Make sure the positive reviews of your business can be found beyond your own website and social media.
Social proof marketing is one of the most influential forms of marketing being deployed by many different businesses across social media and online directory platforms. While traditional paid advertising and other methods still play a role in well-rounded marketing strategies, trends across social media platforms have marketers increasingly leveraging the psychological need in consumers to consult with various communities to make purchasing decisions. There are several primary channels for social proof marketing, but the overall method relies heavily on garnering positive reviews and testimonials while actively mitigating negative reviews directly with clients. This presents potential customers with a landscape of information from peers and existing clients that positions your brand in a positive light and inspires purchasing behavior.
Managing your online reviews supports your efforts. Reaching beyond your own website and social media is an important strategy in social proof marketing, and doing so allows your brand to diversify and expand the range of reviews across other platforms in order to give more weight to what customers are saying about your business. It also helps to build your reputation on sites where you don’t have an active presence but potential clients might be seeking out B2B opportunities in your specific niche.
Why Should Cultivating Online Reviews Be a Driving Strategy for Your Brand?
The power of Google’s search engine platform in consumer behavior cannot be denied, and much of that influence revolves around the platform’s business listings and reviews. Google and its subsidiary YouTube consistently rank as the top originating source for all internet search activity, with recent years placing the percentage well over 90% of total search traffic being routed through the search engine powerhouse. When it comes to local search for products or services, 63% of consumers’ Google’s traffic is focused on online reviews.
It’s important to remember that everything Google’s platform does is based on significant data relative to user behavior and interaction. Other studies support this need to focus on the important role that reviews play in consumer behavior, with Hubspot research revealing that 85% of consumers are influenced by reviews just as strongly as they might be by the personal recommendations of friends or family.
While consumers are focused on reviews in their decision-making, leaving reviews isn’t always something they are inspired to do, regardless of how great an experience they’ve had with your company. That’s where creating a comprehensive review generation strategy will benefit your brand in the search engine performance arena. Part of that strategy should be working to expand consumer review behavior beyond Google and over to relevant B2B platforms where potential clients are being guided by other types of search behavior.
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Marketplace Platforms Like UpCity Legitimize Your Reviews
Rather than focus your review generation efforts on a small number of platforms that all fall under your online real estate umbrella, it’s important to invite and build up reviews on industry niche platforms relevant to your organization. That’s because consumers don’t just look at one resource or one review—studies show that more than 67% of consumers will view at least one and as many as six reviews before making a decision, with 23% viewing between 7 and 10 reviews in the lead up to making a buying decision. Consumers clearly want to be well informed and ensure their choice is in line with customers that came before them.
For B2B service providers, UpCity is a perfect platform where you can focus your efforts and see real results. And because you’re building reviews from a community focused on growing and maintaining B2B relationships, the reviews that you receive on the UpCity platform will carry significant weight with businesses that might be looking for the types of services you offer in a place where they know from their own experience that reviews can be trusted and followed through on with little worry of a negative experience. And whether a customer’s experience with you is good or bad, you can quickly see and engage easily with reviewers through the web-based portal.
Platforms like UpCity are important because they provide your brand with depth and show consumers on that platform that you align with similar principles and have business practices that meet the B2B community’s expectations. You can accomplish the same thing across other industry-specific directories, as long as you task your marketing team or marketing support partner with timely and meaningful follow-up engagement with all reviews.
Improve Your Reputation On UpCity and Show Potential Clients What They’re Missing
Whether you’re looking to improve a damaged online reputation or build up and expand consumer reviews, the UpCity platform is a great place for B2B service providers to make an immediate impact. The one-stop-shop interface allows users to see reviews and easily engage with clients to handle any service concerns or respond to praise. Over a period of time during which you’re focusing on building reviews, you’re also building up and solidifying your brand in other ways through UpCity’s insights platform and network of fellow providers. It all equates to further establishing your business as a trusted partner and driving more sales to your bottom line.