The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) introduced a new rule (16 CFR Part 465) targeting fake reviews and testimonials, marking a significant milestone in its ongoing battle against deceptive marketing practices. The rule addresses fake or false consumer reviews, testimonials, and related deceptive practices that have become increasingly prevalent as more shoppers buy online rather than in stores.

This rule arrives at a critical time, with consumer reviews impacting an estimated $1.461 trillion in annual sales. That means that fake reviews lead consumers to lose as much as $0.12 for every dollar spent.

The implications of this rule are vast, affecting businesses across all industries that rely on consumer reviews and testimonials to influence purchasing decisions. Marketers must reassess their strategies and comply before penalty notices go out at $50,120 per violation.

Understanding the FTC’s New Rule

The FTC’s rule is designed to eliminate deceptive practices related to reviews and testimonials, ensuring that consumers receive accurate information when making purchase decisions. 

Key provisions of the rule include:

Prohibition on Fake Reviews and Testimonials: Businesses are now explicitly prohibited from creating, purchasing, or disseminating fake reviews and testimonials. This includes reviews written by individuals who did not actually use the product or service. This includes reviews or testimonials falsely attributed to real customers or celebrities.

Insider Reviews and Undisclosed Relationships: The rule prohibits reviews written by a company’s officers, employees, or their immediate relatives unless there is a clear and conspicuous disclosure of their relationship to the company. This provision addresses insider reviews that can mislead consumers about the impartiality of the feedback.

Misleading Review Websites and Suppression Tactics: The rule also targets businesses that manipulate review platforms, including those that suppress negative reviews or present fake aggregate ratings (such as star ratings). It ensures that review sites and platforms display accurate and unbiased consumer feedback.

Civil Penalties and Deterrence: The rule introduces civil penalties for violations, giving the FTC a powerful tool to enforce compliance. The FTC aims to deter businesses from engaging in deceptive review practices by imposing financial consequences. As mentioned, civil penalties from the FTC are currently assigned at $50,120 per violation, increasing yearly. 

Why This Rule Matters

Consumer reviews play a critical role in the decision-making process. Studies show that consumers increasingly rely on online reviews to assess product quality, make comparisons, and decide whether to purchase. The FTC’s new rule is designed to protect consumers by ensuring that the information they rely on is truthful and reliable.

Beyond consumer protection, this rule is a game-changer for businesses. The FTC estimates that deceptive practices related to reviews have eroded consumer trust, leading to suboptimal purchasing decisions and reducing overall consumer welfare. The FTC aims to restore transparency and confidence in the marketplace by enforcing stricter regulations, ultimately benefiting consumers and honest businesses.

What Marketers Should Do

Marketers must take proactive steps to ensure compliance and maintain consumer trust. Here’s what you should do:

Audit Your Review Practices: Conduct a thorough audit of your current review and testimonial practices. Ensure that all reviews on your site or associated platforms are authentic and that no fake reviews or manipulated ratings are present. This includes reviewing any third-party services used to manage reviews.

Disclose Relationships: If employees, family members, or anyone with a financial connection to your business provides a review, ensure that their relationship is clearly and conspicuously disclosed. Transparency is critical to maintaining trust and staying compliant.

Avoid Review Gating and Suppression: Do not engage in practices that selectively solicit positive reviews or suppress negative ones. Encourage genuine feedback from all customers and present it in an unbiased manner. This approach builds credibility and can lead to long-term benefits.

Educate Your Team: Ensure your marketing, legal, and compliance teams know the new rule and its implications. Training employees on best practices for collecting and displaying reviews can help prevent unintentional violations.

In Closing

Transparency and authenticity are more critical than ever. Using trusted review management and Community Powered Marketing software keeps your brand’s reviews genuine, transparent, and aligned with the latest regulations. TINT helps you harness the power of real customer voices, driving authentic engagement while safeguarding your brand’s reputation. Learn more about TINT’s ratings and reviews solution.

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Customer reviews are more crucial than ever, but many marketers don’t know the proper ways how to ask for a review. Reviews significantly influence a company’s reputation, consumer trust, and search engine visibility. 79.69% of consumers look at ratings and reviews before making a purchase. Potential customers trust peer feedback more than brand marketing, making it essential to manage and leverage customer reviews effectively.

Yet, 62.5% of marketers struggled to maintain a pipeline of fresh reviews.

Positive reviews not only build a strong reputation but also improve SEO. Search engines prioritize user-valued content, boosting rankings and driving more organic traffic. This can lead to higher conversion rates and increased sales.

In this blog, we’ll discuss the importance of customer reviews for businesses, their impact on reputation and SEO, and practical tips for encouraging positive customer feedback.

The State of Community Powered Marketing explores ratings and reviews, user-generated content, and the challenges of marketers. Read the full report.

Why Asking for Reviews is Crucial

Customer reviews are crucial for the success of a business. They provide direct insight into customer perceptions, offering valuable feedback on areas of strength and areas for improvement. Positive reviews build credibility and trust, influencing purchasing decisions. 72% of consumers believe that reviews and testimonials submitted by customers are more credible than the brand talking about their products, relying on the experiences of others. This trust in peer opinions shows the importance of maintaining a positive review profile.

Customer reviews, a type of UGC, impact credibility and influence a brand’s visibility and search engine ranking. Positive reviews increase placement in local search results and review sites, expanding a brand’s reach. Additionally, positive testimonials and ratings increase conversion rates, leading to more customers. This positive sentiment drives immediate sales and encourages repeat business and referrals, creating a cycle of growth and engagement, all built on Community Powered Marketing.

Negative reviews, while potentially damaging, can provide valuable insights into areas for improvement. They highlight specific shortcomings related to product quality, customer service, or logistical issues. Addressing these criticisms and making necessary adjustments show a business’s commitment to customer satisfaction.

Best Practices for Asking for Reviews

Timing is Crucial

When it comes to asking for reviews, timing is everything. The best time to request feedback is immediately after a positive customer interaction. This could be right after a purchase, a customer service experience, or the delivery of a product. Catching customers when their positive experience is fresh in their minds increases the likelihood of receiving detailed and enthusiastic reviews. Avoid asking for reviews during busy periods or immediately following a complaint or negative interaction.

Choosing the Right Channel

Selecting the appropriate channel to ask for reviews can significantly impact the response rate. Email is a popular choice due to its flexibility and the ability to include direct links to review platforms. SMS is another effective channel that offers immediacy and high open rates. For a more personal touch, in-person requests can be very effective, especially in a retail or service environment. Additionally, leveraging digital communities or social media platforms can help tap into a wider audience. Tailor your approach based on where your customers are most active and comfortable.

TINT Ratings & Reviews makes it easy for you to collect, monitor, respond, repurpose, and display authentic customer feedback.

Crafting the Message: Politeness and Non-Intrusiveness

Being polite and non-intrusive is key when requesting reviews. Always start by expressing gratitude for the customer’s business. Personalize your message to make the customer feel valued and important. For example, using their name and referencing their purchase can make the request more engaging. Keep the request brief and straightforward, clearly stating why their feedback is valuable. Avoid overwhelming customers with long messages or multiple requests, as this can lead to annoyance and a negative response.

Facilitating the Review Process

Making it easy for customers to leave reviews is essential. Provide direct links to review sites and include step-by-step instructions. Some customers may not be familiar with the review process, so simplifying it can increase their chances of following through. If asking in person, consider providing a card with a QR code that takes them directly to the review page. The easier you make it, the more likely customers will take the time to share their feedback.

Expressing Gratitude and Follow-Up

After a customer leaves a review, whether positive or negative, always follow up with a thank you. Acknowledging their effort shows that you value their opinion and are committed to improving their experience. 

For positive reviews, a simple thank-you note can strengthen the customer relationship. For negative reviews, addressing their concerns promptly and professionally demonstrates your dedication to customer satisfaction and continuous improvement. 

