6 VP-Level Reputation Metrics That Will Make Your QBRs Standout // Local Marketing Insider #061

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Reputation metrics are the lifeblood of running an effective strategy. The problem: merely looking at your ratings isn’t good enough.

When done right, reviews can be both a tool for marketing and operational improvement. They can and should supplement – if not replace entirely – internal surveys (A guy can dream, right?).

Marketers, don’t hide your reviews from the ops team. Sharing is caring.

Here are 6 VP-level reputation metrics that are too useful to ignore:

1) Lead quality via GBP

Reviews drive organic rankings for your Google Business Profiles which drives traffic and ultimately leads. Tracking traffic > leads > qualified leads > customers is important to assess quality. When frontline teams are stretched thin, broad knowledge across the org of lead quality by source makes prioritization easier. If a lead from a listing site converts at 20% but a lead from your Google Business Profile (GBP) converts at 40%, prioritization is easy, right?

2) Period-over-period percentage change in review volume by rating

Track whether the current volume of 1-star, 5-star, etc. reviews is increasing compared to an earlier period. What’s great about this metric is that you can chart material changes in the business, say an update to the facilities or a significant event (to be dramatic, maybe there was a fire at the business) against the impact on sentiment across specific ratings.

3) Rating per lifecycle stage or division of the business

Going deeper on rating turns a number on Google from a very basic representation of your business to something genuinely useful for operations and training. If you manage an apartment community, does average rating change between move-in and renewal? For an auto dealership, how do sales ratings differ from the first half of the month compared to the second half of the month?

4) Review response percentage

Put another way, how many of your customers are not receiving a response? For businesses taking response seriously, this is a boring metric (~98% of reviews receive a response), but in early stages, this is a great metric to look at across the network, comparing independent location performance and capturing a baseline for how engaged your business is at the moment.

5) The <4.0, 4.0+, 4.5+ clubs

Creating cohorts of locations by average rating identifies top performers and laggards. Any locations at < 4.0-star rating will lose significant impressions because Google suppresses those businesses for best-of or top rated searches. 4.5+ rated locations will offer standout performance. I’d look at monthly GBP traffic/engagements for each cohort to define the extra value associated with increases in ratings.

6) Negative sentiment %

This looks at what percentage of your reviews are 3-stars or less. 20% negative sentiment indicates a location needs improvement, 10% is average and <5% is world-class. This will vary some by industry.

Let me know: what’s your favorite reputation metric that I missed?

Apple just introduced a new MacBook Air 15” last week. The headline? 

Impressively big. Impossibly thin.

If you read LMI #043, “Write Like Apple,” you’ll recognize Apple’s repetition copywriting strategy at work.

In other news, last week the Widewail team hit the road to Atlanta for the Apartmentalize show, a yearly gathering for the multifamily property management industry. We learned so much! A big thank you to all the attendees we were able to hang out with. Of those conversations, here are the quotes that stood out.

See you in 2 weeks - Jake, Marketing @Widewail

In the meantime, check out Widewail's full library of reputation management videos. Learn everything from the basics to advanced concepts, all of which will help your business stand apart in local search with reviews: