How & Why to Solicit Online Product Reviews

According to a decade-old Word of Mouth Marketing Association study, word of mouth accounts for about 13% of consumer sales, or $6 trillion of all spending. If that doesn’t snatch your attention, we don’t know what will.

To grow your consumer product goods (CPG) brand online, you must account for the fact that people don't just talk—they listen. One of the best tactics to get people to listen is to solicit product reviews. Online reviews are essentially digital word of mouth and provide successful social proof. In marketing, reviews build trust, and trust is everything.

Product Review Statistics

Consumer trust is the backbone of your brand reputation. We tell our clients all the time that “people buy from people,” but there’s more to it than that—people buy from people that they know, like and trust. These numbers prove it.

• Per HubSpot, 75% of surveyed consumers don't care about ads, 90% prefer contact suggestions, and 70% trust reviews.
• BrightLocal research suggests 88% of people prefer online consumer reviews.
• HubSpot also attests that nearly 50% of consumers are as interested in delivery as they are in products and are likely not to use a retailer with a reputation for poor delivery services.
• Neilson reports that more than 90% of consumers look to family and friends for suggestions before turning to marketing.

What people say is a powerful resource for brand recognition. Your customers have real-world experience with your company already, and that’s invaluable to leads who may be vetting you before they make a purchase.

Benefits of Online Product Reviews

Reviews and testimonials culled directly from consumers are proven to shape decisions, influence brand perception and promote loyalty. But they can also hurt business, sales, and reputation if mismanaged. You want to find the best strategies to:

• Build trust and rapport: Customers trust other customers more than they trust brands or paid influencers. If you overheard two strangers talking about how much they love their new rug, you'd want to know where they got their rugs, right?
• Support the sales funnel: We’ve said it thousand times and we’ll say it one thousand more: marketing is not sales. However, it can have a powerful influence on sales by building long-term brand relationships. Over 70% of consumers read reviews online to research a brand, and great reviews can grant you a competitive edge.
• Boost SEO: Positive reviews improve search engine ranking and generate higher domain authority. User reviews are one of many factors that impact rankings on search engines such as Google and Bing. If you think about backlinks and SEO as "digital word of mouth," then it makes sense that reviews would play a role in your performance.

Ways to Request Product Reviews

To get reviews, set up campaigns that encourage responses. Whether someone's attended an event or bought a pair of sneakers, knowing how to get product reviews is essential. Create ways to trigger a contact to share thoughts that you, in turn, can share.

1. Email marketing: A great way to manage the sales funnel is to set up drip campaigns. Automate emails that ask customers to share their reviews on the platform of your choice, whether that’s Yelp, Google, Amazon, etc.
2. Social media: Use your social channels to get consumers talking about how your products solve their problems. Leaving reviews on sites like Facebook are great, but organic reviews like user-generated content are amazing as well.
3. Video content. In content marketing, video rules. Use event activations and IRL guerrilla marketing to get video testimonials. You won't find better proof of value than happy faces talking about why they showed up and how they appreciate you.
4. Product samples. A sampling program promotes engagement. Give a new product to a loyal customer, invite first-time buyers, or throw an extra item into the cart for spending a specified amount. Let's face it: consumers love free stuff.
5. Influencer marketing. Find a successful internet personality with a relevant link to your brand. Create a partnership where the influencer promotes your products in exchange for free samples, commission or bartered services—but know that savvy consumers are leery of paid influencers.