Back in the pre-Internet days, recommendations were based solely on word-of-mouth. People would ask their friends and family for referrals to trusted businesses. While this is still applicable today, it’s becoming less popular in light of a virtual alternative: online reviews. As much as 76% of consumers trust online reviews equally as referrals from others. If your business wants to make more sales, then keep reading - we’ll explain how reviews affect your conversion rates.
You might already know that landing pages are an important part of making sales. But what about adding testimonials from your customers? Without them, customers might click away from your page to see what your rating is on Google or Yelp - but if the reviews are front-and-centre on your landing page, there’s no need to. The longer that customer remains on your site, the better chances are that you’ll have a conversion. Combined with your other marketing techniques, reviews can give the push consumers need to make a purchase.
You probably wouldn’t buy a car without taking it for a test drive, or purchase a home without taking a tour, and the same goes for online products and services. Consumers want to see proof of the claims on your website, and reviews do just that. They act as evidence that your business is authentic - one study found 83% of customers thought that landing pages with reviews were more trustworthy. When consumers trust your business, they feel more inclined to buy from you.
Since online reviews have been around for a while, customers can sometimes be skeptical of them. If your website only includes 5-star reviews, readers might be suspicious that they’re fake; it might make them think that those claims are too good to be true. If you have a negative review, responding to it can increase conversion rates by up to 30%. Instead of only displaying the most positive reviews, consider showing some with 4.5 or 4-stars; it will add credibility to the claims.
When it comes to displaying reviews, it’s “the more the merrier”! Having even just one review has been shown to boost conversion rates by 10%, while up to 100 can increase them by 37%. Now that you know how influential testimonials can be when making conversions, the next step is gathering them to post on your landing page. It can be challenging to gather this many ratings when your business is just starting out. How do you prompt customers to leave feedback and take control of your online image?
RepCo offers reputation management software that will help grow your business. You’ll be able to monitor and respond to reviews as they’re received, and compile them for easy analysis. Customers will be contacted on a drip schedule via SMS and email, which will automate the review generation process. You will be notified as soon as new reviews come in so that you can respond to them quickly and appropriately. With RepCo, you’ll soon have a landing page full of reviews, and that can increase your conversion rates significantly.
