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If you’ve already signed up as a business on Recommended, now it’s time to complete your professional profile. Why? Because completed profiles generate more interest and trust from potential customers, and that leads to more pre-qualified business for you.

There are 8 key steps to creating a great profile, all of which we’ll go through in this tutorial:

1. Describe your work, including your industry and areas of expertise.
2. Describe your services, going into detail about specific services you offer based on your expertise.
3. Showcase your recommendations. Praise from recent customers is what counts most.
4. List your services for instant booking. Online deposits and payments make it easy.
5. Show off your work in a beautiful portfolio. Put your work on display, with free and unlimited uploads of photos, videos, and documents.
6. Add employees and coworkers. Remind your customers who to thank for great service.
7. Build your network. Connections increase your reach to your customers’ social networks.
8. Add recommendations to your website. Our embeddable widget makes it easy to show off your reputation.

Once you’re finished, new customers browsing for the best service providers will have all the information they need to book your services.

From start to finish, this will only take you 20 to 30 minutes. Let’s get started!

To start, make sure you’re signed in to Recommended, and click on “Edit your profile” on the upper-right corner of your profile page. Here are the profile sections you’ll see on the left-side of your profile page while editing it, which we will reference during this article:

1. Describe your work

You told us your occupation and even how to reach you. But potential customers need to know what it is you do exactly.

Under “Profile Details,” write a few words about yourself, explaining more than your one-word occupation. (You likely already have this text on your website’s About page, or on your Facebook business page.) Go into detail about your industry, your area of expertise within that industry, and your core, overarching services, like this:

Do you work locally, online, or both? Set your service area, so customers know whether you’re willing to travel 1, 10, or 100 miles (or none at all). And if you work online or remotely, whether through email, video, or phone, make sure that’s checked, too.

Pro Tip: Make your business stand out by uploading your logo. (If you need one, we recommend Shawn at Hazen Creative.)

2. Describe your services and business details

It doesn’t matter where you are if customers don’t know what specific services you offer, when your business is open, and anything else that helps them determine if your business is the right fit.

Click the “business details” tab on the left. Here’s where you should list your services, business hours, and other important details, like this:

Pro Tip: Add awards, credentials, and press mentions as extra proof of your work quality and reputation. You can add more sections, too, such as “Notable Clients” or “Accreditations.” It makes it easier for customers to find you.

3. Showcase your business recommendations

Your customers love you, right? Potential customers should know that, too. Spreading good words about your business starts with asking your current and past customers to recommend you.

Under “Recommendations,” we’re already written the email request for you. All you need to do is add a few names and emails, and click the “request” button.

If entering customer email addresses rubs you the wrong way, just do it yourself — you can send a personal note through your own email, asking them to recommend you on your page on http://getrecommended.com. Just make sure to include the link!

Pro Tip: If you already have customer recommendations on hand, you can easily add them to your profile. Click “Add your own” and just copy/paste them in.

4. List your services and book clients online

Food. Transportation. Entertainment. Your customers want to press a button on their phones and get things. Recommended now gives customers that same ease when working with you.

Under “Services” (the tab on the left), not only do we enable you to list and accept payments for services, but we also offer an option to accept deposits from customers ahead of time to reduce cancellations and no-shows.

Let’s add your first service. You’ll need the following information handy:

• Name and description of service
• Cost of service and initial deposit required (if any)
• Wait time (how long customers have to wait to book an appointment)
• Duration of service (how long the service lasts)
• Service location (online is also an option for work completed remotely)
• Extra options (add-on services that incur an additional fee)

After adding a service, you can also choose to add it to a collection. For example, event planners may choose to have collections for “Weddings” and “Corporate Events.”

Pro Tip: Once you list a service, you can add a “Book It Now” button on your own website, for easy online scheduling and payments.

5. Show off your work with a free, beautiful work portfolio

The best way to introduce new customers to the quality of your work is to show off examples of past projects. Display the work you’re most proud of in a beautiful, free portfolio on Recommended.

Under “Work,” you can create a new project and upload unlimited pictures, videos, and documents.

Here are a few examples for inspiration.

Rob Stamm

Hazen Creative

SynthSpa

Davis Pemstein

Pro Tip: Many professionals like physical therapists, financial advisors, lawyers, music teachers, and others don’t take photos of their work. Not a problem! Your portfolio can be used for much more than images — check out the blog articles and videos from Greg at New Wave Financial Services, for example.

6. Add employees and coworkers

When you add your team on Recommended, employees, coworkers, and contractors will be displayed on your business profile page so your customers can easily remember who to thank for great service.

Plus, team members you assign as admins can help you manage your profile — they can add services, request recommendations from customers, upload new work to your portfolio, and more.

Under “Team,” add the names and emails of your colleagues, and click “Send Invitations.”

Pro Tip: When new team members join your team on Recommended, ask them to upload a recent photo as their Recommended profile image. A current photo makes it easy for customers to recognize (and thank) them for great service.

7. Build your network

Connect with your friends, customers, vendors, and other contacts on Recommended. Every connection amplifies your credibility to their social connections.

Plus, your profile will appear on their Recommended dashboard, so your customers can easily book your services, write you a recommendation, and see your business updates. It’s one more way for your business to stay top-of-mind.

Under “Connections,” you can send unlimited invitations, personalizing each message as you wish.

Pro Tip: Send batches of invitation by type of contact (e.g., friend, client, business vendor) so you can personalize messages in groups. For example, for a “clients” batch, you could write, “As a client of my business, I’d like to invite you to connect with me on Recommended.”

8. Add recommendations to your website

So far, we’ve focused on features available on your Recommended profile. Now it’s time to take advantage of a feature that lives on your website: an embeddable widget with your recommendations.

Under “Recommendations,” you’ll find the option “Embed on your website.” Choose from three widgets pre-loaded with your recent recommendations: Simple, Rich, and Responsive.

We recommend the Responsive widget. It automatically adjusts to the width of your website, so it looks great on mobile, tablet, and desktop browsers.

The design firm Commite uses this version — check it out below, and experience it live on their website, here. 

Once you’ve selected your widget, copy the code snippet and paste it into the pages on your website where you want to show off your customers’ praise.

Pro Tip: Wondering where to place the widget? There are three key areas of your site where customers will look for recommendations or testimonials:

• The homepage, where first impressions are paramount
• The services page, where customers are building interest in hiring you
• The testimonials page, if you have one

Contact us

Ready to build a bigger, better Recommended profile, but not sure where to start or what to add? Drop us a line at [email protected] and a member of our team will work with you to handcraft a stand-out profile — all for free.