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Who Invented Online Reviews? The Story Behind the Phenomenon and How We Leverage Its Power TITLE JANUARY 2021
the Newsletter
way communication. Think about it: Back in the ‘90s, going online was a lot like window shopping. You could look at websites all you wanted, but there weren’t open dialogues going on for everyone to see. By allowing independent third parties to talk about their experiences with its products, Amazon changed the way goods and services are bought and sold — maybe forever. By extension, this changed marketing. Before online ratings, reviews, and testimonials existed, businesses like yours relied on referrals to get new clients. Referrals are still valuable today, but reviews are just as powerful. People use ratings and reviews from websites like Yelp, Google, Facebook, and Tripadvisor as a quick and easy replacement for the advice of friends and family members. According to a 2018 survey from BrightLocal, 86% of consumers read reviews in order to decide where to take their business. Positive online ratings, reviews, and testimonials have the power to bridge the credibility gap and make your company appear professional, reputable, and trustworthy. That’s why Raving Fans is No. 6 of the 7 Credibility Markers . When people rave about your services, that’s evidence of your quality of work, and it’s vital to leverage every bit of proof you can get. This holds true whether you own a mortgage company or a mom-and-pop pizza restaurant.
The year is 1995. “Friends” is airing its second season, Game Boys are all the rage, and “Gangsta’s Paradise” by Coolio and L.V. is playing at malls across America. Stranger still, if you go to your computer and browse on Amazon.com, the only thing you can buy is a cart full of books. Amazon is so ubiquitous today that it’s hard to remember when it was just an online book store. But even back in ‘95, Jeff Bezos was making groundbreaking moves. That year, Amazon launched the world’s first online customer review program. Up until then, companies strictly managed all of the reviews on their websites. But Amazon threw the playbook out the window and let customers put their unfiltered thoughts about its books out there on the internet. I read about Amazon’s review program in one of Jeff Bezos' annual shareholder letters, and it blew me away. This was the Big Bang of Web 2.0! Bezos basically created the internet we know today, which is full of two-
So, how can you create and cash in on this credibility windfall? Here’s the good news: You’re already doing it. Here at MySMARTblog, we use a service called Review Rocket to automatically request and cultivate reviews, ratings, and testimonials from your clients. Our automated system reaches out to Google, Yelp, and other review hubs to snag the words of your raving fans and automatically display them on your website. We even post them on social media for you! As you’re reading this newsletter, someone might be reading
one of those posts right now and building trust in your company.
When I give PowerPoints, I often use a picture of that Amazon shareholder letter as one of my slides. After all, it’s thanks to Amazon that, as Bloomberg Businessweek puts it, “customer reviews are as common as hyperlinks, and a retail website that does not have feedback loops is considered passé or irrelevant.” MySMARTblog won’t let your company fall into those categories. We’re making Amazon’s invention work for you, not against you. –Mikel Erdman
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But in 2021, You Can Make It Fair 2020 Wants You to Think Life Isn’t Fair
of business you want. You can run one filled with concern for others that goes beyond enriching just your own life. You can decide to not keep every marble from the business for yourself and instead use some of your gains to help others. You can build a culture in your company that doesn’t allow oppression. You can create an environment where there's no reason to say, "That's not fair!" Many entrepreneurs are focused on what’s in it for them, and as an entrepreneur, you absolutely should be rewarded for your hard work and risk. But you don’t have to be rewarded while someone else gets punished. You don’t have to make them feel like their life is “just unfair.”
down by others. That’s just in our nature, as it always has been. We get upset with people who aren’t treating us fairly, and when we don’t get our way, we throw a fit. And then, the next time we get any power of our own, we oppress someone else, who then reacts the same way. You might think you’ve never oppressed anyone, but everyone has done it in some way or another, even if they may not realize it. However, there’s a bright side to this topic, and it’s that entrepreneurs always have an opportunity to make their world a better place. Every morning when you wake up, you can decide what kind of boss you want to be and what kind
“That’s not fair” — it’s a phrase everyone hears and says far too often. And, it’s just as often followed by the retort, “Well, life’s not fair.” The concept of “fair” is very misguided, and the year 2020 took it to a whole new level. Nowadays, saying “life isn’t fair” feels like the best scapegoat for everything we’ve been through this year. But fairness is often like luck: It’s better to be fair or have a little luck on your side, but most of the time, how fair life is or how much luck you have is a product of your own creation.
In life and especially in business, human beings get stepped on and pushed
As you head into operating your business in 2021, it’s crucial to remember two things:
1. Culture trumps strategy every day of the week.
2. Happy employees make happy customers, and happy customers make a happy bottom line. If you focus on the people in your business this year, you’ll find all your marketing efforts and business dealings to be fairer, no matter how unfair life has seemed lately. Because the reality is that life can always be as fair as we decide to make it.
