Positive reviews are vital for small businesses competing in the digital marketplace. With 92% of people reading online reviews before making purchasing decisions, reviews influence your discoverability, reputation, conversions, and even SEO, proving how far the power of reviews stretches. This makes cultivating an outstanding review profile essential.
Understanding the Power of Reviews for Your Small Business
To understand the power of reviews, let’s review the benefits positive reviews can provide for your business as well as some effective strategies to help you procure those reviews:
Benefits of Great Reviews
Many business owners are so overwhelmed with running their businesses that garnering positive reviews on Google, Facebook, or Yelp usually isn’t top of mind, much less a priority. But positive, 5-star reviews provide many advantages that can significantly impact your success, including the following:
- Boost credibility and trust in your business
- Improve local search rankings and drive traffic
- Persuade prospects to convert into customers
- Promote repeat business and referrals
- Counteract any negative reviews
- Build brand authority and clout in your niche
With so much to gain, focusing on getting more online reviews should be a priority. But even if you understand the many benefits of good reviews, how do you actually get them?
Takeaway: Prioritizing the procurement of positive reviews for your small business will boost your credibility, improve your SEO, lead to referrals, and promote repeat business.
Strategies to Get More Reviews
At Paragon Marketing Group, we understand that it takes some effort to maintain a robust review profile. However, implementing these simple strategies can help generate more customer feedback on an ongoing basis.
Ask for Reviews Everywhere
The easiest way to get reviews is to directly ask satisfied customers to leave feedback. But don’t limit yourself to just one platform. Collecting reviews across multiple sites broadens your exposure. Make sure to include the following sites:
- Google My Business – Google is the most common site potential customers will visit, making it critical for visibility. This requires your business to have an official Google My Business profile so customers can find you.
- Facebook – While Facebook isn’t used as much as Google for reviews, getting reviews on Facebook helps with social proof, especially as Facebook still reigns as the most popular social media platform in the world.
- Yelp or Houzz – Depending on the industry your small business is in, you may want to consider an industry-specific site like Yelp or Houzz where people leave reviews as these specific sites build authority within their particular niches.
Make Review Requests a Routine
A key strategy to get positive reviews for your small business is to incorporate review requests into your regular customer interactions. Some best practices to implement into your schedule include the following:
- Ask for reviews once a purchase has been made.
- Add a link directly to your Google My Business or Facebook page in email signatures.
- Print a QR code on receipts, invoices, or custom cards to hand out to customers.
- When you or sales staff are face-to-face with clients, request verbally at the point of service.
- Promote positive, 5-star reviews on your social media platforms and website.
Offer an Incentive
Encouraging reviews through a reward or giveaway helps motivate customers. Offer a discount, free product sample, or entry into a prize drawing in exchange for leaving a review. Just ensure incentives are not conditional upon getting a 5-star rating.
Respond and Interact . . . No Matter the Review
Being engaged with your reviews shows customers you listen and care. Always respond promptly and politely to feedback – positive and negative. This fosters goodwill and shows your brand values customer perspectives.
From a customer perspective, negative reviews for a business may hold significant weight. But so does the way in which the business responds to those reviews. Consider this advice from Skip on how to address negative reviews.
Takeaway: Actively asking for reviews and incorporating the process into your routine will enable you to garner those positive reviews you need.
Here’s a Quick Recap:
- Prioritizing the procurement of positive reviews for your small business will boost your credibility, improve your SEO, lead to referrals, and promote repeat business.
- Actively asking for reviews and incorporating the process into your routine will enable you to garner those positive reviews you need.
With a rigorous review generation strategy, you can build the social proof and reputation that propels business growth.
At Paragon Marketing Group, we’d be remiss if we failed to take our own advice. So we’re going to implement our first recommended strategy to obtain a few reviews. If you’re a client satisfied with the level of surface we’ve provided, will you leave us a 5-star review on Google?
If you need help managing your online presence or more strategies for procuring positive reviews, please contact us. Visit our website at paragonmarketinggroup.com or call us at 262-443-9092. We’d love to hear from you.
