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Firing The Man
THANK YOU TO OUR 25,000+ LISTENERS! We are so thankful to be one of the TOP E-Commerce Podcasts delivering high-quality authentic content to you! Serial Entrepreneur’s David Schomer and Ken Wilson share tips, advice, and insider knowledge about all things Amazon FBA, Walmart WFS, and E-Commerce. Discover how you can create multiple income streams by selling physical products online so that you can have the time and freedom to do what you love - whether that is spending more time with family or traveling the world. Ken and David have successfully created several six and seven figure online business ventures. During the journey, they have had major wins, losses, and lessons learned. This podcast will teach you about selling physical products online through platforms such as Fulfillment by Amazon, building a team, outsourcing, listing optimization, pay per click (PPC) advertising, driving traffic to your listings, and productivity tips / life hacks that will provide a path to be successful in building your online business. It’s a mix of interviews, special co-hosts and solo shows from Ken and David you’re not going to want to miss. Hit subscribe, and get ready to change your life.
Firing The Man
The Power of Online Reputation with DJ Sprague
Trust is the currency of online success, and DJ Sprague has mastered the art of building it systematically through strategic reputation management. As the Chief Marketing Officer of Shopper Approved and a veteran with 25+ years in digital marketing, DJ reveals the hidden psychological triggers that turn browsers into buyers.
The conversation opens with a fascinating exploration of what DJ calls "brand schizophrenia" – when your communication touchpoints contradict each other, confusing potential customers and eroding trust. He explains why reviews must extend beyond your website to create a consistent presence across Google Ads, Google Shopping, organic search results, and third-party review platforms. This distribution strategy doesn't just build credibility; it drives significant traffic increases, with one client experiencing an astonishing 8,000% traffic growth.
Perhaps most surprising is DJ's revelation about the perfect star rating – and it's not 5.0. The sweet spot falls between 4.2 and 4.7 stars, with perfect scores actually triggering consumer skepticism. Even more counterintuitive: negative reviews can dramatically boost conversions when handled properly. Studies show conversion rates increase by up to 118% when shoppers thoroughly read negative reviews, as they demonstrate transparency and authenticity.
The episode covers tactical approaches for both established businesses and newcomers with limited reviews. Beyond review collection, DJ shares complementary trust signals like prominently displayed contact information, industry affiliations, and optimized Q&A content that captures featured snippets in search results. His response strategy for reviews provides a dual benefit – demonstrating customer care while strategically incorporating keywords for SEO advantage.
For e-commerce entrepreneurs looking to differentiate in increasingly competitive markets, this masterclass in reputation management offers immediately applicable strategies to build trust, increase traffic, and dramatically improve conversion rates. Whether you're just starting out or scaling an established operation, DJ's insights prove that how others perceive and talk about your business might be your most valuable marketing asset.
How to connect with DJ?
Offer: free digital and audio copy of our book "Reputation King" to your listeners as well: https://www.reputationking.com/download/
Website: https://www.shopperapproved.com/
Podcast: https://trafficandconversionpodcast.com/
Welcome everyone to the Firing the man podcast, a show for anyone who wants to be their own boss. If you sit in a cubicle every day and know you are capable of more, then join us. This show will help you build a business and grow your passive income streams in just a few short hours per day. And now your hosts, serial entrepreneurs David Shomer and Ken Wilson.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to the Firing the man podcast, where we bring you real insights, real stories and real strategies from entrepreneurs who are building and scaling their businesses. Today, we have a powerhouse guest joining us, dj Sprague, chief Marketing Officer of Shopper Approved and co-host of the Trafficking Conversion podcast. Dj is a master in the world of reputation management, customer reviews and digital marketing. With over 25 years of experience in branding, advertising and online growth strategies, he knows exactly what it takes to build trust, drive sales and dominate your niche. In this episode, we're diving deep into the power of customer reviews and how they impact conversions, the psychology behind trust and online reputation, and actionable marketing strategies that you can take your business to the next level. And as a special bonus for our listeners, dj is offering a free digital and audio copy of his book Reputation King a must read for any entrepreneur looking to take control of their brand's reputation. Get your copy at reputationkingcom slash download. So buckle up and get ready. This episode is packed with insights that could transform your business. Dj, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 3:Thanks, david. Honestly, I've been really excited for this podcast. I love your show Firing the man. It says so much and ultimately, isn't that what it's all about?
