August 2023

10 Tips to Build Business Reviews

Reviews are online “word of mouth”. These tips will help you start building business reviews today.

Review Goals

Reviews are the online “word of mouth” and are statistically the most important deciding tool for customers choosing between competitors and your business. In fact, 2020 Marketing reports show that 90% of customers use reviews in their purchasing decisions.

In our opinion, Google reviews are the digital top dawg and therefore, a primary aspect to improve. A close second is Facebook and the third being other appropriate review sites that you are on which allow for reviews (sites that are able to be searched, attract your target audience and align with your industry e.g. Yellow Pages, True Local).

Google Review Tips

Google business reviews appear next to your Business Profile in Maps and Search. This placement is valuable in helping your business stand out on Google. The goal is to be right up there on the first page of a relevant search. Key review metrics that are important in helping your listing include: ‍

1. The amount of 5 star reviews. The amount trumps the quality, but who doesn’t want to show off as top shelf.‍

2. The keyword quality of your reviews. “Great work” just doesn’t cut it. Customers listing services and specifics about their experience with your business matters.‍

3. Customer engagement with reviews. The more engagement the better, from other customers but also from your replies to customers to say thanks for a review or to help them navigate through an issue.

Remember to verify your Business so your information can appear on Google Maps, Google Search etc.

Below is a list of useful tips to encourage more reviews. Apply any or all of these depending on your bandwidth, priorities or business lifecycle to get your brand’s digital word of mouth cranked up a notch.

Zoe

Read Time

5

min

GRAVITATE Digital | Build Business Reviews

‍Make reviewing easy! ‍

Verify your business on Google Business and set up accounts or take ownership of your business pages on appropriate review sites. Put a review option on your website, automated emails, in your email signature or at the end of a phone call that you feel was positive for the customer.

It never hurts to ask and making it easy for a customer = more reviews. A great place to garner reviews is by using a review link that opens a platform to give customers direct access to review you instead of having to follow a series of steps. Adding this link into your team’s signatures instantly presents the perfect opportunity to garner a new review simply by keeping it present in all emails.

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Encourage quality reviews

Reviews that have specific information are more valuable than a one lined “great product”. The best reviews offer a wealth of details and a helpful tip or two for others considering your business services.

Wherever appropriate, provide customers with a guide of what to write about in their review, which could include:

What service did we complete for you?
How did we go?
What did you like about visiting us?
Did you work with any specific people you'd like to mention?
How do we compare to other services you've tried?
Are there any tips you would offer others about our business?

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Define your best reviewers

The goal here is to aim for positive and current reviews so it’s important to have an awareness of those who have had a good experience with you recently. Reviews are different to feedback and a feedback survey may be a better platform to gather information on how to improve your business. Remember to thank your reviewers! They are vouching for you and putting their reputation out there, so make sure they know how much you appreciate them.

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Friends and family

This is for sure the best starting point for any company new to reviews or in need of refreshing the reviews. Utilising this group of people is a great low impact way of building reviews. You can send a message or email to your close contacts, or even just pick and choose who you know will help you and can vouch for you as a person. Include in your email/message links to 1-3 places that you want to build reviews means you will likely have them complete more than just one review in one place.

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Get reviews in person

At the completion of your services or a job well done, it’s the perfect opportunity to guide a customer through a review of your services while you’re with them.

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Review with a buddy business

If you know other people that are also running a business, you could swap reviews. You already think of each other highly so why not? This improves your own business reviews whilst also improving your friends business.

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Timing is everything

If you’ve done a good job and know that the customer is happy, asking for a review while it’s fresh and they’re motivated to thank you will give you a better chance at gaining a positive review. Walking them through the process to leave you a good review means that you can guide them to the finish line. People get busy and push things to the side. It’s also ok to ask again if a customer hasn’t reviewed you.

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Monitor and comment back on reviews

Commenting back on a review and showing appreciation to the person who wrote your review is a great way to encourage more engagement with your customers. It also promotes more reviews on your services as customers see that their reviews are getting read and that your business values their input. This may mean that they are more likely to leave reviews again in the future. ‍

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Share reviews on your marketing channels

Share positive customer reviews that you’ve already obtained! This is a great way to show that you’re reading reviews and to build brand trust. Sharing reviews promotes you from a third party perspective AND it often leads to more customers giving you a review as there is a chance their review may be shared.

