Do you ever wonder why your business isn’t getting more reviews on social media? Or why do some businesses have such a hard time getting their reviews taken down? Well, there are plenty of reasons why your business could use an extra boost of confidence on social media.
And one of the best ways to do that is by having your blog posts and reviews accepted by other businesses and individuals. Let’s take a look at the 6 benefits of having online reviews for your business.
The Emergence of Online Reviews
The advent of the internet and the World Wide Web has provided a platform for businesses to reach a much wider audience with their products and services. With the wide range of online review websites, it’s now possible for companies to gain more exposure, improve their ratings, and increase their sales.
Here are a few examples of how online reviews have evolved: eBay: In 1999, there were only 11 sellers who had buyer reviews on the eBay Home Page. Today, there are over 2.9 million sellers with buyer reviews. Overstock: In 1999, Overstock.com had $40 million in annual sales.
Today, Overstock has been valued at $4.9 billion. Groupon: In 2009, Groupon had 200 million unique visitors, making it the 6th largest website in the world. In 2014, Groupon had $4.5 billion in revenue.
8 Benefits of Online Reviews
1. Increase Brand Awareness
If you’re not actively marketing your brand name or products on social media, you’re missing out on a significant portion of your customer’s business. And this can lead to a drop in sales, a decrease in customer satisfaction, and even bad publicity for your business.
Having your business name and brand mentioned in online reviews can increase your brand awareness, which can lead to more sales, and ultimately, a better business outcome.
2. Help Build Online Reputation
When customers are willing and able to give an honest review of your products or services, it gives your business a great deal of credibility. And this can lead to more customers coming back for more and even referrals.
Now, more customers who refer their friends to you will be giving you more business, which will lead to even more repeat business, and so on.
3. Increase Traffic
Increased traffic is always a good thing, isn’t it? What’s even better is if those people are Conversion Rate Boosters. These are people who are looking for a solution to their problems, and your business may come up on their radar.
If you have a high number of visitors to your website, you will get more conversions, and you’ll have more people to talk with and sell to. This can continue to build your brand awareness, and encourage more people to become customers.
4. Increase Conversion
Have you ever tried to order something online and got an “estimated” shipping cost out of nowhere? Or what about the total cost of a purchase, including taxes and fees?
Well, those things add up over time, and the more you sell, the more you will experience them. And those are just some of the benefits of having online reviews. Your customers are likely experiencing similar things, and they are probably expressing it through online reviews as well.
5. Helps in Product Research
It’s no secret that consumers love receiving product recommendations from other people. And if you ask consumers what they want, you will likely get a plethora of different answers.
But then, you can conduct an online poll to get a broader view of what your customers want. And this will help you in product research since you will likely get different answers from your customers than from the general public.
6. Less Advertising Cost
Advertising is expensive, and your customers are paying for it too. Advertising on social media can be expensive, as well as time-consuming, and result in few or no returns on investment.
That’s where having your blog and reviews comes into play. You can get your ad dollars directly from those who are reading your blog, and you can put them to better use by spreading the word about your products and services.
7. Boost Market Position
Having positive online reviews can do wonders for your market position. If you have excellent ratings and reviews on every website that publishes reviews about your products or services, people are going to take notice and you will have a much harder time having your reviews removed.
This will also give you more sales, as people will be more inclined to make purchases after hearing positive reviews. This is especially important for startups and smaller businesses, as they are less likely to have the resources and the scale to get positive reviews taken down.
8. Serves as Employee Evaluation
If you work for a company or organization that offers services or products that are related to your niche, you could consider placing a review on one of the many external review websites. This way, you are not only boosting your image but that of your employer as well.
Many people think that hiring or working for a company that has bad reviews is a sign of bad faith. However, this is not the case. Having good reviews from past customers can be a great way for companies to gain more customers and for employees to show their worth to their employers.
Online Reviews Also Have Disadvantages
There are a few disadvantages that businesses need to think about when planning to start accepting online reviews. Here are the most significant ones:
1. Writing Quality
The problem with most review websites is that they don’t actually help customers to write their reviews. All they do is take your word for it that you wrote the review and publish it. This can lead to some pretty poor reviews that can damage your business’s reputation.
In order to overcome this, a business must provide some guidance to help customers leave a review. In addition, giving some incentives to reviewers may also help you have more reviews.
2. No Control
Customers are free to write whatever they want. Sometimes, even those who don’t buy the product may leave a review. This will lead to a high risk of fake or biased reviews.
However, just because your business accepts online reviews, that doesn’t mean that the reviews will be published. Some review websites won’t even let you edit the content before it’s published.
3. Numerous Competitors
While having an online presence is great for your business generally, it doesn’t automatically convert to market dominance. This is because there are numerous competitors trying to gain more market share including all of the top competitors.
Bottom Line
The benefits of having online reviews for your business can’t be emphasized enough. Having reviews from customers can improve your rating on review websites, boost your visibility on social media, and allow you to hire staff more efficiently.
By accepting and rewarding customer feedback, businesses are able to grow their customer base and gain more reviews in the process. Having more reviews on social media will help to increase brand awareness, which will then help to boost sales.
Ultimately, by following these 8 benefits of online reviews for your business, you’ll be well on your way to boosting your business’s online reputation and increasing sales.
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