In the 21st century, buyers prioritize doing product research before buying anything, leaving little opportunities for statistics providers to influence purchase decisions. Thus, B2B software providers should ensure their presence on the channels that buyers use most frequently, especially software review sites. Using customer reviews enables software providers to engage with prospects effectively and build brand reputation too. In the dynamic realm of modern business, market research has evolved as a highly essential tool for companies striving to analyze and understand consumer behaviour and preferences. A revolutionary approach to leveraging customer reviews has gained significant momentum. The enriched information encapsulated within customer reviews offers a treasure trove of insights for businesses looking to assimilate consumer sentiment and improve their products and services.
In today’s digital era, utilizing the power of customer reviews for market research has become a crucial strategy for organizations that are keen to stay competitive and relevant. Customer reviews and ratings on the relevant sites are a crucial element of the buying process and impact on the purchase decisions of prospects.
As per Gartner Digital Markets’ 2022 Global Software Buyer Trends Survey, 85% of buyers rely on and trust customer reviews as much as any other factors that help them make a purchasing decision. Businesses get boosts by constantly communicating and engaging with their customer base and understanding their target audience. Incorporating customer reviews attracts positive lead generation and its aim of increasing revenue. Let’s read along on how to leverage customer reviews for effective market research.
1. Align your Google My Business (GMB) profile along with Trustpilot profiles
Google My Business (former name) is a free service offered by Google that helps you manage your business listing besides supplying information about your business. Moreover, Google Business Photos (GBP) will enable you to upload photos of your business, share the location details besides giving details about your contact information, and much more. One of the surveys says, 64% of customers use phone number listing in Google Business Profile panels to get in touch with local companies, and this number will continue to grow. It also says that there was a 61% increase in the calls from Google Business Profiles in the year 2020.
Above all, it gives customers an easy way to make customer reviews and ratings an integral part of your business and helps you find how your business will benefit. Google My Business plays an important role in creating trust amongst your target audience, eventually bringing in business and profits.
2. Incorporate customer reviews on your social media posts and website
In today’s world, any business with a strong digital presence keeps a good hold on the market. Online presence is one of the essential factors in business success and using platforms like business websites and social media increases the chances to attract more leads and conversions. One of the most effective ways to connect with your customers is to post customer reviews on social media platforms.
Another effective way of interacting with customers is to allow them to leave their reviews in the comment section by posting effective posts and by asking them questions in the comments section or by replying to their inputs. Highlighting customer reviews on social media will lead to building a positive brand image for any business. Also, making an eye-catching social media post with a clean layout will increase your social media presence and will help your brand get the word about your business. Besides social media posts, your organization’s website can be another excellent way to showcase the customer reviews your business has been showered with. It also works well in order to gain credibility from website visitors and prospects.
3. Email marketing: An integral part of marketing strategy
Besides social media, gaining customer reviews and ratings on your regular email newsletters, blogs, and any other promotional material adds credibility to what your business has to offer by telling the brand story. Email marketing is done to keep a warm relationship with existing customers by reaching out to leads to keep them updated about current business events, campaigns, and happenings. It is mainly done in the form of newsletters or cold emails, focusing on their latest product or service to increase the website traffic, and influencing the website visitors to make a purchase. Email marketing revenue was predicted to reach more than 10 billion U.S. dollars by the year 2023.
Including one or two customer reviews in these newsletters and cold emails will convey a message that it is a credible and trustworthy brand. It will further talk about the problems it sets out to other than convincing them to follow your call to action (CTA) by dropping them a cold email.
4. Focus on SEO-friendly keywords in replies to the reviews
Use SEO tools to find some relevant and trending keywords to use in the replies of your reviews so that they reap benefits to your business. Incorporate short and long-tail keywords in replying to and explaining your work while replying to the client’s review on your website, social media, or any other promotional material. By using relevant keywords in your replies, you will tell Google and other search engines to use the keywords to rank your page and show it in the results. It will also convey a message to Google that your page is relevant as per the search terms used. As per the report by Power Reviews, over 99.9% of customers read reviews when they prefer online shopping and 96% of customers look for negative reviews specifically.
Moreover, to boost your business’s social media and website’s domain credibility and authority, use your business’ target keywords while replying to any reviews. Google and other search engines compile all the sites and platforms that it has a presence in to aggregate its credibility. Your brand can gain a step up on Search Engines Results Pages (SERPs) to gain a higher website authority by leveraging customer reviews with the right keywords.
5. Find the right place to write a review and promptly reply to the customers
Make sure that your customers and website visitors find the review form easily accessible and leave their reviews in the right places. An easy-to-use form can help you collect reviews faster than you think. Moreover, never forget to thank your customers for taking the time to write a review and make sure to address the concerns they may have had. This customer service technique will give the customers a sense of importance which will help you build trust with your customers. Not to forget, writing constructive and genuine replies to any negative reviews is considered more important, addressing their concerns adds a personal touch to your business.
To sum up
Any generic strategy would not work for your business and will never add any value to the work your brand does. Leveraging customer reviews is one of the powerful tools that adds credibility to your brand, using the reviews gathered will help you build trust and credibility for your business as well as your brand. Receiving a review from your customers will help you gain potential leads for your pipeline, in the years to come. Reaching out to the customers personally and asking them for reviews has proved to be a promising way to get the ball rolling. Navigating the complex maze of digital marketing need not be unorganized, the above-mentioned ways can prove to be beneficial to grow your web presence in this digital age.