There has been a lot of recent talk about how important reviews are to consumers, but limited quantifiable data to support these anecdotal claims. In this article, Ill like to start talking numbers and share some of interesting data to help reinforce the critical importance of review collection and associated word-of-mouth marketing in 2013.
The data is based on a DealerRater-commissioned blind sampling of 3,500 dealers nationwide to look at review counts and penetration of reviews on the most notable third-party review sites. Note: this sampling was done following the August 2012 scrub of Google reviews. In summary:
Google + Cars.com + YELP + Edmunds + Yahoo! Local = 74,000 reviews
DealerRater = 79,000 reviews
Why do these numbers prove to be so interesting?
Keep reading as Ryan Leslie, Director of Reputation Strategy at DealerRater explains.