When it comes down to converting your leads into being your online customers, a positive business review will impact your customers’ trust in your business. According to the BrightLocal survey in 2018, customers read around ten reviews online before they feel okay to trust a local business.
Most customers are now looking to review sites to help make purchase decisions, and your business needs to manage its online reputation. There are a lot of ways that you can encourage your customers to leave reviews online for you. That can mean an increased chance that these reviews are positive, and others will start to trust your business enough to walk into your business or purchase it online from you.
The following are 7 ways that you can generate online business reviews for your business:
How You Can Get Business Reviews Online
Below are some great ideas for you to generate business reviews online which can impact your marketing campaigns.
1. Discounts
An old school way and the most powerful way to encourage your customers to leave reviews is to offer discounts on their next purchase. It does not matter if you decide to send it directly to your customers after making an online purchase or through social media. Discounts will be one of the most significant ways to get your customers to return and leave positive reviews.
2. Check-in Offers
When you offer check-in offers on platforms like Foursquare, you will generate walk-in customers who would be likely to leave reviews. If you want to have the best success possible using this strategy, ensure that your staff has been trained to treat your walk-in customers with an excellent customer experience resulting in positive reviews.
3. Local Vloggers and Bloggers
When you find local vloggers and bloggers, you will generate a lot more reviews for your business, especially if you are selling relevant products or items. Even though all reviews are valuable, getting a positive review from a local influencer or an influencer in the industry carries significant potential for customers.
It would help if you started looking for bloggers that have large followings on social media for your industry or area. You can use tools like GroupHigh or Right Relevance to find influencers of your services and products.
Send these bloggers a sample of your product that they can review. You must research each blogger before sending them anything to have products that they will enjoy and use. You may also need to start a conversation and create a relationship before asking for a product review.
It does not matter if they are writing about it on a blog or sharing it through video. It would help if you were prepared to learn something new. It is real, and it can be scary if you have not heard good things about your product, but you can learn about what is not great and what helps your team improve.
Be sure to keep in mind what your target audience is. If you have a target audience of 50, then do not have a 25-year-old vlogger review your product to get attention, but it may not provide you with the best review for anyone.
4. Website Review Widgets
While there are many widgets out there, WordPress review widgets get built to work with a WordPress site. They are easy to use in your dashboard, but they will also provide you with a great user experience that allows you to add reviews from multiple sites like Angie’s List, Google, Facebook, and much more.
When you allow your customers to see all of your reviews in a single place, you are increasing your accessibility and transparency between potential customers and what your customers think. There are tools out there that you can use to help generate positive reviews for your business, but they can also add review widgets to your site, and you can control what review gets seen.
5. Social Media Advertising
Social media is a big platform for any online marketing, and there is an excellent reason. According to BrightLocal, 87% of consumers have reviewed local businesses on social media. Social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook add a lot of consumer data, making it easy for businesses to reach out to customers interested in their services and products.
You can take advantage of Twitter ads and Facebook Ads targeted at specific people who have tried your services or products and ask them to leave a review. You can install social ad tracking pixels on your site, which is a great way to target your review ads.
6. Offer Free WiFi for Reviews
If your business has WiFi, then consider making it free for your customers. When they are using the internet in your business, they will most likely keep your brand in mind and give you a positive review.
You will also get listed as WiFi friendly, and that could drive traffic to your store.
7. Ask for Reviews
The last but the easiest one. Just ask your customers for reviews. Google Maps will often send push notifications to those who have location turned on their phone, but you can do the same. If you have repeat customers, ask them to leave a review the next time they visit your store. You can even make it easier and provide them with a cellphone or tablet that has been set up and ready for them to leave a review.
You can even include those who support you, whether professional connections, business partners, or family and friends. You may not want your grandma leaving a review about how proud she is of you, but it is an excellent way to start your review stream by starting with the closest of your supporters.
These simple and effective ideas can help you generate business online and help your customers become some of your greatest marketers.
Contact us today to learn how you can get more tips to turn your customers into brand ambassadors for your company.
