Online reviews are becoming increasingly essential for businesses of all shapes and sizes and it’s long been known that word of mouth is one of the most powerful marketing tools for any business. People listen to, and are easily influenced by other people, so, it’s consequently important that your business is collecting, displaying and responding to online reviews.
A recent survey revealed that more and more consumers are being affected by online reviews than ever before, with the number of customers reading reviews up 60% in 2021 compared to 2020! Another eye-opening study showed that a huge 94% of online shoppers stated that a negative review has convinced them to avoid a business altogether.
Online reviews are therefore going to have a huge impact on your business and the customers you’re attracting.
How will online reviews affect your business and why are they important?
Build Trust
People like gratification, and are easily influenced by other people and peer-to-peer endorsements. If your company has a considerable percentage of positive reviews, it’s far more likely that new prospective customers will naturally have more trust in what your business is offering. Reviews build trust and reputation far quicker than most other methods.
Set Your Business Apart From Your Competitors
It’s likely that potential customers that are researching your product or service will be at the decision-making stage of their buying journey. This means they’ll be considering your business as well as your competitors. One thing that’s really going to make you stand out from the crowd… reviews.
Encourage Conversions
According to Trustpilot, nearly nine out of ten people will make the effort to read reviews before they purchase a product and 79% of these shoppers trust the reviews as much as personal recommendations. Positive reviews could be the deciding factor of whether someone will purchase from you, or go elsewhere.
Looking at eCommerce sites, the latest statistics show that conversion rates of product pages with reviews are up to 3.5 times higher than those without! So make sure you showcase them!
Boost Your SEO
Online reviews are also an excellent way to increase your organic visibility and SEO efforts. Reviews that contain certain keywords and phrases will aid a site’s chances of ranking higher up search engines.
How to get online reviews for your business
Depending on your business and what products or services you offer, there are several different methods and platforms you can use to earn online reviews.
A great place to start is the largest of all the websites on the internet - Google. Approximately 59% of shoppers turn to Google for online reviews, so showing your business here is absolutely crucial. Here, you can sign up for a Google Business Profile, fill in your business information and start collecting reviews.
Other review platforms such as Feefo or Trustpilot can collect reviews, and then easily integrate them with your website and its marketing activities to display them.
Having a reviews platform integrated into your website will also be effective for a number of reasons, including boosting conversions as previously mentioned. However, because around only one in five consumers say that they fully trust reviews on brand’s websites, customers will also research reviews elsewhere, so bear this in mind.
Making the most of these reviews in your digital marketing
Not only are reviews a fantastic way to understand more about your current customers and their buying behaviour but your recently collected reviews can also now be utilised in your digital marketing efforts to attract more new consumers.
Search Engines (SEO)
Collecting reviews could enable your business to access review snippets and improve visibility across search engines.
As well as this, they help to increase the content on your pages and show Google you’re reputable. Collecting reviews can also help you rank for a wider range of longer tail keywords through the review copy itself, meaning no extra content writing for you!
Paid Advertising (PPC)
Google Seller Ratings (an automated extension that showcases advertisers with high ratings) are one way to incorporate reviews in your paid ads. However, you can also include them in site links, callouts or within the ad copy itself. Each of these will help to increase your click-through rate, consequently improving your quality score, helping you get more clicks at a lower cost.
Content
It’s going to be critical to include your reviews on your website. Ensuring that they’re visible on your services/ product pages as well as other key pages will be advantageous to build trust and consideration.
For great optimisation, it's recommended to showcase the quantity and quality of your reviews, feature 3-5 recent reviews and round up your most reviewed or highly rated products or services.
Showcasing these within your website could lead to customers being considerably more engaged, spending more time on your site and even potentially lead to a reduction in your bounce rate.
Email Marketing
It’s well known that people receive LOTS of emails every day, so making yours stand out is important. When you’re creating your next email marketing campaign, why not include reviews or a review overview to build trust with potential new customers?
Social Media
Social media reviews have changed a lot recently with Facebook making changes that work in favour of businesses and encouraging recommendations. Here you can boost your page’s attractiveness and maximise click-throughs by showcasing reviews.
Conclusion
So it’s key to keep people at the very forefront of your marketing strategy, and what they have to say about your business can be influential to potential new customers.
Not only is it vital to collect and share good reviews, but it’s also important to respond to those not-so-positive ones as a bad reputation can do your business damage. For more information about dealing with online reviews, check out this blog post.
If your business is a hotel, and you need more information on how to respond to online hotel reviews, try this blog post.