Digital Strategies on How to Get More Positive Business Reviews (and Why They Matter)

When you think about your company’s digital strategies, you consider initiatives that center around the best digital marketing practices and social media campaigns for your brand. And while those play a significant role in increasing brand awareness and improving sales, business reviews are another critical tool that generates customer engagement and support. In fact, 90% of potential customers read these reviews when determining which companies to patronize, which means they can make or break your business.

At AIS Media, we have the experience and insights to help you develop successful SEO strategies centered around creating positive business reviews. By using these reviews to maximize your visibility, enhance your search rankings, and drive site traffic, you increase your ability of hitting your desired KPIs and meeting your long-term goals.

Business Reviews Have a Huge Impact on Commerce

Most customers not only research business reviews before making purchases and choosing a service, but they regard these reviews as if they were personal recommendations made by family and friends. In many ways, customers use them as the final sign-off they need to validate their purchase. As a result, these business reviews have a major impact on your ability to increase sales.

Business Reviews Build Trust and Authority

When customers read business reviews, it shapes the way they view your company. If they see several negative business reviews, they will question the quality of your goods and services, leading them to spend their money elsewhere. However, positive business reviews build trust and establish your company as a leader in the industry. This creates customer loyalty and builds long-lasting relationships that will continue to drive sales in the future.

Reviews Shape SEO Strategies

Business reviews are an incredibly beneficial SEO tool because they can give you a better understanding of the needs and wants of your customer. And once you know exactly what their expectations are, you can build marketing strategies with clearly defined goals that target your specific audience to generate customer support, build brand awareness and increase profits.

Digital Strategies: Positive Reviews Enhance SEO Results

When your company receives a greater number of positive business reviews, it enhances your visibility on search engines like Google and Bing. Digital strategies like this increase rankings and lead to better SERP results, which will build brand awareness and drive new customers to your site. Since these algorithms favor businesses with a higher number of reviews, encourage your customers to leave business reviews so you can maintain your ranking in the SERP results.

Negative Reviews Deter Customers

As much as positive business reviews can benefit your company, negative business reviews can have just as much of an adverse effect. In fact, negative reviews are the number one deterrent that causes customers to avoid patronizing a business. And while it is likely that you will receive some negative business reviews no matter how hard you try to avoid it, you can mitigate this damage by responding to and resolving these issues in a way that leaves these customers satisfied.

In fact, if a potential customer sees the way you answered a negative review professionally and with the offer of a solution, this can actually make your business look better in the eyes of the potential customer despite the negative review. Always respond to your negative reviews in the most professional way possible.

How to Get Positive Business Reviews for Your Company

So now you know business reviews are important. But how do you go about getting them?

Most people that want to leave reviews are fueled by an unpleasant experience and want their voices to be heard. Those that had a positive experience with your business usually leave happy but without the urge to sound off. The key to getting your customers that had a good experience to leave a review is to make it easy for them. Give them a reason to leave a review.

Make it Easy to Leave a Business Review

Think about your last doctor visit or the last restaurant you ordered from. Chances are, you didn’t leave a review and it’s not because you didn’t like the business, you just didn’t have the time to stop what you’re doing, find them online and write out a review.

You want to make it as easy as possible for your customers to leave a positive review. A quick way is to send an email follow up. If your business has access to your customer’s information, send a follow up email telling them how important their review is to you, provide an easy link for them to leave a review, and go one step forward and give them their own template.

You want the easy-to-follow link to be highly visible, so make sure the formatting of the email is appealing and it’s not overshadowed by a lot of unnecessary content. Just get to the point.

Another helpful tip—ask them a question that encourages a review. If you sell tacos and want to rank for the “best tacos in Atlanta”, ask them to leave a review by answering your question on why they think your restaurant has the best tacos in Atlanta. This gives them something to start with and encourages them to leave a keyword you’re trying to rank for on Google in their review.

Give Your Customers a Reason to Leave a Review

If you’ve ever received an Amazon package with printed material asking for a review in exchange for a free product, there’s a pretty good chance you hopped online to leave that review.

Everyone loves free items. To give even more power to your review follow-up, give your customer an incentive to leave a review in the first place. Whether this is a free item or a coupon code for a discount, give them a little extra for the effort to leave a good review and in return you’ll get the payoff of having more positive reviews on Google and more attention coming in for your business.

Add the incentive with your easy-to-follow review link and template, and you have a strong review-generating plan ready to go.

Digital Strategies Will Help You Use Positive Reviews to Grow Your Business

Reviews are an organic marketing tool that can have a major impact on your ability to reach your KPIs and goals. As a result, let AIS Media provide the advice and answers you need to build digital strategies that use business reviews to enhance SEO rankings, drive site traffic, and improve your sales. With our innovative and award-winning services, you can rapidly grow your business and achieve your desired outcomes with ease.