Why you should value your client reviews

Learn about the powerful benefits of customer testimonials for businesses of all sizes 

With a recent report finding that 99.9% of consumers say they read reviews at least sometimes when online shopping, testimonials are rapidly moving away from becoming an added benefit to a form of social proof that consumers expect to find as part of your digital presence. [1]

The power of a customer or client review comes from the fact that others are singing your praises instead of you having to do it yourself.

While no one is more of an expert on your business than you, prospects most trust the unbiased opinion of their peers with 79% of consumers saying they trust online reviews as much as recommendations from their friends and family. [2]

Whether you’re collecting them on Google, peppering them throughout pages on your website, or both, your client reviews are an extremely valuable part of your business success strategy. 

Continue reading to learn about the benefits of customer testimonials for your business, plus how we can help you earn more and manage existing ones through online reputation management. 

Act as a powerful form of social proof.

With prospects holding such a strong belief in the opinions of your past and present customers, reviews are one of the most powerful forms of social proof for your business.

If a potential customer is searching for businesses in your industry, they’ll likely consider many factors before choosing yours, but a strong set of positive reviews could be the proof they need that your business stands above the rest. 

For business-to-business (B2B) organizations, client reviews have even been proven to be one of the most valuable content formats for researching with a recent survey finding that 28% of B2B buyers find it to be the most valuable. [3] 

Learn more:
How online reviews can make or break your local business 

Positively impact SEO.

Customer testimonials also have a positive impact on increasing your visibility on search engines, especially local businesses trying to jump closer to page one on Google.

Google has stated that high-quality, genuine, positive Google My Business Reviews can help increase your ranking in the local pack area of search results and the likelihood that they’ll visit your business in-person. [4]

Although reviews have a greater SEO impact for local businesses than larger ones, they should still act as a key element of the overall SEO strategy for your company regardless of size. 

Provide guidance for business strategy.

Whether positive or negative, reviews are a great opportunity to find ways to improve your business, products, or services. 

Positive reviews allow you to see what you’re doing well, so that you can maintain those standards and repeat them in other sectors of your business. Your target audience are the ones who will be leaving reviews, so there’s truly no one better to advise you on elevating your business for new prospects. 

Although everyone dreads negative reviews, it’s often a natural part of the review process whether bogus or legit, and can be used constructively to consider ways you can improve your business. Plus, 82% of shoppers specifically seek out negative reviews because too many positive reviews makes them suspect censorship or fakes. [5]

When it comes to negative reviews, remember to respond, but not in the heat of the moment if you’re feeling irked. Respond later in a professional, calm manner. If the complaint is genuine, apologize for your mistakes and assure that you’ll work to improve in the future.

Learn more:
Why you need online reputation management for your business 

Distinguish your business from competitors.

A robust set of positive reviews is a great way to distinguish your business from competitors, regardless of your years of experience.  

For example, if you’re a newer business and your competitors are more established, customers are more likely to choose your business with a few five star reviews than a competitor with a bunch of three star reviews. 

If you and your competitors have a similar online presence and years of experience, reviews can also provide you with the distinguishing factor your customers need to choose you over your peers. 

Build customer loyalty.

Encouraging your customers to leave reviews is a great way to build loyalty because it shows them that you have enough trust in your products or services to allow people to publicly say how they truly feel about them.

It also makes your customers feel like you trust them in the involvement of your business, making them more invested and likely to return as repeat customers. Additionally, lots of reviews exemplify your authenticity and trustworthiness to the public while encouraging more of your customers to leave reviews. 

Increase conversion rate. 

With one study finding that review stars in search engine results can improve click-through-rates (CTR) by as much as 35%, client reviews are also an effective way to increase your conversion rate. [6]

Whether your desired conversion is a form submission, email signup, or visit to a specific page, getting your targeted leads to click on your website is the first step to success and reviews have proven helpful in that quest.

Attract new employees.

As a large part of your digital reputation, reviews are not only consequential to your customer base, but to prospective employees as well with a recent survey finding that 82% of job seekers consider company brand and reputation when applying to an open position. [7]

Your ideal employee candidates will be more drawn to your company if they’re able to see exactly how you help your clients or customers through their positive testimonials on your website or other review sites. 

In addition to recruiting, positive reviews are also beneficial to retaining top talent on your team with 53% of job seekers citing an increasingly poor company brand and reputation as one of the reasons for leaving a previous job. [7] 

How we can help

At Different Perspective, our online reputation management services consist of thorough online reputation analysis, followed by a strategically targeted campaign that generates genuine customer reviews where you need them most.

Whether you have average reviews or no reviews, we can use our comprehensive digital marketing expertise to help you attract new clients, build customer loyalty, increase your conversion rate, and more. 

Contact us today to learn more.

Sources:

1: PowerReviews | The 2021 Ever-Growing Power of Reviews Survey 
2: BrightLocal | Local Consumer Review Survey 2020
3: Demand Gen Report | 2021 Content Preferences Survey
4: Google | How to improve your local ranking on Google
5: Search Engine Journal | 15 Online Review Stats Every Marketer Should Know
6: CXL Institute | Do Review Stars on Google Help Click-Through Rate? [Original Study]
7: CareerArc | 19 must-know stats from the Future of Recruiting Study