Additionally, periodically follow up with satisfied customers to encourage them to update their reviews or leave additional feedback as their experience with your brand grows.

Read More Tips for Building An Effective Review Generation Strategy.

Using Brand Communities for Reviews

Using brand communities to garner product reviews effectively activates loyal customers eager to advocate for your brand. Engaging these communities through personalized activities, surveys, and robust discussion boards helps build a strong connection with your audience. By doing so, you can encourage members to share their positive experiences and write reviews, which is essential for attracting new customers and maintaining a fresh, authentic online presence.

One way to leverage your brand community is by initiating personalized digital product sampling. By targeting community members who align closely with your ideal consumer profile, you can increase the likelihood of receiving genuine and positive reviews. Additionally, fostering an environment where consumers feel valued and heard encourages them to provide ongoing feedback. For instance, creating spaces within the community where members can comfortably share their opinions and experiences can lead to a steady stream of evergreen product reviews. This approach drives new conversions and builds long-term loyalty and trust among your consumer base.

TINT helps you create your own brand community to mobilize, activate, and scale engagement that promotes lasting business impact.

Handling Negative Reviews and Feedback

It’s important to respond to negative reviews in order to maintain and improve your brand’s reputation. A thoughtful and professional response can help lessen the impact of a bad review and may even turn dissatisfied customers into loyal ones. Start by addressing the reviewer personally to show that you value and take their feedback seriously. If possible, use the reviewer’s name to make the response more personalized, demonstrating genuine concern. Begin by thanking the reviewer for their feedback, regardless of its nature, as this shows appreciation for their time and effort in providing insights.

Take responsibility for the customer’s negative experience, regardless of how uncommon the issue was. Avoid making excuses; instead, focus on how the feedback will be used to improve future experiences. Provide a way to make amends, such as by offering contact information for further discussion, to demonstrate commitment to resolving the issue. This approach helps address the immediate concern and signals to potential customers that your business is responsive and cares about customer satisfaction. 

Remember, you’re not just replying to a negative review. You’re replying to anyone who can see that negative review, particularly in highly visible locations like Google Reviews, Yelp, and social media placements. The goal is to solve the specific problem, rebuild trust, and demonstrate your dedication to customer service.

Legal and Ethical Considerations in Asking for Reviews

Avoiding improperly incentivized reviews is crucial for maintaining brand integrity and FTC compliance. Start by sourcing authentic customer reviews through direct outreach, social media, or in-person events, and label them as incentivized. Balance rewards to avoid attracting fake reviews and never pay outright for reviews, as it discourages honesty and trust. Instead, offer product samples, discounts, or promo codes in exchange for genuine feedback. Avoid incentivizing Google reviews, as it can lead to fines, lower search rankings, review removal, and harm to your brand’s reputation.

Federal Trade Commission Perspective

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is the American Federal agency responsible for truth and transparency in marketing. According to their guide for Featuring Online Customer Reviews, “FTC staff believes that, whatever your business model may be, you should be transparent about your review-related practices and should pay attention to several basic principles that derive from Section 5 of the FTC Act. Doing so is important for establishing consumer trust and avoiding potentially deceptive conduct.”

The FTC is focusing on the practice of incentivizing reviews. Offering free products or payments in exchange for reviews isn’t necessarily unethical or unlawful if done transparently and in line with FTC guidelines. The key is to make clear to consumers when a review has been incentivized, ensuring that it doesn’t mislead potential buyers. Many brands are now turning to brand communities to navigate these guidelines effectively. By building engaged and compliant communities, brands can foster genuine interactions, manage influence, and ensure their ratings and reviews are authentic and trustworthy. This approach helps brands stay within the bounds of the law while enhancing their connection with customers.

Launch Your Review Strategy

Reviews can make or break an online advocacy strategy. They enhance your brand’s credibility, boost SEO, and provide invaluable insights for continuous improvement. By strategically asking for reviews and leveraging brand communities, you can ensure a steady flow of authentic feedback that drives growth and engagement. Remember, the key to effective review generation is balancing incentives with transparency and maintaining ethical practices to build lasting customer trust.

You know how to ask for a review. Now, you’re ready to harness the power of customer feedback. TINT can help you build a robust review generation strategy that fuels your brand’s growth. Get started today.

The post How to Ask for a Review appeared first on TINT.

Securing a Pipeline of Fresh Reviews for Brands

Within the dynamic arena of Ratings & Reviews, brands encounter a pressing dilemma: not merely securing reviews, but securing a continuous influx of up-to-date, high-caliber reviews on product display pages. TINT found that 63% of marketers wrestle with maintaining a pipeline of fresh reviews.

Traditional Ratings & Reviews strategies often suffer from a “leaky bucket” syndrome, where brands struggle to sustain a consistent stream of up-to-date reviews. 

What’s most concerning is that the leaky bucket approach of traditional Ratings & Reviews fails to capitalize on strengthening a brand’s relationship with the actual product reviewers, thereby missing out on unlocking significant long-term value.

TINT’s new Ratings & Reviews solution is an end-to-end solution for brands who seek full-suite review collection and display, but also look to elevate their connections with product reviewers – delivering a direct, emotional, and engaging community experience within the workflow of their Ratings & Reviews strategy. 

The Switch to TINT 

Jewelry Television (JTV), one of the largest jewelry retailers in the US, was among the first brands to implement TINT’s new Ratings & Reviews solution. Their website, JTV.com, powers the country’s largest non-bridal jewelry e-commerce platform.

Previously, JTV relied on another reviews provider but decided to switch to TINT for a more efficient and responsive solution. This strategic move involved migrating over a million reviews seamlessly to TINT, enhancing their ability to leverage customer feedback effectively.

Todd Trivette, VP of Technology at JTV, says “I’m very excited to recommend TINT’s new Ratings & Reviews solution! We switched to TINT from another provider and have been delighted by their expertise in both the design and technical implementation of our solution, including the migration of over a million reviews. They continue to be ultra responsive to questions and have demonstrated the ability to quickly react to issues with robust solutions that meet our needs. TINT has proven to be a valuable partner in providing both innovative solutions and best-in-class customer service to ensure that our review platform is the best it can be.”

What Makes TINT’s Ratings & Reviews Solution Powerful? 

Full-suite Ratings & Reviews Module: Collect, display, and fuel ongoing authentic reviews with customizable reviews forms, easy moderation tools, and enhanced zero-party data capture. 

Beyond-the-Review Engagement: Cultivate ongoing relationships with product reviewers through a brand-owned community experience within the review process.

New Product Launch Review Accelerator: Jumpstart reviews prior to product launches by mobilizing targeted brand advocates for genuine reviews and UGC accumulation.

This modern and more connected approach helps brands not only cultivate a community of loyal advocates as a fuel source for ongoing reviews in the future, but also increases customer retention and expansion with personalized engagement and community connection, all as a sustainable owned resource in a brand’s ecommerce toolkit. 

Check out the full press release. Ready to get started? Get a demo today

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Two out of three shoppers read between one and ten reviews before purchasing, and 44% say they want reviews from the last month. This means having an ongoing source of fresh, authentic product reviews on your ecommerce channels is imperative. 

If you have too few reviews or they are out-of-date, you can quickly lose potential sales and rankings among shoppers. 

In our recent Big Online Brand Community Study of more than 4,900 consumers, we found that being a part of an online brand community can persuade consumers to praise others about your brand. 

• 74% are more likely to write product reviews 
• 59% are more likely to take photos/videos with the brand
• 73% are more likely to recommend the brand to others

It’s clear consumers who engage with your online brand community are primed and ready to drive new conversions and boost the velocity of online sales. So how do you activate your online brand community to drive more product reviews right now? Let’s talk about it. 

What is an Online Brand Community? 

An online brand community is an online destination for consumers to further connect with your brand and like-minded consumers. At TINT, we believe every brand has a community of consumers. It’s just about cultivating those relationships and engaging with your community meaningfully. 