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely. It's good to be chatting with another podcaster, so I mentioned a couple bits of your background in the intro. But to start things off, can you share with the listeners your path in the entrepreneurial world?
Speaker 3:Wow. My path started when I was 20 years old, actually started when I was 14, when I started my own landscaping business and hired my friends to work for me. When I was in college, 20 years old, I started a limousine service five-star limousine in Santa Barbara, california, and since then I've started three agencies. So I've been around the agency world a long time, ended up selling them and joining Shopper Approved in the reputation management space because I was CMO of a big national actually the nation's largest automotive franchise and helped turn around their online reputation, which drove more sales, conversions, revenue, and I saw the power of social proof and reviews and reputation management across the web. Started writing a book about it and then ran into Scott Brantley, who's the founder and CEO of Shopper Approved and we decided we just had to join forces. So here we are.
Speaker 2:Very nice, very nice. I love it. Now, when I think of reputation, I often think this is what people think of me. However, online reputation is something a little bit different, and I think business owners need to be conscious of their online reputation. And so, to start our conversation off, what all does online reputation entail?
Speaker 3:Yeah, great question.
Speaker 3:So in my book, online reputation is the plethora of everything that's said about you. I also have a master's degree in integrated marketing communications and really, in a nutshell, what that is is it's all the planned and unplanned communications and touch points about your brand, the things that people say on their own accord, based on what you do and do not do as an entrepreneur in business, as well as all the planned communications, email ads, your website landing pages, collateral, et cetera. Those are the planned press releases, et cetera. And then the unplanned, which is what your customer service people might say, what your salespeople might say, what your support staff might say, what your customers might say, and ideally you want those to be cohesive, you want those to be integrated, you want those to be contiguous so that you don't have brand schizophrenia. Okay Now, brand schizophrenia obviously means, you know, party A is saying something completely different than party B, which is quite different than party C, about your company, product, brand experience, etc. And the more those can align, the more powerful your brand. And that's integrated marketing communications in a nutshell.
Speaker 3:Now, how does that play into average review? Okay, that creates cognitive dissonance, that creates confusion and the consumer is left wondering okay, who's gaming this right? Well, probably you, because it looks like you're manipulating your reviews on your website, because you typically control your website, which means you're deleting the negative and only displaying the perfect five-star reviews. Well, that's not a good reputation management strategy, because people do actually look at other review platforms to triangulate what your reviews really are. They're not going to look at just what you're saying. They're going to look at what other sites are saying Trustpilot, sitejabber, better Business Bureau, shopper, approved, etc. Because they want to see that there's a continuity of reviews and average stars across the web. They want to make sure that it's not just you saying how great you are, but it's multiple sources from lots of reviews and lots of users. So reputation management online really entails making sure that you are working with a platform that is allowing you to distribute your reviews to multiple platforms, not just your website.
Speaker 3:The other problem is, if you just have reviews on your website, it's an island. The only time people see those reviews is if they go to your website. Right, and so you want to make sure that you're not just an island, but your reviews are showing up in Google Ads, bing Ads, google Shopping, third-party review platforms, organic search results, because people will do a search for is ABCcom legit, right, or ABCcom reviews? Look at your Google search console. You'll see this is true or reviews for XYZ widget or product, and they're going to want to see reviews in multiple places, not just your website. So you want to make sure you're working with a Google and Bing review partner which is allowing your reviews to be syndicated to your Google Ads. Your Google Shopping show up as a Google Trusted Store, obviously, your Bing search results as well, and, of course, the organic search results on the third party review platforms like Trustpilot, sitejabber, better Business Bureau, shopper Approved, etc.
Speaker 3:0.4 here, a 4.3 here a 4.6, there a 4.1 here, and they're seeing lots of reviews everywhere with a relatively stable or equal average star rating. That's reputation management Showing up in Google Ads, showing up in Google Shopping, showing up in organic search results, showing up on multiple review platforms, showing up with review videos in YouTube, showing up with reviews on your website, and not a perfect five-star average, why Nobody trusts it. In fact, research says the sweet spot, the psychological sweet spot, is really between 4.2 and 4.7. Below 4.2 feels a little bit like a risk. Above 4.7, it feels a little bit like maybe you're gaming it, so that's kind of your sweet spot.
Speaker 3:That's reputation management.
