In an ideal world, business growth stems from consistent performance, marketing campaigns, and ads you run on different platforms. But this approach often leads to slow growth or stagnation for a business after a period of time. Customers today also have a wide variety of service providers to choose from, sometimes leading to choice paralysis. It becomes crucial for businesses to stand out consistently and convince their customers beyond any doubt that they are the right choice. 

A proven way of convincing leads that your business is the right choice is by showcasing social proof through online reviews from your happy customers. Unfortunately, many businesses don’t give online reviews the time and attention that they deserve. In this blog, we’ll break down the factors that make online reviews crucial to make your business successful. 

Through this blog, we would like to show you that online reviews matter and why.

Get validation at every stage 

Before the digital era, businesses relied on family and friends sharing their experiences with their loved ones for leads. While friends and family are still the ones making business recommendations, they’re now doing it on search engines like Google or social media platforms like Facebook. Online reviews, such as Facebook and Google reviews, have become powerful mediums for word-of-mouth marketing.

Customers trust the opinions of other customers. After all, a hundred five-star reviews are more convincing than an advertisement in which a business claims to be the best in the area. In fact, using online reviews in your ad copy can validate your claims and boost clicks too. 

No matter what the customer’s search intent is, reviews come in handy. They immediately boost confidence in your brand to anyone scrolling through. Attracting, converting, and delighting your customers becomes a breeze, with online reviews doing the heavy lifting. 

Boost brand for SEO

As a business owner, you want to be discovered and chosen by your ideal customers. To make yourself visible to ideal customers, you need to appear at the top of Google’s search results. While there is no direct formula to make this happen, one way to crack the elusive search algorithm by Google is to work on your online reviews. 

A G2 and Heinz Marketing study shows that 82% of customers find review sites valuable in their search. This finding means that customers actively look for reviews in their search to find a suitable service provider. Search engines prioritize results that customers constantly find helpful. So, boosting online review volume and refining your presence on popular review sites can aid your SEO efforts and improve your Clickthrough rate (CTR). 

Online reviews have another indirect impact on your search engine rankings. Domain authority is a prime factor in Google’s algorithm to establish credibility within your industry. For a higher domain authority, you need to secure backlinks from credible sources. Review sites like Zillow, and FourSquare are examples of high-profile websites that you can target to build your backlinks. 

Encouraging your customers to post online reviews on these sites can help you build high-quality backlinks and improve your search engine rankings. 

All in all, reviews make it easier for businesses to reach the top of search engine results. 

Increase sales volume 

The list price for a product and the overall sales volume means a lot to businesses. These are very often the most important factors for growth. Online reviews can help you make a giant stride in this area too. 

We know that online reviews are significant in the customer’s decision-making process. Customers are willing to trust them as much as a personal recommendation. We also see that customers are glad to spend up to 31% more on a business if they see excellent reviews. Once you’ve established trust with online reviews, customers will be more willing to trust your business and come back for their next purchase.

Keeping your customers happy directly impacts the sales volume you will see in the future for your business. It can also incentivize your satisfied customers to be vocal about your brand and service on online review sites. 

Online reviews have an emotional impact 

Online reviews matter a lot to businesses financially, but they also matter to customers on a psychological level. Research shows that customers take their time to read and understand every review, whether positive or negative. Customers’ attention to negative reviews is significantly greater than to positive comments. The study also shows that reviews significantly impact customers even when they are just browsing through for a product. 

While the study focuses on the need for businesses to handle negative reviews, we cannot deny the overall emotional impact of online reviews on customers. Companies can make it go both ways by boosting the volume of online reviews so that the positive experiences get the spotlight more and convert customers. 

Even if you have negative reviews, you can overcome them by responding to your customers and engaging with them positively. 

Frequently asked questions about Online Reviews

How to generate more online reviews?

Securing online reviews can be challenging unless you have a system. Create a process that automates it via email, text, or other means to your customers. Follow up meticulously. You can also try incentivizing reviews with loyalty programs and discount offers. 

How can I do more with reviews?

Once you have the reviews, make sure you get the most out of them. You can start by promoting them on your social media accounts, your website, and paid ad campaigns, while also leveraging them to know consumer sentiment. 

Boost online reviews volume with Birdeye

Every online review matters and brings an opportunity to grow your business. 

Online reviews are incredibly underrated. By boosting online review volume, responding to reviews, and promoting them, you can raise brand awareness, improve conversion rates, and build a strong reputation for your business. 

But generating and managing online reviews manually can be difficult and time-consuming. Birdeye, the leading review, and online reputation management brand, can automate your review generation and online review management processes and show you the endless potential of reviews for your business. 

The free trial is just a click away – request a demo now.