Are you on a hunt for generating customer reviews, but have no idea where to start? Customer reviews are an important part of building your online brand and showcasing your products’ quality. It’s something that customers rely on to make buying decisions, so they can be the difference between getting a sale and losing out to the competition.
Don’t think people pay attention to customer reviews? Well, 49% of consumers share that they feel customer reviews are as reliable as an opinion from a trusted friend. This indicates they are trustworthy and worth the effort to acquire. Read onwards to learn more about the best 5 strategies for generating customer reviews.
1. Offer Free Samples With Your Products
When shipping products to customers, consider adding free samples that the target buyer will find handy. They will be happy with the extra gift and may in return leave a review at a higher rate. You can test this theory by comparing the reviews rate left for products you send with samples and without.
Furthermore, the cost of the samples will pay for themselves in the form of generating more revenue from the reviews. You can also test the ROI of this marketing strategy by using CRM and marketing software.
Also, buyers might be more likely to leave a positive product review because they feel the appreciation of receiving the sample. But don’t make the mistake of suggesting buyers should leave a positive review. They should feel no pressure to leave an honest opinion that other customers can trust.
2. Ask For a Review
This might sound like a simple strategy, but it actually works. By asking for reviews, you’ll receive more of them, which doesn’t take much work. However, you should know how to ask for a review to get the best results.
An email campaign is one of the best strategies because you can send multiple messages after the sale has been completed. Also, you can acquire emails with every sale because it’s a required component of online shopping.
Finally, there is no need to send manual messages asking for a customer review. Instead, create an automated email sequence that asks for the review at intervals. Give the customer a few days to use the product and ask for the review 2-3 days after the sale. Then, you could ask a few more times in the following 2 weeks before giving up.
3. Ask With the Right Tone
The way you ask for a product review will determine the likelihood of customers leaving one. Don’t have a formal business-like tone since that will not motivate customers to leave reviews at a higher rate.
Instead, ask for the product review nicely and empathize how much it helps your business. Also, you can add humor to the message or other tone that stays with the brand. For instance, if you have a fitness brand that has an energetic tone, then ask for the review in the same manner. The tone consistency will be noticed by customers and possibly appreciated enough to leave a product review.
Still not sure what tone to strike? Then do some competitor research and pay attention to the way other brands ask for a review. You can get inspiration from their style and incorporate the ideas into your own messaging.
4. Incentivize Leaving Reviews
You could provide a reward for customers that decide to leave a review. This usually skyrockets the review rate and there are many options for what you can provide as the reward. Here are a few options to consider:
- Samples: you could offer free samples for offering reviews with their next order. This is a good strategy because you also increase the chances of securing another sale. That’s because customers will want the extra value of receiving the free sample. Make sure the free sample matches the target customer since it needs to motivate the buyers to leave a review.
- Discounts: you could offer a discount on the next purchase if the customer leaves a review. This is especially effective for high ROI products and services, where offering a discount doesn’t significantly hurt profitability. Many brands offer discounts of 10-15% for leaving a review, and the figure could be higher for digital products.
- Free features: do you sell digital services such as cloud storage? Then you could offer customers that leave a review with extra services. In our cloud storage example, the customer that leaves a review could receive 10% extra storage space. This is a strong incentive that will shoot your customer review rate through the roof.
5. Make Extra Questions Optional
The minimum amount of information a customer should have to enter when leaving a review is the star total out of a possible 5. Any other questions you want to ask customers should be optional.
Otherwise, if the review submission process is too long, then customers will get frustrated or bored and leave the process. After all, customers are not required to leave a product review.
Also, it’s a good idea to provide multiple-choice questions or make the question short and to the point. This ensures that you receive the highest response rate for longer reviews.
Final Thoughts
The effort put into generating reviews is an important part of any online business. It’s a slow burn, but over time you’ll acquire a long list of reviews and your target audience will take notice. The biggest websites on the internet has a review system that’s easy for customers to inspect.
Also, it’s important to generate reviews on different areas of the internet. This includes various e-commerce platforms, review websites like Trustpilot, and your own official website. That’s because you need to build a brand across the internet.
The tips in this article contribute to a winning strategy that will lead to more sales, and customers will have a better idea of what to expect from your products. After all, product reviews are there to inform customers and set realistic expectations.
