With the world trusting online reviews, it’s now time all small businesses equip their websites with a smart, low-cost review tool that will help them survive and thrive. A study shows 92% of consumers read online reviews of local businesses, but only around 5% of businesses have customer reviews on their own websites.
There’s excitement among the founders of InnovaReviews as the latest version of the review publishing platform launches. They believe they have a unique service that could help 110 million+ small businesses worldwide grow.
Small businesses lose out to big brands that have established a level of trust and reputation with the consumer. This familiarity is usually created through multi-million dollar marketing campaigns – great if you can afford it, but someone running a hair salon, a local bicycle shop or car dealership, probably doesn’t have a huge advertising budget. Another tool big brands use to drive sales are their sophisticated websites, full of features, such as online reviews, to hook the buyer.
Helping small businesses step up to big brands
Paul Lupson, co-founder of InnovaReviews knows these revenue boosting features well, having spent many years actually designing them for well known companies like Expedia, Wotif and PwC.
He says “at Expedia and Wotif, having lots of positive guest reviews is critical for selling hotel rooms. Reviews are one of the top pieces of information customers look for. So if reviews are so useful to convince people to reserve hotels, then why not apply the same logic to other types of businesses to help them grow? Why don’t more local shops, online sellers, service providers and tradies have reviews from their customers on their websites?”
88% of people trust online reviews as much as word of mouth recommendations – more than slick advertising or other forms of marketing. It’s now possible to have business reviews on Google or Facebook, but reviews embedded in the business’ own website capture the attention of the customer, they help build trust at the critical point of purchase, next to the buy button or phone number of the business.
Lupson, along with wife and marketing expert Silvina Flores, and former colleagues Aert van de Hulsbeek, a senior engineer at PwC and Jason Corbett, design supremo at Wotif, have created a tool that enables business owners to easily collect, moderate and publish customer reviews right on the homepage of their own website.
InnovaReviews converts what is a difficult, time consuming and expensive operation into a slick process, at low cost. For only $8 AUD per month, a massive 90% cheaper than any similar tool, the service is affordable to all businesses. After a 5 minute setup, a ‘Review tab’ appears in the corner of the business owner’s website. It expands elegantly to display reviews from previous customers. InnovaReviews offer a free 30 day trial.
