The Importance of Online Reviews – What They Mean for Your Business
If you haven’t heard it a million times already, we’re here to tell you again – online reviews matter. In fact, they matter a lot and can be the difference between your business skyrocketing to a level of success you’ve only ever dreamed about and your business barely getting by on a month-to-month basis. But don’t take our word for it – here are some hard numbers to back it up:
- 95% of shoppers read online reviews before making a purchase
- Displaying reviews can increase conversion by up to 47%
- 76% of consumers think content from other consumers is more honest than brand content
It’s clear that consumers want online reviews, but you may be wondering why. At Catapult Creative Media, we support our clients in every aspect of their marketing, so we’re breaking down online reviews and what you can do to harness their power.
Why Online Reviews are Important – 3 Big Reasons
- A positive array of online reviews can help customers trust your business more. As many as 76% of consumers said they find content posted by other consumers to be more honest than brand produced content. According to the 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report, 63% of consumers in the United States said that a company having good ratings and reviews was an important reason why they gave their trust to a brand. Having positive online reviews is a signal to your customers that your business can be trusted to deliver a quality product or service.
- Online reviews can boost conversions. The Edelman report showed that 77% of people consider good customer reviews as a deciding factor in their buying decision. In addition, the purchase likelihood for a product with five-star reviews is 270% greater than a product with no reviews. Positive online reviews mean greater conversions for your business.
- Having a positive online reputation is also important for local search engine optimization. Google has stated that high-quality, positive reviews are a factor that can improve your company’s visibility in local ranking on Google.
[Related: The Cost of Ignoring Online Reviews]
Recent Online Reviews are Key
Having online reviews is obviously important, but it’s not a one-and-done situation. Online reputation management is an ongoing battle that business owners must give their attention to, or they’ll risk losing business. Dated reviews inspire less confidence than recent ones. TripAdvisor found that 78% of consumers focus on the most recent reviews. Consumers want to know that your company is providing quality products and services now when looking at the product/service. They have no idea what has changed in your service or quality over the last three months when Janet left the last review.
Don’t Aim for a Perfect Review Rating – Seriously, You Look Like a Scam
The overall rating is also important. You might be surprised to learn that a perfect five-star review is not the rating you want. Overall, a five-star rating is considered “too good to be true,” and consumers question your reviews’ authenticity. The likelihood to purchase typically peaks when your rating is between 4.0-4.7. In other words, having some negative reviews or some average reviews actually makes you look more trustworthy.
You Have to Ask for Online Reviews
Now that we’ve established that having online reviews is important and that they need to be recent, you need to set about getting them. Many customers will leave reviews of products, services, and restaurants – about one in 10 will always post a review, while about 50 percent will sometimes post a review.
What does this boil down to for you as a business owner? Getting customers to review you is a numbers game. You need to ask your customers to review you, and you need to ask a lot of them continually. And the easier you make it for customers to leave you a review, the better chance you’ll have of getting more.
But you only have so many hours in a day to call people and ask them to review you on Google, Facebook, or your choice of review platform.
That’s where we come in with our review-gathering software, Kydos!, that makes getting reviews easy, fast, and stress-free.
Kydos! – Easy Online Review Management
Kydos! allows you to text or email review requests to your customers and remind them to review your service or product. It only takes a few seconds, and you can send a follow-up text or email if they don’t review you the first time. In addition, Kydos! allows you to view and respond to reviews on your products or services, all from one convenient dashboard.
Kydos! makes getting reviews easy and allows you to keep them current without all the hassle of calling your clients and trying to explain how to review you on 10 different platforms. It’s as simple as:
- Adding your customer’s email or phone number to your Kydos! account
- Select which platform you want your clients to review you – Google, Facebook, Yelp, or other
- Send review request (your customer takes care of the rest by following a link and leaving a review!)
- View and respond to your review in your dashboard
We make it simple for you and your client, so your online reputation soars.
Your customers are much more likely to review you if you ask. Take the first step in building your online reputation management today, and request a free demo of Kydos! today.
