Please don’t do it.
I have clients who signed up to paid review management software – Trustpilot or Feefo being two examples that spring to mind, but I’m not naming anyone in particular – there are loads of available options. I’d also like to say that these types of platforms can be useful for larger businesses when used in the correct way, but they aren’t helpful for a small, local business.
My life learned experience as a marketing professional of over 12 years is this…
They suck you in:
You sign up (often for free at first), collect a good number of reviews on their platform. You will be told that their platform boosts your website in search engines, and they have a review invite system to make your life easier. They will have fancy widgets that integrate into your website and social media to show off your reviews.
This is all great for a year or so and you think you’re onto a winner.
Then they bleed you dry:
After your business has a good number of reviews on their platform, they will up their prices significantly and say if you don’t commit to their product that you can’t use the reviews in your marketing because they own them!
Basically, if you want to use these reviews to sell your product or service then you must keep paying them. They continue to up their prices year on year basically holding you over a barrel!
The solution:
Stick to Google reviews! Collecting reviews on Google is currently completely FREE.
Do you know what else is great? 85% of searches are carried out on Google over other search engines. Unsurprisingly, Google favour their own reviews in terms of ranking you higher in searches than third-party reviews.
I’m not saying reviews on these third-party platforms are useless, it’s just that collecting them on Google is so much more valuable to your business.
By collecting Google reviews for free, you are helping your business appear higher in Google search results.
How do I collect Google reviews?
If you haven’t done so already, you need to set up and verify your Business Profile in Google. You can then create an invite link to share with your customers. Once you’re set up it’s super easy to achieve a good amount of reviews!
Need help? We’d be delighted to kickstart your journey to becoming a Google reviews guru! Just get in touch for a chat.
