To get good reviews is one thing – to nurture and reuse them in the best way is another. Today, reputation is everything to a business, especially in the online world where word-of-mouth is substituted by online reviews and testimonials.
This “megaphone effect” – where anyone with a computer or mobile device can be read by thousands of people everywhere – has changed the rules of the game: Potential consumers tend to listen to already existing customers instead of advertisers. If you want to learn more about the so-called “megaphone effect,” we suggest reading this article.
Our best-practice tips for your reviews
We collected the best practices on how to proceed if you want to get the most out of your reviews:
1. Encourage your customers to leave reviews
Some people share their opinions online simply for altruistic purposes, but the majority of reviewers decide to share an opinion in order to get some form of status on the Internet. If you keep this in mind, we recommend the following:
- Offer incentives to reviewers. Exclusive content or free items can help you give reviewers a higher status that they love.
- Provide readership statistics for reviewers – therefore, they’re more eager to leave their comments because they know how much exposure their reviews can get on your website.
- Give top reviewers special status. Some businesses honor the most enthusiastic reviewers and give them the title “Top Commenter” every month. It gives them a huge feeling of being appreciated.
- Give them feedback. Reply to their reviews. Every time. Easy as pie.
2. Stay on top
You should always know and be aware of what your customers are saying about you. This is the best feedback method you can use to see how you should modify and improve your product or service. A great technique is to give them something positive to talk about, so your negative reviews will get buried sooner.
3. Use user-generated content
One superweapon of today’s marketing is user-generated content. This is closely related to the “megaphone effect.” People have less and less trust in marketers, who are thought to be sleazy. They trust more in your existing customers. User-generated content gives you the opportunity to benefit from this.
User-generated content is defined as any type of content that has been created and put out there by unpaid fans. It can be pictures, videos, reviews, tweets, blog posts and any content that is based on the act of users promoting your brand rather than you.
So, you can reuse your reviews almost everywhere.
- Insert them into your blog posts.
- Post them on Facebook occasionally. At the same time, it shouldn’t sound like bragging.
- Insert a few of them into your newsletters and autoresponders.
- You can even shoot a video in which you read aloud your best customer reviews. Video is becoming more trendy today.
- Use them in your case studies to increase your authenticity.
- Conference lectures and trade shows give you another opportunity for it.
When you plan to reuse a review overtly, let your advocate know you appreciate their positive review, and find a way to reward or recognize them for their actions.
These reviews are great to:
- Address common objections of prospective customers
- Show social proof specifically in your industry
- Display why and how you’re better than your competitors
Practically, you can repurpose your reviews almost everywhere. It’s quite possible they will boost your sales.
As a brief sum up, why should you take our tips to improve on your customer review strategy? We have only one argument for that: According to a G2 Crowd study, 85% of tech buyers read up to 10 reviews before making a purchase.
