What are they, online reviews of the future: the main trends

Today, a wide range of marketing tools are used to promote products, services and businesses in general. But no matter how hard specialists try to attract the attention of the target audience to your products and encourage them to place an order, in many cases, customer reviews still have a decisive influence. The vast majority of people study them before making a purchase in an online store or ordering a certain service. The presence of reviews in a business profile is an indicator of its work in the market.

The whole secret here is that buyers are used to trusting real people more than business representatives who advertise themselves. In reviews, they are looking for confirmation that their experience with the brand will be positive, as well as that of people who have interacted with this company before. But recently, trends in this niche have undergone a number of changes. Consumer behavior is evolving. They are no longer as fixated on ideal ratings as before. Practice shows that the presence of negative feedback will alienate potential customers less than their complete absence. In addition, alternative platforms have increasingly been used to search for information, rather than classic review sites. And the audience is now ready to leave reviews more often, it will be enough to slightly nudge them to do so.

Now we will dwell in more detail on the benefits of reviews for business. We will get acquainted with the main types of user responses. We will talk about which way the trend has changed regarding reviews among the target audience and tell you how you can encourage people to publish them after interacting with your company. Let's look at platforms that are ideal for posting reviews and are very popular with the audience today and this trend will continue in the foreseeable future. We will provide a number of practical recommendations that will help you develop effective marketing strategies aimed at business development.

The benefits of reviews for business

Before delving into this issue in more detail, you need to understand how important a role reviews will play in your business. The first thing to understand is that reviews are important not only for people looking for certain products or services, but also for the owner of the company. You need to take into account the opinion of the audience in order to understand how satisfied they are with their cooperation with you, what they appreciated, and what aspects, on the contrary, caused a negative reaction.

By and large, you should regard reviews as a way to:

• Increase loyalty from the target audience. The presence of reviews from real buyers in the information space has a positive effect on building trust in your brand. By and large, this rule will be relevant even in the offline environment, and in the case of online representations, even more so. The fact is that buyers of online stores and services cannot personally verify the quality of the goods and services provided before directly receiving an order. They get their first user experience by studying the opinions of other customers who have already interacted with this company. That is, after studying the reviews, a person will contact you already knowingly confident in the quality of the product.
• Increasing the level of trust. Relevant in comparison with the closest competitors, about whom there are no reviews on the network. The presence of feedback from the audience is an indicator that the company is actively working in the market, selling goods and services. It will also indicate the quality of the products, competitive price, decent level of service. All this becomes the basis for building trust even before an order is placed on the site.
• Reducing the workload of the company's managers. If you study the product cards, descriptions of services, which are presented on different sites, you can see that not all of them contain the most detailed and comprehensive information. As a result, a person who is interested in a particular product is forced to contact managers for additional consultations, clarification of details. But if you study the reviews, especially detailed ones, then some of these questions will turn out to be irrelevant. Buyers often reveal in their responses the whole "ins and outs" of the product: the features of its purchase and many such nuances that the brand may keep silent about, including deliberately. In addition, many services with reviews allow you to ask questions and receive answers from those who have already interacted with the company.
• Increasing organic traffic. Reviews are one of the most powerful tools in the arsenal of an SEO specialist. Each such publication is a unique author's content, while the description of the product cards themselves can be duplicated on different sites. Search bots are able to identify such pages, add them to the index, which will automatically contribute to an increase in traffic. In most cases, promotion is carried out by low-frequency queries. Most users in their review necessarily indicate the name of the product, its manufacturer or store name, as well as the word "review" or "overview". But promotion by low-frequency keywords is the most effective. In addition, users must spend time studying reviews. This means that the time they spend on the site will increase, which will also be noted by search bots.
• Improving brand reputation. It is a fact that people trust familiar products more. This applies to both the product itself and the manufacturer or store that sells it. In the event that there was no personal acquaintance, then users will pay attention to the opinions of many others. If your business has many good reviews online, then this is guaranteed to increase the level of trust even for those people who have not yet interacted with you. In addition, frequent mentions of the brand, store, product will allow you to constantly remain on everyone's lips, attracting more and more customers.

As you can see, having reviews is important for any business that plans to develop, especially in the online space - where a person cannot come to a physical store and evaluate the product in person before purchasing.