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Utilise an email signature link

A call to review on your email signature is great to encourage customers to review you following great work and increases the accessibility of people being able to provide you with a review.

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Automation

Automating review request emails following a customer receiving their goods is is a brilliant (and automated) way of building customer reviews ongoing, without any need for manual work to stay on top of your reviews.

By automating a review email, you can worry about the work you’re doing for the customer, leaving the automation to follow up your customers for reviews. Remember to monitor reviews that are posted, engage and tweak your automation email if you aren’t gaining any traction.

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Monitor & comment back

Share positive customer reviews that you’ve already obtained! This is a great way to show that you’re reading reviews and to build brand trust. Sharing reviews promote you from a third party perspective AND it often leads to more customers giving you a review so that they may have an opportunity to see their review shared.

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Make it last

Build your review strategy into your bigger marketing strategy and develop internal SMART KPIs around reviews to eep your reviews current and build the quality and quantity and to identify the best and most useful approaches to building reviews.

Want to learn more? Reach out to the GRAVITATE team today for a chat.

Yours,
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Frequently asked questions

How is Gravitate Digital different from other DIGITAL marketing agencies?

As one of Australia's leading digital marketing agencies, we tailor high-quality and intelligent digital marketing outcomes for thoughtful brands with a genuine purpose. A beautiful thing about the vast digital space is that we perform digital marketing worldwide with businesses of all shapes and sizes. From local reach, Australia-wide to global. eCommerce, service-based or wholesale. B2C, B2B and any other abbreviated industry type, we can help. We do not cookie-cutter our approach. With every relationship, we always start with a discovery call, to listen to you and your story. We learn about your brand, your customers and the industry. This teaches us how we can best deliver results. Great results are one thing, but if we can’t measure and understand the results, how will we know where to adjust, improve or hone in on in the future? We share it all, the good, the bad and the ugly data as it’s all useful in helping us refine our approach. It’s all the information that teaches us. Therefore, we make sure our reporting is measurable, it’s meaty so that you are holistically informed and we as a combined team make the best decisions together to grow your brand. Your success is our success. We truly care about our clients. We don't have one person looking after 50 accounts and have never dreamed of growing our business in that direction. We've put together a team of innovative players, strategic thinkers, and hybrid performance marketing specialists. We wear out keyboards faster than a keyboard warrior with our time in the accounts we manage; often sneak a sunset or sunrise surf in and invent all the best excuses to plan the next snowboard or hiking trip with friends and family. This balance of prospering and play keep us tapped into the real world, whilst nurturing a genuine curiosity to keep current in the ever-evolving digital space.

Would my business benefit from digital advertising?

The answer is yes, let's test it! The main benefit of digital marketing is that if you've got a brand, it is the most cost-effective and measurable way of getting highly targeted advertising in front of your ideal customer. Digital advertising gives you more opportunities to interact and build customer loyalty and greater credibility across a larger market.

How much does digital marketing cost?

Give us a call! Digital marketing is a broad space. This depends on the scope to achieve the best results. Whether it's project based work for brand identity, email automation, a website build or retainer work with ongoing digital advertising, we have pricing to suit. For accurate pricing with Gravitate Digital, please reach out to us for a chat.

WHAT SHOULD I EXPECT WORKING WITH GRAVITATE DIGITAL?

As an Australian digital marketing agency, we are your strategic partner and can provide In-Depth Digital Marketing Strategies, Competitor Analysis, Consumer Research, Market Research, Copy Editing, Troubleshooting, Monitoring Online performance, Conversion Rate Optimisation, In-Depth Reporting, Data Proven Results, Split Testing and Frequent Catch Ups.

Does gravitate do short term engagements?

As a leading Australian digital marketing agency, we offer various marketing solutions. Whether it's a deep strategy session or an entire brand launch from end to end, we're here for it. Though, we thrive on long term partnerships, not one-night stands or bandaid fixes. If you’re looking for a team that will elevate and support you, get in touch now.

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