Getting reviews on Google is very important when it comes to growing and marketing your garage door business. Because of this, you need to focus on constantly attracting Google reviews — they make your local business profile more appealing.

Your Google My Business profile is often the first impression your company makes on a potential customer, as Google is the first option a consumer turns to when looking for a nearby service business.

Why? It’s convenient.

When a local search is performed on Google, the consumer is presented with search results that contain three sections: paid Google Ads, local Google Maps and organic results. The results in the Google Maps section stand out and command attention, simply because of the map and where they appear on the screen — directly in front of the person performing the search.

The results in the map section are those local businesses that have a Google My Business profile. This is what Google pulls from when determining when and where to display your business, making properly optimized contact information and a detailed business description vital to local visibility.

When a potential customer clicks on a listing in the map results, they are brought to your local business profile, displaying all of your contact information, location address, website, images and reviews — the total number of reviews and the average rating.

Reviews make your garage door business stand out and they can immediately instill consumer trust. When presented with multiple options, most consumers are going to naturally gravitate towards the business with a more reviews and a higher average rating.

Benefits of a Garage Door Marketing Campaign to Attract More Google Reviews

It is a very cut and dry process — get more Google reviews for your garage door business and attract more leads that eventually convert into customers. The more reviews you can attract, the more of an impact it will have on your business growth. Here are the main reasons why:

• Generate more garage door leads: A large majority of consumers trust online reviews the same way they would a personal recommendation from a friend or family member. Having a lot of positive reviews will help you attract more leads in the form of phone calls and estimate requests.
• Convert a higher percentage of leads into customers: After a potential lead speaks to your business there is a very high likelihood that they revisit your Google My Business profile and read through your reviews again. The more reviews you have, the higher the probability of that lead converting into a customer.
• Rank higher in the Google Maps results: Accumulating positive reviews on a consistent basis helps your visibility in the search results. Google’s local algorithm takes reviews into consideration, so the more amazing reviews you can attract, the higher your garage door business will rank in the local Google Maps results.

Now that you know why it’s important to focus your garage door marketing effort around attracting Google reviews, let’s dive into five strategies you need to implement. When combined together, these can help you constantly accumulate Google reviews.

1. Put a request (and a link to your Google My Business profile) in your email signature.

Think about how many emails you send out and reply to on a daily basis. Every email you send is an opportunity to attract a new Google review simply by adding a little blurb at the end of your email signature.

A subtle, “We love customer feedback. I’d greatly appreciate it if you took a few seconds to leave a review here” linked to your Google My Business profile at the bottom of your signature is an effortless way to attract Google reviews.

Even if it only leads to a few extra reviews a year, it’s ‘set it and forget it’ marketing — consider garage door Google reviews obtained via this strategy a nice bonus.

2. Hand out physical review cards.

One of the most effective ways to generate leads for a garage door business is to hand out a physical review card to every customer once you finish the job. For example, after wrapping up a garage door install you are going to speak to the customer, walk them through the operation, help them with the settings, etc.

This is the perfect time to hand them a card and say, “If you wouldn’t mind, I’d really appreciate it if you would leave us a review.” That is all you need to do — just ask.

Now, the key is to make the process as simple as possible.

Create a QR code that a customer can scan with their mobile device and be brought to your Google business profile, and list other places that they can easily access your review link, such as a review page on your website or your Facebook page.

The less friction, the more reviews you will attract this way.

3. Create a review page on your website.

Having a dedicated page for reviews on your website helps two ways. First, it gives potential customers easy access to read your reviews while on your website.

This greatly increases your lead conversion rates, because if they leave your website to search for reviews they might not remember to come back. If you place them right in front of their nose you stand the chance of converting them while their interest is at the highest level.

There are several plugins that will pull your reviews and embed them into any page you desire. Any time you can keep an interested prospect on your website your chances of converting them into a lead increases dramatically. A “Reviews” option on your header menu is a simple way to keep those hot prospects on your website instead of bouncing over to Google to try to find reviews on their own.

Second, it gives previous customers an easy way to locate your review link. You will want to make sure that you have a strong call-to-action along the lines of, “We love to hear from our past customers. Click here to leave us a review!” — linked to your Google My Business profile.

4. Respond to every single review (both positive and negative).

Simply having a lot of Google reviews doesn’t make it easy to generate leads for a garage door business. Consumers like to see the human-side of a business and one of the easiest ways to showcase this is by responding to every single review left for your business.

Taking a few seconds to thank the person with a genuine reply goes a long way in showing potential future customers that you care. Avoid a canned copy and paste reply — those are easy to spot as unauthentic and forced.

Even if someone leaves a review that is unfavorable — make sure you reply. It’s a good way to lessen the damage, but it also shows potential customers that you own every review. This goes a long way in building trust.

Remember, these customers are deciding on a garage door business to hire and part ways with their hard earned money. They are going to go with the company that shows the most compassion and appears to be genuine. Replying to a review takes just a few seconds and has a massive impact on your overall Google review strategy.

5. Ask as part of your email referral marketing effort.

Asking previous customers for referrals is part of an intelligent garage door advertising effort. A happy satisfied customer is going to speak highly of your business and be more than happy to refer friends and family to you, provided they received stellar service.

While they might not have referrals to pass on immediately after the job is completed, it’s smart to keep in touch, ensuring they do send them your way when/if that time does come. One of the easiest ways to stay on the mind of your past customers is by setting up an automated email campaign segmented specifically for previous customers.

Sending an initial email just days after the job is completed is fine, but after that you don’t want to bombard them too often. You want to keep in touch to stay on their mind, but not to the point where they become annoyed by your persistence.

Here is an example of a time-line in terms of email frequency and an offer you can include:

• 3 days after job completion: A simple “Thank You” message that also asks if they have any friends or family members that are in need or garage door repair or installation services.
• 45 days after job completion: Follow-up email that gives them some maintenance and upkeep tips, and again asks for referrals.
• 90 days after job completion: An offer that extends a discount or special offer for any referrals they send.
• 180 days after job completion: Offer a garage door check-up and service for any referral.

Now, in each one of those emails, at the very bottom, you will want to include a little line reminding them that you appreciate reviews, along with a link to your Google Maps business profile.

This is a simple strategy to not only attract referral business, but also increase the number of past customers that leave your business garage door Google reviews.

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