The Value of Reviews Hello everyone! Thanks for joining us today in our weekly sales webinar, today's focus will be the value of reviews for local businesses.

Reviews mean money So let's get started on our topic of reviews. Reviews equate to dollars and cents. Most business owners realize this but don’t know what to do. Think about this for a moment. One of my friends owns an autobody shop and one of thing that bothers her the most is when she gets a negative review. She has a negative Yelp review that continues to haunt her. WHy? Because she really doesn’t know how much it has affected her business. Maybe she has lost $1,000 or potentially $10,000 in revenue, who’s to really know but there is definitely a correlation between reviews and revenue and I’m going to touch on those today.

Structured Mentions = Reviews The popularity of reviews is growing at an increasing rate. We have so many industries now using them as a way to increase web traffic to their sites and that allows companies like yours to engage with those local businesses and sell them marketing solutions. Google, Yelp, Doctors.com, Cars.com and Facebook are capitalizing on this trend. They all know the importance of reviews as people do more and more research online.

Why are reviews important? We’ve touched on a few reasons why reviews are important, but let’s look at the numbers.

Positive Reviews = Revenue Customers who read consumer reviews to ensure they are purchasing the right product or service. 70% US customers who say their buying decisions are influenced by online reviews. 90% The amount of new business companies with positive reviews can convert when compared to companies with ZERO or negative reviews. 183% Consumers who consider user generated reviews important or extremely important. 70% of consumers reading reviews are going to buy whatever it is they are researching. We all are going online today to look at items we want to buy, whether it be a large purchases such a cars or smaller items like BBQs which I’m looking for. As I do these searches, brands like Home Depot and Lowes and sites like Amazon know that reviews help drive traffic to their site. The advantage that Home Depot and Lowes have over Amazon is that you can visit their stores to view the product and this is a distinct advantage local businesses have over their online counterparts. Also businesses with positive reviews do almost 200% better at attracting new customers compared to those with no reviews. Every business knows that the most important part of keeping the lights on is ensuring that new customers come through the door. All businesses lose customers, so it’s vital that they continually attract new ones in order to thrive. 82%

5-9% increase in business What a ½ Star Means for Revenue A Harvard study found that a 1 star increase in Reputation lead to a 5 - 9% increase in business 5-9% increase in business Here’s an interesting stat. The Harvard Business review has suggested that an ½ star increase on a site like Yelp, increases that company’s revenue by 5-9%. That can equate to some serious revenue when you look at businesses that generate tens of thousands to millions of dollars annually. The hotel industry is affected even more since 76% of consumers are willing to pay more for hotels with higher review scores. SO as demand fluctuates so can the price of a business's services.

What about Negative Reviews Negative reviews are even more detrimental to a business as one negative review can cost a business 30 customers, in the case of the autobody shop, her average client is worth approx. $2,000 per job so that one negative review can cost her up to $60,000 or more. That's a LOT of revenue for any business.

Reviews More reviews really does make difference. It’s been shown that products with 50 or more reviews lead to 30% more purchases. That’s an astonishing statistic and should make any business want to generate more reviews. Of course certain industries such as restaurants and car dealers have known for awhile and are using many review request tactics to increase the volume of reviews they get. This is why it’s so important that your customers use the review generation tool.

Reviews One of the most important factor of reviews that doesn’t always come up, is the insight that can be gained from reviews. A lot of large organizations spend millions of dollars doing market research and trying to identify trends on what they are doing well and where they can improve. Unfortunately most local businesses neither have the money or the know how on how to conduct this research. They don’t have to do additional customer research as long as they are getting reviews. Their customers will tell a business what they do or don’t like or who they like to work with and how local businesses can be better.

Reviews It’s also shown that reviews increases traffic to websites. As a search for the right BBQ, I’ve visited many different websites that have the make and models I’m looking for. Reviews are especially important for local searches as they influence up to 10% of the local page ranking and can increase website visits by up to 25% Ensuring that your client’s customers are leaving reviews not only on popular sites but their own will make a big difference to their local SEO.

Showcase Reviews I’ve discussed the value of reviews, so now we need to help local businesses capitalize on this trend for their own website by introducing them to the Review Display widget.

Reviews Improve review scores on major and industry-specific review sites. Boost local SEO ranking. Display confidence in products and services. Build trust and credibility! Reviews scores and volume matters when converting new customers. It Increases the businesses Local SEO and website traffic and shows trust and confidence in the business's product, services or solutions. Ultimately increasing sales for your clients.

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