Digital Marketing
Online Reviews Are Vital To Your Digital Marketing Strategy
Making it in the business world is not an easy challenge. No matter which industry you happen to work in, there is more competition than ever before, so to ensure you stand head and shoulders amongst your competitors, you need to have the necessary business strategies in place. As a business owner, you will almost certainly be aware of the fact that it is virtually impossible to please every single customer, no matter how great your services and/or products happen to be. Whilst you can’t please everybody, you can strive for perfection and can place a distinct emphasis on customer satisfaction because as you probably know, a happy customer is far more likely to become a regular customer. For some, however, simply pleasing the customer isn’t enough, which is why business owners are now asking their customers to leave them honest feedback and reviews. Online reviews can literally make or break any business, and you should never underestimate the importance of positive feedback. In some cases, even negative feedback can be a blessing, because it can help businesses to learn from their mistakes. To help emphasize just how important online reviews are, here’s a look at five key benefits of online reviews for your business.
Enhance credibility and build trust with your customers – Online directory services such as Yelp, Google Business, and so on, are incredibly useful business tools to have at your disposal if you know how to use them correctly. Say, for example, you have recently opened up a new gym and wish to attract new customers, you should ideally ask/encourage your existing customers to leave you reviews and feedback. Studies have found that having online reviews will increase your chances of converting customers by as much as 82%. The reason for this is that it helps make you look like a credible business, plus, providing the feedback is positive, it shows that you are committed to your customers. As a gym owner, this is very important because there’s a good chance that you aren’t the only gym in town, so you will obviously want people to choose you, rather than your competitors.
Increased brand awareness – Another benefit of online reviews is the fact that they can increase your brand awareness and can function as a form of free advertising. When your customers are happy and leave you positive reviews, this not only gives you credibility as a business, it will also help to increase your brand awareness. The more people that see and read these reviews, the more people will get to know and recognize your brand. Real estate brokerage companies, for example, are often fighting off competition from all sides, and if you want your company to beat your competitors, you need to establish yourself as a strong and reliable brand. Word of mouth is a very powerful tool in the business world, and when people see others praising your business, they will begin to view your brand in a positive light and will be far more likely to remember your name, logo, and perhaps business colors etc.
Enhanced SEO – In the world of online marketing and advertising, SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is incredibly important for your business. SEO basically helps ensure that your website/web pages rank higher on the search engines than those of your competitors. As Google is the most popular search engine in the world, if you can obtain more positive reviews on outlets such as Google+, this will help boost the ranking of your website, on Google and other search engines. The reason for this is that it helps the search engines to view you as a legitimate company, and consequently your ranking, both globally and locally, will increase substantially.
Increased business demands – The benefits of online reviews don’t stop here however, they just keep on coming and coming. Another reason why business owners are now placing such a strong emphasis on encouraging their customers to leave them reviews is simply down to the fact that positive reviews will mean more business for you. Think about it. If you own a law firm when people search online for law firms and see your firm along with a list of others, what is going to attract them to you? Yep, it’s your reviews. If you have, say, 30 reviews, many of which are largely positive, along with a rival company who has just three or four reviews, some of which are negative, who are people likely to choose? Obviously, they are going to go with the law firm with a large number of positive reviews, which is great news for you. The more positive reviews you have, the more likely you will be to increase your customer base.
Free advertising for you – Another very important advantage associated with online reviews for your business, is the fact that they can basically act as a form of free advertising for you. In the construction industry, if you’re looking for a construction company, you probably spend a lot of time searching online for a company that looks the most suitable for you. This usually means that you read online reviews left by previous customers. If a customer leaves you a positive review, singing your praises and encouraging others to use your services, they are essentially advertising your business for free. With social media such as Facebook, this is very important because it helps you to increase your reach and increase your customer base and a list of potential customers.
