How to get new customers using the power of online reviews

Online reviews can be extraordinarily powerful when it comes to winning new customers, or driving them away. We all rely on reviews, recommendations from friends and reports from other people about their experiences with a brand before making big decisions – whether it’s booking a holiday or making a big purchase. In fact, BrightLocal found in 2017 that a huge 93% of customers use reviews to determine the quality of a business.

There are a lot of ways to ‘do your homework’ on a brand, to gather information that can tell you whether or not to use a company or buy a product, and online reviews are among the most important. If your brand can go the extra mile to impress, and actually invite customers to leave their feedback, you’ll soon find the positive reviews start to roll in. 

How to use great reviews to attract new customers

Congratulations, your brand has received some excellent 5-star reviews from customers recently. But how can you leverage these reviews in order to bring in new business? Here are some very useful tips to help you squeeze out every drop of marketing potential from these positive reviews:

·      Share your positive reviews online. If you get a great review, don’t keep it to yourself! Put the best reviews on your website, include them in email communications and share on social media. Remember, it’s not boasting (and who cares if it is?) if you share the kind words of satisfied customers. You can even frame social posts as a ‘thank you’ to customers who’ve left a good review.

·      Be proud of your review site rating. If you’re well rated on a particular platform, such as Trustpilot for example, tell the world by displaying your rating on your site, emails and anywhere else that new customers will see it.  

·      Thank users for great reviews. Everyone loves a moment in the spotlight, so take the time to pick out some great reviews and publicly thank the customers who’ve left them. This makes those customers feel rewarded and valued, while at the same time shining a spotlight on the great feedback you’ve received. It’s win-win!

·      Respond to all feedback. Every brand will receive a bad review every once in a while, because you simply can’t please everyone. Low ratings will drag your overall review score down on most review platforms, and there isn’t anything you can do about that unfortunately. What you can do is to stop bad reviews putting off future customers, simply by responding with a constructive, apologetic and helpful response. You can offer to make amends or to get in touch to discuss the issue, which shows other potential customers that you care. Don’t forget to respond to thank people for positive reviews too.