If you’re wondering whether you’re ready for a brand community, there are a couple of tools that can help you determine. The brands we find that benefit most from a community strategy are those that have a strong purpose and an emotional connection to consumer lifestyles. 

With an online community platform like TINT, you can engage with your consumers through targeted activations, including personalized brand activities, customized surveys & polls, a robust discussion board, and much more. 

Online brand communities have immediate benefits as well as long-term business results. Activating your online brand community in the short term can help with the following: 

• Generating ratings & reviews
• Driving trial and sampling
• Sparking and scaling user-generated content (UGC)
• Growing ecommerce and retail velocity
• Propelling promotional conversions

In the long term, online brand communities can also help with:

• Increased retention
• Improved retail partnerships
• Reduced support costs 
• Faster innovation

How to Use an Online Brand Community to Get More Product Reviews 

Online brand communities are great at getting consumers to take action. Here are three ways to drive product reviews today. 

1. Personalized Digital Product Sampling 

When executed properly, personalized sampling can be a win-win for both the brand and the consumer, creating a mutually beneficial relationship that can drive sales and build brand awareness. 

Digital product sampling relies heavily on data to fuel outreach efforts, especially prized information like zero party data. This data allows you to activate consumers beyond basic demographics and target based on lifestyle, shopping preferences, or even emotional leanings. 

Marketers can reach people who match the ideal consumer, considerably boosting the potential purchase rate and the authenticity of their recommendation. 

With TINT’s Community Powered Marketing platform, personalized sampling has never been easier. The specific goal is to drive the community members to post their experience online and persuade the purchase decisions of like-minded consumers on retail sites. 

Recommendations are still considered the most effective form of advertising, and a product sampling program to a community of brand advocates is a surefire way to generate advocacy.

Take a look at Hero Cosmetics, a brand that generated more than 400 product reviews in just 100 days after launching sampling programs through its Hero Skin Squad community. 

Additionally, the definition of “product sampling” is expanding and can include interactive digital experiences like Walmart’s Wonder Lab. Some brands, like MAC Cosmetics, have utilized augmented reality and artificial intelligence to help determine the right shade for consumers to sample their products.

2. Evergreen Post-Purchase Reviews

Review recency is an integral part of your ecommerce product page and can play a big role in determining whether your potential buyers go with you or your competitor. 

Many brands resort to sending post-purchase emails to ask consumers to write reviews. While this strategy can be effective, your online brand community is another positive source for “always-on” reviews. 

To generate evergreen product reviews through an online brand community, creating a space where your consumers feel comfortable sharing their opinions is essential. This can be achieved by providing engaging content and reminding consumers how much you value them. You can do this by soliciting and accepting product feedback, sending enticing offers, and fostering lively discussion that encourages engagement and creates a sense of community. 

ARM & HAMMER’s Cat Litter brand started its Kitty Krew online brand community as a brand-owned “home base” for passionate consumers. Here the brand invites consumers to write reviews on particular retail websites throughout the year based on where they shop. The brand has generated over 5,300+ high-quality evergreen reviews from its community. 

By creating a vibrant online brand community, companies can leverage the power of user-generated content to generate evergreen product reviews that continue to provide value long after they are posted.

3. Identify Top Content Creators and Prompt Them to Write Reviews

Another huge advantage to having a dedicated online community destination is having direct relationships with your consumers without going through a third-party gatekeeper. This means you get full transparency into how consumers engage with your brand, and you also get the ability to create a two-way dialogue. 

Members of your online brand community will be naturally more savvy and vocal, and among them will be many high-quality content creators sitting in plain sight. With a platform like TINT, you can identify and “tag” high-quality content creators so you can develop an ongoing relationship with them. 

When you’ve identified high-quality content creators, you can mobilize and activate them to share on specific platforms and retail websites. This can include asking them to write a review or featuring existing content they’ve already made on your ecommerce product page. A study from Stakala found UGC to be 6.6X more impactful than brand-created content and 8.7X more than even influencer-created content. 

Immune supplement brand, Sambucol started their Sambucrew community as a missing piece to a complete online presence and to bring their brand values to life through real customer experiences. The brand often features content from the library of 19,000+ pieces of UGC it has amassed. 

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, leveraging an online brand community to drive product reviews can be a powerful strategy for businesses looking to build trust, improve brand loyalty, and drive sales. By engaging with community members, responding to their feedback, and incentivizing them to leave reviews, businesses can tap into the authentic and influential voice of their customers. 

Interested in more?

Sign up for a demo today.

The post How to Use an Online Community to Get More Product Reviews Right Now appeared first on TINT.

At TINT, we believe that every brand has a community. With the right tools, your cultivated audience of passionate consumers can be mobilized to act as a huge source of engagement and activation, as well as an excellent source to garner always-on product reviews. 

In our recent Big Online Brand Community Study of more than 4,900 consumers, we found 74% of consumers say being a part of an online brand community makes them more likely to write a product review. Furthermore, 59% said being a part of an online brand community makes them more likely to create visual content like photos and videos. 

Activating your consumer community results in:

• New sales and consumer acquisition fueled by authentic brand advocacy
  
• Increased customer lifetime value and more frequent purchase fueled by emotional loyalty
  
• Making your brand “future proof” fueled by agile and on-demand insights 

What are the best ways to ask for product reviews? And how can you ensure you get the reviews that drive further conversion? Let’s talk about it. 

1. Create Always-On Product Review Opportunities 

While generating product reviews is not a set-it-and-forget-it strategy, there are ways to automate the process to relieve the heavy lifting on your part. 

One of the best ways to solicit product reviews is to develop an ongoing incentive to encourage consumers to share. 

This could be an entry into a recurring sweepstakes, receiving an automatic discount code or a special promotion in exchange for a review, or offering reward points in a loyalty program. 

Some brands will set up automated post-purchase email marketing campaigns or SMS notifications to request consumer reviews. These can be triggered at specific time periods after the consumer has tried the product. 

Like any incentivized user-generated content, it’s required that a consumer discloses their product review as part of an incentive program per FTC guidelines. This helps ensure that your product reviews remain authentic and trusted by prospective buyers. Integrations to review syndication platforms often automatically include a disclosure so everyone is covered. 

With an online community platform, you can easily deliver an ongoing invitation to write a product review as one of the community activities. 

How EZC Pak Uses its Community to Ask for Ongoing Product Reviews

Immune support brand, EZC Pak, launched its EZC Immunity Community to help drive product trial and to showcase consumer experiences at scale.  

As a consumer logins to their personalized community dashboard, the brand displays an always-on offer to review their latest purchase. Community members are able to accumulate points to earn badges and status for participating.

In just six months, they grew their community to 5,000 people and generated more than 2 million impressions from user-generated content. 

Asking for Ongoing Product Reviews

• Keep it simple – don’t overload consumers with lots of text or instructions
  
• Provide clear buttons and links to direct them to where they can write a review
• Consider collecting zero party data to target specific consumers for relevant sites (i.e., knowing your consumers loves to shop at Target and driving to Target’s website)
• Make it clear what they will receive in exchange for writing a review 
• Display other high-quality UGC to help guide and inspire consumers 
• Use platforms like TINT to track, measure, and reward your consumer community for writing product reviews

2. Launch Personalized Sampling Campaigns to Spark Product Reviews 

Product sampling programs are one of the most tried and true marketing tactics for a good reason, and it is a surefire way to spark conversation and conversion from new and existing consumers.

With today’s technology, you can target, scale, and direct word-of-mouth conversations and product reviews to key retail websites and desired online channels. 

A huge advantage of digital product sampling is the ability to personalize the experience based on collected zero party data. 

Unlike other passively-collected data like first and third party data, zero party data is information a consumer proactively and knowingly shares with a brand, and it is typically related to shopping preferences, lifestyle behaviors, and personal values. 

