You probably know as much as we do just how much customer reviews and testimonials can impact your brand and business.
Word of mouth marketing is gold for referrals and new conversions. And in social media, where everyone already feels like talking, it makes companies who get a lot of positive reviews and those who don’t very evident.
Customer testimonials have become the social media equivalent of neighbourly word of mouth online. New visitors or potential customers will look through them to get a sense of the company, products and services, effectiveness, and customer service before spending more time on their site or finishing their conversion.
Thus great new positive reviews can quickly hike up conversion rates for a social media campaign or website that’s already seen some decent traffic, or it can stiffen sales for a while in the case of negative reviews. Positive feedback and user generated content will also help build up your Google EAT and website domain rating for SEO.
There’s even a very useful purpose for negative feedback, although it won’t be a focus of your customer review strategy tactics. Honest feedback is essential in ensuring that your company and offering is optimal to what your customer target base wants. You can ideally circumvent this feedback in other channels so that it comes up earlier in the sales funnel, and address issues while they are still new. So your customers can have a satisfying experience to come away and thus a reason to promote the company to other people.
But how do you get testimonials when you only have a few at the moment or are just starting?
Read on for help with a customer review strategy that boosts conversions!
Create an Event
When you’re looking for a sure-fire way to encourage customer reviews online to get your social handles and products more attention, there’s nothing quite like an event!
Competitions and contests with free giveaways can be great to gather customers’ feedback in an exciting and time-limited campaign. But it’s not the only type of event to garnish reviews. Limited time giveaways on social media, industry events or at a location where your target demographic hangs out can also give more people the opportunity to sample your products and leave you a glowing review if they like them.
As a free sample (and hopefully some hype!), they’re more likely to want to leave a review to thank you if your product does the job.
You can also get more creative with this. Suppose your products or services are not something you can give away. In that case, you can also incentivise customers to leave a review with a small discount, a coffee voucher, more points in a loyalty program or a free small gift of something you don’t usually sell with their next purchase.
Ask! But Timing is Key
A very straightforward tactic in your customer review strategy that can sometimes be overlooked is simple asking.
A satisfied customer will often be happy to leave a review if you prompt them.
Ideally you want to target customers who have already had a chance to use your product and are happy with them. For eCommerce sites, you may want to wait two days after delivery to send an email to ask for a review. But for skincare products, you may want to wait for 1-2 weeks before sending your review requests, so that they would have had the chance to see the results of the product.
A great idea to make this process seamless, is automation. Another example discluding email is live chat. At the end of customer interaction on live chat assistance or even social media, an automated prompt can ask for a public review if they’re satisfied or have rated their experience highly with you.
Ask on Different Platforms
Google My Business is one of the most significant reviews locations for when customers search up and qualify your business for a purchasing decision. However, it’s not all there is out there!
That’s why it’s essential to ask for reviews on multiple platforms. People will be coming through different touchpoints, and it’s vital to target all of them.
- Google Reviews – Google My Business
- Facebook My Business Page
- Yelp
- Product Review
- Linkedin Recommendations
There may also be other third party review sites that are appropriate for businesses based on your industry, be sure to take a look around!
Make it Super Easy to Leave a Review
Here’s a gamechanging tip for customer reviews. One of the primary reasons why customers WON’T leave a review is because of the fear of it being a long process or out of the way.
If you make the process easier for customers, they’re more likely to go to the review form, fill it out and submit.
Here are some ways you can do this:
- Link to the review form or add a button when you ask so they can take fewer steps
- Include different review platforms so they can choose what they feel most comfortable with
- Make your own system’s review form easy to fill out and not require a lot of sections
- Prompt them with a question to spur their thoughts, e.g. ‘Tell us about your experience shopping with us online.’
Ask in Person
A great customer review strategy tactic on social media is interacting with people in real life. After all, our base connections is where social media springs from.
After completing a service for someone, you can ask them to leave you a positive review in person. Some businesspeople also carry around a card asking customers to leave a review on Google, Facebook or Instagram. In addition to having the social media icons and addresses, you can attach a QR code that anyone with a smartphone can quickly scan and open up your company’s review page.
Asking in person can help you raise the chance that you build a memorable positive connection with a customer so they feel compelled to follow through – and leave a good response too. You’re also able to ask customers you know who are satisfied with your products and/or services.
Remember to ask an open ended question before you try collecting testimonials, such as ‘how are you enjoying our products?’ so they can open up to you first honestly. This gives you the chance to resolve any existing issues they have, if any, so they can have genuine a reason to leave a good review,
BONUS TACTIC! Remember to respond to every review. Even if you get a negative review, you can turn around the image of your company when outsiders can see that you care about your customers enough to resolve any issues. It’s the number #1 tactic you shouldn’t miss when managing customer reviews.
Does your business need more help with review management? We have analysts on all fronts. No matter whether you want to display reviews on a testimonial page, run an exciting social media campaign, or make yourself more visible through SEO or Google search ads if you’re struggling with the initial traffic before you make a sale to get more reviews.
Read about how our team has already delivered for other clients in our case studies and get in touch!
