Consumers understandably only want the best when it comes to their purchases, making reviews an integral part of the buying process. Reviews offer guidance from the people who have used the product or experienced the service and allow shoppers to make informed buying decisions.
But as a business, how many do you need to convert leads into customers?
In this post, we will show you how many reviews you need according to platform and break them down into three major categories:
- Google reviews
- Yelp business reviews
- Facebook marketplace reviews
Further to this, we will touch on these points:
- How many reviews needed to generate trust, increase traffic and increase conversions
- What customers look for in reviews
Google Reviews: How Many Do You Need?
Google My Business recommends having a minimum of five reviews to get a star rating. Five Google reviews are also a requirement for your business to appear in local searches. The good news is that Google adds reviews for your business from other websites, which means reviews on Facebook or Yelp also count. So it’s beneficial to manage your online reviews across various platforms to better showcase your authority and credibility in Google searches.
For running paid marketing campaigns, ads display the seller rating when the business has enough reviews: 150 unique Google reviews and at least a 3.5-star rating. Brands with high seller ratings attract more clicks, thus in a better position to generate conversion.
Yelp Business Reviews: How Many Do You Need?
There’s no specific number that Yelp recommends to help with improving your rankings and visibility on the platform. Yelp also has an automated filter that hides several testimonials to display only the most helpful ones. While this feature is intended to protect businesses from fake reviews, there are cases where even legitimate ones are being filtered by Yelp.
The following are the most common reasons feedback is being hidden on the platform:
- Incomplete business profile: Yelp doesn’t trust brands with little or no information on their profile.
- The review is too short: The platform only displays helpful reviews. Ones that state “Great service!” or “Delicious food!” are not painting a clear picture of actual customer experiences.
- Incompatible IP address: Yelp used IP addresses to determine the legitimacy of reviews. If a tourist on vacation visits your business but leaves the review when they get home, their testimonial will get filtered.
The only solution to Yelp’s filter feature is the proactive generation of as many reviews as possible. The more Yelp business reviews, the better.
The platform has strict guidelines on obtaining reviews, and businesses are prohibited from soliciting testimonials from customers. According to Yelp, the purpose of its platform is to highlight authentic experiences from customers without being asked or coerced in any way. So, instead of requesting your customers outright to leave online reviews for your business, you can mention that you have a profile on Yelp.
Facebook Marketplace Reviews: How Many Do You Need?
Like Yelp, the social media giant doesn’t recommend a specific number of reviews needed to make a splash. Instead, the best course of action is to collect as many Facebook marketplace reviews as possible and follow best practices for review generation on the platform:
- Ask customers to leave online reviews: After a complete transaction, reach out to your customer and encourage them to leave ratings and feedback.
- Provide positive experiences: The best method to generate Facebook marketplace reviews is to provide your customers with a positive and memorable shopping experience.
- Seek the advice of social media experts: Selling on Facebook and Marketplace are two different things. Seek expert assistance to ensure you have the right strategies in place.
Selling on social media requires expert knowledge to produce favorable results. By employing social media experts, you secure a greater chance of success on Facebook or other social platforms. In addition, a professional social team knows the right approach to business reputation management and can help you build and establish a solid presence online.
How Reviews Can Help You Achieve Your Business Goals
The importance of reviews spans many stages of the sales funnel: from generating brand awareness and building client trust to increasing traffic and boosting conversions.
Keep reading to learn how many reviews you need to achieve common business goals:
Generate trust
The digital marketplace is highly competitive. Modern consumers often jump from one business to another depending on which brand offers the highest discounts and shopping perks. To keep your customers from choosing your competition, you need to gain their trust.
Building client trust takes time, but it’s a non-negotiable aspect of marketing. When you gain a customer’s confidence, their patronage turns into long-lasting trust and advocacy.
You can gain customer trust in many ways. When it comes to reviews, Bright Local reports that consumers read an average of 10 recent honest brand reviews before trusting a business.
In your review solicitations, make it clear to your customers that their insight matters in improving your services. People want their voices to be heard. The more consumers feel their opinions are valued, the easier it is for them to trust the business.
Increase Traffic
According to Bright Local, 54 percent of online buyers visit a website after reading a review. Also, reviews are the seventh-most important factor Google considers to determine localized rankings, according to a survey carried out by Moz.
Having a few honest brand reviews already positively impacts your traffic. But don’t stop with just a handful. You need to continuously generate reviews to receive a constant flow of web visitors. Assign a dedicated team to execute your review generation methods or employ professional online reputation management services. Experts on reputation management can help in review monitoring and building client trust.
Increase Conversions
Every review matters in increasing conversion. In every product review gained, there is a 10 percent increase in sales, according to a study conducted by Bazaarvoice Network. In addition, shoppers who visit a product page with one to ten honest brand reviews are 52 percent more likely to convert.
These statistics clearly show that the more reviews you have, the more sales you acquire.
Review Recency: Is It As Important As Numbers?
Aside from numbers, customers also look at the recency of the reviews posted for a business. According to Power Reviews’ customer analysis, 6 out of 10 consumers believe that review recency is very important when buying a product. Also, 64 percent of buyers are more likely to buy a product with more recent reviews than one with many reviews but are older than three months.
To increase customer confidence, review gathering should be a continuous process. However, review generation is just one aspect of your overall business reputation management strategy. For busy business owners, hiring reputation management consultants is the best way to ensure the success of your review acquisition campaigns.
Aside from review gathering, online reputation management services also include review monitoring and response solutions for a well-rounded approach to solidifying your reputation through reviews. In addition, these professionals also use an online reputation management software for more streamlined reputation management processes.
Conclusion
The importance of reviews to your reputation, traffic and conversions is incontestable. Having them establishes you as a reputable brand, making you the top choice over your competition. Of course, the correct number helps, but the key to guaranteed success is the continuous effort to generate reviews from customers.
Rize can create sustainable and ongoing review generation strategies that produce successful outcomes for businesses of all sizes. Our online reputation management services include review monitoring, gathering and response solutions that help you create the most favorable impression.
Our reputation management consultants know the importance of reviews in the growth of your brand. We leverage our online reputation management software to efficiently manage and generate reviews for your business.
Contact us today to learn more about our services
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