Speaker 2:I love it. I love it. And for business owners out there that just heard your response and said, wow, I haven't spent enough time here on this aspect of my business, what would be some actionable steps that they could take to go after some of the highest impact areas? First, like you had mentioned, like Better Business Bureau, I'm not registered with the Better Business Bureau but, as you mentioned, I was like, oh, maybe I should register there and so, out of all of those platforms that you mentioned, what seemed to be the highest impact?
Speaker 3:Great question. So, first of all, you want to have product reviews, store reviews which used to be called seller reviews and video reviews, because they all appear in different places, for different queries, different locations, etc. Different places for different queries, different locations, etc. So make sure you're collecting video reviews, product reviews and store reviews, aka seller reviews, and, again, make sure that they're being syndicated to Google, because if they don't show up in your Google ads, then you have a much lower chance of getting clicked on. In fact, google says that when review rich snippets show up in the Google ads, you have a 17% higher click-through rate. Well, we've got clients that say they've improved their click-through rate by 30 to 50%. So that's obviously Google's average across all industries, et cetera. Some industries are higher, some are lower, but you absolutely have to show up in your Google ads with stars for a high impact. Google Shopping absolutely critical. Think about this. You're doing a search. What's a common product search you might buy online? Water bottle, water bottle. So what's your favorite brand?
Speaker 2:Oh boy.
Speaker 3:Hydroflask Okay, mine too Got one sitting at my desk. So you're doing a search for a hydro flask black water bottle, 27 ounce, 26 ounce, whatever and you see five search results in Google Shopping. Four of them don't have reviews, one does. Which one are you going to click on Instantly?
Speaker 2:the one with reviews, absolutely, why there is built-in credibility there.
Speaker 3:Authority, credibility, social proof, trust, exactly. Now imagine there's still five search results from five different vendors and four of them have a, let's say, 12 or fewer. No, let's say it's a hundred, roughly a hundred reviews, and it's like a 4.2 average. But the fifth has 700 reviews and a 4.7. Which one do you click on?
Speaker 2:The one with more reviews. Why there's?
Speaker 3:more social proof. Yeah, exactly. More people have bought it, more people are raising their hand and saying I trust this seller more than these other sellers. We are naturally, psychologically, subconsciously, inclined to follow the herd. There is safety in numbers. There's safety in a tribe. There's safety in a community. There's safety in a herd. Nobody wants to be the lone pioneer on the plane right by themselves. They want a tribe, they want a family, they want a community. They want to feel like they're making the same decision other like-minded people are making. Social proof is even more persuasive because they don't have experience.
Speaker 3:Now, you probably bought hydro flask water bottles before, so the brand is important, but the seller may be. You want to make sure that that seller is going to deliver as promised. If it's damaged or doesn't show up, they're going to replace it, etc. Right, so those store reviews are critical. If you've never bought from that seller, the product reviews are critical. If you've never bought from that seller, the product reviews are critical if you've never bought from that product. And likewise, if you've never bought from the product or seller, they're both critical because you want to make sure that the seller and the product are credible. And other people have raised their hand and said, yep, they delivered as promised. Great product, love it. I'd buy it again. Okay, I'm in.
Speaker 3:But if nobody's bought that product and you're the only one, because there's no social proof, do you want to be the first one to take a chance? No, no, I don't Exactly so. That's why we love reviews. We love, you know, restaurant reviews, hotel reviews, star ratings. We'd love to see lots of reviews, because that means lots of people have bought. How about McDonald's? Over what is it? Billions and billions served. I remember it used to be, you know, dating myself over 10 million served, and now it's billions and billions served. What does that tell you? The whole world at one point, has bought from McDonald's.
Speaker 2:Absolutely no. I really like that perspective and it's fun to think of that through the lens of the shopper, because there are a lot of, as I am buying things online. It is subconscious these days when I'm looking at reviews, and especially on Amazon. It'll say, 5,000 of these bought in the last month, and that's always a really powerful stat to me. And it is, yeah, absolutely. So. Let's talk about and interested in diving into the numbers. So, conversion rate optimization there's an entire industry dedicated to this and there are companies built around helping you with conversion rate optimization. And so what are some stats out there that most business owners don't know that would help them understand the power of reviews.
