Online marketing is nothing new. As a business owner, you know what a beneficial asset social media and email campaigns are to your bottom line along with your promotion choice based niche product selection- all just to grab a wider clientele base.
Do you know that local reviews can hold just as much if not more power?
It’s true, and the numbers are there to prove it. Harnessing this marketing tool used to be an impossible task, but recent advancements in consumer relations now allow you add customer ratings to your arsenal of marketing tactics. Here’s how local reviews impact your revenue and how you can make them work in your favor.
The Facts
There’s a lot of controversy over whether consumer reviews matter. However, studies and surveys show that they are essential to your revenue. Roughly 84% of consumers check online reviews before deciding where to take their business. Out of that majority, 18 to 34-year-olds make up 91%.
Those are enormous numbers that penetrate nearly every business’ target audience. It isn’t just the fact that they check your ratings, though. What really matters is how vital the opinions of your customers are to potential clientele.
Today’s consumer treats each review as if it were a recommendation from a friend. This is especially true when the reviews are from local citizens in their area. That means both positive and negative reviews hold the power to control your potential consumer pool.
Forbes reported that a single negative review could impact that pool by 22%. Two of them increases that number to 44%, while three leads to a 59.2% decrease in possible business. Once a business reaches four or more negative reviews or ratings, they can miss out on up to 70% of potential customers. Even the largest of corporations would fall apart with those loses.
Turning a Negative into a Positive
You don’t have to let reviews kill your revenue, though. Companies like Bird Eye are helping businesses turn consumer opinions into a powerful marketing tool. Take these Schoenberg Family Law Group reviews into consideration.
By utilizing marketing companies like Bird Eye, they’re able to maintain a rating above 4.5 stars with over 90% of their reviews falling into the five-star category. How? The answer lies in both increasing the number of views they receive and handling negative feedback faster.
Allowing these agencies to lend a hand provides a few vital tools. First, you can create custom templates that ask recent customers to leave a review on high-traffic web spaces like Google. Replacing the standard pop-up with something personalized creates a stronger bond between your brand and consumers, leading to an increase in reviews.
Second, you receive updates on your smart devices when someone leaves a rating or review. This allows you to send a kind thank you as well as respond to negative feedback faster than ever before. Both work to increase your level of customer service, which can turn a one-star review into something positive. At the same time, potential consumers see that you care about their business.
While you can’t control the mind of the consumer, you can give them more reason to choose your business over your competitors. Increasing your local reviews draws in business, effectively increasing your revenue. If you’re a local business owner, then this is one marketing tool you can’t afford to ignore.