Online Customer Reviews are Essential to Small Business Sales Growth
Online customer reviews are a critical and often overlooked aspect of a small business marketing strategy for several key reasons. By incorporating an online customer reviews management plan into your marketing strategy, you will increase the ways in which your business can be found online, encourage deeper loyalty, and provide prospects with more reasons why your brand is the solution they need.
First, think about the consumer’s mindset during the conversion journey. When consumers consider which solution to buy and which brand to invest their time and money in, they have an ever increasing wealth of information to sift through as they make their decisions, including content from competing brands. Reading online reviews about a brand, what they sell, and how they deliver the sales experience plays a crucial role in shaping those purchasing decisions. Customer expectations have evolved to the point that not having online reviews about your business creates doubt in the customer’s mind and opens the door for your competitors to steal sales away from your brand.
When faced with a crowded marketplace full of brands with large advertising budgets, online customer reviews are also essential for small businesses looking to stand apart and grow their market share. Customer ratings and stories will help build your brand’s credibility, establish trust with prospective customers, and increase sales from customers new to your brand.
How can online reviews fit into your small business marketing strategy? Here are our top reasons why your business needs an ongoing reviews program and how to implement one.
Online Customer Reviews Drives Sales Potential
Customer feedback is a cornerstone for business growth. When you delight your customers and encourage them to talk about your business via an online reviews program, their comments are able to reach a wider audience and wield immense influence over new customer purchasing decisions.
Positive customer reviews lead potential customers to seek out your brand and in turn drive traffic to your website, increase organic searches about your brand, and help improve conversion rates. Potential customers are more likely to make a purchase after they’ve read reviews from past customers who had a positive experience with your business.
Build Trust and Credibility in Your Company
Let’s say you are in the market for dental care services and your online search produced two promising results for you to choose from, both of which were very similar. Dentist A offers the services you need at an affordable price and they have convenient appointment times. Dentist B has all the same services at the same prices, also has appointment times that fit your schedule, and has years of online reviews with dozens of 5 star ratings. Dentist B’s customers rave about the experience of being a patient, how Dentist B exceeded their expectations, and why they recommend Dentist B to their friends. Which dentist do you want to learn more about? Which dentist’s offer do you feel is more worthy of your trust and money?
That's the power of customer reviews at work. When your past customers talk about your brand in their own words, their comments act as social proof and signal to potential customers that your business is trustworthy and delivers on what it promises to its customers. A recent PowerReviews study found that more than 99% of consumers report that they read reviews when shopping online and 98% of consumers see reviews as essential to their purchase decision. The study also found that consumers feel that online reviews are the most important factor influencing their purchases, and more influential than price or offers from the brand, such as free shipping.
We are a BirdEye Partner and experts in managing customer review programs to drive more online reviews for our clients.
For more on how an online customer review management service can benefit your business, take a look at how this local drain service company in Syracuse, New York saw a 43% increase in annual revenue or contact us to schedule a call.
Positive Promotion is Powerful for Sales Growth
If your brand is not leveraging positive online reviews, you are underutilizing a highly valuable marketing tool. Sharing positive customer testimonials cements brand loyalty for existing customers and creates new marketing touchpoints with prospective customers.
Put your positive reviews to work for your business by:
- Publishing them on your website
- Sharing reviews on social media feeds and social media ads for your business
- Creating case studies that showcase how you've helped customers solve their challenges, achieve their objectives, or attain their goals
- Adding them to your email marketing campaigns
Negative Customer Reviews Are Opportunities
What about negative reviews? They are valuable, too. Negative reviews can also help positively influence a customer’s consideration and improve sales. It also adds a layer of authenticity that resonates with potential customers when they see your brand acknowledge negative comments.
New or skeptical customers crave honest feedback about the brands they consider, and seeing real examples of how a brand fixed a bad situation by responding to a negative review further builds trust. No brand is perfect and how the brand takes responsibility for mistakes and continues to show customer appreciation and support in moments when something fails can actually convert more new customers.
What online customer review sites do customers like to use most?
- Google Business Profile
- Yelp
- Better Business Bureau
- Trustpilot
- Angi
- Tripadvisor
Reputation Management
While a single bad experience that a customer widely shares can be damaging for a small business, most prospective customers will look further than one complaint because they have already invested time and effort into your brand and want to be sure before they make up their minds. Having a collection of positive online customer reviews about your business is a great way to proactively maintain a strong reputation and combat negative feedback.
Gain More Customer Insights
Customer reviews are like goldmines of valuable feedback created just for your business. Mine negative and positive reviews for recurring themes about the customer experience and how the actual experience differs from what you hoped to deliver to your customers.