Speaker 3:Good question yeah, again, social proof. So, by the way, if you go into Perplexity, which is one of my favorite research tools and I use the deep search, I have the paid subscription and you ask Perplexity in a deep search query, what is the most powerful behavioral science principle in e-commerce today? And you know what they're going to say Social proof. Social proof is the most powerful of the 35 typically applied behavioral science principles in e-commerce and, by the way, I know we're getting to it. But there's a great book I'm going to recommend later that talks about these 35 principles. But social proof is the king. It's the king of persuasion, and Dr Robert Cialdini actually coined the term social proof in his book that came out the first version in 1984, called Influence, and if you're not familiar with Dr Robert Cialdini, he's a behavioral scientist and his bestselling book, influence, is a must read. But he really talks about how influence is so powerful in persuasion. Well, let's get into some stats. So we serve over 3,500 e-commerce websites and we have clients that tell us that the ratings and reviews combination of store and product have increased conversion rates anywhere from 30 to 272%. We have one client that's actually here in Utah and they have seen a 272% increase in conversion rate, as per their Shopify stats, since they installed Shopper Approved and our Q&A tool so the product reviews, the video reviews, the store reviews and the search optimized Q&A tool and literally he showed me the conversion curve. I was blown away. So I actually did a podcast with him and a case study because the conversion rate increase was so monumental. And not only that, but here's the kicker their traffic increased by over 8,000%. Now he gives half of that traffic credit to what we brought to the table because, believe it or not, ratings and reviews also improve SEO and traffic. So ratings and reviews are about 15% of the Google search algorithm. So if you have positive reviews and enough reviews, that's going to improve your SEO factor. But not only does it improve your SEO, it improves the click-through rate. So, as I said before, google ads with the stars in the rich snippet will improve the click-through rate on average 17%. We have clients that blow that away, but that drives more traffic. Of course, when you're getting your search results in the top three to five search positions organically because of our reviews, again you're on multiple review platforms showing up with positive reviews that's going to increase traffic. So this website is saying that their increased traffic was about 8,000%. So 4,000% attributed to us.
Speaker 3:And that's a combination of the Q&A tool which optimizes the Q&A pairs for the featured snippets.
Speaker 3:So if you do a search for does the Hydro Flask 32-ounce water bottle float, it does right and the answer is yes, it does Right.
Speaker 3:There's your question, there's your answer and then there's your link to the source, aka your product page, and so that drives a lot of low funnel, high qualified, commercial intent traffic directly to your product page because your product page has that question answer pair search optimized for that product question. And, let's face it, when you're getting that granular in your product search queries, you're typically in a commercial state of mind. You're looking for the product to buy, correct, absolutely, yeah. So automatically optimizing those Q&A pairs with the schema markup for the featured snippet and having thousands of those question answer pairs optimized for the featured snippet, combined with the SEO power and the visual power of the reviews showing up, have what we call search domination and that drives a lot more traffic. But not only traffic high quality, high purchase intent traffic, low funnel traffic, which is really what you want, right? I mean, blog traffic is all fun and everything and that's fun, but the reality is, if you don't get people to a product page, there's nothing to buy.
Speaker 2:That's right, that is absolutely right. And one thing I want to call out that really surprised me about your response is you had mentioned the increase in conversion rate and that to me, that makes sense. The traffic piece of that, I think, is incredible. Traffic's expensive and you know reviews. When I think of reviews, it is making your product more appealing to the people, the customers, but what you're saying is that reviews also make it more appealing to the search engines, which is really, really astounding, and, yeah, I think that there's a lot of power there and A that actually answers the questions people are looking for, and I don't mean just product questions.
Speaker 3:But what about brand questions? How long has abccom been in business? Who owns abccom? Where's abccom headquartered? Does abccom belong to the BBB? Has abccom, you know, been involved in a lawsuit, et cetera, et cetera, whatever, etc. Etc. Whatever.
Speaker 3:I'm just throwing out questions and answers, right, but the thing your store and q a for your product. Now you're getting those high funnel and low funnel search results automatically optimized for the featured snippet, position zero, which we know. Uh, according to, uh, what's his name? Um back Lincoln bank Lico says that, uh, the featured snippet gets over 30% of the page one clicks. Some studies say over 40%. So by far it gets the majority of the clicks. So the featured snippet is where you want to be. So the featured snippet is where you want to be. Now it also shows up in your AI search results Because again, you're building that content and that authority.
Speaker 3:And here's what's cool about Q&A the featured snippet typically wants to serve up about a 40 to 60 word answer and, as you know, then it cuts off. Well, the Q&A is optimized for that, which means it also creates a easily indexed answer. Google doesn't have to crawl a 3,500 word blog to find a 40 word answer. You have basically served it up on a silver platter. Here you go, google. You can reserve your search allowance right for other content, because we've already given this to you in a very snackable, digestible, indexable, easy to find format, and that is golden.
