This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

6 Ways To Get Rave Online Reviews For Your Business

Online reviews sites can drive local traffic and sales to your Tucker business

Local review sites have made a big splash in the last five years. Having your site reviewed is increasingly important because it can help drive qualified customers to your business. Studies are showing that people increasingly look at local reviews and are highly influenced by what they see there. This shouldn't be a big surprise because local online reviews are actually a form of word-of-mouth local business marketing.

Just like word-of-mouth in town, it's important to keep track of what is being said about your business and to join the conversation.

Recent research from Harris Interactive study shows that consumers aren’t afraid to express their frustrations with businesses on the Internet. Almost half of Internet users feel they can be “brutally honest” online, and over a quarter of social media users are likely to “share dissatisfaction with a company, brand or product via social media.

Find out what's happening in Tuckerwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

You can monitor your online reputation by creating a Google alert with your business name. This will send you an e-mail every time something is written about your business online, giving you the opportunity to view it and respond if necessary. Having positive reviews from real customers can be a great bonus to your local business. So it's important to encourage happy customers to leave reviews and to engage with unhappy reviewers in a positive way. Here are six ways to get rave online reviews about your local business.

Statistics are from a 2010 local review survey by BrightLocal.

Find out what's happening in Tuckerwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

1. Ask for them

70% of people have used the internet to find a local business in the last 12 months.

This might seem elementary, but the easiest way to get reviews for your business online is to ask for them. Think about printing a small flyer that you can insert into their package along with their receipt, inviting them to give a review of your business online. When you thank them for their purchase, invite them personally to leave a review on a specific website. Also, take the time to thank people for their reviews; this shows you're paying attention and that you care.

2. Offer incentives but don't bribe

67% of US consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations

Incentives are a great way to get customer reviews. However, it is important that you don't bribe people to give you positive reviews. This can be accomplished by giving coupons to those who provide feedback or by holding a contest for everyone who left feedback within a certain time. Remember to ask for honest testimonials with no stipulations. This will actually encourage more positive feedback and will be more believable to the people reading them.

3. Make it easy to leave reviews

Along with asking for customer reviews, it's important that you make it easy for people to do so. Set up a hot link to a review sites in any newsletters you send out. Add a hotlink to review sites in your e-mail signature, the back of your business card or at the bottom of your cash register or credit card receipts. You can also try setting up a laptop that people can use to leave reviews for your business while they're waiting for something else.

11% of people aged 16-34 use the internet almost every day to find a local business;

Encourage happy customers to use their smart phones to log in and leave reviews on the spot. Use real-life testimonials to jumpstart your business reviews online. Just make sure they are not fabricated and you have permission to do so.

4. Explain the process

Even though many people have looked at product reviews, some people might not have actually given one before and need a little instruction on how to do so. In this case, it's worth writing up a short “how-to” that tells them how to add a review to a specific site like Google Places or Citysearch. A step-by-step instruction guide will increase the number of customer reviews you receive. You can post this how-to guide on your website, your blog or on the flyers you hand out.

58% of consumers trust a local business more having read positive online reviews

Give hints on creating a good review by getting them to complete the sentence, fill in the blank or by sharing examples. Encourage honest feedback, always.

5. Give reviews

Give reviews to other businesses in your area. Work with other nearby businesses to create a review network where you all encourage local customers to give reviews on the same site. Every quarter choose a new review site to promote. Pick a weekend and have a local address review party where you have computers available for customers to log in and leave reviews, and where you encourage them to use their smart phones to leave reviews for businesses in a particular local geographic area.

Only 75% of women have used the internet to find a local business vs. 81% of men. Having used the internet once to find a business, most local consumers go on to use it more frequently.

This has a very positive, beneficial side effect in that it helps link your business to specific geographic area which will boost your local search engine optimization naturally.

6. Listen to what your customers are saying

Use customer review sites as a way to listen to what your customers might not be willing to say to your face. Not only will your customers tell you how your business can improve, they might be telling you what you're doing right that you can then leverage. An example would be a local chiropractor that gives good nutritional advice.

67% of local consumers have consulted online customer reviews of local businesses

Positive customer reviews that mention this could lead you to create a small pamphlet or downloadable program on nutritional tips. Many of the most positive aspects come naturally to small local businesses making it easy to overlook or minimize them. Customer reviews can point them out so you can accentuate the positive and attract more local customers.

Local Business review sites

Local review sites are a fact of life for local businesses. If you plan on staying in business it's important to create an internet marketing strategy that will allow you to generate positive online reviews for your business. This can be as simple as remembering to ask for their review and the cash register or adding a link to the bottom of your newsletter.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?