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Marketing • E-Commerce

Your customers are your sales team

There is a FREE marketing trick that promises a boost in sales by nearly 3x, and it takes ZERO effort from you; very few people are talking about it. You don’t need to hire anyone for it. You don’t need to work overtime. & you definitely don’t need to spend any money on it. What is it? It’s Customer Reviews. The social proof you’re missing that promises a 270% increase in sales (Askalidis & Malthouse, 2016). If you’re an online business, it’s not just about how many people you can get to visit your website. It’s also about how many people are going to buy what you’re selling. So, what’s in the secret sauce? How do customer reviews help boost your sales and brand growth? We found that there are 3 major elements corroborated by the current research literature.

The benefits of Customer Reviews

Builds trust

Customers need to trust you or your product before investing their money. Reviews show that your product functions as advertised, or better. It helps alleviate any uncertainty. Reviews remove the fear of buying online because customers can corroborate the quality of the product and service of the company. It can also help answer dwindling questions that are creating a barrier to purchase. Ultimately, it helps them feel confident in their purchases.

Expand reach

Showing reviews on your social platforms helps reach more potential buyers. This means that even if an individual customer doesn’t purchase from you directly, they may still see one of your products on their search results page—and that could lead to another sale!

Search engine visibility

Not only do reviews help customers decide whether or not to buy from you again, but they also help you expand your reach on search engines. Websites with good reviews are pushed to the top of search engine results. If someone searches for “best [category],” reviews will show up at the top of their search results—and if those reviews are written in a way that makes people want to read them? You’ve got yourself some future customers!

[BONUS] They matter!

Reviews show that you care about your customers’ experiences with your products and services, and that you’re willing to go the extra mile for them by listening to them. It tells them that you’re a company that is willing to better their products.

Ways to encourage your customers to give you reviews

Send a follow-up email, it shows you care about their opinion.

It’s important not to leave it at that—you want to make sure your users actually take the time to leave a review. So, send them a follow-up email asking them if they had a good experience or not, and offering them a link to the reviews page. This way, they have the option of leaving a review right away, or doing it later when they have more time.

Include links in your emails. If you’re sending out newsletters and/or welcome emails regularly (which you should be), include links to the reviews page in those emails as well. This way, you can remind your users about how important reviews are and encourage them to take action now rather than later when they might forget all about it!

Incentives

Offer incentives for people who leave reviews. It doesn’t have to be much—just a free gift card, discount, free delivery, etc. on their next visit might be enough to encourage someone to take the time to write one.

Customer reviews are a sure way to get more people to buy your product. That’s not our opinion! These are the facts, according to research. Don’t spend money on expensive marketing until your try out this method.