Speaker 2:I really like that. I really like that. And, yeah, it gives you more options to inform your potential customer. For people that have a business that's been around for five or 10 years and have a plethora of reviews, it sounds like the strategy is making sure those reviews are shared everywhere. Now for the entrepreneur getting started, the person with zero reviews. What are some and I want to like emphasize here ethical? A clean conscience is a comfortable pillow, but what are some ethical ways to get that initial couple reviews so you can start sharing those you know across different platforms?
Speaker 3:yeah, well, great question. As a, as a google review partner, you cannot incentivize reviews. That is part of being a google review partner, which shopper approved is. So you, you can't pay for reviews, which makes sense, because if you're paying for reviews, are they authentic, are they transparent, right. But what you can do is ask your customers for testimonials, and testimonials are a great way to kind of start that social proof momentum while you're using your review platform to ask every single customer for a store review post checkout in line right after they complete the purchase, as well as a full review when they receive the product, so that then they can leave a product review, they can update or modify their store review and they can also provide a video review in the same review request.
Speaker 3:So the way we do it is that that singular email covers your product review, your store review and your video review. Video reviews are great for SEO. You don't need a lot of them one or two or three and you've done the job of 10 or 20 written reviews, because people can see it's a real person, they can see the sincerity, they can see the authenticity, they can see the product, et cetera. So video reviews are very powerful, a great way to get things rolling. Now, ethical I love ethical because everything you do needs to be ethical and that's how we operate and we believe in ethical persuasion and ethical reviews.
Speaker 3:So what you can also do and this is outside of, you know, a typical review platform there's a Google review partner, but you can ask your customers vis-a-vis email or text. Hey, you know, we appreciate and value you as a customer and your input on your experience with our website and our product. Would you mind leaving us a video review or a written review? Now, that's not going to go to Google, but you can put that on your website, and so that's a good place to kind of start with that.
Speaker 3:Now, the other thing is it's a lot easier to collect store reviews than it is product reviews. You typically get, you know, two or three store reviews per product review, sometimes more. So start showing the store reviews on your product pages until you get enough product reviews to replace the store reviews with the product reviews, and then, of course, also collect video reviews, and so you can ask people for testimonials. You can ask people for reviews. They're not going to be syndicated to Google, so they're not going to help with your Google ads or you know, your your Google shopping, but at least they're on your website while you're collecting those Google qualified reviews. Does that make sense, david?
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely, and one of the key things I'm taking from that is asking. It is asking for the review being on the offensive there and instead of just waiting for them to come along, I would imagine when you're on the offensive it is you're going to collect them at a much higher rate, which is what you want when you're growing and scaling a business going to collect them at a much higher rate which is what you want when you're growing and scaling a business.
Speaker 3:But beyond reviews, I'd like to just cover one more thing, and this is something a lot of people miss. Reviews are great. You have to have them and you have to collect them. But there's other ways to create trust and credibility, and one is putting your phone number in the upper right-hand corner of your top bar navigation, so it's there on every page. Now most people aren't going to call it, but it creates trust. Oh, I can actually call you.
Speaker 3:So many companies hide behind a website and the consumer doesn't want you hiding, they want access, right, so do that. Put your actual physical address in the lower left corner of your footer navigation so you've got the top right with the physical address. In the lower left corner of your photo navigation, so you've got the top right with the phone number, the lower left with your physical address. Now it looks like you're a real company and people just want to know that they can contact you and you're not hiding behind. You know a digital wall if you will, and that creates trust.
Speaker 3:Also, you know, join the Better Business Bureau, join the local chamber of commerce. Put those badges on your website. Talk about your expertise, awards, credentials, anything that is going to create trust. And it may not be reviews, because you don't have them yet, but think about all the ways you can convey and display what we call trust signals or trust badges. And you know, if you had a press release and an article show up in Business Insider or LA Weekly or whatever it is show, you know, as seen in Business Insider and LA Weekly, those little trust badges add up. They help because you look like you know, like you're more stable and more legitimate. So those are other ways for an existing and a new company to amplify their trust signals, amplify the credibility.
