Google has a gift for savvy law firm marketers looking for a way to leverage online reviews — an online tool called Small Thanks that lets you generate marketing materials using your Google reviews. And it’s all free.

According to Google, consumers that see positive reviews in search results are 71% more likely to use a business, and listings that feature positive reviews get 360% more clicks to their websites.

All you need to do to access the Small Thanks hub to generate your marketing graphics featuring your 4- and 5-star reviews is to claim your Google My Business page (which you should have done anyway since it is key to getting a higher local search ranking).

Google will pull your highest ranking reviews and generate graphics for you to use on your website, social media pages, Google Posts, in your email signature, or even print to hang in your office. If you don’t like their choices, you can choose other reviews and have the graphics automatically generated:

If you are lacking online reviews, it’s time to remedy that.  In order to get positive online reviews, you need a process!  Here are the steps:

Have an online presence. Get your firm listed on general consumer review sites like Google My Business, Facebook, YellowPages.com, Better Business Bureau, Citysearch, Yahoo Local, Bing Local, Foursquare, Manta, InsiderPages and, yes, even Yelp. Also get listed on legal review sites like Avvo, Justia, Findlaw, Lawyers.com, Nolo, Martindale, LegalMatch, HG.org, SuperLawyers and LawyerCentral.

Create an internal process for obtaining online reviews. The best way to get online reviews on a consistent basis is to make it a part of your firm’s client management process. Mention the importance of reviews to your firm at intake. Create a form on your website that allows your clients to submit reviews.  

Make it simple for clients to review you. Once you’re sure you have a happy client, get in touch with them via email with links to your top review sites. Give them a few guidelines on what they might want to say in their review that would be helpful to other potential clients. Let them know that online reviews are important to you and ask them to help.

So thanks, Google, for a great way to celebrate successful client relationships and use past successes to generate future business opportunities.