December 11, 2014

Efficiently Generating Online Local Business Reviews

Generating positive online reviews is a task most business owners believe is out of their control. I’m here to say it IS in your control. It takes a little hard work and a proactive mindset, something most business owners already have.

How will online reviews help my business?

Good question — I’m glad you asked because they will help with many different areas.

Reviews & local search engine optimization

When you use search queries with local indicators you’ll receive local search results. An example looks like this:

Generating positive reviews is a trust signal to Google that your business exists. Notice that Lucy’s North China Cuisine has more reviews and a higher review rating and was the top result. There are other factors at play but one factor was the reviews generated by their customers.

Having a solid review strategy can help you rank above your competition. If you’re competing on a local SEO level (local SEO is important to the majority of brick and mortar businesses that do business regionally) incorporating a review strategy is a must.

Social proof is powerful. Don’t ignore it.

Social proof can vary from a recommendation from a friend to dozens of online reviews to hundreds of thousands of Facebook followers. All are examples of social proof of a product/service or business.

Think about the last time you shopped on Amazon. Did you buy a product that had zero reviews? Most likely not.

Many people filter by products with positive reviews and seek social proof as reassurance that the product they’re purchasing is high quality. It’s a catch-22 on Amazon. It’s difficult to rank unless you have reviews, but it’s difficult to get reviews until people buy your product, and it’s always hardest getting your first reviews started.

A review strategy helps that process.

Improve your company by being aware of mistakes.

Unless you’re a very active owner who gets feedback face to face from customers and frontline employees, it’s difficult to know what processes need to be improved.

That’s where a solid review strategy comes into place.

Collecting feedback on where your process can be improved is instrumental to constantly improving your business. In a globalized age of business, you’re either improving or you’re falling behind.

Stand out from your competition

There’s nothing quite like the satisfaction of having vastly more reviews and more positive reviews than your competitors.

When you have 25 four and five-star reviews and your competitors have 3 reviews, who is the consumer going to trust and likely spend their money with?

Segmenting feedback to generate positive reviews

One strategy to generate positive reviews, as opposed to both negative and positive reviews, is to segment your customers based on feedback they provide.

If you can segment customers that had a great experience with your business and are brand advocates, and aim to have them leave reviews, you’ll be able to generate a large amount of positive public reviews.

Not only is this beneficial for reviews and marketing, but it’s extremely valuable to capture feedback from those who did not have an exceptional customer experience.

Not only will you generate solid reviews, but having the chance to make a poor experience better will increase customer loyalty with those who had a so-so experience the first time around. People remember businesses who go out of their way to improve their experience.

Who should have a review strategy?

In my opinion, almost everyone.

You’ll likely have to tailor a review strategy to your industry, but capturing feedback, both good and bad, and promoting positive reviews as social proof is undoubtedly valuable.

Still have questions about our review strategy? Feel free to leave them in the comments.