Speaker 2:I like it. I like it. That's really, really, really good advice. Now, at the beginning, you had mentioned, at the beginning of the show, the sweet spots between 4.2 and 4.7 stars, and what that means is you cannot have all five-star reviews and that potentially negative reviews are part of the experience, and so this is a two-part question when you do get that negative review, what is the best way to handle it? When you do get that negative review, what is the best way to handle it?
Speaker 3:And then how do negative reviews how do they fit into the whole ecosystem of reputation management? I love that question because it hurts to get a negative review. Your business is your baby. You birthed that thing and you know you don't want anybody calling your baby ugly Any time, way, shape or form. It hurts.
Speaker 3:So people just intuitively want to bury or delete or remove negative reviews or ideally never get them. But as a Google review partner, you have to display every review good, bad and different. So, part one how do you deal with it? First of all, address it. Do not ignore it. Say you know, david, I'm sorry that water bottle didn't meet your expectations, or I'm sorry it arrived two days late, or I'm sorry that it arrived dinged or damaged, or the cap was missing, or whatever the case may be. Obviously, we're going to take care of you and rectify this situation as soon as possible.
Speaker 3:By the way, most customers really, you know, have a great experience, as exemplified by our four point star rating and our, you know, 812 reviews. So that's how you handle that. First of all, address it as soon as possible. Second of all, uh, you know, try to point out the fact that you've got a lot of overwhelming social proof on the other side where people are saying you know what we really like, what we really like this company, we really like this product, we really like this brand, but don't mention the product name in that negative review response, because that's a keyword in SEO. If it's a positive review, you also want to respond, but there's where you mentioned the product name for SEO.
Speaker 3:So, gee, david, glad you love the Hydro Flask, you know water bottle that you bought from us and you know thank you for the 4.8 star review. The reason people love this bottle is because A, b and C, you know, look forward to serving you again in the future. So there's some keywords for SEO, for a positive review, versus not necessarily mentioning the product in a negative review, but certainly addressing the customer's issue. Have empathy. You have to go into this with empathy because you've got to view this through the customer's lens. The customer expected A, they got B. They're dissatisfied. Acknowledge that, apologize, solve it and then try to come back with. You know we are a great company, as you know, exemplified by our reviews and our star rating.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I just had two aha moments in your response. One is responding to the positive reviews, and I think that's in. The second aha moment was using SEO in your positive responses and typically, like at our company, we have a policy to go in and address all the negatives and offer them a replacement or a refund, but we're not thanking those who took time out of their day to leave a five-star review or to take a photo or, even better, a video and share it. Better a video and share it, and that's something that I can tell you when I hang up with you. That's going to be something that I go implement because I think that's really strong and powerful. And then the kicker of being able to use your primary keywords in your responses is just really an outstanding response, and so I think that gives a good game plan and a good roadmap for how to deal with both the positive and the negative reviews.
Speaker 3:So well, here's, here's the rule of thumb Respond to every negative review yeah, and that would be a three star or under and respond to at least 60 percent of the positive, because it does create more unique content and keywords and recency, right. So, as you know, the Google algorithm works it's keywords, it's recency, it's volume. So, if you're creating a lot of UGC vis-a-vis the reviews, user generatedgenerated content and then BGC, brand-generated content through the responses and it's fresh and it's unique, don't use canned responses. Read the review, call out their name, call out what they specifically said positively. Gee, we're really happy, you like? For example, I'll give you an example.
Speaker 3:We get amazing reviews for our support and onboarding team. I mean, people just love them and they call them out by name. You know I love your support. Mary is specifically amazing. I love the way she went out of her way and did this, this and this. The review response would be we're so happy. You had a great experience with Mary. We do find that, you know, people particularly love our support team and we're so glad that she helped you with this problem. Yeah, I like that.
Speaker 3:That means that means what that means. You read it. It's sincere, it's authentic, it's, it's real, it's not just a bot. I hate and you can see them, everybody can see them the artificially created canned responses driven by a bot. You know, thank you so much for your review, okay, but that doesn't help. It's not unique content, it's not authentic content, it's not real content. And then when the reviewer sees that, it's like, eh, that's all you could do Really A bot. I see the same response 15 times on your page Like this isn't authentic, you don't care, you're not engaging with your customer base. So that's a part of really showing that you care about your customers. That helps drive LTV lifetime value. Because now, when I see that somebody authentically reached out and responded to my review specifically, individually, with very specific feedback, it's like, oh, they care about me. If they care about my positive review, they're going to care about taking care of me if I have a problem in the future. So it just creates this aura of caring and being authentic and being customer-centric.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. I think every business owner who's listening, they should rewind and listen to that again, because that's really powerful. There's so many implications of that, you know. One being a decent human being If somebody pays you a compliment, thank them authentically for it, you know. And then that goes on to increasing customer lifetime value and establishing that trust and that relationship, and also acknowledging when you have faults and when you messed up, and resolving those issues. And so I always, when I'm shopping and I like to look at one-star reviews, if I see that a company handled whatever issue it was appropriately or what I deemed to be appropriate, then I feel differently about that one-star review. And whereas, if you don't see a response, well, that may say something about their customer service.
