In today’s digital age and online shopping landscape, the influence of social proof, especially online reviews and testimonials, has become an invaluable asset for any business. These written or video testimonials, social post captions or comments, and online reviews shared by satisfied customers wherever people buy from you, are not just a pat on the back. This social proof is an influential force driving profitable referrals to your business month after month.

On average, reviews produce an 18% uplift on sales, while 90% of buyers are more likely to convert after reading reviews, and you stand to generate 31% more money by customers when your business has positive reviews.

Since 61% of people who end up making a purchase like to read anywhere between 11–50 reviews, it’s important you have AT LEAST 50 online reviews to encourage more potential customers across the finish line.

These aren’t just statistics, the proof is in the pudding. Before starting our marketing company to serve local businesses, and subsequently designing our online community marketplace with automated review generation to help local experience creators stand out online, we helped grow a review generation company by 1939.75% in 2020. That experience showed us first-hand the incredible impact reviews had on local businesses.

Here’s the insider secrets we learned about growing 5-star reviews . . .

Why Are Positive Online Reviews Crucial to Success in 2024?

You use reviews yourself, don’t you? To pick a new restaurant, find a dentist, buy products online, and especially, when it comes to choosing a new service provider. Well, so do your customers. Reviews are how they pick you!

In a world of online options, online reviews are just as good as personal recommendations. By prioritizing your online reputation, managing it, growing it, and cultivating it, you’ll experience greater profitability and success.

Here’s why positive online reviews are crucial to your success in 2024:

1. Trust–Authentic reviews act as a trust-building tool for potential customers. When prospects see positive experiences shared by others, it instills confidence in your offerings.

2. Referrals—Positive reviews are the best advertisements. They serve as a gateway for your existing customers to refer friends, family, or peers, encouraging them to partake in the same delightful experiences. Even better than traditional word-of-mouth marketing, online reviews are evergreen—lasting online foreverrrrrrr!!

3. Brand Reputation—Consistent positive feedback helps establish a strong brand reputation. It’s this positive perception that triggers referrals, as people are more inclined to recommend a brand they trust.

4. Visibility—Online reviews aren’t just about social proof; they’re a potent tool for amplifying your brand’s visibility. Online reviews contribute to improved search engine rankings, making it easier for potential customers to discover your offerings online. Look, if people can’t find you on search engines like Google, you’re not doing something right.

5. Sales—Studies show that many consumers rely on online reviews to make purchase decisions. Positive reviews often serve as a tipping point for those considering whether to engage with your business.

How to Grow Your Online Reviews to Increase Sales

The greatest benefit to online reviews is that one review can refer thousands of customers to your business. The review expands far beyond the immediate friend and family circle of the person who took the time to leave you a review. Therefore, it’s arguable that online reviews are your best word-of-mouth.

All great businesses know that word-of-mouth marketing is still the most powerful marketing. In fact, 72% of small businesses rely on word-of-mouth marketing, and 85% of consumers rely on word of mouth recommendations (including online reviews).

According to Nielsen’s latest Global Trust in Advertising report, which surveyed more than 28,000 Internet respondents in 56 countries, 92% of consumers around the world say they trust earned media, such as recommendations from friends and family, above all other forms of advertising.

Obviously, it’s only good business to manage your online reputation by driving positive reviews to your online profiles and mitigating negative feedback. But how do you do this?

The 5 Step Process to Grow Your Online Reviews

1. Automate Your Review Requests—Let’s be honest, asking for a review can feel like begging for money. It’s awkward, embarrassing, and feels degrading. But you should do it anyway! Even if you have an automated system to help you, a personal request goes a long way to increase the likelihood your customer will take action. Of course, nothing beats automating your review requests because a good automated system will handle ALL 4 steps below without you lifting a finger. As a result, your online reviews will zoom and BOOM!
   
   So, invest in review management tools that automate the process, allowing you to monitor, collect, and respond to reviews effortlessly—your future self will thank you for it!
   
   If you need to start by manually sending review requests to customers, do it! Send a text message and include the direct link to your preferred review site, likely Google, Yelp, or Facebook. Click here to learn how to find your Google Review Link. Here’s a template you can use for SMS Review Requests . . .
   
   TEMPLATE TO SEND A MANUAL REVIEW REQUEST VIA TEXT MESSAGE (SMS):
   
   Hi [First Name], thanks for choosing [Your Product/Serve or Business Name]. Would you mind leaving me a review? It helps me help others. Here’s the link: [Review Link]
   
   Thanks,
   [Your First Name]
   
   
   PRO TIP: Our online community marketplace—exploringnotboring.com—has an automated review system that ensures a timely review request is sent, a convenient pathway is provided to leave the review (link via SMS & email), and a timely follow-up if no action is taken. With our experience growing a leading SAAS system for online reputation management prior to starting EXPLORINGNOTBORING, we know how automation can impact business growth, particularly when it comes to online social proof. So, if you’re not leveraging tools that can automate your review growth, you need to take action right away to change that immediately.
   