From this information, you can identify micro-audiences among your consumer community to activate. This could include anything from micro-audiences of parents with young kids, shoppers at a specific retailer, or those who say they are environmentally conscious.

This will allow you to drive high-quality reviews from the exact type of consumer you want to recommend your brand to others, leading to greater conversions and sales. 

How Hero Cosmetics Uses Community to Drive Reviews with Personalized Sampling 

The fast-growing skincare brand, Hero Cosmetics, created its Hero Skin Squad community as a home for passionate consumers to interact with the brand and like-minded people and to engage in fun brand-related activities. 

Consumers can complete user profiles and participate in surveys on their personalized dashboards to help tailor their overall community experience. 

The brand can direct consumers to review specific products or drive reviews to specific retail websites. In just 100 days, the brand generated over 400 product reviews. 

Asking for Product Reviews Through Personalized Sampling 

• Highlight the “exclusivity” of being chosen for a free product experience
• Reinforce how sharing their personal data unlocked a tailored experience, building further trust and value exchange around data
• Use platforms like TINT to create customized digital sampling campaign pages that offers seamless review sharing through Single-Click Sharing
• When delivering a product, try to offer more than just a sample and include things like brand swag, literature, or other fun ways to spark creativity
• Offer writing prompts or specific content requests to participants – this can include asking for before and after photos/videos, competitive comparisons, or sharing personal stories 
• Use a community discussion forum to connect consumers trying the same product to foster conversation and emotional loyalty 
• Always thank consumers for their participation and showcase high-quality product reviews

3. Solicit Product Reviews Through Co-Creation and Innovation Efforts 

Consumers are not just consumers anymore; they also consider themselves co-creators. 

Seventy-seven percent of consumers say they favor brands that ask for and accept customer feedback, and 70% are willing to leave reviews when asked. Co-creation then becomes a perfect pipeline to foster product reviews. 

Crowdsourcing ideas from your consumer community helps to generate new concepts and to gut-check marketing messages without thousands of dollars spent on arduous research studies. 

For a brand to succeed today, it must be agile and stay on top of trends and consumer opinions, and must have a channel to access on-demand insights. 

Beyond the direct business benefits, co-creating with consumers makes them feel like their voices matter, and they feel invested in the brand’s success. This makes them primed to share product reviews for your brand. 

How DSE Healthcare Uses Community to Seed Product Reviews for New Launches

Specialty healthcare company, DSE Healthcare Solutions, launched The Upside Community as a destination for health-conscious consumers to connect and drive awareness of the company’s portfolio of health brands. 

When the company aimed to create a new iron supplement brand, it relied on its consumer community throughout the entire process – from conception to launch. 

Consumers were first surveyed to identify critical product needs and then asked for product names and packaging design feedback. 

Then, they were invited to sample the finished product and help seed reviews on ecommerce websites to drive velocity. 

DSE Healthcare has launched more than 5 product innovations with their community, and the Chief Sales & Marketing Officer of DSE Healthcare Solutions has said:

“Fergon Iron Restore was completely developed with the help of The Upside Community. They helped us name the product and then sample it, and gave us reviews. That whole thing happened within the community.” 

Asking for Product Reviews Through Co-Creation Efforts  

• Make your consumer community feel valued and special for offering their feedback 
• Be transparent with the creative process to help consumers feel a part of the development 
• Use platforms like TINT to deliver customized surveys, polls, discussions, and MROC (market research online community) studies 
• Gather information about shopping and online habits to capture consumer insights 
• Direct co-creators to specific retail websites to share their experience and highlight how vital their feedback was to the launch
• Keep consumers updated on the success of your product launch that was fueled by their help 

In summary, asking consumers for product reviews is a critical component of building brand credibility and driving sales, and it’s essential to approach this process with thoughtfulness and care. By following the tips outlined in this blog post, such as creating always-on review requests, utilizing personalized product sampling, and leveraging co-creation efforts, you can increase your chances of receiving high-quality feedback that can help your brand grow.

Interested in more?

Sign up for a demo today.

The post 3 Ways to Ask Your Consumer Community for Product Reviews appeared first on TINT.

In this post, we will discuss some common mistakes marketers make regarding product reviews and how to avoid them. 

What are the Biggest Benefits of High-Quality Product Reviews?

• Increased brand credibility: Prospective consumers who see high-quality product reviews are more likely to trust your brand, and it will improve your overall brand equity.
• Improved conversion rates: An effective review strategy will lead to increased conversion rates and sales. A study found even one product review can result in a 10% increase in sales, and 200 reviews can result in as much as a 44% increase in sales.
• Meaningful consumer engagement: Encouraging consumers to write and respond to reviews can build stronger relationships that drive lasting brand loyalty.
• Valuable feedback: High-quality reviews can provide valuable input for marketers, allowing them to identify areas for improvement and make changes to their products or marketing strategies.
• Increased visibility: A successful product review strategy will drive visibility on search engines and ecommerce platforms, which can increase their traffic and attract more consumers.
• Cost-effective marketing: When done right, product reviews are a cost-effective form of marketing that attracts new sales without the need for expensive advertising campaigns.
• Competitive advantage: Getting product reviews “right” will give you a competitive advantage over other brands, and consumers are more likely to choose your products.

Mistake #1: Not Proactively Asking for Reviews Enough 

As the saying goes, “if you don’t ask, you don’t get,” and sometimes, well, marketers forget to ask. Developing a strategy to solicit authentic reviews on retail or direct-to-consumer e-commerce sites is crucial.

With technology today, brands can automate asking consumers for reviews & ratings, and new innovations are developed daily to make it more accessible, streamlined, and measurable. 

Top Ways to Ask for Product Reviews 

Action-based emails 

• According to customer reviews research, as much as 70% of reviews come from post-transactional review request emails.
• This includes sending a post-purchase email or a series of emails asking for a review. You can also set emails to be triggered after a particular time and strategically space emails out to ensure review recency. Review recency is a term to describe how current and up-to-date the present consumer reviews are for a particular product or service. 
• For example, if your product is popular during a specific time of year that results in an influx of sales, you could space out your review requests throughout the year to drive more recency. 
• Asking for reviews should always include a dedicated effort to thank consumers for their feedback and to respond to reviews when necessary. In fact, 52% of consumers expect to hear back from brands within seven days of giving an online review, particularly if it’s negative or critical.
  
• With technology integrations, product reviews can be syndicated across multiple retail websites, giving your reviews more “juice.” 

QR codes

• The “smart packaging” market is forecasted to grow to $7 billion in 2023, and on-product QR codes have gained traction as a way to showcase and request reviews. Additionally, QR Codes coupled with AR (Augmented Reality) are transforming how consumers interact with smart packaging. 
• Alcohol brand Bombay Sapphire deployed AR codes that make the bottle come alive when scanned by a smartphone. QR codes on product packaging are an excellent review collection strategy that is always on, especially if it’s part of your product’s packaging.

SMS texts

• Text messages have a 45% response rate, whereas email responses are at just 8%, making SMS a valuable channel for review collection. Like emails, SMS can be timed strategically to drive review recency. 

Mistake #2: Not Utilizing an Online Brand Community to Generate Ongoing Reviews

Review collection is, unfortunately, not a set-and-forget-it strategy. Too often, marketers run to one-off activations to spark a new “batch” of reviews once or twice a year. And while this strategy does work, it has drawbacks, including lapsing recency and quality control. 

Brands will have far more long-term success by investing in dedicated structures to cultivate meaningful consumer relationships that unlock a stream of product reviews. 

An online brand community integrated into the marketing strategy is a powerful “secret sauce” that could take your review strategy to the next level. It is the “fuel” for your ecommerce product pages; conversely, your product reviews can drive engagement in your online community.

