Are you struggling to drive sales and boost your bottom line? Are traditional digital advertising methods failing to deliver the results you need?
Then it’s time to consider reviews.
User-generated content (UGC) i.e., social proof including customer reviews, is 35% more memorable and 50% more trusted than other types of media. If you aren’t using them, you could be missing out on valuable sales opportunities.
You should combine these with channels like email, SMS, and web push messages for maximum effect. By adding user-generated content, like customer reviews, to your marketing strategy, you can tap into a great way to drive sales and grow your business.
What is review marketing?
Review marketing has evolved from traditional word-of-mouth, leveraging the power of online reviews to influence consumer decisions and drive business growth. In today’s digital age, customers rely heavily on the experiences and opinions shared by others before making a purchase.
The impact of online reviews is significant:
1. Positive reviews build brand trust and credibility, leading to increased sales.
2. Negative reviews can deter potential customers and damage a brand’s reputation.
The rise of review marketing can be attributed to several factors:
- The proliferation of online review platforms, such as Google, Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Amazon, has made it easier for consumers to access and share their experiences
- The increasing use of mobile devices has enabled customers to read and write reviews on-the-go, making the process more convenient and accessible
- The growing influence of social media has amplified the reach and impact of online reviews, as customers can easily share their opinions with their networks
As the importance of online reviews continues to grow, businesses must adapt their marketing strategies to incorporate review management and optimization. This involves actively monitoring and responding to reviews, encouraging satisfied customers to share their experiences, and using review data to inform business decisions and improve customer satisfaction.
By embracing review marketing, businesses can build trust, attract new customers, and ultimately drive growth in an increasingly competitive digital landscape.
Why is review marketing important for ecommerce?
- Social proof, in the form of customer-generated content like product reviews, ratings, unboxing videos, and social media posts, shows that your brand is trustworthy. Knowing that others have had a great experience with your products sends a powerful signal that a purchase can be made with confidence.
- Reviews are the most common and easiest form of social proof to collect. Asking customers for reviews shows that you value their feedback, makes them feel part of your community, and builds trust. Not only will your efforts result in increased customer loyalty, but their reviews can become valuable marketing assets in their own right!
- Strategically placing selected positive reviews and testimonials throughout your store and marketing messages can give customers the excitement and reassurance they might need to make a purchase.
- Having a large number of reviews significantly affects your brand perception in relation to your competitors. After all, consumers are much more likely to trust a brand or product with 100 reviews over one with just 10.
- With online shopping increasing year after year, the time to start collecting reviews is now. Building a strong foundation of social proof will help your ecommerce business stand out from the competition and attract more customers.
How to collect reviews
To collect and show customer reviews well, you must use multiple marketing channels. This will increase the chance of getting valuable feedback from your customers. Below are some of our favorite channels to use when collecting reviews.
Email marketing: Sending post-purchase emails to customers requesting their feedback and reviews is a powerful strategy. Make sure to include a direct link to the review platform for easy access. Also, you can add a review link to your email signatures. It will be a small but regular reminder for customers to leave reviews.
SMS marketing: This is a more direct approach, allowing you to send personalized text messages to customers after their purchase, asking for their feedback and reviews. Keep the message concise and include a direct link to the review platform for convenience. Also, you can add non-intrusive popups to your website to prompt customers to leave a review. The popups are triggered by specific actions like completing a purchase, spending a certain amount of time on the site, or visiting specific pages.
Product packaging: Don’t forget about product packaging as a way to collect reviews. Include a call-to-action on your packaging, encouraging customers to leave a review. Provide a QR code or a short URL that directs them to the review platform. This will make it easy for them to share their thoughts on your products.
Landing page: A separate landing page for reviews can be effective. This can be a place for customers to leave feedback about your business or services in general.
Tips to collect reviews
- Make the review process as easy as possible for customers by providing direct links and reducing friction
- Explain why you’re asking for a review and how it will help your business — customers like transparency and feeling included
- Consider rewarding customers for a review — it may lead to an early repeat purchase
- Use a good review management tool with easy-to-change review request templates
- Create captivating product review messages to increase engagement
Encourage customers to share their experiences on social media
- Google, Facebook, and Amazon are popular places consumers look for customer reviews
- Each review channel has the power to influence a shopper’s purchase decision
- Staying active and replying to reviews is a key component of a review marketing strategy
- Responding quickly to negative reviews shows that you value feedback and are willing to learn from mistakes
- Have a plan for responding to negative reviews to turn them into positive moments of growth and learning that boost overall brand perception
How to use reviews for effective marketing
So you’ve collected a good amount of positive and informative reviews. Congratulations! Now it’s time to put these valuable examples of social proof to the best use. Consider displaying your best reviews in the following places:
1. Social media: Turn your reviews into engaging social media posts. Use templates, images, and testimonials. Tag the reviewer if possible. These things create a conversation around the review. This is a great way to show off your reviews and reach a larger audience.
