5 Tips for Earning More Product Reviews Online

Do you read what other shoppers have to say about a product before you click “Add to Cart”? You’re not alone, as 97% of consumers read reviews for local businesses.

If you own a business, you want to get more product reviews online to earn social proof, so prospects will trust your brand and purchase from you. This blog post will discuss these topics:

• How to get more online reviews
• What is social proof?
• Why reviews are important for businesses

Want to stay up to date on the latest digital marketing tips? Subscribe to our free newsletter, Revenue Weekly, and be one of the 200,000 marketers who get their digital marketing advice delivered straight to their inboxes.

How to get more online reviews

While many consumers check product reviews before purchasing, only a few customers write reviews. Here are five tips to earn more product reviews online:

1. Make it easy for your customers to leave reviews
2. Ask for reviews
3. Use review management tools
4. Post reviews on your website and social media pages
5. Offer incentives

Let’s go through each tip!

1. Make it easy for your customers to leave reviews

Anything easy gets done. So, if you’re looking for ways how to increase customer reviews, make the process as frictionless as possible:

• Create several opportunities for them to review your products online: Make sure people can review your business and products via email, SMS, your website or through your app. In addition, make it easy to perform all options through a mobile phone.

• Use star ratings: Star rating systems make leaving a review very easy. With just a swipe or tap of a finger, your customers can let your other prospects know whether they loved your product or if you have room for improvement. Make sure the dedicated product review page on your website is mobile-friendly!

• Provide templates: Aside from the star ratings, you can also create templates for your customers for a seamless review process. With just a few taps, they can provide additional remarks about their experience. In this example, customers can instantly leave positive reviews like “excellent quality,” how fast the item was shipped, or that they’ll repurchase it in the future.

2. Ask for reviews

Not all your customers will take the initiative to leave reviews. To encourage them to review, reach out via email, SMS, or through your app.

For example, let’s say you’re in the software as a service (SaaS) business. You can send an email weeks after a customer subscribed to your service.

Ask them about their experience so far and provide a link that takes them to the review page. Make sure you also offer them options to reach out to you if they have questions.

Do your customers receive your product via delivery? Have a small card that asks them about their purchase. Add a QR code so they can easily submit a review through their mobile phones.

3. Use review management tools

There are a handful of review management tools you can choose from, depending on the platform you’re using. Tools like ReviewAccelerationFX can help you easily check all the reviews your business has collected from Google, Facebook, and Yelp from a single platform.

For example, let’s say you’re a medical practitioner. Part of your patient marketing efforts is to get more reviews from your existing customers. You can upload to ReviewAccelerationFX a list of your patients you want to ask for reviews from!

4. Post reviews on your website and social media pages

Wondering how to get organic reviews on social media? You can blend review management with your other digital marketing efforts like social media marketing and content marketing.

With the consent of your customers, publish their reviews on your social media pages or place their glowing review on your product’s landing page. These reviews will encourage your other customers to review, so provide a link to your product preview page.

5. Offer incentives

Another way to encourage your customers to leave a review is to offer a reward. You can explore giving discount coupons or give them additional points in your loyalty program for every review they give.

What is social proof?

Social proof is a social phenomenon where people emulate the actions of others to show accepted or expected behavior.

In marketing, social proof is a concept that stems from our desire to belong. Social proof in marketing provides evidence that a brand, product, or service is popular and useful. As a result, it influences prospects to purchase.

Why reviews are important for businesses

Product and customer reviews help your business in a lot of ways. Reviews are the building blocks of your business’s social proof and help you:

• Gain prospects’ trust: Did you know that 70% of consumers believe the opinions of other consumers? Shoppers not only browse reviews, but they also trust them. By having glowing reviews about your product on your website, for example, your site visitors will be swayed to stay, browse, and buy.
• Learn more about your audience: Your reviews are excellent sources of feedback. You can learn more about your audience’s likes and dislikes by going through the reviews. By identifying what your customers like, you know what you need to do consistently. Their remarks about what they don’t like about your products and services can help you evolve your marketing plan.
• Increase your brick and mortar store’s foot traffic: “Near me” searches have grown by more than 500% in the past years. So if your optimized Google Business Profile features glowing reviews, searchers will think that visiting your store is worth it.
• Build social proof: Word of mouth is one of the most powerful forms of social proof. By encouraging reviews on your website, review sites, and social media, you’re building the social proof that convinces your audience to purchase from you.

Get more product reviews and purchases with WebFX

If you’re ready to take on how to get organic reviews for your brand but want some help, look no further than WebFX. We’re one of the best online review management companies that can help you with your reputation management strategies, so you can increase your team’s revenue.

Contact us online or call us at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist about our review management services!