Top Ways to Use an Online Brand Community for Product Reviews 

• Online communities benefit consumers through targeted and exclusive experiences as well as connecting like-minded people – who can exchange knowledge and tips about your products and services. 
• When you notice someone singing your praises, especially on multiple websites, reach out and invite them to join a dedicated online brand community. Strong consumer relationships help you identify high-quality writers and solicit reviews from consumers who best represent your brand’s target market. 
• When they join an online brand community, collect zero party data to help you understand shopping habits and lifestyle behaviors. 
• From this information, deliver targeted efforts (sampling, exclusive content, sneak peeks), prompt consumers to write online reviews, and drive velocity in ecommerce and in-store. 
• Hero Cosmetics, a fast-growing beauty brand, built its Hero Skin Squad as an extension of its brand’s website. It activates its community to write product reviews on brands they’ve tried, and it generated over 400 product reviews in the first 100 days of the community’s launch. 

Mistake #3: Focusing Too Much on the Number of Reviews 

There is no doubt the quantity of reviews is essential, but it’s important to remember that review volume fits among a set of traits shoppers look for when deciding what to purchase. 

A successful review strategy will check more than just one box. A common mistake brands can make is focusing too heavily on the number of reviews for their product or service while neglecting other parts, such as review quality, product star rating, and review recency. 

Making sure you’re generating product reviews from authentic and genuine consumers. Additionally, a McKinsey study found that improvements in a product’s star rating, even an increase as small as 0.2 stars, produced a meaningful improvement in sales.

Beyond review quality and star rating, you must maintain review recency. 

Close to 6 in 10 consumers say they would rather purchase a product with a smaller number of more recent reviews than a product with a large number of older reviews. 

Top Ways to Achieve Influential Product Reviews

• Be transparent about what you wish consumers to do. If you’re looking for a five-star rating, tell them. If you’re looking for more photo reviews, ask consumers for before/after photos. For review recency, follow up with them six months after their purchase to update their review.
  
• If your product has multiple SKUs, direct consumers to different product pages to help “spread the love.” 
• ARM & HAMMER’s Cat Litter brand started its Kitty Krew online brand community as a brand-owned “home base” for passionate consumers. Here the brand can identify ideal consumers and activate them to share reviews on particular retail websites based on where they shop. To date, the brand has generated over 5,300+ high-quality reviews from its community. 

Mistake #4: Not Offering Strong Enough Incentives for Leaving Reviews 

While many satisfied consumers are willing to share their experiences when asked (or even unprompted), relying entirely on organic reviews is a mistake. Incentivizing reviews is not the same as an inauthentic pay-per-review strategy. 

Offering an incentive for a review is often a customary gesture of appreciation from the brand. A study found that 68% of customers will leave a review if asked. 

Top Ways to Incentivize Product Reviews 

• Incentivizing consumers can be in the form of an entry into a sweepstake or receiving a free personalized sample. Always ensure the consumer discloses that they are being incentivized to maintain credibility. 
• Other encouragements can be done after the fact by featuring and showcasing top reviews. Recognize those who share a helpful review with surprise & delight gifts. 
• Ready-to-drink cocktail brand, BuzzBallz, drove authentic UGC and reviews with a summertime party bag, complete with brand swag and free product. Targeted consumers were directed to key retail websites to leave reviews, and the brand generated more than 2,000+ pieces of UGC and reviews. 

Mistake #5: Giving No Guidance to Consumers for How to Write Reviews 

Some brands will be “graciously disenchanted” with product reviews. Of course, you can’t be upset that people are sharing about your brand, but sometimes the content isn’t what you were picturing. 

While product reviews are often preached as raw, authentic, and untouched, a balance can be achieved where you can still help guide the consumer on what to focus on in their reviews. 

No consumer wants to feel like a shill for the brand. Consumers want to express themselves creatively, share their genuine opinions, and feel their voice is heard. However, consumers respond to prompts, and it is wise to help navigate consumers in the right direction.

Top Ways to Guide Consumers in Product Reviews 

• Decide which category of product review content you seek. A Journal of Electronic Commerce report identifies three different values of user-generated content (UGC): functional, emotional, and social. 
• Functional involves showing the unique benefits of your product or service, such as how-to videos, comparisons, etc. Emotional value is the emotional satisfaction or level of pleasure people experience, and social value is the positive contribution to one’s social image while experiencing your brand.
  
• Give a review “prompt” to consumers, such as “how did our brand compare to others you’ve tried in the past?” or “what have you noticed most when using our brand?” or “how did using our brand make you feel the first time you used it?” 
• It’s also okay to educate consumers on what makes a high-quality review. A high-quality product review will be objective and detailed. It is also written from personal experience, has clarity, is free from grammatical errors, offers comparisons, and is applicable to readers. Presenting examples of high-quality reviews is always helpful. 
• In addition to featuring customer reviews on their website, beauty retailer Sephora also has their “Beauty Insider Community,” where customers can share their product reviews, tips, and advice with other members of the Sephora community. This community provides a platform for customers to share honest opinions about products and allows Sephora to gather valuable customer feedback.

Mistake #6: Not Repurposing Reviews in Your Other Marketing 

UGC can be 6.6X more impactful than brand-created content and 8.7X more than even influencer-created content. 

Repurposing product reviews is part of how you can get more out of ratings & reviews investment. It can boost conversion across all your marketing channels and strengthen your brand’s trust and reputation. And at the end of the day, a library of consumer reviews is a powerful digital asset.

Top Ways to Repurpose Product Reviews in Your Marketing 

• Feature product reviews on your brand’s main website. Testimonials are highly valuable and are also relevant content for search engines. This will help you improve the SEO of your website and lead to higher rankings and traffic.
• Repurpose consumer reviews on your ecommerce landing page or the product informational section. This ensures consumers don’t miss some of the highest quality reviews while researching. Some brands will even feature UGC or video reviews as part of the product carousel to highlight key benefits. 
• Even if your email marketing is not explicitly sales-oriented all the time, you can still benefit from featuring consumer product reviews. Email campaigns that include UGC can see 73% higher clickthrough rates.
• Social media and online advertising are excellent places to repurpose reviews, especially photos, videos, quotes, and testimonials. To ensure transparency, make sure to get permission before using reviews. Many consumers are happy to have their content featured in your Instagram stories, Youtube videos, banner ads, or more. 
• Immune supplement brand, Sambucol started their Sambucrew community as a missing piece to a complete online presence and to bring their brand values to life through real customer experiences. The brand often features content from the library of 19,000+ pieces of UGC it has amassed. 

Mistake #7: Not Mining Product Reviews for Insights 

In the past, marketers were limited to expensive and time-consuming research studies to get actionable insights. Today, product reviews are a goldmine of ideas for product innovation, a channel for understanding market needs, and a source for getting to know your consumers better.

Today more than ever, agile insights can make or break your product’s go-to-market strategy, and product reviews are a great resource in your marketing toolbox. 

Top Ways to Gather Insights from Product Reviews

• For brands with thousands of reviews in multiple places, many tools and technology are available today to help sort through and analyze content. This can be done through sentiment analysis software or analyzing text-based data with natural language processing (NLP). 
• When analyzing product reviews, you can see what product features resonate most with consumers and highlight them in your marketing messaging. You can also understand what areas to dedicate R&D efforts to. 
• Ask consumers who have left a review to complete a survey about their experience or to participate in a focus group or in-depth interview.
• Invite reviewers to join an online brand community to gather further zero party data and personal information that can help optimize audience segmentation and targeting strategies. 
• Fast-growing frozen food brand, Veggies Made Great leveraged the product reviews fueled by its online brand community to dodge product launch risk. The brand targeted and solicited feedback from community members throughout the US to capture a variety of tastes, and within a week, had insights to deliver to the product development team. 

How TINT Can Help With Your Product Review Strategy 

Online brand communities are a prime channel for cultivating a product review strategy and boosting consumer engagement. Consumers feel like they are a part of something bigger than themselves while also creating efficiencies and streamlining efforts for product reviews. It’s truly a win-win scenario. 

