Customer reviews are vital for your marketing efforts as customers or consumers are considering and researching who they are buying from. This applies to many types of businesses, whether you are selling business to business or business to consumer. With the rise of titans such as Amazon and Trustpilot, as well as Google reviews, it is important to consider how influential they will be as part of your marketing and sales plan.
But you are likely wondering: how do I get customer reviews that are positive? After all, even with customers who have had a positive experience, it can be tricky to get a customer to leave a review about a business. This is because most happy customers will never tell you they are happy, but unhappy customers will and often take the time to leave reviews on sites to let others know of their experience.
Why are customer reviews important?
Reviews have such an influence over consumers because they impact their buying decisions, especially with the shift in consumers’ buying habits being swayed more towards self-guided research, such as reading the opinions of others. Having positive customer reviews can sway consumers into purchasing your services/products.
Another reason why customer reviews are important is that it helps build trust and confidence in your business and its services/products. Not only this, but reviews help with search engine optimisation, especially if you are a local business. Having reviews on Google and local review sites can help you own more search engine results for search terms related to your business/services/products.
How to get customer reviews – create a process
Having a process in place to gain customer reviews can prove helpful later down the line. Although a process ensures you are asking every customer, it is important to ONLY target satisfied customers. A process could include having a personalised, but a prewritten, email to send to a happy customer which links to Google or Trustpilot reviews at the end of a sale. This could also include a link to leave a review in your email signature.
How to get customer reviews – ask, personalise, and explain
If you are a small business, sometimes simply asking at the end of a sale either by email or word of mouth can be a great way to gather positive reviews. Again, make sure you only target your happy customers. But if simply asking isn’t enough to drive a review, explain why you need it. If the customer is very impressed with your product/service, perhaps take the time to briefly explain how a review can help attract more happy customers through search engine optimisation and customer buying habits.
How we can help
Reviews are vital for small to medium-sized businesses. If you are unsure about how to build this into your marketing campaign, then why not speak to the experts at Ava Rose Marketing?
To discuss your small to medium-sized business with us and your current customer review plans/ marketing strategy (if you have one in place), please call us for a 30-minute no-obligation call on 07957 483435 or send us an email at hello@avarosemarketing.co.uk – we look forward to hearing from you!
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