Speaker 3:So that's part two of your question, right? Yes, and so the answer to part two is that there are several studies about how negative reviews actually drive more conversions. One study says that when people go specifically and read a negative review, it increases conversion rates by 71%. Another one says 118%. When they thoroughly read a one-star review, 118% increase in conversion rate. Interesting, why is that? Because you've just shown authenticity, transparency, trust, credibility.
Speaker 3:You're not burying and hiding those one-star reviews now, especially when you're responding to those one-star reviews with empathy, with a solution I have actually seen, believe it or not, I'm not going to call out the brand, but a brand that actually bombasted the reviewer for leaving them a one-star review and called them all kinds of colorful words. And so now you go to that website and you're thinking, okay, well, wow, this company hates their customers. They bombast them if they leave them a negative review. They're not open, they're not transparent, they're not customer centric and they probably don't want to engage with that brand. So check the ego at the door, realize that this is just their experience, and maybe their experience had false expectations that nobody could possibly deliver on. Or maybe it was just a little issue, like the box showed up damaged but the product inside was fine. That happens. You can't control that. That's the shipping partner UPS, fedex, whatever, right, you can't control if they stepped on a box, but the product is fine.
Speaker 3:And, by the way, when people read negative reviews, a lot of times you're looking for what's the worst that could happen. Right, what's the worst that could happen, how bad is it? And does the product take care of the problem? So if they see, oh, it had a damaged exterior package, so what Is that worth giving them a one-star review? No, come on. Or it showed up without the instructions, but then they quickly emailed them to me or mailed them to me Okay, great, it happens. Sometimes the instructions don't make it in the box, but they took care of it. So is that worth a one-star review? No, so that's why you want to have those responses as well. You know, thanks, david, for calling out. The instructions weren't included. We'll get those to you immediately. Boom, problem solved.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely, and that's a good, good answer to part two I want to touch on before we get to the fire round. I want to touch on your experience hosting a podcast, and it's not often that I get to talk to another podcaster and it's definitely a unique experience, I would say it is just. My experience has been. It is kind of like earning your PhD in business, where you get to pick your professor and there's a tremendous amount of learning and sharing and networking that goes on. It is. If someone were to give me a million dollars tomorrow to stop podcasting, I would not take it, and so I'm curious what have been your experiences hosting a podcast and what have been some of the key takeaways that you've had from your guests?
Speaker 3:It's a great question. I feel like you Podcasting and being a guest and a host. I've learned so much from the host. I've learned so much from the guests. But on the host side, the fun thing is, as you know, you get to choose your guests no-transcript posts. If I like their presentation at a conference, I'll reach out and invite them on the podcast. I like to learn from the best because that's how you learn. You don't learn from the worst, you learn from the best. And, um, you know, one of my favorite guests is Matthew Stafford. And you know one of my favorite guests is Matthew Stafford. You know who Matthew is. Yeah, yeah, and he's just brilliant.
Speaker 3:I love his mind in terms of how he thinks about maximizing net profit and profit margin, not just gross revenue, and we've had great conversations around that. You know his book, what he does, his strategies around build growth scale. In terms of things like on your thank you page, there's an opportunity for an upsell, a cross sell, a collateral sale, sale, a collateral sale on your thank you email, et cetera. Looking at things like what products actually drive the most margin, not necessarily the highest volume, but the most margin. Focus on promoting those, focus on cross-selling those upselling those, because it's all about the margin. You eat on margin. You bring margin to the bank. You don't bring gross revenue to the bank because out of that comes all your costs, but if you're not making margin, there's nothing to bring to the bank. So you know, I love his whole philosophy and strategy around thinking about what are the products that bring margin. What are some digital products that you can create once and use as a lead magnet or a bundle product or a cross-sell. That is pure margin but costs you nothing to create a little time.
