There are many review sites out there these days that allow customers to leave feedback for the businesses they’ve used or visited.
Review sites should also be considered as an important tool in engaging with your audience, both current and potential. Here’s why:
- Reviews help to shape your online reputation and allow you to build stronger customer relationships
- They provide valuable feedback to you as the business and help provide insight into what is working well, and what needs improvement
- Reviews act as a source of free advertising
- They can provide your business with a source for marketing material (snippets of positive reviews make great content!)
With that said, we’ve put together some of our top-rated review sites, all of which provide great potential for businesses. Please remember this is based on our opinion. There are of course many niche and specialist sites that may perhaps better suit your business and your audience.
Google My Business
Sector: All
Google My Business is an effective free online listing tool. By creating a listing you add your business to Google Maps, allowing customers to find your physical location. You also provide a simple summary of your business, including opening times, reviews and posts.
As the most used search tool, it makes sense to ensure your business displays as much as it can when someone googles it or your products or services.
If you’re not familiar with Google My Business, try typing in the name of a business (Pick & Mix Marketing for example) into the Google search bar. If that business is listed on Google My Business then they will appear on the right hand side of the search results. All relevant business information and reviews are displayed here.
TripAdvisor
Sector: Travel, leisure and hospitality
Probably the most well known and most frequented review site for all things related to these sectors. TripAdvisor has evolved and now gives consumers the ability to search and compare prices, book direct, as well as write reviews.
As a business, you can manage your listing, respond to reviews and track your performance.
TripAdvisor also offers businesses the chance to claim a certificate of excellence that can be displayed both at the physical location of a business and online. In fact, they incentivise businesses to make good use of the review site in order to obtain the certificate – this includes encouraging and responding to reviews.
They are a site that want the reviews to work for you and vice versa!
Trust Pilot
Sector: All
According to their site, Trustpilot is among the 1% most popular websites in the world (Alexa rank 386, February 2020) so it is certainly a site worth considering when it comes to reviews for your business.
As an official Google Review Partner, any reviews of your business posted on their site count towards your seller rating on Google.
Trustpilot also offers businesses access to an image generator that turns reviews into images and infographics. These can be used as marketing material for your social media, websites and newsletters.
We believe it to be a good solid site for reaching out to consumers for reviews, if you haven’t done already. Trustpilot can email out reviews to all past and future customers automatically. Therefore, if you want to gain reviews in bulk to build your reputation and gather feedback then this is a site to consider.
Other places for consumer reviews
Purpose-built review sites are not the only places your business can reap the benefits of customer reviews. Below are the sites we’d recommend you also use as hubs for online reviews. Mainly because they have great potential reach and are easily managed as a business.
Did you know that all Facebook pages have a ‘Reviews’ section? Businesses cannot choose to hide or remove reviews from their Facebook page, so it makes sense not only to be aware of it, but to make the most of it too.
The ‘reviews’ section appears on the left-hand side of your Facebook page and offers a quick and simple way for customers to leave one. They simply click on reviews and then on ‘do you recommend xxx?’. They’re then prompted to click on a selection of things they would recommend about the business and to state why.
Reviews stay on the page or the user can choose to share them. As a business, you should make the most of this by interacting with anyone who has left a review. Actively ask people to leave you one by directing them to this section of your Facebook page. You can also share any reviews onto your main page and link to the review section from your website, emails or other communications.
Your own website
Consider the fact that your website is the one site where you have complete control. You should therefore consider it as a place to share any reviews you receive.
Perhaps customers don’t have an account on another review site. Asking to them to set up an account on a different site might be off-putting. Having a place or means for them to review you on your own site will make the process must simpler.
You can control how your reviews are structured and can showcase them easily in a way that works for you.
Reviews are a must for showing potential customers they can trust you. If you receive a great review, make sure you use it and share with the world what a great job your business is doing.
With so many review sites out there, you should ultimately opt for a site that offers the best benefit to you as a business and one that you feel comfortable managing and working with.
If you want to talk reviews, social media or perhaps you need a little help for your own business, please give the team a call on 01904 863511 or email info@pickandmixms.co.uk
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