Importance of Reviews

Importance of Reviews

You have bought at least one thing from Amazon. You scoured the site for the perfect product and spent time researching it beforehand. You scrolled down to put it in your cart but got hung up on the 3-star review it has. Why isn’t it 4? Why are there 42 negative reviews?

To think that reviews are not important to your brand identity is a great disservice to your business.

Are reviews that important?

Yes, they are very important. As it turns out, approximately 90% of customers read reviews before visiting a business. Think about the last time you went out to eat and didn’t check yelp or google reviews? And there are a lot of them; 26,380 yelp reviews posted a minute with a staggering 88% of consumers trusting online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

9 out of 10 people will be looking for reviews before ever stepping foot into your business.

The same is true for your digital storefront. Even more importantly 94% of online shoppers reported that a negative review has convinced them to avoid a business.

So no matter what industry you are in it is crucial to have a positive online presence. At this point, having positive reviews doesn’t set you apart so much as it does allow your business the chance to survive.

This is why reviews have become a distinct and key part of brand identity.

It is important to understand why you need online reviews and to optimize your customer experience to create a positive online presence. At NuEthic we can help create a positive user experience that will drive the reviews up and keep convertible traffic coming to your site. Reach out today and see how we can help.

Why reviews are important for your brand

Reviews help create and maintain customer loyalty towards a brand. If the experience and product are good, the customer should be nudged to leaving a review. Give the incentive to be loyal to your brand and let the consumer create buzz for you with their reviews.

Everyone wants to fit in

We are more likely as consumers to purchase if everyone around us agrees that it’s a good decision. We even listen when those around us are online and total strangers. Go back to Amazon and try to not be influenced by reviews. 5,000 people telling me this product that cost 7 dollars more is better can’t be wrong!

Reviews make you more visible

Having a successful brand identity also means having a visible brand. Shoppers look online through Google, Amazon (think of them as a channel and not competition) or even Facebook when they start their search for the next product. All of these websites have their unique ways of distributing content and these sites all value fresh new content. Customer reviews can help feed that need for content favored by algorithms.

Customer reviews give you a steady stream of content that search engines like Google value in their algorithm on which search results to return. In ranking higher, you are seen as an authority in your industry; leading to more exposure.

Make you look trustworthy

Your brand is nothing without being trustworthy. You build this trust and credibility online via customer reviews. Shoppers generally distrust businesses that have ratings below (but sometimes above) four stars. That’s a small margin of error at the top but companies with better average ratings are more likely to see views converted to traffic and sales. The way customers perceive you and talk about you is vastly important in credibility and also brand identity. Having an overall positive review rating will help you drive more sales.

Expand Conversation

Good or bad reviews both have a way of quickly spreading. When you encourage customers to review your products, website, or experience you create a way for your brand to expand its reach. When people have good things to say, they are more likely to share their reviews on multiple sites like TripAdvisor and Yelp. These reviews from outside sites are vital to online presence because Google collects data from those sites when building its results ranks. Even on an individual level, having positive reviews can help push more reviews. It is imperative to encourage customers to leave reviews.

Important in decision making

A proactive brand should increase your online visibility. Today, that means encouraging different avenues for people to talk about your products, service, and brand. Social media is an amazing tool for this but the importance of the ability for customers to talk about you on other channels should not be diminished.

Almost two-thirds of shoppers (online and not) think that online reviews are essential in their decision-making process.

This new age of recommendations has arrived; when people want to know where to go they don’t ask their friends and family. They instead are more likely to turn to Google for their next restaurant or store outing. Knowing this means every business should be trying to create a steady flow of reviews so that their brand is more likely to show up when customers are trying to make that next buying decision.

A clear impact on sales

There is a growing body of benchmark data that proves that reviews do lead to increased revenue. Harvard business school did a study of online reviews and concluded that online reviews almost always impact your bottom line. Brands viewed positively sell better but improving your star rating also played a positive role in effecting your sales. According to this study, even just improving one star on yelp boosted sales by up to 5% to 9%. This small improvement can have a massive impact in the long term.

Open Line to consumers

Today businesses are not just expected to read the reviews; most customers expect companies to respond to their reviews and comments. This allows your brand to figure out what it is doing well and what can be improved on. In doing this, you can shift your brand image based on your consumer base.

These reviews also give you the forum to talk top consumers about expectations. This forum of reviews is also a good way to reinforce positive reviews with promotions (generating more sales) and it also gives you a chance to rectify a poor review.

How to deal with negative reviews

You are going to get bad reviews. You cannot please all of the people all of the time but it is possible to show consumers that your brand cares about its customers and wants to try and please them. When you get a negative review I suggest responding promptly and forthcoming about admitting to your mistakes. This immediately establishes a baseline for credibility. You should also correct any inaccuracies in the review and try to remove any inaccurate reviews.

You should also take this time when responding to negative reviews to highlight your strengths. I think one of the most important things when deconstructing negative reviews is to be consistent. That’s one of the best things to do for brand identity as well.

Reviews and SEO

Having positive reviews increases your brand’s visibility. The more you are talked about the higher you will appear on search results. These results if ranked high enough even feature a snippet with your review ranking. Take a look at this example snippet from Land O’Lakes butter. Notice the five-star reviews with the 3,642 votes? That screams credibility to a possible consumer who may be unsure about which brand to buy.

Snippet-Salted-Butter-Review

Conclusion

It is hard for your brand to be seen online sometimes. Depending on which industry you are in it can feel impossible. Reviews are a good way to generate content, excitement, and increase brand loyalty along with credibility. If you feel like your business could use a boost or want some help generating reviews contact us today.