Online review sites allow potential shoppers and users to look up information about a company, service or good. These review sites will be one of two types: they will either include reviews from genuine shoppers/users of a product/company/service or they will be maintained by an industry body that is an expert in the field. Whatever the “type” of a review site, it can be hugely valuable to your business, making sites like this well worth taking notice of.
What Information Do Online Review Sites Feature?
Typically, when you visit a review site, you’re going to find standard reviews of a product, service or company. Factors that are often considered with physical goods include the quality of the product itself once it was delivered, how quickly was it delivered, and whether the price that you paid matched up to the quality/speed of delivery. With services, including professional services, apps, and even video games, ease of use (how easy it is to learn how to use the service or play the game), whether the software includes any bugs, and the quality of the support provided will all be mentioned in the review.
Some review sites go further though, offering up reviews of the company behind the goods and services as well as reviews of the company’s offers. No one wants to spend with a company that is known for being overpriced and unhelpful, for example. For this sort of information, you may have to go to specialized review sites within an industry. In the online gaming sector, casino review sites like Oddschecker also list bonuses in addition to providing information about the online casino games themselves. This makes it a go-to site for those looking for information about free spins on slot games, welcome bonuses , nd cash back on deposits too. Not all industries will have traditional bonuses like that, nor will they have free trials – retail businesses often use vouchers and coupons instead. Thankfully, there are review sites for vouchers and coupon sites which sounds meta but is a helpful tool for those looking to save money. Sites like CouponWebsiteReviews review the quality and reliability of the deals listed and whether it’s easy to redeem the offers (either through a mobile app or if the deals are printable). These can, in turn, generate revenue for a business.
How Effective Are Reviews?
Online review sites don’t just offer benefits for shoppers trying to get money savings and deals, though. Positive reviews from these kinds of review aggregation sites can be a huge driver of revenue for a business. According to BrightLocal’s study on consumer reviews and their effectiveness, 91% of shoppers aged between 18-34 value and trust online reviews as much as they value personal recommendations (i.e. recommendations from family and friends). Consumers read an average of 10 online reviews before they are able to trust a business too, making online review sites which aggregate customer feedback even more valuable.
This is largely a result of something called social proof. Buffer’s guide to social proof and its use in marketing explains that social proof allows shoppers to learn more about a product they don’t yet own/have experience with. With expert reviews (as opposed to reviews from other shoppers), consumers are able to recognize that the experts are far more knowledgeable about a service or business than they are and therefore have a better understanding and could better advise us. The site also explains that social proof can look like large, written reviews, star-based rating systems, and posts on social media platforms such as Twitter or Facebook.
How to Get Listed on Review Sites
Getting listed on review sites is very often a case of being a major player in the industry – the more you grow, the more people will want to weigh in on whether you deserve to be that big and whether your growth has come about in a way that works for consumers. But you can also reach out to these aggregation sites to inform them of the quality goods, services, and offers that you are providing.
Whatever strategy you employ for encouraging and publicizing user reviews, you’ll want to actively pursue this. When social proof is so important to a business’ bottom line, it makes it worth it to foster that.
