Social proof is one of the most powerful sales tools at your disposal in this modern digital age. When a prospective customer visits your website, explores your socials, or finds your GMB profile on Google, if you have plenty of positive 5* reviews for them to unearth, the likelihood of them converting into the business will be far greater.
The question is, how can you encourage people to leave positive reviews without being too pushy or risking annoying them? Read on and we’ll share some helpful tips.
1. Give your customers a memorable experience
This should go without saying but it’s always worth mentioning: if you want to attract positive reviews you need to provide a memorable experience. Go above and beyond to deliver an exceptional service and your customers will be far more likely to feel compelled to recommend you to others.
2. Follow up sales with review requests
After an appropriate amount of time you should consider having automated review requests emailed out to all who purchase your products / sign up to your services. This process is one of many e-Commerce essentials and the good news is that most people will be happy to oblige, provided they are indeed satisfied.
The fact is, many consumers will need prompting so make sure you give them a friendly nudge in the right direction.
Following that, it’s always worth sending out a follow-up request for those who may have missed the first email. But make sure you leave it at the two: any more than that could be deemed as harassment.
3. Feature your reviews on your website
Again, not only is it handy to have featured reviews on your website to help encourage conversions, but it also serves as a reminder to others that leaving a review themselves can be helpful for you. If they have a positive experience and value your brand, it serves as a reminder.
4. Always respond positively to reviews
Respond to all of your reviews; the good, the bad, and the ugly. Showing your appreciation for positive reviews gives customers even more encouragement to leave their own because it demonstrates how grateful you are. Additionally, tackling the less positive reviews gives you an opportunity to turn a negative experience around.
5. Claim your GMB
Some of your customers may be less active on social media or won’t want to sign up to Trip Advisor or Yelp in order to leave you feedback, as an example. However, the large majority of people will likely have an account with Google which means that claiming your GMB profile (Google My Business) will increase your chances at securing more reviews. Plus, the more reviews you get on Google, the more likely you will be to rank, and thus the more potential customers you can attract (it’s a win-win-win!).
If you’re not sure what a Google My Business listing is, whenever you type a local search into Google (e.g., SEO Company Melbourne), you’ll be presented with a list of businesses at the top of the search engine results page in a ‘Map Pack’; these are the GMB profiles.
Final thoughts
All in all, the key to attracting positive reviews is to earn them the right way; through providing a superior service – and then making it easy for your satisfied customers to leave their feedback for all to see.
Abhay is a Digital Marketing Guru and an accomplished entrepreneur with an experience of a decade working with various businesses varying from startups to established brands. He co-founded many companies like Logicsofts, PrintYo, CrazyRise and more. He is passionate about SEO and Online Data Analytics, which plays a vital role in any business to grow and mutate as per the data results.
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