Why You Need Customer Reviews And 5 Ways To Get Them Fast
Love ‘em or hate ‘em, reviews make small businesses go ‘round. When you’re marketing yourself with a limited budget, you need all the free help you can get. While many of us shy away from reading or sourcing reviews, they pack a lot of firepower for small biz marketing.
Since 93% of shoppers read reviews before buying anything, you need a lot of reviews under your belt. That’s because:
Positive reviews outweigh negative ones: Negative reviews hurt your credibility and can lead to lost business. When you proactively source positive reviews, they can outweigh the negative feedback and save your business’s reputation.
You’ll find more customers: Shoppers are looking for businesses via Facebook, Yelp, and Google. If you have zero reviews and your competitor has a few, customers will probably buy from them instead. You don’t want that at all, so reviews are a must!
Reviews are constructive: Even negative reviews have a nugget of truth to them. You can find what customers love and what you need to change when you take reviews seriously.
Reviews are an effective way to market your small biz. But how, exactly, do you convince busy customers to leave a review? Follow these 5 tips to source more reviews, fast.
Tip #1: Create review site profiles
It’s hard for customers to review you if you don’t have a profile! Make sure your business is on Facebook, Google My Business, and Yelp to start.
Since all of these platforms are free, you don’t have anything to lose! Be sure to add details like your business hours, contact information, and lots of high-quality images.
Tip #2: Ask for reviews
Here’s the funny thing about reviews: customers are usually more than happy to write one if you ask.
Don’t wait for a negative review to light a fire under you. Make asking for reviews a part of your customer workflow. You can even automate this with your CRM, automatically sending a review request email when you invoice clients.
Tip #3: Offer something in exchange
This depends on the review platform, but sometimes you can offer freebies in exchange for customer reviews. Obviously, you don’t want to bribe people into giving a 5-star review—always ask for their honest opinion.
Offer a small thank you gift like a miniature version of your product or a service discount to make it worth your customer’s time.
Tip #4: Reply to all reviews
Replying to reviews ensures that you’re monitoring your online presence, but it also encourages customers to leave reviews! When you engage with reviews, it boosts customer engagement even more. Plus, when you eventually get a less-than-stellar review (it happens to everyone), you’ll already have set a precedent.
Tip #5: Share your past reviews
You’ve done the hard work of gathering reviews; don’t let them collect dust! Get more mileage out of your reviews by sharing them on your website, social media, and email list. They perform well on landing pages and product pages, too!
Reviews are persuasive marketing tools that convince customers who are on the fence to take the plunge. Plus, sharing reviews on your site encourages new customers to leave reviews, too.
The bottom line
Every customer interaction is a chance to score a positive review. This is an effective—and, did we mention, free?—way to market your small business online. Make reviews a regular part of your workflow to do word of mouth marketing right, even on a limited budget.