Customer reviews have become an integral part of marketing, consumer influence and branding.
The principal of social proof is alive and well, with over 75% of purchases being influenced by some type of social influence. The opinions of real people who have actually used the service offering matter far more than an ad written by a marketer. However, with some savvy and a plan, you can guide customer reviews to maximize the positives of your offering and minimize any negatives there might be.
Why Customer Reviews Matter
Customer reviews may not seem like an important part of the marketing process, but they are huge. They are also nothing new, and their importance is based on deep psychological principles. In his landmark 1984 book Influence, Robert Cialdini coined the commonly used phrase “social proof.” Human beings utilize social proof, or the opinions of other people, to make many of their most important decisions.
Think for a moment about what influences you the most to choose whether or not to make a purchase. Often, if a friend suggests a restaurant you have not heard of, a car dealership or a place to get your hair done, you are more likely to consider it than if some random ad tells you to head over. However, the principle of social proof does not only extend to family and friends. Most anyone’s opinions hold some degree of value in people’s purchasing choices.
Random People’s Opinions
It may sound strange to think about, but even random people you have never met can influence your buying choices one way or the other. Consider how many websites nowadays feature reviews of the products being offered. It is no coincidence that showing the opinions of previous users is so common. If you are not prominently featuring reviews of your offerings, it is high time you got started doing so. Naturally, the idea is fine but the real success comes from effective execution.
In many cases, reviews are even more important than gross sales numbers in acquiring future orders. For example, on Amazon.com the top selling list is different than the top rated list. For some products it is actually more important to have a high rating than a large number of sales in order to reach a high point on the search list. When having every keyword be easy to find can be the difference between feast and famine, every review is worth its weight in your precious metal of choice.
When You’re Just Starting Out
When you are first getting started with a product or service offering, it can seem daunting to have reviews. It becomes the same kind of catch-22 situation many people find when applying for a job that requires experience – if you have never done a particular thing before, how can you be expected to have experience? If you are on day one and have no sales to your credit yet, where will you get your reviews from?
Fortunately, there are many potential sources of reviews. If you are fastidious and careful about your outreach efforts, you can acquire your first set of reviews at a very low cost. In situations like this, pouring money into your marketing efforts could actually slow you down. This is the time to dig deeply into your ‘creative entrepreneur toolkit’ and think critically instead of trying to throw your precious budget at the problem.
Your first set of reviews do not necessarily need to be from sales. In fact, they can literally be to free early versions, called pre-releases, of your offering. If you are putting forth a book, a course or a piece of software, a great beginning strategy is asking family and friends to try out the offering and see if they like it.
Not Just a Gift
In some cases, simply asking your parents, cousins and neighbors to review what you have created may not be reasonable. It may be extremely in-depth, or intended for an unusual niche. In these cases, you are going to have to seek out the right people from whom to your get testimonials. Naturally, simply giving away your offering is not the ideal solution.
In any kind of exchange, you have to give value in measured quantities. Much like when you are negotiating and the other party asks for a concession, you must ask for a concession in return. This is part of why many “free” offerings require the recipient to supply their contact information for future marketing purposes. For the same reason, you need to get something in exchange for providing your offering to your test group.
Some marketers use the lottery system, where you select a percentage of the people who sign up to receive a free copy of the offering. Then you phrase it as “asking a favor” for them to write a review after they have used the offering for awhile. Other marketers ask for this as a promise up-front as a form of frame control – the test group commits to putting forth reviews, which makes them more likely to do so.
Professional Caliber Reviews
Often, regular people are not professional caliber writers, and may not write the best reviews of what you are offering. This may be because they do not have a complete understanding of the offering’s benefits after only using it for a few weeks, or they may not have high quality writing skills. This is particularly true if you are working with people who have a different native language than your own.
In these instances, you can simply write a review in the “voice” of someone new to the offering, and then send it to the test person for review. They can change whatever they like, and then give consent for you to put their name with the review. This provides them with a solid offering, saves them time and ensures that you have the best possible kind of reviews, so long as they consent to using their name.
Final Thoughts
Customer reviews provide a great way for you as a brand to showcase the positive effect or outcome that your products or services have had in the lives of your customers. With social proof being an ever-increasing influence on purchasing behavior and decisions, failing to proactively encourage, collect, and publish customer testimonials is a big mistake.
If you’re interested in learning more about how we can help you earn more reviews and get them noticed online, drop us a message or give us a call. We’d love to talk about some strategies we’ve used to help companies just like yours.