Online reviews, especially, play an important role in shaping the reputation of your business in the marketplace. It’s best to not underestimate the impact they have on your brand.
Here’s why online reviews are essential for your brand:
Having more online reviews helps feed the content machine and allows your brand to be favored by the algorithm. Shoppers typically go to search engines like Google, or sometimes even Facebook, when looking for what to purchase.
The more positive online reviews there are for your brand, the more the search engines prioritize you when showing search results to shoppers. This can then lead to the algorithm and other people seeing your brand as an authority in the industry, which could result in more exposure.
A steady stream of positive reviews from customers drastically improves your trustworthiness to new buyers or returning shoppers. If potential customers see that previous shoppers have had positive experiences with your store, then they’re more likely to make a purchase.
Shoppers are also more likely to trust brands that have a good balance of good and bad reviews. This implies to them that the reviews are genuine and not something that the brand manipulated to boost its own credibility. As long as you’re receiving more positive than negative reviews, then your average score and level of trustworthiness shouldn’t be affected.
When people have good experiences with your brand, they’re more likely to talk about it with other people that they know. This is an easy way to expand your audience reach without actively doing any promotions.
People also tend to share their reviews on other sites or external websites such as FourSquare, Yelp, and TripAdvisor. This is important to your online ranking since search engines like Google collect data from different sites when ranking their results.
Getting positive reviews for your brand pushes further reviews. People are more likely to recommend your brand on other sites, increasing your digital footprint on multiple channels.
Online reviews can directly influence the purchasing decisions of shoppers. When people want to know the best places to make purchases, they usually turn to Google or other online search engines than they are to their own family or friends.
If your website gets a good and steady stream of reviews, your brand ranks higher in the search engine results. When a shopper clicks on your website, most of the time, going through the reviews is their priority.
How many reviews your brand gets and what people say in those reviews are generally what help customers decide if making a purchase from your brand is worth it or not. A significant lack of reviews on your page or a concerning number of negative reviews can make the shopper feel wary and less likely to make a purchase.
Businesses should be actively encouraging shoppers to leave reviews by having a special feedback button on their page, sharing different customer experiences on social media, giving incentives for every review they make, or managing forums or communities that are specifically meant for customers to leave feedback.
A lot of companies overlook a major opportunity when they fail to engage with customers and encourage them to leave reviews. Creating customer engagement through online reviews builds a relationship between the customer and the brand.
Positive reviews can be reinforced by expressions of gratitude and promotions. This also makes it easier to rectify negative reviews and clear any possible issues or misunderstandings.
By doing this, you’re showing your customers that you care about them and their opinions, further building the trust and confidence they have in your brand.
This is also a great chance for you to gather more data on your target market and determine ways to further improve your product and your service.
Engaging with these reviews and leaving personalized responses gives your brand a face. Being known for your friendliness and open-to-feedback appearance can do wonders for your company.
Remember that customer experience is always a top priority when it comes to doing business.
Marketing your brand is important but having people talk about you is what really drives the sales to your business. You also want to make sure that the things they say can positively influence any potential customers.
When you encourage positive conversations about your brand and improve customer engagement, you can quickly improve your marketing and promotion efforts. This allows you to expand your customer base and make your business successful.
Check out UAM’s online reviews on our profile on Clutch!