How to leverage online reviews to benefit your business

At one point or another, you’ve likely seen online reviews for other businesses on Google. Perhaps, you’ve even left one. 

You may be wondering if anyone is leaving business reviews or complaints about your business, and whether or not you should be paying attention to them. 

Not only should you be paying attention, but you should also be collecting these reviews and using them to your benefit.

How online reviews affect business 

Online reviews tell a business owner how they’re doing - where they can improve, where they’re doing well, and everything in between.

Regardless of the type of business you run, you should be collecting these reviews to track and maintain your customer satisfaction. 

You should also be using them as social proof to show other potential clients that your company is reputable and good at what it does. 

Online reputation management strategy made easy

If you’re like most of the business owners we meet, you’re unsure about how to begin collecting online reviews, let alone the best method for responding to the ones that are coming in. We can help you with that.

Hellopeter is a proudly South African independent review platform designed to help businesses such as yours attract more new consumers easily by leveraging your online reviews. 

How can your online reviews result in more business, you ask? Firstly, with Hellopeter’s Growth and Premium plans you can embed reviews in your website. These reviews act as instant testimonials for potential consumers considering becoming patrons of your business. The more positive reviews they see about you, the more comfortable they’ll feel buying from you. 

With all of our plans, we offer social sharing that allows you to share your reviews with your fans and followers on Facebook as well. 

It’s never been easier to grow your “know, like, and trust factor” than it is with positive business reviews. 

What about negative online reviews? 

Believe it or not, you can use those to prove how far you’re willing to go to make your customer satisfaction the best it can be. 

Let’s say you had a customer who was upset their order didn’t arrive on time. They left you a bad review on Google as a result. 

You can respond with a way to appease them. Maybe you offer them a discount on a future purchase, or a refund on their shipping costs. If the customer then comes back and thanks you, you now have social proof that you go above and beyond to keep your customers happy. 

Additional ideas for leveraging online reviews 

Other ways you can use your online reviews to benefit your business include, but aren’t limited to:

In your marketing materials

Embedding reviews on your website is a great start, but why stop there? Use your positive online reviews in flyers, pamphlets, emails, and fact sheets. 

Use them on your product pages too

Suppose you’re selling a specific product that someone mentioned in one or more of your online reviews. You can embed those reviews on your product pages to encourage higher purchase rates.

Place them on boards in brick and mortar stores

If you have a physical storefront, take those online reviews and have them printed on boards you can hang in your shop for your customers to see. 

A past customer’s glowing testimonial will mean more than any sales pitch you could offer.

Grow a base of brand advocates

What’s better than a loyal customer? A brand advocate singing your praises from the rooftops. Reach out to the people who are leaving you positive online reviews, and offer them an incentive to send you referrals. 

Word of mouth always works better than traditional advertising. In fact, Big Commerce reported that “92% of people trust recommendations from friends and family over any other type of advertising.”

Use your reviews as content for your blog 

Not only can you use the reviews in your blog posts, what your customers are saying could give you ideas for additional content that you can write to improve your website’s SEO.

Share your reviews on YouTube and your social channels

If you’re starting to promote your business on YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram or Twitter, why not share your online reviews there too? Every pit of positive promotion helps build your brand.

Collect more reviews, and build your brand easily

Did you know that 88% of people read reviews to determine the quality of a local business? Or that 72% of consumers say positive reviews make them trust a local business? Online reviews are already being written - you should collect yours and leverage them to earn more business. 

Hellopeter can help you to get more reviews too. We’d love to help you make more money by giving you an easy way to prove you’re the best in your business. Learn the true value of online reviews with our free guide.