We love talking about how reviews can help you improve your marketing, increase your conversions, click-through rates, sales, and more. We have countless stories of how companies were able to achieve success with our reviews. But sometimes, we like to put away the numbers and hard facts and remember that WOWPilot was made for consumers and for businesses. Our mission is to connect consumers with the best companies out there.SMMSumo.com is one of those companies. Having collected a large number of great reviews, they decided to surprise their employees with the wonderful feedback they’ve received.
Here’s How Online Reviews Really Matter.
#1. Consumer purchasing decisions
In a general sense, Online Reviews are useful, but it’s important to dissect when exactly e-commerce derives benefits from the reviews.
Reviews are not only a big determinant of whether people purchase a product online, but they also have a dramatic impact on millennial spending.
A study carried out in 2016 discusses consumer motives for researching online reviews prior to purchase and four trends emerged as follows:
- Information: to glean insider information about the product they’re considering
- Risk: to reduce the risk of making a bad decision
- Quality: analyze several online reviews to work out the product’s benefits and drawbacks
- Social proof: to understand and contribute to a virtual community
Even though consumer behavior is changing all the time, this gives online sellers good insight into what their potential customers might be analyzing prior to purchase.
#2. It impacts SEO
It’s easy to say that online reviews increase sales, but what processes lead to this growth? According to MOZ, reviews should make up about 13 percent of how companies are ranked on Google search. To fully understand the quality of reviews for your online store in terms of SEO, four factors must be taken into account.
- Recency: Fresh reviews encourage trust and relevance and increase discoverability.
- Quantity: The number of online reviews on your profile tells Google your business should be shown to consumers.
- Velocity: Did your customers write one-liners or long-form reviews with several details?
- Diversity: It’s important to have a mixture of positive and negative reviews. If you have just negative, it implies that many of your customers weren’t satisfied with your service. All positive reviews, on the other hand, can look unrealistic.
#3. Social reach and trust building
We live in a time where, due to massive false advertising with the sole intent to gain bigger profits by deceiving potential customers, people have simply stopped blindly trusting businesses when they promote their own services to others. No matter how amazing your business is, self-praise will only get you so far; research shows that consumer reviews are nearly 12 times more trusted than descriptions that come from businesses. Nowadays, people seek real advice from real users, sharing their honest and unfiltered opinion about their experience with the business, which is why reviews have become the best way for businesses to build a bigger social reach and establish valuable trust which instantly converts potential customers into paying customers — a study shows that 92% of users will use a local business if it has at least a 4-star rating.
#4. Better reviews equal better profits
It is not surprising to discover that better reviews with higher ratings directly correlate with increased revenues:
- 76% of travelers said that they were willing to pay more for a hotel with higher review scores.
- Just one review can boost conversions by 10 percent, a 100 reviews by as much as 37 percent and at 200 reviews, the conversion rate could rise by a stunning 44 percent
- Customers are likely to spend up to 31% more on business with top reviews.
Looking at all available data on the correlation between online reviews and businesses, one fact is certain — online reviews hold immense power over the success of businesses.
#5. Purchasing Decisions
Real input from real people is an incredibly powerful selling tool for businesses. The reviews received will be viewed by thousands of potential customers, all seeking the most accurate information about your services.
It is important that you monitor online reviews listed for your business, and respond in kind to those with questions, comments or concerns. Another aspect of review sites is the physical information that they provide about your business, including the name, phone number, and address, as well as logos and pictures. If this information is inaccurate you could receive negative reviews for a business that isn’t even yours!
How to Add Reviews on WOWPilot?
- The first step is to make an account on WOWPilot.
- Click on “Create Listing” Option
- Fill in Your Information
- Select Your Category
- You are Done.
Conclusion
- Reviews are not just important. They are critical.
- Only positive reviews will hurt your business. It’s not believable.
- Reviews have to be independent to be believable.
- Some industries are more perceptive (or vulnerable) to online reviews
- Addressing reviews (especially negative ones) can have a huge impact in not just addressing the issue and preventing damage but also converting detractors to loyal clients.