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In our experience, one of the most important considerations for customers when choosing a business is positive reviews and ratings. According to Bright Local’s Local Consumer Review Survey, 9 out of 10 consumers read online business reviews. These reviews are marketing gold because they come directly from customers and clients. This is not marketing material that has been polished or spun. Online reviews are typically independent of the businesses being reviewed and appear on sites such as Google’s search engine results pages, Google My Business, and Yelp. Sites like these have proved that people listen to the opinions of their peers.
Reputation Marketing
Just as good online reviews are helpful for a business, a lack of reviews can be damaging or limit a firm’s performance. Bad reviews can be downright devastating.
Reputation marketing involves taking your clients’ and customers’ positive comments and making the most of them as part of your marketing.
If you have a lot of overwhelmingly negative reviews, you have a problem. Don’t think that potential customers are going to scroll through pages of recent negative reviews to find the one customer that thought your business was okay.
Reputation marketing can minimize the damage of negative reviews should you have them, get more positive reviews, and get more mileage out of them.
How Do You Get More Reviews?
In addition to earning them by having a stellar business and offering a great product or service with great customer service, you can ask for reviews outright. Don’t be shy about asking for people to leave a review for you if they enjoyed what you have done for them.
Reviews are incredibly important to potential customers, and it’s worth having updated reviews regularly to show that your business is consistently delivering great results.
Asking for reviews can also deepen your relationship with a customer. By asking them to engage with your brand, you demonstrate that you value their opinion and increase the chance that they will become or remain a loyal customer.
On top of this, you can get some valuable feedback and a five-star online review in the bargain, and like DIY SEO, you can do this all in-house.
Here are our top five benefits of online reviews to illustrate how much good they can do for your business.
5 Benefits of Online Reviews
1. Improve your ranking on search engine results pages
Moz agrees that online reviews can help you rank better with Google. One of their studies revealed that 67% of consumers are influenced by online reviews. And online reviews are particularly important if you are marketing yourself as a local business. When people look for a business to work with, good reviews are a vital part of their decision-making criteria.
2. Click-through rates
Bright Local has demonstrated that one of the benefits of online reviews is that good reviews improve click-through rates. If you want people to take you seriously and engage with your business, demonstrating that others think you’re worth doing business with will help.
3. Build trust
Our recommendation is that you can’t have enough positive reviews. Keep them coming. Remember that online reviews are often time-stamped, so a positive review today may be worth more than that glowing review received a year ago.
Positive reviews are proof that other customers have enjoyed your product or service. So you should consider generating and promoting online reviews as an ongoing part of your business marketing strategy.
4. Improve the effectiveness of landing pages with social proof
Wondering why people aren’t jumping on your latest offer? While your marketing content may be enticing, there’s nothing like one or more online reviews to provide that social proof that makes sure you seem credible and reliable. Not only do online reviews make your landing pages more credible, but landing pages without reviews can sound untrustworthy.
5. Build a better, customer-focused business
Positive reviews show you what you’re doing right. Do more of the things that are making your customers happy. Reviews are also useful for learning more about your customers. You may be surprised by the kind of people who are leaving reviews and the reasons why. You can learn from this information and tailor your business, your marketing, or both accordingly.
Remember that negative reviews are also useful to a business, perhaps even more useful than positive reviews. Negative reviews can help you improve things to please more of your customers, more of the time. Honest feedback will inform you that things aren’t working.
While you may wish that negative reviews remained private, the public nature of these online reviews can provide an opportunity to show off your customer service prowess. Demonstrate how you deal with complaints, how you listen to your customers, and how you learn from your mistakes.
Elevate Your Business with the Power of Online Reviews
In today’s digital landscape, the online reviews benefits for your business are too significant to ignore. From boosting your search engine rankings to building trust with potential customers, online reviews serve as the cornerstone of your online reputation. They amplify your marketing efforts and provide invaluable insights to continually refine your business strategies.
But let’s be honest, managing online reviews can be a daunting task. That’s where David Taylor Digital comes in.
Our team of experts specializes in reputation marketing, ensuring that your business shines in the best light possible. We don’t just optimize your website; we give meticulous attention to your online reviews, showcasing why customers should choose you over competitors.
Ready to unlock the full potential of online review benefits for your business? Contact us today for a no-obligation discussion on how we can elevate your online presence and drive business growth.