TINT’s online brand community platform empowers you to mobilize your consumers in a dedicated branded destination and cultivate lasting relationships. With more than 20 engagement options available to brands and a team of community experts to help you get the most out of your reviews strategy, consumers are activated through a wealth of activities to participate in – including writing product reviews, creating user-generated photos and videos, completing surveys and polls, participating in discussions, amplifying ecommerce and in-store efforts, and much more.

Using TINT, brands can drive new customer acquisition significantly, secure emotional and long-term brand loyalty, and “future proof” with agile insights and ongoing reviews and data collection. 

Interested in more?

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The post 7 Things You’re Doing Wrong with Your Product Review Strategy appeared first on TINT.

However, if you’re also like most marketing teams, you probably also feel a constant demand by the c-suite to do more with less money and maximize ROI outcomes to the fullest extent possible. 

As you augment and optimize every channel to drive results across the entire marketing mix, squeezing the most out of your ratings & reviews investment will allow you to work smarter, not harder. 

Let’s talk about three ways to get more out of your ratings & reviews investment and what your brand can do today to see more value. 

1. Repurpose Consumer Reviews to Boost Authenticity on Other Brand Channels 

A majority of consumers say user-generated content (UGC) resonates as the most authentic content, with nearly 80% saying UGC highly impacts their purchase decisions. UGC was found to be 6.6X more impactful than brand-created content and 8.7X more than even influencer-created content. 

Most of these stats are intuitive. Consumers are savvier now than they ever have been. When people consider buying your product or service, they will be most influenced by real people sharing real experiences. They like to see how a meal featuring your brand looks by a non-professional chef, how a sweater fits on a “regular” body, and what kind of actual color pops from a particular shade of blush. 

Repurposing product reviews can boost conversion across your marketing channels and strengthen your brand’s trust and reputation. And at the end of the day, a library of consumer reviews is a powerful digital asset. Here are a few ways to repurpose your product reviews. 

Embed Product Reviews Throughout Your Brand Website or Blog

One way to repurpose positive product reviews is by featuring them on your brand’s main website. Testimonials are highly valuable and are also relevant content for search engines. This will help you improve the SEO of your website and lead to higher rankings and traffic. It could be anything from video testimonials, quotes, before and after photos, or customer interviews. 

Feature Consumer Reviews on Ecommerce Product Pages 

While many consumers will rely on the dedicated rating & reviews section on ecommerce pages, you can still repurpose consumer reviews on the product landing page or the product informational section. This ensures consumers don’t miss some of the highest quality consumer reviews while researching. Some brands will even feature UGC or video reviews as part of the product carousel to highlight key benefits. 

Showcase Product Reviews in Email Marketing 

Even if your email marketing is not explicitly sales-oriented all the time, you can still benefit from featuring consumer product reviews. Email campaigns that include UGC can see 73% higher clickthrough rates. You can do this by creating a content block with your brand’s most popular products or featuring a happy customer experience each month. Repurposing product reviews can also be a highly effective way to announce a product launch or innovation or to entice customers who have abandoned carts. 

Highlight UGC Product Reviews in Social Media Posts & Digital Advertising

Social media and online advertising are excellent places to repurpose reviews, especially photos and videos, but also quotes and testimonials. To ensure transparency, make sure to get permission before using reviews. Many consumers are happy to have their content featured in your Instagram stories, Youtube videos, banner ads, or more. 

A growing cohort of consumers are weary of carefully curated photos. In fact, a report found that adults can correctly identify if an image was created by a professional or generated by a consumer 70% of the time. The study also found that consumers punish brands that try to fake it; 30% of millennials have unfollowed a brand on social media because of inauthentic content. 

2. Cultivate an Online Community for Long-Term Relationship-Building 

When you’ve identified a group of happy customers, you want to take every step to ensure a lasting relationship of brand loyalty. After all, research shows increasing customer retention rates by 5% can boost profits by 25-95%. People who write high-quality product reviews are ideal “seeds” and an online brand community can be the garden from which you can nurture a thriving relationship. 

An online brand community is a dedicated online destination for brands to connect with consumers and form meaningful relationships that drive new sales, authentic advocacy, and lasting emotional loyalty. 

Invite Top Reviewers to Join an Online Brand Community 

When you notice someone singing your praises, especially on multiple websites, reach out to them to thank them for their feedback and invite them to join a dedicated online brand community. Online communities benefit consumers through targeted and exclusive experiences and connections with like-minded people who can exchange knowledge and tips about your products and services. 

Activate Targeted Shopper Marketing Efforts and Offers 

Product reviews are a great gateway to expanding further retail-specific strategies. When you invite top reviewers to an online brand community, you can start collecting zero party data to help you understand their online and offline shopping habits and their personal preferences, lifestyle behaviors, and values. From this information, you can deliver targeted efforts to drive velocity in ecommerce and at in-store shelves. 

Create Always-On Reviews and Boost Overall Engagement

An online brand community and consumer review strategy also have a symbiotic relationship. Your consumer community can often be the “fuel” for your product review pages; conversely, your product reviews can drive engagement in your online community.

This is highly valuable as consumers no longer just demand a high number of reviews for the products they’re considering but also expect product reviews to be current and authentic. 

• Immune supplement brand, Sambucol aimed to boost knowledge of its Elderberry and Sambucol technology, but most importantly, they wanted to create a two-way relationship with consumers. 
• They started their Sambucrew community as a missing piece to a complete online presence and to bring their brand values to life through real customer experiences.
• The brand delivers personalized product sampling and targeted activations to prompt consumers to write reviews and share personal stories on key channels. 
• The brand to date has generated over 19,000 pieces of user-generated content and reviews. 

3. Gather Insights From Feedback to Fuel Innovation and Fix Issues 

In the past, marketers were limited to expensive and time-consuming research studies to get actionable insights. Today, product reviews are a:

• Goldmine of ideas for product innovation
• Channel for understanding market needs
• Source for getting to know your consumers better 

This information leads to securing brand harmony and ensuring your product meets its promise. 

For brands with thousands of reviews in multiple places, there are loads of tools and technology available today to help sort through and analyze content. This can be done through sentiment analysis software or analyzing text-based data with natural language processing (NLP). 

These tools can help you identify customer feedback and behavior patterns and save you thousands of dollars in outside research studies. 

By analyzing product reviews, you can see what product features resonate most with consumers and highlight them in your marketing messaging. You can also understand what areas to dedicate R&D efforts to. 

Product reviews can also be a lagging indicator of something needing to be corrected. As Bill Gates once said, “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” 

This is also why having a direct relationship with consumers (ahem, like through an online brand community) is important to empower your team with agile insights that can make or break your product’s go-to-market strategy. 

• Fast-growing frozen food brand, Veggies Made Great leveraged its product reviews fueled by its online brand community to dodge product launch risk. 
• The brand targeted and solicited feedback from community members throughout the US to capture a variety of tastes, and within a week, had insights to deliver to the product development team. 
• With key modifications, the brand was saved from releasing a product that didn’t meet consumer needs. 

Interested in more?

Sign up for a demo today

The post How to Get More Out of Your Ratings & Reviews Investment appeared first on TINT.

A study found that nearly 40% of consumers say they won’t make a purchase if reviews are older than a year, and ideally, almost half (44%) say they want access to reviews within the past month.

In today’s world, the quantity of product reviews is no longer enough to satisfy online shoppers. Brands can quickly lose potential sales if their reviews grow stale, and it’s critical to create proactive strategies for an ongoing stream of fresh consumer ratings & reviews. 

Review recency is no longer a nice-to-have component of generating product reviews. Let’s talk about what review recency means, why it’s important, and how you can make sure your reviews stay fresh. 

What is Review Recency?

Review recency is a term to describe how current and up-to-date the present consumer reviews are for a particular product or service. 