Analyze your brand’s strengths to better understand what delighted customers and the weaknesses that present improvement opportunities. Is there a staff member that repeatedly gets a callout in your positive reviews? That makes for great content on your email and social media channels to communicate what makes your business stand out from competitors and also to add more personality to your brand. By actively listening to customer responses about how your business performed, you will be better able to refine what you offer and how you deliver it to customers.
Boosting Search Engine Ranking
A well run program for growing and managing customer reviews leads to better search engine optimization (SEO) efforts by helping your website achieve better rankings for important keywords. When it comes to Google Search, the number of reviews you have on Google Business Profile (GBP), how recent they are, and the quality of your reviews all add or detract from how your GBP is ranked and how your website appears in organic search listings.
An actively managed Google Business Profile full of real customer reviews is vital to your local SEO efforts as well, as potential customers in your geographic targeting area may or may not see your business listed at all depending on your profile and website’s local search engine optimization.
Get More Local Business
If your business depends on sales from customers in your geographic area, a strong local marketing strategy is essential to your overall marketing plan. To learn more about how we develop effective local marketing strategies for our clients, schedule a call with our team.
Are you in our neighborhood? Check out our local marketing services in Westchester, New York and Fairfield, Connecticut.
Harnessing the Power of Reviews
How can your small business maximize the impact of online customer reviews on purchase intention effectively? Follow these best practices:
How to Get Customers to Write Online Reviews: Make it easy for customers to leave reviews. Actively reach out to your customers, and include links to review your business on popular platforms like Google Business Profile and Facebook on your website and marketing materials.
Proactively Request Reviews: Don't assume customers will leave reviews organically. Be proactive and reach out to them via email after their purchase to request reviews.
Respond to All Reviews: Be sure to thank customers for their positive feedback and promptly acknowledge any concerns raised in negative reviews.
Use Reviews Strategically Across Your Marketing Channels: Showcase positive testimonials in your ad copy, on your website, in your emails, and on social media. Integrating positive reviews into your marketing materials helps build trust and credibility.
View more about our reviews management program and see online customer review examples.
“When customers see that a brand values their voice, they feel appreciated and know that their feedback matters. Those positive feelings show how much they like your brand and mean they are more likely to choose your brand again. Their positive words act as genuine social proof for other potential customers who need more reasons to trust your brand before making a purchase.”
Top Questions from Small Business Owners About Online Reviews
- How important are customer reviews for online marketing?
Online reviews are essential for your business to improve sales growth as they significantly influence customer purchasing decisions and impact your online reputation. - How to ask customers for online reviews?
Reach out and encourage customers to leave reviews by providing them with easy links to platforms like Google or your social media. - What should I do if I receive a negative review?
Don’t panic! Acknowledge the customer’s concerns and reply promptly and professionally. If possible, offer a resolution and demonstrate your commitment to customer satisfaction. - Should I incentivize customers to leave reviews?
Incentivizing customers to leave reviews can increase review numbers, but be sure to check with the review platform where you will be posting the reviews on their rules. In general, the more unbiased and genuine the review, the better. Customers can sniff out over the top reviews too. - How do I handle fake reviews?
Always monitor your reviews and promptly report fake reviews to the platform where they are posted. You will likely need to supply screenshots or additional evidence to back up your claim that a review is fake, so be prepared to provide details. Most platforms that allow online reviews have some type of process for investigating and removing phony negative reviews, including Google’s recent update on taking down a huge number of fake reviews. - How can I monitor and manage my online reputation?
Online reputation management tools make monitoring and responding simple. Or save time and trust our team to manage your customer reviews for you. - Which review platforms should I focus on?
Google Business Profile and Facebook are some of the most utilized platforms by customers to look for company reviews. Be present on both of these platforms, as well as others specific to your industry, such as Angi, Trustpilot, or Tripadvisor. - How can I showcase positive reviews on my website?
Embed positive review widgets or create a dedicated testimonials page. Be sure to obtain permission from customers before featuring their reviews. - What impact do online reviews have on my SEO?
Positive online reviews can have a positive impact on your SEO by improving your visibility in search engine results, increasing the number of keywords that rank well for your business, and improving click-through rates. - How can I continuously improve based on customer feedback?
Use customer feedback from online reviews to identify areas for improvement in your products, services, and all aspects of your customer experience.
Let’s Connect
The benefits of online customer reviews extend to all aspects of your marketing strategy. A well managed program is fundamental to leveraging customer reviews for online reputation management, as well as increasing your website and brand visibility, attracting more potential customers who are actively seeking what you offer, and reinforcing loyalty among existing customers.
Schedule a free call with our team and learn more about how a program to manage online customer reviews will help grow your business.
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