As marketers, we are always looking for ways to improve our conversion rates. And while there are a number of factors that can impact conversions, one that is often overlooked is ratings. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at how ratings can affect conversions in the senior living industry, and what you can do to ensure your Google listing has the best possible ratings. So if you’re interested in learning more about this important topic, keep reading!
The power of reviews and ratings is undeniable. When consumers are looking for a local business, it’s not just your imagination: there really are more people turning their attention towards social media or search engines when they need something specific than ever before. Studies show that over 90% of consumers search locally before purchasing and that reviews not only influence what they find when searching, but reviews are the single biggest influence on purchase decisions.
What is the impact on the bottom line for businesses?
- Harvard Business Review explored the impact on ratings and revenue in the restaurant industry and found that a one-star increase in Yelp rating leads to a 5-9 percent increase in revenue,
- With our partner MARC USA, we performed a study that showed that for a large regional auto service dealer each ½ -star change in Google rating had a ~$60K per location impact on annual profit at that location.
- Uberall studied over 60,000 businesses across a variety of consumer service industries and found a clear link between higher Google star ratings and better conversion rates. If businesses want to achieve real sustainable growth for their brand and increase revenue across all of their locations,they need to improve their review star rating to at least 4.4 stars.There is less competition at this mark and this is where conversion rates start to dramatically increase
How does this apply to the Senior Living industry? Communities with high Google ratings see more organic lead conversions than those that don’t. Looking at data for over 10,000 move-ins across 200+ senior living communities we found a strong correlation between the Google rating for a community and the percentage of move-ins that came to the website via Google. These residents are important because they have lower costs than those coming through lead aggregators or generated via more traditional forms of marketing efforts. What does this mean for your senior community? It could be the difference between success and failure as you strive towards meeting goals!
Our research showed that website conversions increased by 10% when the ratings moved from under 4 to between 4 and 4.5, with an even more drastic 20% improvement in communities rated at least 4.5 stars!.
If you’re looking to increase your conversion rates, it’s important to focus on getting good ratings from your residents, families and partners. To help understand how the reputation of each community in your network is doing, we audit all of your locations to deliver a detailed report of where you stand with your current ratings and what you can do to improve them. Contact us today to get your free audit.