Why online reviews are so important (and how to get more of them!)

When it comes to marketing, nothing beats a quality recommendation from a trusted source.

Online reviews can be just as persuasive and they play an integral part in helping prospects become paying customers.

Here’s some stats about why online reviews are so important:

68% of consumers say review sentiment influences the trust they feel in a business.

42% of Australians regularly read reviews (1-3 times per week)

90% of consumers read reviews before visiting a business. 

85% of consumers have as much confidence in online reviews as they do in personal recommendations.

Encourage your customers to review you online

Positive reviews will help you build trust with potential customers, leading to more leads and a better conversion rate.

You don't need dozens and dozens of reviews. In fact, most people will only read 2 or 3 before making a decision.

However you should encourage all your customers to leave a review. This will allow you to continuously gather feedback and find out what you’re doing well and where you can improve.

It also gives you the opportunity to respond and rectify any problems your customers encountered.

There are many other benefits too, such as improving your Search Engine Ranking, which we will touch on a bit later.

How To Get More Reviews

Only 23% of consumers have actually written and submitted a review online… but 70% of all consumers will leave a review if they’re asked to.

That means you must be proactive in your approach to getting more reviews.

Here's some starters:

Ask! If you don't ask, you don't get. Simple.

As we know, people are much more likely to leave a review when they've had a bad experience, so it's important to encourage everyone who has a good experience to leave a review also. This ensures that if you do receive any negative reviews, they are far outweighed by the positive ones.

Make it simple. Think about adding links to email signatures, text messages and on your website. Train you customer-facing employees to request reviews in person as part of a defined process.

Make it timely. For example, send an automated email to your customers after they’ve purchased from your site or after you’ve performed a service for them.

Review stars can boost CTR by as much as 35%.

Simply having review stars attached to your listing can dramatically improve how many people click on your business.

Google will also display your rating from other platforms such as Facebook, TrueLocal, Yellowpages and more, so it's important to build up reviews on as many relevant platforms as possible.

Reviews help you appear at the top of Google search results

Google search is always evolving. Currently, when people search for a local business, Google will display a "local pack" of 3-4 nearby.

These are selected due to the proximity of the business from your location, and the number and quality of Google reviews (among other factors).

Therefore, having more reviews with a higher average rating than your competitors will allow you to appear in this “Local Pack” of results – and ideally right at the top. (More info: https://moz.com/local-search-ranking-factors)

How To Deal With Negative Reviews

Depending on the platform, you often can’t remove negative reviews. Although you can flag or report them as inappropriate, spam or harassment so the platform can determine what action to take.

Therefore, you should respond to all reviews - including the negative ones.

30% of consumers view businesses in a more positive light if they respond to reviews and can see that you listen to feedback and attempt to remedy any issue that is raised.

Embrace reviews and use them as a learning opportunity

Demonstrate that you care about your customers and have real people ready to help. Listen to their feedback and take responsibility to rectify any issues.

This can be a powerful way to persuade potential customers who are reading your response to buy from you.

Please recommend us on Facebook or review us on Google!

Do you like the content we share every week? Are you a podcast subscriber?

Have you ever been a client of ours or attended any of our events?

Please consider leaving us a review on Google or Facebook.

Review us on Google: 
bit.ly/2sHCLQ8

Recommend us on Facbebook: 
facebook.com/businessbenchmarkgroup/

We really appreciate all your support and feedback.

I look forward to sharing much more in the coming weeks that will help you get more people recommending you and sending a stream of new leads to your business.

Power to you!

Stefan Kazakis
Founder and CEO, Business Benchmark Group