Shoppers have always had to justify their purchase by asking for opinions from friends, family or even other shoppers they find in the store. Since way before you could shop from the comfort of your home, word-of-mouth was always a powerful marketing tool. When it comes to the internet, online shoppers are counting on product reviews to gauge the quality of the item they are about to buy. What your customers have to say about your business has a lot of influence on your success as an online seller. These typically short, appraisals have ushered in an era where the customer experience defines your brand.
Online reviews have become such an important tool for marketing that Google now includes them on search rankings. 34% of customers spend more time on sites with excellent reviews. The numbers also show that 88% of online shoppers trust reviews just as much as they do personal recommendations. This translates into 74% of shoppers who take action after reading online reviews. With such numbers, online merchants can agree that customer reviews have a real prospect of improving their bottom line.
Get reviews with these simple ways;
1. Make It Simple For Clients To Review Your Business
The typical customer wants to leave a positive review. Shoppers take reviews seriously too, almost like it is their responsibility to tell others what the product is like. That being said, shoppers, like anyone else online, have a short attention span and if they can’t post something quick then they don’t post at all.
Online merchants should make it easy to review their websites, first by distributing direct links to the review profile on various sites. You could also use tools provided by review sites such as banners which direct clients to reviews about your company.
2. Offer Incentives
Small businesses starting out online have a hard time getting customers to review them, but it’s not any easier for the big names. One way to get customers to write reviews is to offer rewards. Customers who write reviews could be handed free points to shop more. This is not the same thing as paying people to write phony reviews. Having such an incentive included in the loyalty program works perfectly to get authentic clients to say something.
3. Make a list of sites that will review your product
There are tons of sites out there specializing in different niches and offering good advice to online shoppers. Have a list of such sites where you can submit your product for a review. A few examples of review sites include;
· Fitij.com (for weight loss products)
This is not an all-inclusive list, so take a look at some of the sites and see what others are all about.
4. Know when and how to ask
According to surveys, there is a method to asking for reviews. To get it right, you have to take everything into account, right down to the subject line. The time of day also factors in, with the best time to ask being between 1p.m. and 3 p.m.
5. Ask clients to leave reviews
It’s as simple as asking clients to review your product. A good way to ask clients and get responses is to send a follow up email. Sending the client an email with links to your review pages gets results as most customers end up reviewing. You could also include calls-to-action which remind clients to review your product while they are still on the site.
6. Do your research
Your business will not have much success with reviews if it has no online presence. Clients need to see your business in order to talk about it. Start with Google to improve your search ranking then follow it up by increasing your visibility on social sites like Bing, Facebook, Yahoo and Yelp.
Online business is ever changing and the only way to gain more ground is to keep up with the times. Find new ways of improving your business’s standing and the customers will gravitate to you. With more clients, you can be sure to get more reviews if you put the tips above into practice. When it comes to reviews, the more you have, the better. Before you go on hunting for reviews, remember to make your approach more personalized than salesy.
Shruti is a blogger & a digital marketing consultant with lots of passion to write about technology, startups & other niches. She has contributed to a number of famous websites. She live and breathe in digital marketing. Her aim is to spread her thought-provoking ideas to all generations. Stay tuned with her at:@shruti_gupta01 or via skype : shrutigupta2811
