How to Get Reviews on Your Website with WordPress
People are more likely to buy a product or service that they have seen advertised, or that has been recommended by someone they know, trust, or feel sympathy for. In the digital era, this could mean promoting your product or service on social media, reviewing it on websites such as Google, or mentioning it on blogs and news sites such as Medium and WordPress.
Whether you are selling your own products or providing a service, you can use various strategies to get the word out there. If you want to generate interest and gain credibility with potential customers, you need to consider what platforms they are using, whether these are traditional or online, and what kinds of content they value.
Pay Attention To Reviews From Reliable Sources
In the same way that you would seek out only reputable, quality, and reliable sources when researching a topic on line, reviews from these platforms carry extra weight and can help establish your business’s credibility.
Even better, you can often find detailed answers to your specific questions in the review itself. For instance, if you run a business offering pet care and your customer asks about grooming tips, you can point them to the specific review that answers their question. As an entrepreneur, you may feel a little overwhelmed by the number of platforms you need to learn about and keep up with. Fortunately, digital marketing specialists can help. They can take the mystery out of digital marketing, helping you understand how to reach your audience through social media, SEO, and email marketing.
Understand The Importance Of Online Reviews
There are three main reasons why you should care about online reviews.
- They can hurt your business
- They can help your business
- They can provide you with marketing insights
The reality is that reviews can be a double-edged sword for your business. On the one hand, they can help establish your reputation with potential customers and encourage them to try your products or services. On the other hand, they can portray your business in a negative light and cause potential customers to lose trust in you. So while it is always good to get online reviews, you need to know how to approach them in a way that will benefit your business.
Understand What To Look Out For
Just as you would with any other questionable source, you need to be hyper-vigilant whenever reviewing a product or service. This means you must be constantly on the lookout for signs of deception. You must never be afraid to ask questions or bring up concerns if you notice something suspicious. In most cases, this will allay any suspicions the customer may have and help establish your business’s credibility. But sometimes, a scammer will go to great lengths to trick even the most astute customer. So, you must be ever vigilant.
Avoid Giving Out Your Personal Information
Whether through a simple question or comment on one of the platforms, customers can often find the personal information of business owners. This includes phone numbers, email addresses, and sometimes even social media profiles. While you may think that providing this information would make you stand out among the millions of other businesses, scammers will often go through great lengths to find and use this information for their own ends. They might send you spam emails or solicit you for fraudulent activities.
If you don’t want to risk being outed as a personal contact, it’s best to avoid providing any personal information in the first place. Instead, use an anonymous email service to register for a blog, or even a Medium account if you don’t have a blog. If you do give out personal information, be sure to verify it.
The Importance Of Blogging
If you are reading this, you may already be aware of the power of blogging to attract potential customers. A study from Blogger revealed that 88% of the respondents had read an article that was sponsored, 44% had accepted a gift, and 14% had downloaded a free sample or trial of a product or service. What this means is that if you want to gain credibility with potential customers, you should consider blogging. While it is always good to have a product or service to tout, it is even better when this product or service has been reviewed or praised by credible and authoritative sources. Moreover, businesses that regularly blog tend to have a distinct voice and are more engaging than those that do not.
Getting Real Reviews Is An Art
Just as with any other brand or product, you need to have a mix of both real and fake reviews to succeed as a business. The key difference between legitimate and fraudulent reviews is that the former are helpful while the latter, often contradictory, are designed to mislead customers. To determine whether or not a review is legitimate, you need to ask yourself these questions:
- Is it written by a real person?
- Does it offer helpful tips or insights?
- Does it discuss the pros and cons of the product or service in a balanced way?
- Is it transparent about the author’s affiliation?
If you can answer yes to all of these questions, then you can likely find a reputable source that will provide you with valuable information. On the other hand, if you are unsure of a particular review, it may be best to approach it with a healthy dose of skepticism. Remember: the internet is a vast and often shady place. So, you can never fully trust what you read unless you know where it came from. Moreover, if a business owner or legal representative requests that their identity be kept confidential, you should honor their wishes. Doing so may be the key to gaining their trust as a legitimate business entity.
Make Sure You Have A Plan B
Reviews can be a fickle and inconsistent thing. This is why you need to have a plan B. This might mean simply having another channel or platform where you can promote your product or service, or it could involve finding a different kind of audience. There are many different review sites and social media platforms, and it can be difficult to find an audience that aligns perfectly with your product or service. So, while it is always good to have reviews for your business, you must be ready to adapt and change with the times.