Speaker 3:Could be videos, could be a mini course, could be how-tos, could be a community right, you could. You could offer a community uh as uh, an exit pop instead of a 15% discount. The way I look at it, go to discounts last, go to value add first. How can I add value first and last ditch would be a discount, but discounts kill your margins. So you know we had great conversations around that. Obviously he covers that in his book and in his community. But learning from people that have built and owned and optimized and sold their own e-commerce websites, that really killed it. To me it's the best way to learn. So I like learning from those kinds of people, people that have battle-tested strategies that can share. You know how they went from A to Z and the steps along the way, the gotchas, the epiphanies, the little known strategies. I've learned a ton, absolute plethora of tips and tips and strategies from my guests.
Speaker 2:That's outstanding. That's outstanding, and I share a similar sentiment about this media form. It's something I'm passionate about. Both on building a podcast as well as consuming a podcast, I've learned a tremendous amount and it's a great media form, and obviously everybody tuning in today is also a fan. So now, dj, I think we could go on all day long, and on some of these topics we just scratched the surface. We're definitely going to want to have you back on the show. But before we end the interview, we have something called the fire round. It is four questions. We ask every guest Are you ready? I'm ready, all right. What is your favorite book?
Speaker 3:Well, there's many. I'm an avid reader. I have hundreds of books. But if I had to pick one for e-commerce, online influence is my favorite because I'm a real behavioral science junkie. I've taken multiple courses in behavioral science, behavioral economics. I love psychology. I love the psychology of persuasion, buying. I love psychology. I love the psychology of persuasion, buying, influence, communications, etc. So if I had to pick just one, that's probably my all time favorite. But I have dozens, hundreds of favorites Outstanding, outstanding.
Speaker 3:What are your hobbies? Reading, learning, hiking and travel. I love to travel, love to go to unique places. Last year we chartered a 42-foot catamaran and sailed around the French Polynesian Islands. Just absolutely loved it. I love being in unique places, remote places, doing unique things. Been to Europe many times, thailand many times. World traveler. I just love learning from different cultures and people and experiencing different cuisine and lifestyles, and all that. I barely speak English. I don't speak any other languages, but I get by. I rode my motorcycle when I was in college through Mexico. No maps, no GPS. This is. You know what was this. This is the late 80s and I just had the time of my life just riding through Mexico.
Speaker 2:That's outstanding. That's outstanding. What is one thing you do not miss about working for the man?
Speaker 3:Everything but one thing would be the siloed approach that so many businesses take to everything. They don't see the big picture, they don't see the integrated strategy behind marketing. Everything is siloed. The email team is doing one thing, the web team is doing another, sales team is doing something different, the PR team is doing something altogether different. There's no cohesiveness, there's no continuity, there's no consistency. You have brand schizophrenia. Nothing's integrated, nothing's working together, nothing's leveraging all the other touch points campaigns, messaging, brand positioning and it just creates a really confusing user experience and unfortunately, 99% of brands just don't understand that and they operate in these distinct silos and the consumer is just simply confused.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, very good, very good. And final question what do you think sets apart successful entrepreneurs from those who give up, fail or never get started?
Speaker 3:Being willing to learn, being willing to study from the experts, read, listen to podcasts, read books, take courses and then execute and then test. You need to execute and test, learn, execute, test, reiterate.
Speaker 2:Very nice, very nice. To wrap up the episode, you have an outstanding offer for our audience, which we'll be posting a link to in the show notes. It is a free digital and audio copy of your book Reputation King. So to the listeners, feel free to check that out. And, dj, if people are interested in getting in touch with you or checking out your podcast, what's the best way?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you can go to trafficandconversionpodcastcom. You can follow me on LinkedIn. You can Google DJ or Dwayne Sprague. My official name is Dwayne. I show up for both. You can go to reputationkingcom. It is a real book, over 200 pages full color. We put a lot of work and effort into the research and science behind reputation management. It's the first and only book ever written and published about e-commerce reputation management, so we're really proud about that. And reputationgeekcom. You can learn more about what we do and we've got some exclusive videos and content there as well.
Speaker 2:Outstanding, outstanding.
Speaker 3:And then shopperapprovedcom for our ratings and reviews Q&A. You can do a free trial and, obviously, schedule a demo. Shopperapprovedcom.
Speaker 2:Awesome, DJ. Thank you so much for your time today and looking forward to staying in touch, Thanks.
Speaker 3:David.
Speaker 2:Appreciate it.
