Leverage Online Reviews to Grow your Business

“Online reviews have the power to make or break a business” – Anonymous

In this digital era and growing trends, online reviews are crucial for business and have been under public’s eye since few years. For any business, converting leads into sales has always been one of the sole goal and it is difficult to achieve for any online and brick or mortar store. Online reviews affect the purchasing decision when making purchase be it a smart phone, car or electronic good. Without the ability to try, see or test the products before purchasing them, consumers have to make decision based on the trust, which can be difficult to establish in digital environment. Hence, in such scenario customer reviews are one of the most powerful tools for creating this trust.

What does the research suggest?

• 84% of people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendation
• 7 out of 10 customers will leave a review for a business if they’re asked to
• 90% of consumers read less than 10 reviews before forming an opinion about business
• 73% of consumers think that reviews older than 3 months are no longer relevant
• 74% of consumers says that positive reviews make them trust a local business more
• 58% of consumers say that the star rating of a business is more important

So, if you feel awestruck regarding how online reviews expand your business, take a look on the list below:

Promotes Brand Awareness

From small business to enterprise business, brand awareness campaign is always worth to boost your sales. No matter what, you are selling the best product in the market, your sale would not exceed if people are not aware about your brand. Thus, online reviews become important factor in creating brand awareness. When any customer views or hear about your brand elements, they would connect with the product or service you offer. Hence, you should allow the customers to submit and post reviews on your website. From big retailers to small e-commerce, there are millions of websites that supports customer review and has created brand awareness.

Helps in Getting Personal

The more you interact with the customers, the more you will understand the value of your brand. Social Media is one of the best tools to engage with the customers which generally results in loyal and long-term clients. You can ask your customers to provide reviews on Facebook, LinkedIn etc. By performing such activities, consumers would feel more connected with you and always be propelled to get the products from you. Additionally, this will enable to serve your customer better and efficiently resolving the issues they have, which creates a positive experience of your business in future.

Affects SEO with the Keyword Content

Online reviews help in offsite optimization that helps in making your website visibility high. With the steady SEO keywords, your business has more prominent online presence for the customers because many of the keywords are already included in online reviews. With this, your business will gain more visibility in search results that are looking for the relevant product you provide.

Reviews Breed More Reviews

When your product has already started receiving reviews online, it boosts other visitors also to leave their own feedback. Just high number of reviews is enough to attract new visitors to add their own views on that particular product or service. Views can be good or bad, as positive views are always overwhelmed with negative views. You can start to judge what will be the reaction of others and modify your product so that it would fit their need better.

The Bottom Line

Online reviews can have high impact on your overall business. Everything from brand awareness to search engine optimization can be boon to the firm. Some tactics mentioned above can be helpful to boost your online sales by making symbolic impression for your brand and seamless buying experience that customers generally look for.