6 out of 10 customers would run through Google reviews before buying a product. It takes at least 10 reviews for a customer to trust the brand. (Source)
Product reviews, whether you like it or not, is a powerful emotional driver. If you are running a Magento store or are in the process of building one, here is a pro tip for you – online product reviews are the new word of mouth marketing. And they are here to stay for the long.
Unfortunately, getting customer reviews is not an easy task. You cannot buy them. You cannot write them on your own. Well, you can give these shady tricks a try, but they are surefire ways to tarnish your brand image, especially when Yelp and Google are rolling out guidelines to prevent review gating.
So what is the way out? How to get those nice looking star ratings and positive-sounding reviews?
As somebody who has given all kinds of reviews and collected them as well, we know a few tricks that can get product reviews for your Magento store.
To put it in more precisely. These tricks can help you get up to 100 reviews for your Magento store in one week. That is approximately 15 reviews a day. It is not a tall order as such and is certainly doable. Here is how:
Ask for it
This is a no-brainer. Still, only 66% of customers have been explicitly asked to leave customer reviews (BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2018).
Customers do not usually give reviews voluntarily. In fact, unless you made a great first impression, they may not even think of giving one. Hence, the need to explicitly ask for customer reviews.
You can collect more product reviews simply by asking for it through a plain text mail. Spare the fancy HTML templates. A plain text mail written with a nice personalized touch can influence customers into writing a product review for you.
Before requesting make sure you have set the stage ready for them to write it down. Make it easy for them to write and leave reviews. Ask specific questions about the product feature or experience which will make them open up and write a review at length.
Rewards for reviews
Customers who are satisfied with your products may not have the urge to write a review. It takes time and effort to write one which is always in short support. Secondly, writing a product review is not going to bring any gain to them. Perhaps, this is one reason why customers are indifferent to writing product reviews although they are serious about reading them before making a purchase.
But, you can break that indifferent attitude and sway customers into writing reviews. Just give them something, some kind of a motivation to put in the extra effort to write online praise. And that’s where rewards for reviews come in.
Rewards like promo codes, special discounts, coupons, limited period upgrades, etc. can incentivize customers into the habit of writing descriptive product reviews. You can give your own Magento store promo codes or coupons to retain those customers. But, ensure that you are not providing any monetary consideration as it can lead to trade malpractices.
Automated email requests
The gold old email is still a savior for businesses. The inbox still remains the best place to meet, greet and request your customers for a product review. But, as your business grows and the number of customers also increase, writing a personalized email for each customer can be difficult. In TargetBay, we have “Mail After Shipment” feature, where you can collect reviews from your customers after the order is shipped. If you are starting out to collect reviews, you can go back to your previous customers and ask them to write a review.
In fact, it is not a scalable option also. What you need are strategic emails that can be sent to customers based on their past actions. Retarget customers who bought the product with automated email requests for reviews. Ensure that the email has a link that takes them directly to the page where the star rating or review can be given. Alternatively, you can also enable the option to reply to the mail with a review.
Some tips that will help you collect more reviews:
Time it well
Don’t ask for the review too early or too late. For instance, don’t request a review on the next day of the purchase. Don’t delay it to a month either. Time it well with enough interval during which the customer gets well used to the product and has framed an opinion about it.
Display social proof
The mob mentality can work in your favor just by displaying the reviews and ratings of other customers alongside the product. If possible, you can also highlight the number of social media fan followers
Participate in community forums
Product reviewing websites and forums are plenty in number. Don’t shy away from participating in the discussion threads that happen there. They could open to open conversations with customers which can help gather reviews. Also, customers tend to trust those businesses more which communicate with customers on social media.
What’s next?
Your Magento store needs product reviews. They have the power to convert interested prospects into paying customers. But, collecting product reviews is an uphill task. Especially, when customers lack the motivation to write them. But, should you stop? You can garner as many as 100 product reviews for your Magento store if you ask for it the right way. Check out our TargetBay’s Magento Reviews extension.