2. Email: These are your main revenue makers. They give the highest ROI of any marketing channel. So, your emails are prime real estate for showing off reviews. This assurance could be the nudge new email subscribers or cart abandoners need to buy.
3. Your website: This one is super important because many visitors to your website are coming there for the first time, so you want to start building trust right away. Add positive reviews to key pages, including the homepage, product pages, and checkout. Also, put them anywhere that reassurance and real examples of your product’s usefulness are helpful. And don’t forget to include product reviews in your welcome series messaging.
4. In your advertising: We’ve become saturated with ads, and trust in direct commercial advertising is at an all-time low. People value and trust their peers’ opinions far more. Statistics show that ads with user-generated content get four times higher click rates. Showcase reviews and other social proof in your advertising wherever it is feasible to do so.
Some other creative ways to leverage your reviews:
- Create a dedicated reviews/testimonials page on your website to build credibility
- Use reviews in your product descriptions to provide real-world examples of usage and benefits
- Highlight a “Review of the Week” in your email newsletters or social media to keep reviews front and center
- Respond to reviews, both positive and negative, to show that you value customer feedback
The key is to place your best reviews strategically. Put them in visible spots where they can have the most impact. They will help build trust, drive sales, and grow your business. By adding reviews to your marketing, you let your happy customers become your biggest brand advocates.
Useful tools to optimize your review marketing
Bringing it all together are some great tools that specialize in review management. Omnisend not only offers a powerful product review feature that seamlessly integrates with email, SMS, and push notifications, but also streamlines the process of collecting, managing, and showcasing customer reviews thanks to automation. Build trust and drive sales without the added workload.
Omnisend also integrates with the following platforms to make your review marketing as easy and effective as possible.
- Yotpo offers everything an ecommerce business needs to optimize customer reviews, user-generated photos and videos, loyalty, and referral programs. Yotpo is ideal for turning your customer content into sales and is an all-in-one solution for your social proof strategy.
- Fomo is a social proof marketing platform that specializes in showcasing things like your recent orders and product reviews on your storefront. Fomo “creates the online equivalent of a busy restaurant, showing prospective shoppers that other people trust your business.”
- Growave is an all-in-one marketing platform that’s designed to help businesses reach, engage, and convert their customers. Offering powerful tools for things like reviews, wish lists, loyalty programs, referrals, and other user-generated content, Growave has everything you need for building trust and loyalty with your customers.
- Junip helps you to capture the very best reviews, allowing you to share your customers’ stories at the center of your shop and marketing messages. Junip promises to help you build trust with genuine, in-depth reviews that incorporate photos, videos, and custom questions, all solicited automatically after purchase.
- Okendo promises to build shopper excitement and showcase customer community with high-impact reviews and attention-grabbing media galleries. This Shopify app also pushes your best reviews to platforms like Facebook and Google, allowing you to show reviews in paid and organic marketing channels like Google Ads and Google Search.
- Stamped is a great tool for enhancing user engagement, enabling you to create loyalty and rewards programs while encouraging reviews and other user-generated content. With Stamped, you can gather customer reviews with ease and share them easily on your website and other key platforms.
Review marketing strategy: Wrap up
In today’s digital landscape, consumers place far more trust in the opinions of their peers than in promotional messages. To beat the competition, you must develop an effective review marketing strategy. It should focus on making, gathering, and showing user-generated content. Businesses that seek reviews proactively and consistently can tap into valuable social proof, which can significantly impact their bottom line.
Implementing a review marketing strategy doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. Follow the tips and use the tools in this article. Then, you can start to listen to your customers, engage with their feedback, and build trust through their reviews. This approach will help you get new customers and also help to build loyalty with your existing customers.
Source from Omnisend
Disclaimer: The information set forth above is provided by omnisend.com independently of Chovm.com. Chovm.com makes no representation and warranties as to the quality and reliability of the seller and products.
