Without getting your reviews in Google, you're missing a trick. Displaying stars in Google increases your visibility thereby increasing conversion.
Did you know there's around a 154% increase in clicks for a 2nd position organic search result when it features stars?
Just think what that could do for your organic traffic numbers.
PLUS, if you use Google Ads, showing reviews beneath your ads can lower your PPC costs dramatically. According to Google, ratings can increase Click-Through Rate (CTR) by an average of 17%.
What does this mean? Lower PPC and an increase in profits - it's a win-win.
Here's the rub, though. You can't send reviews to Google yourself - it's not enough to simply email your customers from time to time for a quote, put it on your website, and hope for the best. Only reviews collected with a Google Licensed Review Partner - such as Reviews.io - or with Google Customer Reviews qualify for Google Seller Ratings. If you're not using either of these, then ultimately you're wasting time and money as you won't be able to get all the amazing benefits of Google Seller Ratings.
Additionally, you'll need to be eligible for Google Seller Ratings. This means collecting at least 100 reviews per country, in a 12 month period, with an average star rating of at least 3.5.
Social Media has become a big part of most of our lives. People spend an average of 2 hours 22 minutes a day scrolling, liking and commenting on social media.
This is huge. If you're not capturing your audience whilst they're on social, you're missing out big time.
Reviews provide great content for social as they can be used in a wide variety of ways. You could link to your review collection page, reinvent reviews as aesthetic quotes for Instagram, or, if you're with REVIEWS.io, you can get your 4 and 5-star reviews shared automatically to Twitter.
Sharing customer feedback you've received with your social audience not only provides engaging content, but helps to build trust and spread the message of your great brand reputation far and wide.
With REVIEWS.io, you can turn your reviews into testimonial ads. Just pick the ones you like and we'll turn them into the correctly-formatted images for both platforms. You can either download these and add them to a campaign of your choice, or we'll integrate with your Facebook and Adwords accounts and create the campaign for you.
Reviews make your ads more effective by increasing by putting your reputation front and centre. This builds trust from the offset, reducing friction, and increasing CTR to your site.
Obviously, the most important place to display your reviews is on your own website. There are many ways to do this, from coding your own HTML to using Google Customer Reviews or a Third-Party Review Partner like us.
63% of people are more likely to make a purchase from a site which has reviews, so this isn't something you want to bypass. Collecting reviews correctly has amazing payouts, which is why we always encourage people to see it as an investment in the health of your business.
Whilst there are free ways of showcasing review on your website, you get what you pay for, and a Review Platform like Reviews.io will give you the full experience.
Review Platforms provide you with a wide choice of widgets to suit every need, enabling you to display reviews you've received across your site to build trust, answer customer questions and get them over the finish line.
We'd recommend showing your company review rating on your home page as well as in global areas of your website, such as your header or footer.
Product reviews can also be shown on your individual product pages. As these are usually the landing pages for your Google Shopping ads (for eCommerce site owners), you're giving the user more confidence in your products by making ratings available to them.
To give users another reason to buy from you once they get to your product page, you can also add a question and answer widget about the products. This is a really great way to give extra information not supplied by the manufacturer because you can answer individual customer questions and display those answers for future customers to see. In this way, you're giving potential customers another reason not to leave your page, because if you've answered a question they already have about product suitability, they're far more likely to purchase from you then go elsewhere for the information.
Just because you collect reviews online, doesn't mean that's where they have to stay. Customer reviews are extremely powerful and have the ability to improve your marketing efforts across all types of media, not just online.
Your reviews and ratings can be used on everything from tiny business cards to huge billboards to enhance your promotional materials and reinforce your brand reputation.
Some of our own clients have had real success in using their reviews offline.
Beer52 used theirs in a promotional video alongside the REVIEWS.io logo, Fleet Trak has done something a little different by displaying their feedback in the office to welcome visitors and encourage staff, and The Drain Unblocking Company feature the REVIEWS.io star on their van so customer feedback is with them wherever they go.
The moral of the story? Reviews are an investment, and, usually, if you go for a budget option, you'll get budget results. Using a Google Licensed Reviews Partner broaden your horizons when it comes to making the most out of all the reviews you've collected. Through widgets, automated sharing and retargeting, platforms like REVIEWS.io do all the hard work for you.
Want to know more? Head over to our website or jump on live chat with one of our advisors.
