Why Every Local Business Should Focus On Local Reviews

Why You Should Be Managing Local Reviews

If you do not have an online reputation management program it is a problem, whether or not you have online reviews.

Let’s take a look at 3 reasons why not obtaining local reviews as a local business is a problem, what kind of marketing data trends back it up and easy solutions that are available for your local business to be ahead of the online marketing game.

The Problems

1. If you do not have online reviews it is easier for your competitors to overtake you in online reviews. Take a look at your top local competitors reviews online and remember that every marketing campaign takes time and if they already have more positive online reviews than you do they are already a step ahead. Or if there aren’t any reviews online, that is a potential marketing weakness for you to benefit from.
2. More and more people every day are looking for online reviews in buying decisions. If you don’t have any then you are missing out on potential customers. Far more people than ever before trust in online reviews and treat online reviews as a word of mouth marketing has in the past. Plus more technology trends show that even non Millennials are jumping on the smart phone bandwagon and online searches through smart phones and other mobile devices take only a few seconds versus asking around town.
3. If you do have online reviews, how you manage them matters. If you have 3 stars or less, a lot of online leads will skip your business and move on to a competitor. Or if you have reviews that are not current or within the past month you are losing marketing ground.

Let’s look at some of the current marketing trends that focus on local online reviews. According to a 2015 study by Bright Local you can expect a lot of consumers to focus on online reviews. The top findings are that:

1. 92% of consumers read online reviews in 2015 versus 88% in 2014
2. 40% of consumers form and opinion by reading 1 to 3 reviews in 2015 versus 29% in 2014
3. How many stars your business is rated is the #1 factor used to judge your business
4. 44% say that reviews must be within a month to be considered relevant
5. Only 13% of consumers considered a business that has a 2 star rating or less in 2015
6. 68% say positive reviews make them trust a local business more versus 72% in 2014
7. Consumers are becoming more concerned about fake reviews

How these trends work out for your business.

Local reviews are the word of mouth online, plain and simple. If you are not up to date with your local reviews you are missing out. Moz (an SEO analytic company) has been tracking local reviews to amount to 8.4% of online ranking factors and other research has shown up to almost 10% to be found in search results.  While 10% may seem little, our most popular online reputation management program can take as little as 5-10 minutes to manage per month with a conversion rate to leave reviews as high as 30% (compared to 2-3% for normal requests for reviews). That’s a huge piece with such a low time commitment. Other factors to help rank include on site search engine optimization, business directory citation management, content engagement, social signals, and link authority.

In Summary

Online reputation management’s key piece for local businesses is local reviews on business directories. The more ongoing reviews left by active customers the better for ranking as well as to convince online searchers to use your business over your competitors. This should be one of the core pieces of your marketing program. For more information on what you should include in your online marketing, visit our blog page, or contact us for a free consultation.