As a business today you have few tools more powerful than customer written, online reviews. Just consider this:
- 88% of people read or use review to determine the quality of a local business
- 93% check reviews before shopping and dining
- 85% read up to 10 different reviews while researching a purchase
- 88% of people trust an online review as much as a personal recommendation (this makes it the overwhelmingly most trusted form of advertising by consumers)
What this means for businesses – no matter how fantastic your website is or how compelling your messaging, your customers will seek out other opinions. Customers aren’t accepting the very first review they read but rather, they are triangulating feedback to determine the real story behind your business. This also should reassure you that one bad review isn’t likely to sink you. You must have a strategy in place to earn, manage and respond to online reviews.
Online reviews have a massive impact on your business and therefor your revenue – whether that impact is positive or negative is largely up to you.
Get customers to leave more reviews:
- Ask for them
- Prime a customer to review from the very beginning of your relationship
- Remind your customer to review at the end of the transaction
Identify the most important sites in your niche where your business is already being reviewed. There are a huge amount of review sites out there and trying to manage them all is practically impossible. Do a quick bit of research to find out which sites are the most influential in your niche.
A quick ‘[business name] + reviews’ search in Google will reveal where people are already talking about your business or product. It might be easier to encourage more activity from an existing source than to ask people to review information on your site.
You want to make it as easy as possible for people to review you, so focus on the platforms your customers are already using.
Tips for getting more online reviews:
- Be patient and timely – give your customers time to provide a review without feeling pressured into it
- Ensure you know the rules of engagement on each review platform
- Put signs up at your bricks and mortar business
- Incentivise check-ins
- Use remarketing campaigns – use Google retargeting campaigns to ask for a review from customers that have purchased from your website
- Showcase reviews in store, on your website and social media platforms
- Harness digital marketing – email marketing and social media to ask for more reviews
If you need assistance to ensure that your website, digital marketing strategy, online advertising and social media management is set up for and can manage the power of online reviews, contact the team at Website Design Centre.