Review formats used today

Today, there are 3 main types of reviews on the Internet:

1. Text. This is a classic written display of user opinion. Until recently, they were the most common. They can be left by absolutely anyone, without resorting to third-party tools, without spending too much time. But gradually text reviews are losing their relevance: people prefer more convenient visual options.
2. Photo reviews. It is assumed that a person who received a product or used a service will take several photos and post them as a feedback. Often they are supplemented with a short text accompaniment. Photo reviews are highly visual and allow you to demonstrate small details of the product. Moreover, with their help, a business gets unique photos of its products, which can be considered an additional bonus. However, the process of uploading such photos to a particular site will require more time and skills compared to text responses.
3. Video reviews. This is the option that is breaking popularity records today. It allows you to express your own opinion about the product, to demonstrate it literally from all sides. And all this in a matter of seconds. The effectiveness of such reviews is very high, since users really like this format, they believe in the reliability of the information. But again, such a video needs to be filmed, edited, and time spent on posting it. That is, the labor intensity of its creation will be quite high, at least in comparison with the text version.

Let us repeat that despite their simplicity, text reviews are gradually becoming a thing of the past. They are being replaced by more advanced solutions, namely photo and video formats.

How much has the attitude of users towards reviews changed recently?

Today, there are a huge number of business areas, but literally only a few of them can boast stability in terms of trends and working strategies. The world around us is constantly changing. New technologies and trends appear, interests and preferences change. And all this is important to take into account in order to remain customer-oriented and attract an audience. Among other things, user reviews have recently received a significant share of dynamism.

So, today they still play a very important role in business development, but the audience's approach to them has undergone a number of significant changes. Here are the main points to pay attention to:

• People have become less trusting of companies with 100% positive feedback rates. They believe that such reviews are written to order and highlight only the strong side of the brand, keeping silent about the negative. And in many ways they are right, since it is impossible to imagine that absolutely all people with their different characters and preferences will be satisfied with cooperation with one company. At least some flaws, but in reality they will definitely be. And if a person does not write a positive review, he will definitely express his dissatisfaction. But even if there are negative opinions, people will always appreciate their objectivity, look at how business representatives tried to resolve such a situation.
• Less attention has been paid to the "freshness" of reviews. Nowadays, users evaluate the overall picture more, try to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the brand, pay attention not to momentary shifts, but work through the responses more globally.
• Video reviews generate more views and feedback. We have already talked about how they are gradually replacing text versions. The audience also responds well to photo reviews. They also inspire more trust than faceless text descriptions.

Although a number of trends have changed here, the importance of reviews for business remains at a very high level. And this means that you need to interact with your audience and encourage them to express their own opinion.

Encouraging consumers to leave a call

You shouldn't wait until one or another client of your business decides to leave a review of their cooperation with you on their own initiative. Modern users have begun to value their time more. Research shows that under certain circumstances, every second buyer of goods and services is ready to leave feedback about their cooperation. And this means that you need to interest people, stimulate them to post reviews. And here are several options for motivation:

1. Ask. Quite often, we take something good and positive for granted and do not think that we should thank for it. Therefore, it is in your interests to engage in subsequent interaction with your buyer, customer and ask them to leave a review. You can do this during communication with managers or a courier, through email newsletter or SMS message, indicating a link to the page where reviews can be posted. You can also start active communication in social networks, instant messengers. You can also include a leaflet with a QR code in the product packaging that leads to a page with reviews. Using such methods, you will let the user know that their feedback is important to you.
2. Provide a bonus program. This is the most effective way to get feedback. That is, you need to provide the buyer with some kind of gift in response to their feedback. These can be bonus points, cashback, an additional discount on the next purchase, or a small gift. The main thing here is to discuss all the details in advance. That is, the person must understand that he will benefit if he writes a review. This is a fairly good motivation to spend some time and prepare a response. By and large, in this case, you offer material value literally for the time spent. Moreover, here, with a high degree of probability, the number of positive reviews will be greater, and minor negative ones will be missed.
3. Provoke positive emotions. If you manage to "hook" your buyer, then with a high degree of probability he will leave a review about your cooperation. But this method of motivation will require a lot of creativity from you, an extraordinary approach to implementation. And here it is very important to take into account the portrait of the target audience or its separate segment. That is, you need to come up with something that will guarantee the buyer not only the expected effect, but also something additional, extraordinary. Something that will cause a sincere desire to share with other people. The problem is that in the case of negative reviews, strong emotions arise on their own. If a person did not like something, then he literally burns with the desire to inform absolutely everyone about it. This is exactly the effect you need to achieve, but with positive emotions. Think about what in your assortment there is that will contribute to the emotional push of the buyer to write a review. And this does not necessarily have to be something material. Alternatively, you can move the service to a new level, improve the service as a whole. An unexpected “pleasantness” will most likely lift the mood and will contribute to the fact that the person will want to do something nice in return and to you
4. Launch a giveaway among people who left a review about you. That is, in this case, you reward people who voluntarily left a response about your interaction. But at the same time, you will also stimulate them to write new reviews, since such promotions can be launched more than once. But again, the reward should be significant enough. Such that people will appreciate it and interact with your business absolutely voluntarily. It is optimal to launch such promotions with a certain frequency. This way you will keep your audience in good shape, stimulating them to create more and more new reviews.
5. Launch a competition for the best review. We would like to draw your attention to the fact that in this case the prize should be significant enough. Such that a large number of people would want to compete for it. In this case, excitement will act as a motivator, which in itself increases the chances of attracting a large number of people. Here you will need to launch a competition in which buyers will share their impressions of cooperation with you, your products, services. The process of choosing the winner should be as transparent as possible, as well as the awarding of the prize. That is, this way you can show that you keep your word. And if the prize seems significant, then the next such competition will have even more participants. And this means that the volume of responses on the network about your business will increase.
6. Launch news hooks. Practice shows that people are more active in sharing their own experience after they see something suitable on the online space. Here they will have a desire to add something, express their own opinion. This trend is especially evident in social networks. People come here not only to chat, but also to share their experience. To stimulate the audience, actively work with your platforms, publish your own news here, talk about partner products, launch announcements of future events and activities. As a result, many user responses will appear under such posts and materials.
7. Order testing of a product or service. Most businesses turn to influencers to implement such ideas, relying on their audience. But this is not a mandatory rule. You can make a similar request to any person who has already made a purchase from you, ideally several times. That is, you need someone who already understands the specifics of your business a little, is familiar with the products. He can perform a comparative analysis and provide the most detailed report. In this case, a mandatory condition will be the free provision of goods or services. This is a kind of payment for the subsequent work of this person and his assessment. But in this case, it is very important to choose the right contractor. Alternatively, if you sell accessories for confectioners, you need to contact a person who is a confectioner himself, and not someone who bought a baking pan from you once and then as a gift. That is, you need to find a buyer who will understand what we are talking about and what needs to be said. But still, having experience of interacting with your company, and repeatedly, is always a priority.

Most businesses need to combine these options, adapting to the characteristics of the audience, current events. Thanks to this diversity, your requests for reviews will not look too intrusive, and people will be more interested in interacting with you, which will be the key to a successful strategy. That is, it is important for you to understand that modern buyers are ready to contact a business, leave reviews. But they need to be asked about it: directly or natively.

Review platforms that users prefer

By and large, almost every business has the ability to leave reviews directly on the company's official website. Many buyers do this. After collaborating with the brand, they write a review and leave it on this resource. But such responses are not very well received by outside audiences. They often perceive them as purchased and classify them as those that do not inspire confidence. If you want your brand to be mentioned as much as possible online, you should take care of posting reviews on the following services and platforms:

• Irecommend, Otzovik, Yelp. In this case, we are talking about sites dedicated to collecting reviews. They are often called review sites. Today, there are a huge number of responses to all kinds of products, services, and companies. Most of these are text reviews that are supplemented with product photos. Particular attention is paid to the uniqueness of the content. In particular, the Irecommend and Otzovik platforms offer the opportunity to monetize reviews and receive a reward for each view by other users. There is also a special referral program here, which involves receiving bonuses for distributing user links, a discount, or a bonus reward. The overall rating of a particular product here will be formed depending on the overall assessment of everyone who leaves their response. The good thing is that these platforms are moderated. This means that only verified and good reviews are published. Among other things, it is allowed to publish so-called "sponsored" reviews. For users, this is a unique opportunity to increase their earnings and get a good amount in addition to monetization. But in any case, such responses are always marked accordingly. A distinctive feature of the Yelp platform is that companies can add information about themselves here. This can be a work schedule, a price list for goods or services, various photos. All this will be included in the database, which is subsequently used to search and select options relevant to user queries. In principle, this platform can be classified as a service that helps businesses advance in the market and occupy high positions in search results for target queries.