   FUN FACT: We can do you one even better, as a local marketing company, ENB owns exploringnotboring.com—an online community marketplace to help creative businesses sell uniquely local experiences—and The Hub—our boutique AI-powered CRM that can automate all forms of communication, including review requests to help you drive reviews to your Google Business Profile, Facebook page, Yelp, and many of the other platforms you use to grow your business; plus social media post scheduling; and even website chats, direct messages, and more powered by AI—It’s honestly insane! We hope to integrate our two platforms in the near future to take our ENB Partner’s customer relationships to the next level and rapidly impact your business growth across the web. For now, our platforms connect via Zapier and our CRM is exclusive to our marketing clients. Feel free to reach out directly to learn more.
   
2. Be Timely—People are most likely to take the time to share their feedback and experience with you and others when you catch them in the moment of their feelings. It’s best to ask for the review right after their experience with you or within 2 hours after the fact. The longer you wait, the less likely you’ll receive a spectacular review or any review at all.
   
3. Make it Convenient—If you’re not sending the review request via email and SMS or push notification, then most people are not going to take action. It’s just the simple truth. People are busy, distracted, and have higher priorities than leaving you a review . . . BUT if you make it eeeasy, super simple, and uber convenient, just a click of a link from their ever-present mobile device, then the odds that every customer leaves you a review goes waaaaay up. *Tick* *Tick* *tick* That’s the sound of your reviews growing because you made it convenient for your customers to provide their feedback.
   
   PRO TIP: The only time a customer goes out of their way to leave you a review is if they’re BLOWN AWAY by an exceptional experience or pissed the F*#k off. If you invest in the right automation tools, like our AI-powered CRM: The Hub or sell on exploringnotboring.com, then you can intercept negative feedback to resolve it immediately without the customer feeling like the only way to be heard is to yell it from the Google review rooftops. When you do this, you can often turn an initially poor experience into a raving 5-star review!
   
4. Follow-Up via Email and SMS—Automated follow-ups are obviously the easiest way to do this, but you can also manually send messages to customers who haven’t left a review yet. Gentle reminders are great because people are busy, so a little nudge can go a long way to encourage them to take the time to share their experience with you and others in an online review.
   
5. Respond to Reviews—Here’s a little trick most business owners don’t know: you should always respond to reviews, ESPECIALLY the negative ones. Firstly, positive or negative, your response let’s potential customers know that you care about the feedback you receive and actively engage with your customers. Secondly, responding to negative reviews may not affect how it impacts your overall rating, but it can definitely affect how potential customers perceive the review and perceive you as a business. In fact, the right response to a valid or invalid negative review can completely wipe its merit, so it holds no weight in the prospects purchase decision, except for the fact that they might like you even more now.

Click here to view our Positive and Negative Review Response Templates.

What is Negative Review Redirection?

Studies have shown that a business with even a few negative reviews is likely to lose up to 22% of potential customers. While negative reviews can be damaging, they also provide an opportunity for businesses to demonstrate their commitment to customer service and their willingness to address customer concerns. 

But here’s the cool thing about Negative Review Redirection . . .

Most customers who leave a negative review online just want to be heard—Negative Review Redirection provides businesses a proactive way to identify a poor customer experience before it gets escalated online, and immediately address it head on, directly with the the customer to address their needs and resolve the issue.

Not only does Negative Review Redirection create a line of communication with the customer to address their needs, it does so instantly, ensuring the customer immediately feels heard, prioritized, and helps improve the customer experience, aiding any great business in the process of turning that negative feedback into a 5-star review.

So, how does Negative Review Redirection work?

Simply put, Negative Review Redirection is the process of identifying negative feedback from positive feedback and directing each accordingly.

For our Experience Creators on exploringnotboring.com, we use an automated Feedback Request that is sent to every customer at the right moment to capture a satisfied customer who is most likely to leave a review online. This Feedback Request allows the customer to rate their experience from 1 (poor) to 5 (best).

If the customer reports a poor experience (rating of 1–3), we send an automated message to capture more details and connect them with the Partner through our chat system to resolve any issues right away. Typically, once resolved, these customers become raving 5-star reviews. You’ll know whether or not to ask the customer to leave a review after speaking with them—if you feel the customer is happy, ask them if they’d be willing to leave you a review and simply send them the direct link to your Listing page followed by #review 👇

EXAMPLE: https://exploringnotboring.com/experience/555/1/sourdough_workshop_by_mooon_bread/#review

If the customer responds to our Feedback Request reporting a positive experience (rating of 4–5), we send them directly to your Listing to leave a review. This “Leave a Review” feature on your Listing page is only available to verified customers who have completed their order with you.

Your Online Reputation Matters More Than You Know!

In conclusion, reviews significantly impact your business growth, from driving sales to informing business development efforts (What do customers want more? What can they do without?). Not only do positive reviews build trust with potential customers, they improve search engine rankings so it’s easier for potential new customers to find you. By actively soliciting and responding to customer feedback, you can drastically increase your customer experience, customer satisfaction, and drive revenue growth over time. What’s that worth to you? Take action now!

OVER TO YOU!

If you need any help, you know where to find us 😊

• Find the answers you need in our Marketing Resources
• Email us at marketing@exploringnotboring.com

The information in this article is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.