Review Collection Strategy: The Ultimate Guide for Agencies

As a consumer, you’re familiar with websites such as TripAdvisor and Yelp to help sway your purchasing decision. But, the influence of customer reviews isn’t subject to just one industry. Whether your marketing agency has reviews, or you’re just getting started, implementing a review collection strategy is an invaluable asset to your business.

The key to client reviews is consistency. As a marketing agency, you’re busy managing your client’s and their campaigns. Fortunately, crafting a perfect review strategy doesn’t need to break the bank or eat up all your time.

We’ve put together the ultimate review collection strategy for agencies. Let’s dive in!

Why Are Client Reviews Important to Marketing Agencies?

The digital marketing landscape is completely saturated, but what industry isn’t in 2022. Across the board, businesses are struggling to build trust and credibility with today’s customers. For the B2B industry, buyers are incredibly technology-driven and have higher expectations than consumers. Almost every industry was hit hard by the pandemic. If a business is going to invest in your agency, they want to know they’re working with a reputable and experienced business. 

Social proof is crucial when it comes to building trust with prospects and existing clients. Authentic feedback and testimonials from other businesses are incredibly important as they help validate your services and solutions for the buyer.

And reviews aren’t just beneficial for buyers. Agencies can utilize customer reviews to keep tabs on their current and previous clients’ sentiments about their services and experiences. 

Implementing a strong review collection strategy for your agency will help:

• Build trust with today’s wary buyer by providing authentic social proof
• Spread brand awareness and attract prospects
• Buyers compare and evaluate businesses during the decision-making process (say goodbye to agency bake-offs)

The Ultimate Review Collection Strategy for Agencies

1. Decide Where You Are Going to House Your Reviews

There are a number of websites that allow for your agency to house client reviews. But, businesses don’t (and won’t) want to spend the time to find the most recent testimonials. The first key step in a successful review collection strategy is considering where your propsects will be. The whole idea is to have this information easily accessible to buyers. 

Some examples of review management platforms that are out there are:

• Agency Vista: Ideal for marketing agencies.
• G2Crowd: Mostly used by software.
• Glassdoor: Platform for employers where potential employees will go.

Your agency may have already started to collect reviews on your Facebook Page or GoogleMyBusiness account. That’s a great start! Although, having reviews on multiple websites doesn’t always work in your favour. These platforms can get easily spammed with fake reviews and managing your review strategy across multiple platforms can get challenging. 

The good news is that Agency Vista profile’s allow for you to connect your current reviews from your Facebook page or GoogleMyBusiness account so you don’t lose those testimonials. 

2. Evaluate Your Agency Vista Profile

Agencies should evaluate their current Agency Vista profile and ensure that it is completely filled out with current details about your business. This is how prospects learn more about your agency, so if there is limited verified information available on your profile, they’ll likely move on to another agency. Remember, the more information, the better.

To connect your existing reviews from your Facebook page or GoogleMyBusiness account, follow the steps below:

1. Log-in to your Agency Vista profile.
2. On the top menu bar, select the ‘Reviews‘ category.
3. On the top right side of the page there will be an option to ‘Add or Request Reviews‘, click this option.
4. A drop-down list will appear with ‘Add Facebook Reviews‘ or ‘Add Google Reviews‘. Click the platform you’d like to input your reviews from.
5. This will take you to sign in to your Google account and input the reviews. 

Your Agency Vista profile gives you a chance to differentiate from your competitors and convert more visitors into buyers. Not only can you connect existing reviews, but you can add reviews and request reviews directly from your profile. 

3. Collect Client Reviews

Now that you have a designated place to house all of your client reviews, you can use simple review collection strategies to maximize this feedback.

If you already have reviews and are wary of requesting the same client to write another review, try reworking your messaging or incentivizing it. Your clients have the same end goal you do, which is growing your business. Instead of focusing on a review of their overall experience with your agency, ask for a review of a current service you provided or a review of an employee they worked with on a project. 

Communicating the ‘why‘ helps your clients understand the importance and value of reviews for your business. A common review collection strategy is providing an incentive, like a gift card, in exchange for the testimonial. Incentives create a sense of urgency and result in clients taking immediate action most of the time. 

Review Collection Strategy via Agency Vista

The best way to collect reviews and to actually receive them is through targeted invitations. Agency Vista takes away the burden of having to manually send out an email to each client by allowing for review invitations to be sent directly from your profile.

Review collection is made easy with automated and targeted emails that take away the hassle of manually sending them out. Not only that, but it’s also convenient for your clients as it takes them right to where the review will be placed. Meet your customers exactly where they are and provide a seamless user experience by utilizing Agency Vista review collection and integrations.

4. Optimize Your Review Strategy

Now that you’ve got your review collection strategy implemented, you’re probably wondering what’s next? Monitoring your strategy can help your agency improve methods and distribution to get the most from your testimonials.

Having your reviews accessible in one place provides a better user experience for prospects and existing clients. Be sure to leverage your current client reviews by sharing them on your website, in social media posts, and other marketing material.

Capturing reviews for your Agency Vista profile is valuable – but it doesn’t have to stop there. Display reviews on your website’s home page, service pages, and testimonial pages. You can include relevant reviews next to demo request forms and other contact pages to boost confidence in prospective buyers.

Agency Vista’s Premium plan creates and displays content for your agency to highlight your differentiators (through press releases, case studies, and newsletters inclusions), enabling third-party credibility and thought leadership. 

Wrapping Up

Although client reviews may seem like an industry-specific marketing tactic, they can provide essential information to understand your current clients better, convert prospects, and improve your service. A well-crafted review collection strategy simplifies the decision-making process by tapping into the influence of social proof. 

Not an Agency Vista member yet? Let us highlight your differentiators enabling third-party credibility and thought leadership. Upgrade to Premium today.