Let me start with the premise that you are dying if you aren’t evolving the same can be said of any business entity.
Reviews are the bread and butter for survival in today’s competitive, disruptive and ever changing business environment.
The two types of reviews that can be generated are:
1. First party reviews that is reviews you generate on your own website.
2. Third party reviews are the ones generated by the likes of Facebook,Yelp and Google.
For the DIY types you can implement your own first party reviews by adding those reviews to the local business schema markup.
For Google use JSON-LD,however Bing and Yahoo uses microdata for their search results as they don’t support JSON-LD.
Three ways in which reviews can be leveraged to bring in more business are:
1. Reviews help shape and and provide information for customer decision making in the buying process.
2. Reviews assist in coming up with better business decisions.
3. Reviews can help drive traffic and increase conversions.
Reviews Help Shape And Provide Information For Customer Decision Making In The Buying Process.
For instance about 97% of consumers acknowledge that they’ve read an online review in that past year1
Based on local market, location and industry, on the average every star a business gains in reviews translates into about 5-9%in revenue.
87% of consumers won’t consider a local business with low ratings2
About 40% of consumers say a business must have at least 3 stars before they would consider either visiting do business with.
On the other hand consumers don’t expect a business to have a five star ratings and that 4.2 to 4.5* stars would suffice.
Reviews must be viewed in context using competitor to competitor or a market to market model for analysis.
Reviews Assist In Coming Up With Better Business Decisions.
Timely response to reviews by a business is the key it gives the assurance to current and prospective customers that concerns are being addressed. For example if a customer leaves a bad review reach out thank them. Then fix the issue by giving a free coupon for another shot at your service or product.
30% of consumers say review response is important to them when judging a local business. In fact a response may lead to higher rating. Due to the fact some consumers may delete that review after their concerns/issues have been taken care of.
As a business you can utilize these reviews for improving your customer experience,service or product innovation. They do provide unfiltered insights about your business. This approach is far better than the use of surveys or interviews because it tends not to have leading questions or interviewer bias.
For a business with multiple locations you can use reviews to see how you are performing. Across board and make necessary changes to locations under performing.
Rewards of online reviews
Reviews Can Help Drive Traffic And Increase Conversions.
The use of first party reviews on your website results in about 150% click through rate(CTR) for organic search.
In addition, first party reviews can also be utilized in marketing emails,paid ad campaigns and during product check-out process in the case of eCommerce. This can lead to 10-20% CTR. In the case of third party check with that party before using their reviews for any purpose relating to your business.
In the final analysis reviews have an impact on your business in these 3 areas:
1. Reviews help shape and provide vital input for customer decision making during the buying process.
2. Reviews assist in coming up with better business decisions.
3. Reviews can help drive traffic and increase conversions.
sources:
1BrightLocal 2017
2BrightLocal 2016
*Northwestern University Study
If you need help on how create and measure a winning reviews strategy reach out to me using the form below:
Send any questions/feedback/comments to:
Author: Ing. Gordon Fletcher, Principal Consultant (Engineering & Mobile Technology) at Compumagick Associates
Web: https://compumagickassociates.com
Email: https://compumagickassociates.com/contact
Phone: 1- 877-826-4506
Twitter: @compumagick