One of the most effective content marketing techniques is placing customer reviews on the site or LP. Developers have designed special pages or blocks for them. If you buy something from an online store, you will most likely be asked for the feedback. But are reviews really so important? Do people really read them?
Let’s start with the answer to the second question. Yes, the people really read them. Many people have little confidence in ads, but they are inclined to trust other customers. That’s why any feedback is quality proof.
Now let’s learn how to build reviews about a company and how and where to get feedback.
Google Search Reputation Management: The Reasons for the Enquiry’s Popularity
Let’s come back to the first, rather frequently asked question: are reviews really so important? Let’s look through some numbers and statistics to make doubly sure of reviews’ efficiency:
- The marketing agency Yodle revealed that positive reviews on the internet influence 90% of customers. On the other hand, 25% of businesses declared that reviews play a minor role on the internet. Don’t be among them!
- 44% of millennials won’t buy a product or service until they find some reviews about it. Many millennials were born at the beginning of the ʼ90s in the epoch of globalization and digital technology accessibility. They are increasingly using the internet to make purchases, and they prefer true feedback and friends’ recommendations.
- 25% of people use social networks and forums to find information about a product or service (worth remembering when placing reviews).
- Only 2% of customers look for the goods on the company’s official website.
- 73% of users find their way to your product from Google search reputation management. They learn about the goods’ features and performance and make a final decision on the purchase after they’ve studied the reviews.
How to get customers to write reviews
Collecting reviews is not easy, but the result is worth it. Many customers are eager to leave feedback, but they are too lazy to write it. Don’t waste time waiting. Instead, use this time.
Let’s move ahead and to learn about the ways of getting customers to leave reviews to increase your sales and to optimize your reputation management.
Ask for feedback: It works!
If you ask nicely, most people won’t turn you down. However, don’t be obsessive and do it via online post-checkout popups. How can the customer leave feedback before they receive the product or service? They haven’t realized their happiness or tried the product or service yet.
Instead, send a follow-up email the next day.
Think out of the box
Use bright and extraordinary call-to-actions in the emails you send to the customer. Make amusing posts with jokes, poems, or funny images. Don’t be afraid of shocking the audience because most of them are tired of the same phrases. Besides, asking for a review often looks like a plea that causes the customer to refuse instinctively.
Use credible assistants
Certainly, you’re a very busy person, and you cannot build reviews entirely by yourself. Delegate tasks to the others. But where do you find these experts? Don’t worry—there is no need to hire an army of marketers. You can simply use one of the many modern auto-systems: the review management software.
For example, Local Clarity fits multi-location brands and provides discovering insights across states, countries, and locations. The platform Okendo enables you to keep an eye on customer reviews, ratings, photos, and profiles. Target Bay, Bazzaarvoice Connections, Verified Reviews, and others help to create reviews about your company, make your own comparison charts and ratings, and more.
Don’t bother your customers
Make review forms on your website simple and attractive. Leave links to the review sites, offer a simple choice (points, stars, scales, emoticons), and send simple and interesting surveys to have a better chance of learning about your customers’ experience.
Everybody likes gifts: Never disappoint them
A reward is the best motivation for the customer to write a review. You can offer remuneration, loyalty programs, discounts, presents, promo codes, bonuses—whatever you want! Just make sure the gift is cost-effective for the business and pleasant for the customer. In this case, your customers will definitely write a review about their service from the heart.
Use the magic words
Yes, magic words really exist, and we all know what they are. Just say “thank you,” and you’ll be able to conquer your customers’ hearts. We were all taught to ask for things politely and to be grateful for them. This approach works in marketing too. Monitor the reviews to find the latest ones and respond to them. Don’t try to get rid of them with a formal “thank you,” but use polite phrases, express your feelings, and hope to further cooperation.
Building reviews on the internet: A win-win strategy
When you get many reviews, you get a vote of confidence. The more feedback on your website, the more useful the content you get to please the search engines. Although customers are often too busy to express their opinions about your product in a written form, you have a plethora of opportunities to motivate them: ask them politely, show them a simple way, entertain them, reward them, and thank them. Don’t forget to use software to see what the customers are telling about you. Who is warned is armed, you know!
