5 Tips for Getting Product Reviews

Getting product reviews and testimonials is a very important part of the process of selling anything, as many prospects will read these reviews and testimonials and compare different products before deciding what they want to buy. This cycle serves two purposes.

First, the reviews are informative and will help people know more about your product, what it does, and if it is worth the price to other consumers.

Second, it will show potential customers how popular your product really is (which can be a double edged sword).

If many people are reviewing it, they will know that it is being used by a lot of people and is well-loved. If only a few people are reviewing it, they could take this as a sign that most people do not like the product. This is not a hard and fast rule, of course, as ten positive reviews will be more beneficial than fifty negative reviews.

However, getting these reviews at all can be a challenge, and is something that needs to be done if you are going to sell the most products that you can. There are a few things that you can do to get more reviews from the people who are buying your products.

1) Incentivize customers to leave reviews:
The first thing to do is to offer incentives. You will find that people can often be bought, as they are much more prone to do something like give a review if they know that there is something in it for them.

This could mean free giveaways of other products. It could mean prizes, where people will be entered in a drawing if they leave a review; this is a good strategy, as you will then not have to give away as much.

People will give the reviews just to have a chance at winning, and so you will secure many free reviews. You could also give away a membership in return for a review, if your company has some sort of discount for members. This will serve the added bonus of drawing in more business, as people will come back to get the discount.

2) Capture reviews after checkout:
The second thing to do is to ask the buyer, after they have checked out with their product, if they will leave a review. They will probably be feeling good about your company at that point, as they will have just found what they were looking for, and they will agree. This may not get one hundred percent of people, as you will have to trust them to do it later, but it will certainly draw them in. It has a lot to do with the psychology of the human race.

People are much more prone to do something if they are personally asked to do it, rather than asked on the packaging of the product, as they will then feel more like their services are needed and desired.

3) Email customers after they purchase: A good follow-up option is to email buyers a couple of weeks after they purchase, asking them for a review. This will serve as a reminder, as they may have forgotten if you asked them initially after checkout. You will want to wait for a little while, so they do not feel that you are being pushy, but you should just check back up with them to jog their memories.

4) Ask email subscribers to review products: Another good option is to email your newsletter subscribers, asking them for reviews. This can be even better than just emailing buyers, as the newsletter subscribers are people who clearly care about your company, and they will be more likely to want to write testimonials or reviews to help you out.

They will also be likely to write positive testimonials, because they like your products enough to follow them in the newsletters. Furthermore, they will be people who may have purchased more than one product, and you could get a number of reviews all at once.

5 ) Blog about it:
Finally, you could blog about it on your blog and mention the incentives that you will be giving out. This is a good way to remind buyers about your products, to let them know what they can get for writing a testimonial or a review, and to do both of those things without seeming at all pushy.

The blog is addressed to everyone, so they will not feel that you are coming after them, personally. This will keep them from having a negative attitude toward you, and will mean they will leave more positive and complete reviews.

All in all, you may want to try doing each and every one of the above ideas. Reviews can be a powerful tool. Everyone knows that a company will describe their own products in glowing terms, so they are less likely to trust a company’s description and analysis of a product, no matter how accurate it is. A review can give them the information that they need in a format that they will trust.

Image Credit: juhansonin