Have you been utilizing online customer reviews to boost your business’s credibility and grow your customer base? If you haven’t, you should! Getting your customers to leave online reviews of our business is easier than you think, and might become the most successful part of your online marketing presence.
Here are our top 3 surprising facts about reputation marketing and what it can do for your business.
Ask, and You Shall Receive Reviews from 7 out of 10 Customers
Unbelievable as it may sound, getting customers to leave online reviews for your business is as simple as asking them to! According to a recent survey by BrightLocal, 7 out of 10 consumers who were asked by a business to leave them an online review did review that company.
So chances are if you ask, they will! There is no reason not to, so go for it… and start building up your online credibility through customer reviews. You’re already providing a valuable product or service and exceptional experience for your customers, so why not encourage them to give you feedback online, where other potential customers are just waiting to find you? The more reviews you get, the more credibility you will have, and the more credibility you have, the more customers you will attract, who can then review you and build your business’s reputation even further. That’s one of the best qualities of reputation marketing: the snowball effect.
When your business goes the extra mile to give your customers a remarkable and valuable experience, the world needs to know! It would be a shame to let all that potential marketing power walk out the door without asking for them to leave a review for your business. They may say no, but the statistics show that they’ll probably say yes!
Here are some tips to help you get that powerful feedback:
- Teach your team that when one of your customers is particularly pleased with their experience, asking them for a review right there on the spot should be a no-brainer. Ask for their feedback before their smile even has a chance to fade– don’t wait until later when their positive feelings may have started to fade away into the rest of their day or week. Get that review while it’s still hot!
- Ask for the customer’s email address so that you can send them a link to write their review on Facebook or Google. Or, if you’re already sending them an email receipt, make sure it includes a link to write a review. The easier you make it for them, the more likely they are to do it!
- Make sure you have Wi-Fi in your brick and mortar. That way, your customers can use to post a review right then and there.
- You can also install a kiosk or set up a tablet near your establishment’s exit, conveniently available for your customers to use to leave you an online review.
Survey Says: 4 out of 5 of People Trust Online Customer Reviews
Many business owners might be shocked to learn that these days, consumers trust a business’s online customer reviews almost as much as they would trust a personal recommendation from someone they know. That’s how effective online reviews can be for your business – in that same BrightLocal survey, 84% of consumers said they trust what they read in online customer reviews.
That’s because online reviews are real feedback from a business’s real customers. They are NOT claims made by the company, like other forms of online advertising. For this reason, people trust them to be an honest and accurate account of what they’d experience as customers of your business.
The authenticity of customer reviews is the most crucial factor in whether or not a consumer will trust the reviews they read. That means that it is vital that all of your business’s online reviews are real. Never use fake reviews: they don’t ring true, and people will notice, hurting the very credibility you are hoping to build through reputation marketing.
It’s also important to do your research to find out what the biggest review sites are. That way, you can point your customers to these particular places, like Facebook, Google, or Yelp, where those glowing reviews can give you the most significant possible boost. Additionally, you can address any negative or critical reviews. Seeing that your business listens to your customers and takes their feedback seriously can turn a negative impression into a positive one.
Bonus: You Can Use those Reviews in Your Digital Marketing Campaigns!
Reviews are solid gold digital marketing content because they are user-generated, and therefore trustworthy. As an added bonus, you can use those credible, customer-created reviews for your content marketing!
Genuine reviews are credible because they come from your actual customers and not from your marketing team or public relations department. Savvy business owners know that this feedback is ready-made online advertising material! Plus, using this customer-generated content can save you time on content production!
You can use reviews as content in many ways:
- Write out the story of the customer experience that inspired a particularly stellar review. This will showcase your business’s values, can spotlight an employee to give your business a face, and demonstrates just how much you appreciate and value each and every one of your customers.
- Create a storyline that weaves together a sequence of reviews and publish it as an article to reach a readership full of potential customers.
- Create videos based on your reviews. You can also incorporate reviews into video ads as text on the screen or a voiceover.
- Or simply post your positive reviews on your website and social media accounts. Be sure to preserve the credibility of your reviews by including identifying information like the customer’s picture, full name, or username alongside the quote, or include a direct link to the review itself.
To wrap it up, ask your customers for reviews. 7 out of 10 customers will write you a review if you only ask! Eighty-four of today’s consumers trust online reviews, so you know that any reviews you collect will be effective, invaluable resources to win over new customers for your business. You can use the reviews your customers leave you as content that will supercharge your online marketing and save you time and effort. Spend 40% less on content production by utilizing your customers own words.
Make sure you’re getting the most out of the positive experiences you create for your customers. Reputation marketing is an EFFICIENT strategy that turns customer feedback into credibility for your business with almost no extra effort from you.
Philip Sinclair
The internet has spawned a set of so-called self-proclaimed internet gurus over the last decade, some good some bad and can often lead to blind alleys leading to wasted money and time, this has caused me to set up a clear and concise path for a business’s digital marketing efforts.
When setting up a website, what are the best platforms to use? There are the platforms that are billed as free, but is free really free? What doesn’t cost you in money could end up costing you in time and lost sales so it isn’t really free, is it? Software systems can often be confusing and there is huge learning curve, often leading to lost time.
A lot of small and local businesses struggle to understand the online world and how it can help their business with a few simple strategies and this is why we have set up this consultancy.
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