Marketing your business can be an expensive undertaking. And trying to find a way to make your business stand out from your competitors can be tricky.
Enter: reviews. There are a host of different ways you can utilise them to win over prospective consumers.
Use your customer’ reviews in posts on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin or Instagram. If you want your post to get more exposure, simply boost it so it reached beyond your current audience. Facebook, for example, enables you to target an audience down to their suburb, interests, and online activity.
By sharing your reviews on social media, you give your business exposure to potential consumers – all thanks to your happy customers’ reviews, and without the need for crafting campaigns from scratch. Reviews are also seen as more genuine and give future consumers an independent view of your business that they can trust.
Check out this guide on how to boost a post by Hootsuite.
Quoting for new business is an important process to gain new clientele, and is critical to your success. Sending a quote to a prospective consumer is one of the last hurdles of marketing, and it means you’re a step away from gaining a new consumer.
You need to make your quote as persuasive as possible. By including (or linking to) great reviews in your quotes, you’re providing credible evidence, showing how your business is great at what it does, which will hopefully provide the assurance the consumer needs to accept your quote.
If you send out a newsletter, add in positive reviews. Including first-person accounts of your business reminds your existing consumers why they shopped with you in the first place, which can encourage repeat purchases, and provides social proof to your new customers.
Check out the power of social proof here.
Even though a lot of marketing activity takes place online, print ads can still be great ways to market your business.
When you use reviews in your print ads, you’re providing authentic accounts of how great your service is, and as you know, customers trust other customers over businesses.
Whether you’re aware of it or not, every email you send tells a story about your company. After all, your emails are a digital representation of your business, which is why you need to make sure that they paint you in the best light possible.
Including a link to your reviews in your email signature lends an air of credibility to your business, reminds existing consumers that you’re great at what you do, and demonstrates to potential customers that people just like them are using, and loving, your products and services.
Getting someone through the door is the first step towards converting them as a consumer. Once they’re there, their experience can be make or break. By displaying the reviews of happy consumers in your store, you’re getting someone that much closer to becoming a paying, and loyal consumer.
If you’ve got a website, display positive reviews on your checkout page. If you operate in a brick and mortar store, print them out and display them next to your till. When customers are still in two minds about making a purchase, positive reinforcement can be enough to persuade them to buy.
If you haven’t had a chance yet, read how local company SweetieBox increased their sales by a massive 19%, just by displaying their online reviews on their checkout page.
Including a positive review on the back of your business card is an innovative way to get your existing reviews working that little bit harder for you.
If you were given two business cards by two different businesses selling the same thing, but only one contained a glowing review, which company would you contact? Chances are, it’d be the business that had a great review showcased on their business card.
We like to think of reviews as the marketing gift that keeps on giving – whether you incorporate them on your website, in your newsletters or in your shop, they’re a powerful, effective way to establish credibility and trust between your business and potential consumers.
Reviews on Hellopeter have helped over one million consumers make better choices. Had an experience you’d like to tell us about? Leave us a review here.