Coronavirus has caused many of us to re-evaluate our priorities. Since it was declared a global pandemic, COVID-19 has seen us change the way we socialise, work, and even how we market our businesses.
As time has passed, some businesses have altered their digital marketing strategies entirely to match the landscape. With marketing, you can take advantage of new opportunities and recover more effectively as things return to normal.
The way customer reviews fit into digital marketing may not have changed, but because of COVID-19, this function may have become more important to your business than ever before.
Keep reading to find out how digital marketing reviews can benefit your business in the time of coronavirus.
A Crash Course in Digital Marketing Reviews
Digital marketing reviews refers to user-generated reviews of businesses that can be found online. This includes reviews on business listings like Google My Business and Bing Places, reviews on your website, social media, and websites like Yelp and Yellow Pages.
Have You Shifted to E-Commerce? Online Reviews Can Help!
From restaurants to retail shops, many businesses are jumping into the world of online shopping and delivery for the first time.
This is one realm where online reviews can help you.
Studies show that 90% of people trust and buy from brands that were personally recommended to them. What you might not know is that 88% of consumers trust online reviews the same way they trust personal recommendations.
To back this up even further, research shows that the likelihood of buying a product with five reviews is 270% higher than a product without any reviews.
So, if you’ve found yourself selling products and services online due to COVID-19, here’s some advice:
- Include a carousel of positive reviews on your website’s homepage.
- Reviews can also feature on your About page or a dedicated testimonials section.
- On e-commerce product pages, include user-generated reviews specific to that product/service.
Even If You Don’t Sell Online, Reviews Can Help You
Not everyone will be selling their products and services online during the a pandemic. If this is the case for you, online reviews can still be highly beneficial.
Research shows that 80% of consumers look for local businesses using search engines, so if your business isn’t visible in Google search results, you’re missing out on a lot of potential customers.
Online reviews play a role in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), which is the process of optimising your web presence to appear in organic search results. By generating more positive reviews, you can bolster your SEO efforts and help your business show up in search engine results. Whether you’re selling online or not, being visible to more customers can only be a good thing.
Here are a few ways reviews help with SEO:
- Reviews on your Google My Business listing serve as new content and keywords. This helps Google understand your business better and contributes to your rankings.
- Reviews signals are the third most important ranking factor for appearing in Google’s local search results.
- Using review structured data on your webpages can allow you to display star-reviews in Google search results, helping to increase your click-through rate.
Reviews Can Help You Re-Evaluate Your Digital Marketing
The coronavirus pandemic could be a good opportunity to review your digital marketing campaigns. If your business and your online traffic are slowing down, take the time to review your strategies so they’re better than ever when business returns.
If you want to know what’s working and what’s not, simply take a look at customer reviews. Here are some of the ways customer reviews can help you improve your digital marketing:
- They give you a better idea of your average customer and what they’re looking for.
- Common questions or concerns in reviews may point to a gap in your online communications and present an opportunity to update the content on your website.
- Positive online reviews tell you what you’re doing right so you can invest more time in these areas.
- Do your reviews show a few common barriers that stop customers from buying or coming back? Address these in a blog post and make any necessary changes to your business
. - Reviews help you speak your customer’s language. Identify common phrases and integrate the “voice of your customer” into your digital marketing copy.
Tips for Generating More Online Reviews
To take advantage of everything reviews have to offer, you might need more reviews for your business. Fortunately, there are many ways to encourage customers to leave reviews:
- Create listings or profiles on Facebook, Yelp, Yellow Pages, and any other relevant websites where customers can review your products, services, and business.
- If you want to know where people are leaving reviews for businesses like yours, simply search “Google Review + Your industry” and see what comes up.
- Create a visible, easy to use space where customers can leave reviews and feedback on your website.
- Share positive customer reviews that you have already received on social media.
- Make it easy for your customer. Send them an SMS or email with a direct link to where you want them to leave the review. You can generate a direct link to your Google My Business review page using Supple Reviews.
- Ask customers to leave reviews when they’re more likely to say yes. For example, shortly after they have benefited from your products and services, or when they mention you on social media.
Start Taking Advantage of Online Reviews for Your Business
Through online reviews, you can strengthen your relationship with customers and search engines and generate revenue in ways that you may never have before. To get started, simply utilise the review generation techniques above. Once you have enough reviews, you can integrate them into your local SEO, e-commerce conversion, and overall digital marketing strategies and start to reap the rewards.
“The opinions expressed by BizWitty Contributors are their own, not those of BizCover and should not be relied upon in place of appropriate professional advice. Please read our full disclaimer."
