[dropcap]A[/dropcap]t a business conference, a very successful business executive told the story of how he grew his business. Let’s call him Mr King. His business wasn’t always the multi-million dollar brand it is now. In fact, he spent years struggling to keep his head above water. In no time, he went into debt. He was facing foreclosure when a business expert came to his rescue.
He told how the expert gave him several tips that helped revolutionize his business strategies and profits. But the most important thing that helped was amassing a decent amount of online reviews.
“Yes.” Mr King said. “Consumer reviews are key to the growth of any business that intends to boost its online reputation.”
Not only has reviewing revolutionized online marketing, it has made it easier for businesses to cultivate positive contributions from consumers. Consumers now have a basis to forge a partnership with companies. And business executives like Mr King value these customer feedbacks.
In this article, I shall discuss the ways in which online reviews have invented new marketing strategies. I will share the ways in which this new communication tool has worked better than word-of-mouth in boosting the growth and productivity of businesses. Below are the top 4 ways online reviews have helped improve brand awareness as well as boost business profits for entrepreneurs.
1. Fantastic Way To Know Your Consumers and Improve Customer Service
Mr King got his team of marketing experts to read and analyze available online reviews so that the business could learn more about their customers’ needs. They also learned why their consumers were dissatisfied with their products. Their findings went a long way to influence business-making decisions. Not only were they able to improve their products and services, they also learned to satisfy their clients and improve their brand awareness. With time, they became experts in providing positive experiences for their clients. Their business received many positive online reviews and new clients trusted patronized their business as a result.
2. A Great Way To Boost Search Engine Rankings
Every online business needs a decent and healthy online presence. If customers can’t find you online, they can’t patronize you. This explains why companies fight tooth and nail to make sure their websites appear on the first page of the search engine results.
Rather than hire an SEO expert, Mr King encouraged his customers to write online reviews. Not only did this improve customer-business relations, it helped improve his websites SERP ranking. This means his site was very visible when customers searched for his products on Yahoo, AOL, Google, Bing, and so on.
For instance, if you run a news site and you want readers in the UK to take you seriously, you will have to build a reputation as a credible UK site that provides reliable news reports. When clients write more and more positive online reviews, the search engines will automatically rank you as one of the best UK sites for news.
If you want to improve the productivity and growth of your online business, encourage your clients to review your products and services.
3. More SEO Keywords
Still on the topic of SEO content, gathering a decent amount of online reviews will go a long way to give your site a stream of SEO keywords. This means your business will gain prominence and become more visible than your competition.
If you want the search engines to bring up your business website when consumers search for your business products and/or services, pay attention to racking up those decent online reviews
4. Great Way To Get Free Marketing From Your Customers
A couple of happy consumers are worth millions to every business.
Experts have revealed that online reviews are capable of bringing more business benefits than any marketing campaign can. In fact, it is the only effective marketing campaign that can continue to bring new clients years after the review has been published.
Once the positive online reviews began trickling in, business profits increased by 52%. Mr King was so amazed, he almost screamed.
If you want your business to maintain a constant positive image and brand awareness, then increase those reviews.