• Yandex Maps. A service that is actively gaining popularity today in the environment of search and information portals. It operates in different languages, covers a huge number of options for companies, institutions, stores. It is a fairly developed and multifunctional platform, among other things, allowing you to receive real-time information about traffic jams, track traffic, and plot routes. Among other things, it is also possible to publish reviews of the places you have visited, as well as the companies you have interacted with. Today, the Yandex search engine necessarily takes into account the company's rating, marked on its maps, as one of the key ranking factors. That is, the higher your business's rating here, the higher the positions your brand's official website will occupy in the search results.
• Google Maps. This is a kind of analogue of the previous version, but now it has a link to the search engine Google. They combine a fairly impressive set of applications that were created on the basis of a free mapping service created by the same corporation. Here you can find various information on the map. There are marks of organizations, municipal, government agencies, attractions, retail outlets. Businesses can add their personal content, pictures, videos here. And of course, user reviews are also present here. As in the case of Yandex, the platform allows you to publish text responses and add video and photo materials to them. The company rating here is also taken into account by the search engine as one of the ranking factors. That is, it is in the interests of the business to ensure that users post their reviews about them directly on such a platform. This way, you significantly increase your chances of promoting the site to the top of search results.
• Social networks. The person who invented such platforms can rightfully be called a genius. He managed to create a universal product for communication, promotion of goods, services, attracting an audience and performing a fairly wide range of related work. Among other interactions, you can also post reviews about a particular company, share your own experience of working with a particular business. Classic text responses are practically not used here: the emphasis is on video and photo formats. This solution causes an excellent feedback from the audience, increases the level of trust. But in this case, it is very important to provide for the placement of responses on those platforms where your target audience is most widely represented. Otherwise, you will not get the desired effect, since the reviews will go unnoticed by your potential buyers. The most popular social networks among the audience today are Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, VKontakte.
• Video hosting. In this case, we are talking directly about video reviews that are posted on YouTube. Today, you can find a lot of materials on a variety of topics here. Most of these are also not classic reviews, but a full analysis of a product or service. We have already mentioned above that in order to stimulate the audience to prepare responses, a business can ask buyers to test their products and prepare a thorough review. It is these materials that make up the majority of the reviews presented on this video hosting. Within the framework of a short video, buyers are able to describe products or services in as much detail as possible, highlight their competitive advantages and features. Viewers also liked this format, as they will be able to evaluate the prospects of interaction with this business for themselves during viewing.

We would like to draw attention to the fact that Irecommend, Otzovik, Yelp and other similar platforms are gradually losing their relevance in the market, their demand is gradually decreasing. This is largely due to the fact that users are moving away from text reviews, giving preference to more advanced and technological solutions, which we also discussed above. Therefore, think about whether you should spend your time and effort on posting reviews about your company directly in review sites.

In parallel with this, the audience is showing an increase in trust in video content. Users believe that in this format it is possible to convey real experience. This is why reviews on YouTube and social networks are gaining popularity, providing an objective display of the company. Trust in responses on Google Maps and Yandex Maps also remains at a high level. This is what guarantees the verified experience of other people and allows you to make the most informed and appropriate decision.

Additional recommendations for marketers

Despite all the changes that have occurred recently in terms of reviews, user feedback still plays an important role in promoting products, services and business in general. To help companies adapt to the latest trends and user preferences, use the following recommendations:

• Launch different online representations of your business. Ideally, you should be present wherever your target audience is. Do not forget about the opportunities that Yandex Maps, Google Maps, Yelp offer modern companies. Focus on the social networks that your target audience uses, encourage users to record video reviews for subsequent posting on YouTube.
• Take your work with consumers to a new level. You should be interested in more than just the rating and the scores they give after interacting with you. Here, it is important to establish effective relationships, to show that you care about people's opinions, that you want to develop your business, to make it as convenient and profitable as possible for the consumer.
• Maintain your own reputation, interact with customers at the local level. Google Business Profile can be of great help in this. In any case, it is important for you to show yourself as a professional in your field, as well as a loyal supplier, which puts the priorities of customers, if not higher, then at least not lower than their own preferences.
• Follow the latest trends in the review niche. It is important to understand that this eco-environment is unstable, as is the market as a whole. And here it is important to monitor even the slightest changes and adjust your own business to them. This is the only way you will be able to ensure the most effective interaction with the target audience, encourage people to leave reviews after interacting with your business.
• Remember that your reputation is not only high-quality products. It is also how effectively you manage to interact with the audience, promptly respond to their requests, comments, smooth out negativity, controversial issues. And it is also important that all these points are reflected in the reviews. This way you can show potential buyers that you are ready to compromise, can take their side even to the detriment of your business.

And again, we repeat: do not hesitate to ask your buyer to leave a review of your cooperation. If people have a positive experience of interacting with your company, then they are ready to write a response. The main thing is to properly encourage them to do this.

Let's sum it up

Classic "star" ratings, text reviews, assessments - this is what is gradually losing its relevance. They are being replaced by more flexible, meaningful and visually confirmed formats. And if you want to effectively develop and advance in the modern market, then it is imperative to adapt to all these trends. Today, it is important to establish new channels of communication with the audience, encourage them to provide feedback, ask them to provide evidence of real experience of interaction with your brand through social networks, video hosting sites and other platforms.

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