimization) to generate leads and only requires a flat, monthly fee. We provide you with your own fully functional website and metered phone number. This way, when a prospective customer discovers your website or Google listing and dials that phone number, they will be calling you directly. You won’t have to go on a wild goose chase for leads that four or five other businesses are also hunting down. You can respond at your earliest convenience (although promptness should always be a priority) without worrying that you’ve automatically lost a job. Best of all, it doesn’t favor big businesses over small ones. Everyone has an equal shot at success.
You don’t need an “advisor,” you need a partner! Prospect Genius champions small businesses like yours. We offer a wide variety of online marketing tools that will match any budget. Go ahead and browse our advertising services—or better yet, give us a call for a pressure-free chat with one of our representatives! It’ll only take five minutes to figure out if we have products that make sense for your particular situation.
Stop working harder than you have to—and stop lining the pockets of a company that’s only helping your larger competitors get a leg up on you!
Call now at (800-689-1273).

Put Your Trust in Online Reviews

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

They say you can’t believe everything you read on the Internet—but try telling that to online consumers. A recent study shows that nearly 80% of consumers in the U.S. and Canada trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
That’s why our blog covers the topic of customer reviews so heavily. With the vast majority of consumers making decisions based on the reviews that they read, it’s clear that reviews are an extremely valuable asset to any business, no matter what industry you’re part of.  

Why Should You Care?

If the above statistic doesn’t impress you, consider this: We’ve seen firsthand what collecting customer reviews has done for our own clients. The below examples illustrate an increase in leads over time as each client’s online advertising campaign continued. These particular clients are prime examples of what can happen when you persist in populating your business listings with customer reviews.
Client A:
performance graph - c+e-appl
This graph shows the slow and steady trajectory of one client’s leads per month. Their leads dipped in March 2014, due to a glitch that caused their listing to all but vanish from Google, but you’ll notice that their number of monthly leads has already climbed back up and exceeded the previous peak. How did they manage that? Simply by cultivating a significant number of reviews on Google+, Bing, Yelp, Facebook, and other platforms.
Client B:
performance graph - conner
This client shows a similar upward trajectory. Again, the success of their campaign is significantly generated by their high volume of customer reviews on various listings.
Take a look at the numbers in both of the above examples. Client A received close to 400 calls in June 2014, while Client B received roughly 280. Wouldn’t you like to see those kinds of results? The best way to do that is to get your customers to leave you reviews online.

How to Get Reviews

The next logical question is, “How do you get customers to leave reviews?” The honest answer is that it’s not easy. It takes a lot of persistence. But if you keep your nose down, work hard, and satisfy your customers, then you’ll get better responses when you do ask them for reviews.
You might think, I’m not getting any reviews because people only write reviews when they have something to complain about. That’s what conventional wisdom tells us, but the facts actually show the opposite: 75% of reviews posted on review sites are positive.
We suggest a tactical approach when soliciting customer reviews so you can be sure that you have reviews on only the most valuable platforms. Get a minimum of 10 reviews on the following platforms, in the following order, for the best results:

  1. Google+ — Obviously, Google+ has the most value in the eyes of Google. Reviews from your company’s Google+ page could appear right on Google’s search results pages, so prospects can see right away what previous customers think.
  2. Yelp — Yelp is a popular tool among local consumers who are actively looking for a specific service. Although it better serves brick-and-mortar businesses, it holds a lot of weight in both Google and Bing’s algorithms. Bing even pulls Yelp pages directly when compiling search results.
  3. Facebook — The vast majority of U.S. adults have a Facebook profile, so it should be the default choice for customers who aren’t as tech savvy as others. And while it doesn’t hold as much SEO value as Google+ or Yelp, it does influence Bing’s search results, and that counts for something.

ASK DIRECTLY
As soon as you complete a job, e-mail that customer and ask for a review. In the e-mail, include a link to your Google+, Yelp, or Facebook page (or all three and let the customer choose) so the process is as convenient as possible for them.
You can even add short URLs or reminders on business cards, invoices, and newsletters—anything that you distribute to your customers. It’s also a good idea to send along instructions so less savvy individuals don’t get lost.
ASK THE SKEPTICS
Steve Young, author of “5 Clever Ways to Get Customer Reviews That Convert,” offers an important tip: “Rather than asking for testimonials from your customers who immediately fall in love with your offering, try to look for those that were first skeptical.” Doing this will address and soothe prospective customers’ concerns and lead to higher conversion rates.
WRITE YOUR OWN
Young also recommends drafting a detailed review (full of specifics about the solutions you provided) on behalf of your customers and sending it to them. If they approve, they can just copy and post it, making their lives a heck of a lot easier. Plus, reviews that contain measurable results pack a lot more punch when prospects read them.
BE STRAIGHTFORWARD
Even casual Internet users these days will recognize that reviewing and sharing experiences is what drives most online activity. And, as we’re all consumers, we know that we like to read reviews and do our research before purchasing a product or committing to a contractor. So just be frank with your customers: You need reviews for your business. They’ll understand.
Nellie Akalp, a contributing writer at Mashable.com, gives the following recommendation:

You can say something as simple as, “Your opinion matters to us and to other customers, so we’d be really appreciative if you take a few moments to review your experience,” or “Do you read online reviews? We do, and so do other customers. That’s why we’d love it if you take a few moments to review your experience.”

Don’t Get Discouraged

Most importantly, don’t get discouraged if customers don’t immediately flood your pages with reviews. It takes time to get an impressive number, but you’ll be all the better for it when they finally do come in. We at Prospect Genius, in our own efforts to collect customer reviews, have to regularly remind ourselves that a page full of reviews doesn’t happen overnight. Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Be patient, be persistent, and keep going the extra mile for your customers. Eventually, your business will have the reviews it deserves.

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