The biggest reason why reputation marketing is essential to businesses looking to compete locally is because a high rating builds instant trust with consumers. Over 70% of customers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations from friends and family. Having positive reviews online increases sales by offering customers first hand experiences that will motivate them to choose one busine
ss over another.
“There’s been a considerable jump in the variety of consumers searching online to discover local businesses and services. Local consumers are now more knowledgeable about online reviews and placing more value on them. Consumers appear to be less swayed by location and price, which don’t represent any guarantee of quality or reliability. The value of having positive online reviews is becoming increasingly more important.” – said David Janosik, a Local Business Consultant in Orlando Florida. Online Reviews can quickly tell business owners whether they’re properly serving their customers or not. These reviews can inform them of what they might be doing incorrect, and provide insight into ways that they could improve their service. Businesses that are going to thrive in 2014 will listen carefully to these reviews and leverage them in an effective way to improve their business and provide a better experience for their customers. Customers that take the time to leave an online review for a business are far more likely to feel a sense of loyalty to that business and keep returning. By providing easy methods for customers to leave an online review and develop a relationship with the business, the more customers feel they have a voice and the ability to offer feedback in a favorable and significant manner. Positive Online Reviews do more than just create stronger relationships between businesses and consumers, they work towards improving the company’s website ranking on major search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo!, Yelp, Urbanspoon and many others. Search engines strive to provide the best results to its users, and a business that has received hundreds of positive ratings and reviews is clearly one that has proven itself to be popular and well liked. In turn, these search engines will place that business higher in the search results and above their competitor’s. Allowing customers to write online reviews can also help produce a steady flow of highly targeted SEO keywords that further helps the business to rank well for the individual services or products that they may offer. The keywords included in online reviews will help boost that company to the first page of results in the search engines and result in higher visibility and traffic. This is essential for capturing the attention of potential new customers looking for a product or service.
