Around 93% of users say that online reviews impact their buying decisions.
Small businesses can have a hard time keeping up in a world where larger corporations have so much dominance. There are various ways you can give your business a better chance of success. One of those is through online reviews.
In this small business guide, we’ll explain the benefits of reviews, and how you can use them to help your business. Keep reading for more.
How Reviews Can Help Your Small Business
All businesses can benefit from reviews, but they tend to be more important for smaller, newer businesses. Large companies like Amazon or Apple are generally well known, so most people already have a good idea of the quality of what they offer. Newer companies still need to establish themselves, and reviews can help with this.
Shows Your Business Is Trustworthy
When people read reviews, it’s a direct reflection of your previous customers’ experiences. They provide impartial opinions about products and services, providing an authentic viewpoint. If customers see a lot of positive reviews, they’ll tend to trust your company more.
Improves Visibility
Having more online reviews will make it easier for users to find your company. This will increase your reach, which will naturally lead to more sales. The information people provide in reviews can often be useful to new leads, and works well with search engine algorithms to improve your SERP (search engine results page) ranking.
Better Customer Engagement
Customer engagement is becoming more important for businesses, and getting reviews is one of the ways to improve this. You can gain customer insights from reviews which you can use to make improvements that will lead to things like better customer experiences, better brand image, and more sales.
Fosters Customer Loyalty
When customers leave a positive review, this generally indicates that they feel a sense of loyalty toward your brand. Better customer loyalty means better customer retention, so customers that leave positive reviews are likely to buy from you again. Building better relationships with your customers will help ensure they choose you over your competitors.
How to Get More Reviews
Some customers will naturally leave reviews, but it can be helpful to encourage more people to do them. The simplest way is to just ask. You can even use automation tools at the purchase point or in follow-up emails that encourage people to leave reviews.
A customer is also more likely to leave an online review if it’s a simple process. If it takes a while, many customers will simply stop part way through. Make things easier so that customers can get through the process without issue.
Enhancing Your Reputation With Online Reviews
To help your business grow, you want to make the most out of your online reviews. You can do this with Element 99 using our review management platform.We can help you quickly collect authentic reviews and share them through your website and social media pages. You can also reply to these reviews to further engage with your customers. Click here to learn more about our 5-Star Reputation Management service and get a no-hassle demonstration from us today.