How to use your customer reviews in your marketing

The importance of customer reviews

When a potential customer looks for a service or a product, the most likely place to start is with an online search. That means they may find your business through your website, social media, or on a trade directory.

When they find your business, they’ll likely want to see if you’re a reliable and quality business. One way they get that idea is through reviews left by customers about your business.

People will trust what your previous and existing customers have to say about you. It’s honest feedback about their experience, which is valuable to customers.

If you have lots of positive reviews from previous customers, then you’re far more likely to win new business.

Struggling to get reviews for your business?

If you’re still trying to master how to get customers to leave you a review, check out our advice guide on this right here – how do you encourage your customers to leave you reviews?

Where to use your reviews in marketing

You now know the importance of customer reviews and how to collect them. Now it’s time to put those reviews to use.

Show reviews on your website

Your website is your online HQ. It’s the place where your customers will interact with your brand and find out about your products and services.

To ensure that your website is advertising your business to its full potential, you’ll want any customer reviews to be easy to see and have a prominent position on your website.

Some ways to do this include:

• A dedicated customer review page
• A star rating and example review as part of your homepage banner
• Carousel sections with positive customer reviews
• Place customer reviews on your product and service pages
• Add reviews to website sidebars and footer sections

By incorporating reviews throughout your website, your customers will consume the content more naturally and associate positive ratings with your brand.

Using social media to showcase your reviews

Social media is also a great place to use your customer reviews to market your trade business.

Many people will find and interact with your company via your social media profiles.

To ensure that your social profiles are making the most of your customer reviews you could try:

• Posting regular customer testimonials
• Posting links to third party review sites
• Adding customer reviews with links to your website

Connecting your social media profiles and your third party review site profiles with your website will also help to improve your website’s ranking.

This means that your reviews can have a positive effect on online traffic by helping your website to appear in more internet search results.

Use review snippets – what are review snippets?

When your website appears high in an online search, sometimes the results will display your review ranking as part of the Google snippet.

When a customer sees a snippet result with a four- or five-star review, they are far more likely to click on the link that takes them to your website.

By adding more reviews to your website, they are far more likely to appear as review snippets in online searches.

The copy or text of all your reviews also helps to boost your website’s ranking and appear on the all-important first page of a Google search.

Influencing and managing reviews in marketing

It’s a fact that customers are more likely to write a review if they have an extremely positive or very negative experience.

As mentioned above, there are ways to encourage your customers to leave you a review.

The best way to do this, however, is by ensuring that you provide them with the best possible service.

Customer reviews are also a great way to engage with your customers.

Always reply to reviews

A business that responds to their customers’ reviews is helping to build their status as a trustworthy company.

When a potential customer read an online review and sees that the company has replied to the reviewer, they are more likely to engage with the company because of this human element.

When replying to reviews, always be polite and professional, whether the reviews are good or bad.

How to reply to negative reviews

Sometimes, a business will get negative reviews. They can occur for a multitude of reasons and the best thing to do when you receive a positive review is respond to it properly.

When responding to a negative review always be polite and professional. Start by apologising to the customer and asking them if there is anything you can do to rectify the problem.

If you can engage with the customer and offer them something they want, you can potentially turn a negative review into a positive one.

Have a read of our guide on how to respond to negative reviews for more detailed information.

How Checkatrade reviews can help boost your business

Customer reviews are a powerful way to market your business. We’ve seen how they can be used across your online presence to successfully market your company.

Perhaps one of the best ways to use your online reviews is by combining them with your Checkatrade profile.

Checkatrade is a brand that consumers trust. When you display positive customer reviews and business ratings on your Checkatrade profile, you’re essentially doubling the power of your customer reviews.

What is the magic number of Checkatrade reviews?

According to our previous Checkatrade research, when you collect between 11 and 20 reviews, you can double your conversion rate.

From there, the more reviews you have, the more potential customers you can win.

Keep in mind, however, that your customers will want to read your most recent reviews, not ones from work you completed several years ago.

That’s why it’s extremely important to continually manage your online profile including your reviews.

Want to start using your reviews to boost your business? Join Checkatrade today!