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For leaders at all levels in all types of business, 2020 was a tough year. Those businesses that managed to not only survive but also thrive all have one big factor in common: good leadership. If you want to be a better leader for your team in 2021, here are the latest leadership books you should add to your reading list. Be a Better Leader 4 Leadership Books You Need to Read ‘Friday Forward: Inspiration and Motivation to End Your Week Stronger Than It Started’ by Robert Glazer Glazer is an entrepreneur and bestselling author who has taken 52 of the most impactful stories from his inspirational newsletter that goes out to more than 100,000 readers and put them in one convenient book. These stories of struggling entrepreneurs who turned things around can give you the push you need to make an impact in your own circles and end your work weeks stronger than they started. ‘Unleashed: The Unapologetic Leader's Guide to Empowering Everyone Around You’ by Frances Frei and Anne Morriss Frei is one of the world’s foremost authorities on leadership. In her new book, she’s teamed up with Anne Morriss, a leader in the genomics industry. The book teaches leaders how to empower others. Great leadership takes grit, thick skin, and compassion, and “Unleashed” offers advice from top- performing organizations on how to best achieve all three.
‘Personality Isn’t Permanent: Break Free From Self-Limiting Beliefs and Rewrite Your Story’ by Benjamin Hardy Organizational psychologist Benjamin Hardy makes a fascinating argument for why your current personality isn’t the one that’s most important. His new book pushes readers to consider who they want their future self to be, and his ideas aren’t theoretical — they’re full of proven ways to change your priorities, break habits, and use your environment to make you a better version of yourself. ‘Honest to Greatness: How Today's Greatest Leaders Use Brutal Honesty to Achieve Massive Success’ by Peter Kozodoy The turmoil of 2020 has pushed brands to reconsider how they appeal to their customers. Many are walking away from deceitful promises and aiming for radical honesty and authenticity, instead. In his new book, Kozodoy examines how this revolution came to be and why it’s working. His guide teaches leaders how they can embrace these qualities to make their businesses better.
Bananas: The Fastest-Traveling Fruit
Be I N spired
It was 1890 in Limón, Costa Rica, and Minor Cooper Keith was the “Banana King.” Keith traveled to Central America to build railroads, but when he planted 800,000 acres of bananas to feed his workers, he ended up in the banana business, too. In 1899, he co-founded United Fruit and set his sights on the U.S. market. Two secrets helped Keith’s bananas cross the 7,175 miles from Limón to Seattle in under seven days. The first was the railroad, which United Fruit operated. Railroad cars sped the bananas from their plantations to the Port of Limón. There, they were loaded onto the first-ever refrigerated ships. Those ships steamed north, where their precious cargo was unloaded, stacked into yet more United Fruit railroad cars, and dispatched across the U.S. This mad scramble of plantation workers,
conductors, and captains brought us the plethora of bananas we have today.
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Inside This Edition
1.
Who Invented Online Reviews?
2.
Creating Fairness as an Entrepreneur
3.
4 Books You Should Read to Lead The Great Banana Scramble of 1899
4.
Business Budgeting for 2021
Business Budgeting for 2021: You Can Still Plan Around Unpredictability
set sales goals, be aware of your margins and get flexible with the way you’re achieving them if you want to improve them. Also take into account new expenses you may have in response to 2020, like staffing changes and Paycheck Protection Program loans. Take stock of what’s new and different for your business this year and include it in your budget plan. Remember the Essentials Even though last year was a wild ride, you can’t throw all your best practices out the window. Certain budget- forward thinking will always be essential, no matter where your business has landed. If sales are strong, drive profits while you can to build your reserves. Modify your products or services to align with customer behavior. Keep your accounts receivable clean. Don’t use credit cards to finance your business. Pay close attention to your balance sheet to keep a handle on debt. Cultivate an ongoing relationship with your banker. If you find a reliable baseline, are willing to be flexible and realistic, and if you can recalibrate your plans on the go, you can budget your way to a much better year.
This is the time of year when businesses would usually be looking at their budget and planning for the coming year. But COVID-19 has made the future entirely unpredictable, which makes properly planning your budget difficult. But all is not lost — there are some basic budgeting tactics you can implement to face 2021 with confidence. Create a Forecast If you’re not entirely confident in your ability to forecast sales for 2021, you’re not alone. But you do still have options. If 2020 went great, perhaps try setting your sights up 10% from last year. If you want to play it safe, keep your forecast on par with 2020. If even that doesn’t feel reliable, then jump back to 2019 and use it as a base for creating your budget. You can ramp up 10% or 20% from there. Don’t just forecast this year blindly — use data from a point you can rely on and plan accordingly from there. Know What to Include Your budget needs to have flexible sales goals and realistic expense plans this year. Many businesses are having to change their marketing focus and invest differently, so you have to be willing to adapt your budget, too. As you
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