It is finally 2021 and Focused Engagement is ready to start the new year off with a bang. For the month of January, we will be focusing our content creation efforts on teaching you about online reviews. At Focused Engagement, we are passionate about how much online reviews can and will help your local business grow. We employ experts that can gather these reviews and respond to them correctly. Our meticulously designed and thought-out techniques (which can be demoed here) have proven time and time again that they get our clients the desired result of more online reviews.
What are online reviews?
Before you learn why online reviews and local business go hand-in-hand and start attempting to gather them for your business, it is important to know what they are and why they are important in the first place. At the most basic definition, online reviews are snippets of text that detail a customer’s experience with your business. Some reviews are extremely detailed with plenty of information, pictures, and videos, while others are only a short sentence or two. This really depends on the person writing it and how passionate they are about your business and actually leaving it a review. Certain review sites (which we will get into next) may have different requirements for how long or detailed reviews must be, and it is up to you to decide which sites will fit your business.
Now you know what online reviews are, but where can you get them for your business? There are many different websites out there that you can find reviews on, including industry-specific sites, Google, Yelp, Facebook, TripAdvisor, and many more. Google reviews are some of the most important, as Google uses them in part to decide if your business is worth showing to potential customers. This is exactly why you should always strive for the best service and customer experiences in all facets of your business.
Online reviews and local business
Here are a few of the reasons why online reviews are essential for a local business. These are not all the reasons, but they are some that we find the most important due to our experience with different local businesses in different industries.
Online reviews help new people find your business
As we mentioned before, online reviews can help new potential customers find your business. This is because on many sites, the more reviews you have give you more perceived credibility. If you are a new local business with only a few reviews, it will be harder for you to be found over competitors that are larger and have more reviews. Without reviews, customers will not see your business and even if they do, they will not be sure if your business is worth going to.
Online reviews help build trust
While searching for a business to visit, you have likely looked at reviews at least a few times. Whether you believe it or not, the reviews you saw likely influenced your decision to visit the business or stay away. Because reviews are highly visible, potential visitors are likely to see them at the same time as they see basic details about your business. When reading them, there is a possibility that users will make up their mind about visiting your business. But if you have no reviews, this does not happen and you are less likely to get visitors based off your already existing reviews.
Online reviews can provide valuable feedback
A more underrated benefit of online reviews for local businesses is the fact that you can use this feedback to improve your business. Most people that visit a business will write about their good and bad experiences. If they write something good, you can continue to do that and keep them and future customers happy. But if they write about a negative experience they had, you can use this information to make sure that it is less likely to happen to them and others again.
Online reviews impact sales
In case you are not already aware, reviews can make or break your business. This is especially true during hard times like we are facing right now. In fact, a Harvard study found that online reviews can actually impact your sales and profits. The brands that are viewed more positively with higher stars are more likely to increase in sales over local businesses who have less stars and reviews. We suggest that you start taking reviews seriously if you want to increase your business’s earning potential and public perception.
Online review help
After reading through this post, do you understand why online reviews are so important to a local business’s success? If you do not understand, no worries because we will have more content on online reviews coming soon! For help with your current online reviews or gaining more reviews, please contact us today! We would love to help your local business grow and gain more support.