When it comes to adding real estate testimonials to your site, there are some pretty big do's and dont's that you don't learn in school. Here's everything you need to know about real estate testimonials.
I won’t spend $15 on a bottle of liquid stevia at Amazon.com without checking customer reviews.
It would be an understatement, then, that it blows my mind that a guy wanting to sell his house (his HOUSE, for pity’s sake) picks the first agent that comes along.
After all these decades, real estate consumers still find the pool of agents in their town interchangeable. “You’re all alike” is a statement that deserves a slap in polite society, yet people think nothing of using it to describe real estate agents.
So, how does a knowledgeable, hard-working, awesome customer-service-providing agent combat this?
By getting your clients to do it for you, via real estate testimonials (or, reviews as they are more commonly known).
For a digital marketing platform that makes it easy to gather and display your best testimonials, learn more about LeadSites.
With the proliferation of online review sites, the “oh-I’ll-just-pick-the-first-agent-that-comes- along” tendency will hopefully change. We know from studies that it’s started.
BrightLocal.com, for instance, finds that 89 percent of consumers age 35 to 54 (which includes the average age of buyers and sellers) read reviews for businesses.
Granted, most of them read reviews for hotels, restaurants and doctors. Only about 15 percent of those surveyed claimed to have read reviews for real estate agents.
But each time a new review site goes online and as millennials age, expect that percentage to climb.
You can bet your competitors who use testimonials on websites and in marketing materials understand their power. You should to.
“You can even include a little “Thank You” gift card for each positive review posted – a good way to incentivize clients at a low cost to you!” says a guy whose website site offers “real estate agent training.”
Another advice giver tells agents to send an email to clients stating the following: “Happy with my service? Leave me a review on _______ with a direct link to your review site of choice.” She then goes on to also advise giving a gift in exchange for a testimonial.
Here’s another: “Motivate Clients to Leave Feedback” followed by a list of things to bribe them with.
The first problem with all of this advice is this: Would you trust real estate testimonials from someone who was incentivized, motivated or otherwise bribed to leave it?
For instance, for a long time Amazon.com didn’t reveal which reviewers were incentivized. Over the past couple of years, however, they’ve been complying with the law and we can now see who was paid or otherwise compensated for their reviews.
I skip right over those, don’t you?
Second is that the aforementioned advice to real estate agents is in opposition to both the terms and conditions of many review sites AND federal law.
“Companies must make it clear when they have paid their customers to write online reviews,” according to Jessica Rich, director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.
And they put teeth behind the warning. Back in 2015 they popped AmeriFreight, a car shipment broker, for posting customer reviews on its website while “failing to disclose that the reviewers were compensated with discounts and incentives.”
And, they’ve since dragged numerous other businesses to court for the same infraction. It’s a great-big hefty fine if you’re caught, plus years of having to report your marketing methods to the court.
Real estate testimonials done right – See how Bragwall makes gathering and sharing reviews easy.
The various review sites have their own set of rules, in addition to federal law:
Google – The search giant prohibits using reviews as advertising vehicles. Don’t post your email addy, phone number, links to your social media pages or to your website in the reviews.
Google also prohibits discouraging negative reviews or soliciting positive reviews from your clients, offering money in exchange for reviews and soliciting reviews in bulk.
Yelp — Outright forbids asking clients for a Yelp review. “Business owners should not ask customers to write reviews.” They also warn “Don’t ever offer freebies, discounts, or payment in exchange for reviews.” Learn more about Yelp’s terms here.
Zillow – It cracks me up to read Zillow reviews. Apparently, every single real estate consumer had an absolutely brilliant experience with their agent because anything less than five stars for agents is practically unheard of.
Would you trust this site’s reviews?
About as much as you trust their Zestimates, right?
At any rate, Zillow accepts reviews from anyone with a heartbeat, solicited or unsolicited.
Bright Local finds that the number of consumers who only “take into account reviews written within the past two weeks” skyrocketed from 18 percent in 2017 to 40 percent in 2018.
“Most review sites have a clause in their Terms of Service stating that user-generated content (such as reviews or testimonials) is owned by the user and licensed to the website.” Instead, she recommends linking to the site’s page where the real estate testimonials appear.
Now that you understand real estate testimonial best practices, learn how to set up a Brag Wall on your Easy Agent Pro website.
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