Review recency fits among a set of traits shoppers look for when deciding what to purchase. It is one of the critical pillars of a successful review strategy which also includes the following:

• Review volume or quantity – the literal number of reviews for a particular product or service
• Review quality – the legitimacy and helpfulness of the product reviews 
• Review frequency – how often consumers are writing reviews

What are the Benefits of Review Recency?

Recent Reviews Build Trust with Potential Customers 

Products evolve and change over time, and buyers often want to know what other people think about your product or service right now. Think about an online purchase you’re considering or researching (we know you have one), would you trust a product with thousands of reviews, but they were all from two or three years ago? Or would you rather trust a product with fewer reviews from last week?

Close to 6 in 10 consumers say they would rather purchase a product with a smaller number of more recent reviews than a product with a large number of older reviews. A product or service with recent reviews will offer reassurance to prospective customers that they have the most accurate representation of the current brand experience. 

Recent Reviews Correct Potential Reputation Issues

Product reviews can often be a lagging indicator of a product quality issue. Sometimes there is a product defect or a customer service issue, which can, unfortunately, result in a batch of negative reviews. However, the more recent your positive reviews are on your product page, the less influence poor reviews will have on your overall product rating.

Recent Reviews Aid in Discoverability and Traffic 

Every product review can be valuable SEO juice, and recency will always be a significant factor to search engine algorithms. Up-to-date reviews can lead to increased traffic and better search rankings. Visibility alone is often the deciding factor in whether or not you or your competitor get the sale. Roughly 55% of consumers say they read at least four reviews before buying a product. Make no mistakes that they are paying attention to when the reviews were written.

When Does Review Recency Matter Most? 

While recency is essential across all categories, consumer research behavior can vary based on the product or service they are considering. 

• Research indicates that the top categories where recency matters most are Consumer Electronics, Appliances, Health and Beauty, Apparel, and Home Improvement/Furniture.
• However, this same research found some categories where the value of recent reviews heavily outweighs the number of reviews. In categories like Dry Goods/CPG and Perishable Products, review recency is favored over review volume by 43 percentage points and 41 percentage points, respectively. 
• Other categories where recency is heavily favored include Pet Products and Toys. 

For CPG marketers, review recency should be an important part of your overall CPG ecommerce strategy.

Tactics to Increase Review Recency for Your Brand 

Now that we’ve covered why review recency is so critical, let’s talk about what steps you can take to ensure that you have a steady stream of new product reviews. 

Mobilize an Online Brand Community to Drive Ongoing Reviews

Among the shifting landscape of disappearing cookies and the increased importance of gathering owned, zero party data, generating product reviews is another great reason to invest in direct consumer relationships. 

Online brand communities have become a natural intersection of emotionally-fueled engagement and ample opportunity to activate product reviews.

• Fast-growing premium beauty brand, Hero Cosmetics, aimed to cultivate a group of passionate consumers to strengthen brand relationships while generating product reviews. 
• They created their Hero Skin Squad community as a place for consumers to participate in interactive digital experiences and through this, the brand can mobilize satisfied consumers to share their experiences with Hero products on key retail and ecommerce channels. 
• Each community member has a personalized community dashboard with various activities from surveys to sampling to discussions. Hero makes sharing a product review an evergreen activity available for happy consumers and has generated close to 2,000 product reviews. 

An online community platform is also great for showcasing user-generated content and recognizing consumers who have shared high-quality reviews. Alternatively, you can acknowledge community members for offering constructive feedback that led to product improvements. This helps create a “culture” of social proof for your brand and encourages people to add their voices to a chorus of other consumers. 

Automate Asking for Reviews As Much As Possible

As the saying goes, “if you don’t ask, you don’t get,” and sometimes, well, marketers forget to ask. With technology today, brands can automate asking consumers for reviews & ratings, and new innovations are developed daily to make it more accessible, streamlined, and measurable. 

Review collection can be automated through:

• Action-based emails – this includes sending a post-purchase email asking for a review. You can also set emails to be triggered after a particular time period and strategically space emails out to ensure review recency. For example, if your product is popular in the holiday season and that time of year creates an influx of sales, you could space out your review requests throughout the year to drive more recency.
• QR codes – The “smart packaging” market is forecasted to grow to $7 billion in 2023, and on-product QR codes have gained traction as a way to showcase and request reviews. Additionally, QR Codes coupled with AR (Augmented Reality) are transforming the way consumers interact with smart packaging. Alcohol brand Bombay Sapphire deployed AR codes that make the bottle come alive when scanned by a smartphone. QR codes are an excellent review collection strategy that is always on, especially if it’s part of your product’s packaging
• SMS texts – Text messages have a 45% response rate, whereas email responses are at just 8%, making it a valuable channel for review collection. Like emails, SMS can be timed strategically to drive review recency. 

Personalized Product Sampling 

Eighty-eight percent of shoppers like the idea of free samples, with more than half willing to write a review of the product and a third willing to post about it on social media. 

With the right product sampling marketing platform, marketers can create product sampling programs that activate specific audiences to try a product and share their experience on certain retail and ecommerce channels. 

This tactic is especially helpful for new product launches but also can help with product innovations or products with stale reviews. By creating campaign flights of personalized product sampling throughout the year, your review pages will have a steady stream of reviews. 

The most important element of incentivized product reviews is authenticity. It’s important that participants disclose their review was facilitated by a free product experience in order to foster authentic brand advocacy. But just because a review is incentivized does not mean it is not high-quality. 

This is why targeting and relationship-building are so critical. When you can identify consumers who are top-notch review writers, you can strategically deliver product experiences to spark new reviews.

• Growing natural immune support brand, EZC Pak, is challenged with generating product trial that showcases consumer experiences at scale.
• They created the EZC Pak Immunity Community to deliver personalized sampling to targeted consumers to share their product experiences. This included writing reviews on key retail websites such as CVS/Rite Aid.
• The brand generated over 5,000+ pieces of user-generated content in just six months

Interested in more?

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The post 3 Ways to Maintain Review Recency appeared first on TINT.

You’re not alone. Two out of three shoppers read between one and 10 reviews before making a purchase. Ratings and reviews fuel consumers’ purchase decision-making process, helping them understand and evaluate the differences between brands. And they’ve become essential to brands seeking to build trust, drive awareness, and convert sales. 

As a marketer, it’s critical to build a review generation strategy that makes it easy for your fans and advocates to share their love and leave reviews. Here’s what you need to know. 

Why Is Review Generation Important?

Now more than ever, online reviews of products and services play a significant role in the purchasing process for consumers. It only takes a quick Google search to find ratings and reviews from other customers on any product or service in the market. 

Reviews help separate the buzz around the marketing of a product from the reality of using the product. With so many brands out there, browsing review pages helps consumers quickly make decisions without spending too much time going in-depth with their research.

Here’s the thing. Not every review is valuable. 

Some reviews are illegitimate, from paying off reviewers to third-party profiles providing fake reviews of products or services. Other reviews are just weak, without the details and desire to share information that makes them useful to consumers. Fake and detrimental reviews can quickly lead consumers to become wary of your brand.

That’s what makes creating an authentic strategy for review generation all the more valuable.

How To Generate More Authentic Product Reviews

It’s one thing to understand how important authenticity is to your reviews. It’s another to figure out how to efficiently and effectively get more ratings and reviews that carry weight with your consumers. 

Here are some of our tips.

1. Take advantage of product sampling

One of the easiest ways to generate more reviews is by using a product sampling strategy. 

We all know product sampling is an incredibly effective way to convert new customers and gain attention in a competitive market. 

But a product sampling strategy can also be used to help encourage more reviews. Providing customers with free samples of your product in exchange for an honest, authentic review is one of the best strategies for creating a pipeline of reviews. 

Product sampling can also be used to attract influencers to your product. We’re not talking about influencers with over 1 million followers, either. We’re talking about nano influencers.

