By Doren Aldana
We know that negative reviews can endanger your reputation, but what can positive reviews do? Did you know that positive reviews are directly linked to increased revenue?
Michael Luca, a Harvard Business School student, discovered that consumer reviews have a positive effect on revenues in the restaurant industry. In his research, “Reviews, Reputation, and Revenue: The Case of Yelp.com,” Luca revealed that “a one-star increase in Yelp rating leads to a 5-9 percent increase in revenue.” And interestingly enough, this seems to affect independent restaurants and not chain restaurants.
“The data shows that people respond more to reviews when they don’t know much about a company. In industries where this is the case, the response should be larger,” said Luca in an email interview with HubSpot.
This is great news for small businesses who can level the playing field and take advantage of customer reviews to help grow their business!
So what is the key to using positive reviews to increase revenue?
Making the information visible!
As a marketer or business owner, think about where you can incorporate reviews on your website. Think of prominent places or pages where you can add them. For example, you can add positive testimonials on your homepage, case studies next to your products, and even testimonials on your landing pages.
Are you leveraging positive reviews in your inbound marketing strategies? Are you getting positive reviews on strategic review sites like Google, Yelp and Facebook?
Click here for a free demo of the Testimonial Engine software!