Research shows that influencers with lower follower counts (from 1,000 to 10,000 followers) are actually more approachable, accessible, and genuine. This also translates to the reviews that they leave in exchange for free samples, which means that you’re more likely to receive authentic feedback.

2. Streamline your review process

It’s difficult to generate reviews if your review process is complicated. More often than not, your customers will simply click away from the review page once they realize how difficult it is to review your products. 

That’s if they can even find your review page at all.

The stats are already lopsided as it is. Although nearly 90% of customers use reviews to fuel their purchasing decisions, less than half of customers take the time to leave their own reviews.

There are several ways to make it easier for your customers to leave reviews. 

One way is to ask for a review post-purchase. Send a follow-up email after purchase asking your customers for an honest and authentic review of your product. Reach out to customers who make positive social media posts about your product with a request for a review. A genuine request often generates an authentic review in return. 

Another option is to create a seamless path for your customers to leave their review. If customers can easily see where your review button is located and it only takes a click or two to get there, chances are better that they’ll actually take the time to leave one. 

3. Encourage customers to post photo or video reviews

Nothing increases the authenticity of a review than actual proof that the consumer has the product in hand. 

When you encourage customers to leave a photo or video review, their review appears far more authentic and genuine. The reader knows that the product is in the reviewer’s hands.

If you want to encourage more photo or video reviews, offering a reward can help. For example, use your online community or loyalty programs to reward customers with points or other types of rewards when a review is left with a photo or a video.

And once you have reviews with photos or video, be sure to spotlight them on your website. What better way to highlight real people using – and loving – your product or service.

4. Follow up with reviewers

A simple “thank you” goes a long way toward making reviewers feel special.

When you follow up with reviewers, whether it’s directly on your reviews platform or on social media, others may feel encouraged to leave their own review. The personal connection that you create when you reach out to customers directly can’t be understated. 

Whether it’s a positive review or a negative one, take the time to reach out. After all, the customer took the time to leave the review in the first place.

5. Don’t be afraid of negative reviews 

There’s no way to hide bad reviews. Even if there was a way, it wouldn’t be an effective tactic.

On the contrary, negative reviews are an important part of improving your product and your customer experience.

As we mentioned earlier, following up with reviewers is important. Following up with negative reviewers is even more important. It gives you the chance to potentially right a wrong. Depending on what the negative review is about, it could be your chance to help repair a bad relationship between brand and customer. 

Negative reviews also allow you to learn from mistakes and fix issues with your product, service, or customer experience. 

Use These Tips to Accelerate Your Collection of Authentic Ratings & Reviews

Ratings and reviews help paint a picture of your brand, from the products you offer to the overall customer experience that you provide. 

However, we understand how difficult it can be to cultivate them. Not everyone wants to take the time to leave a review, regardless of the impact your product or service has on them. 

Hopefully these tips will help you craft your own authentic ratings and review strategy to elevate your brand awareness, increase consideration and conversion, and accelerate your new consumer acquisition.

Like Even More Help With Review Generation?

TINT’s community platform provides brand marketers with the tools to easily and continually generate authentic reviews at scale. To learn how – or to discuss anything related to generating ratings & reviews – reach out to us. Your audience is waiting.

Sign up for a demo today

The post Tips For Building an Effective Review Generation Strategy appeared first on TINT.

By Susan Frech, CEO and Co-Founder

On a very basic level, the definition of being loyal to a brand means you repeat the purchase of a product or service rather than taking your business elsewhere. Marketers are often focused squarely on the financial aspect of being loyal. They regularly design new ways to solicit the next purchase, to stay top-of-mind through targeted advertising or to upsell other products or services in the brand portfolio, with offers of points or discounts as an enticement.

However, many marketers are neglecting the relationship a brand builds with its audience in between purchases – the emotional part of being loyal to a brand. Emotional loyalty transcends transactional behavior, tapping into underlying motivations and deep-held beliefs. Research has found that on a lifetime value basis, emotionally connected customers are more than twice as valuable as even highly satisfied customers. So while many marketers are busy gathering mounds of data and analyzing activity across various systems like brick-and-mortar stores, e-commerce, loyalty programs, and third-party channels – all in the name of improving satisfaction – they are missing the opportunity to obtain the real competitive differentiator.

Emotionally-connected consumers buy more products and services, visit more often, exhibit less price sensitivity, pay more attention to content, follow advice, and recommend the brand to others. In another study, it was found that 70% of consumers with a high emotional engagement spend up to twice as much with those brands as consumers with low emotional engagement. In fact, they found that retailers could see a 5% boost to annual revenues by driving emotional engagement with consumers. Marketers who deploy emotional loyalty strategies and prioritize the customer experience will find it drives meaningful financial outcomes.

I know what you may be thinking. How can I create emotional connections when I can barely get a consumer to open an email? People are constantly bombarded with content vying for their attention. When you finally break through the clutter and get a consumer’s eyes or ears, how can you not seize the opportunity to ask for the sale?

The truth is emotional connections are just as critical to maintaining market share as traditional loyalty strategies designed to encourage repeat purchase. For brands to have long-term staying power, marketers must embrace a dedicated strategy for this “in-between place.”

Make Your Website a Personalized Engagement Destination Fueled by Zero-party Data

In the past decade, brand websites have evolved from being information-gathering hotspots to elegant digital productions that host a variety of functions like e-commerce, video-sharing and social integration. However, this central digital asset is often stuck in broadcast mode, which leads to flat, uninspiring interactions that lose a consumer’s attention. In order to deliver engagement that speaks to emotional needs, brands must first understand what those needs are. This is why a zero-party data strategy is critical throughout the entire customer lifecycle. Marketers are becoming increasingly wary of using first and third-party data as it can be particularly unreliable. As a result, zero-party data is coming to the forefront, and it thrives on capturing insights like values, preferences, and behaviors. Better yet, it is data that is fully owned by the brand.

This is an opportunity to transform your brand’s online presence into a positive, transparent feedback loop between the data given and the value received. In order to provide a tangible value exchange that triggers emotional motivators in-between purchases, marketers should provide enjoyable experiences that enable them to collect values-based personal information at the same time. This can include polls, quizzes, surveys or customer stories. Then, marketers can use this information to deliver brand interactions that highlight values shared by the consumer, creating one-of-a-kind experiences that make people feel valued, special and appreciated.

With all this said, marketers need to be very thoughtful about how they personalize experiences or they run the risk of frustrating and alienating people or leaving the impression that their data is being mistreated.

A Winning Community Strategy is a Winning Emotional Loyalty Strategy

Beyond assessing a brand for the efficacy of its product or service, an emotionally-connected consumer will view a brand as a reflection of their lifestyle. Researchers have found hundreds of emotional motivators that impact consumer behavior, but one of the most prominent is feeling a sense of belonging. Others included “feeling secure,” “confident in the future,” “standing out from the crowd” and “succeeding in life.” This is why it’s important for marketers to provide tools for meaningful community connection. Your brand’s online presence needs to appear alive with activity and energy. When consumers interact with your brand, they will look to engage with other consumers who are like them.

Many think of community-building as focused entirely on brand fandom, with the brand at the center of attention. But a community is about empowering people to tell the story of who they are and what they stand for. A successful community is built around a common purpose and it is an effective way to embody the brand’s core values (87% of consumers overwhelmingly choose brands that match their values.) The most significant step a brand can take is setting the background and building the foundation for the community to flourish. Without community, a brand set on capturing the hearts of consumers will sputter.

Keeping consumers from abandoning your brand is difficult for today’s marketers. Brands must always be listening and making improvements and appealing to the higher-order benefits that consumers truly seek and value. By setting emotional connections as the “true north” of a brand’s investment in pre and post-purchase interactions they will, in turn, reap significant financial rewards and a committed base of engaged consumers.

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The post As Seen in Loyalty360: Cultivating Emotional Loyalty in the “In Between” Place appeared first on TINT.