Looking for a way to punch up your email campaigns and get subscribers more engaged with your site? Product reviews may be the answer. With Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the holiday shopping season on the horizon, your customers are looking for the best deal, and the best gifts for their loved ones. Implementing product review functionality on your site can help seal the deal and convince them to click the “Add to Cart” button, not to mention that reviews can help build trust in your products and overall brand. Let’s look at some creative ways you can tie this tactic into your email marketing campaigns, along with some examples…
Product Review Campaigns
Once you implement review technology on your site, send email campaigns asking your customers to start utilizing it. Be sure to sell them on the idea, and provide clear instructions on how to leave a review. Many online retailers offer an incentive like a chance to win a gift card, free shipping on your next order, etc. Others promote the community feeling or the exclusivity of being part of the reviewing elite. Check out these great email examples from DSW, Giggle, and CB2.
Triggered Purchase Review Emails
If you have a more sophisticated system, you can set up automatically triggered messages to send to your customers after they have purchased and received their order. Again, incentives and clear instructions and tips for writing a review go a long way. See for example these fantastic emails from Overstock and The Gap.
Using Reviews to Promote Products in Email
Now that you’ve got product reviews, use them! They’re not only handy for online shoppers, but they can increase your clickthrough and conversion rates when they are used in your email content. Petco, REI and Bliss have done a nice job with these and each created their own unique twist (using rating system of stars or paws, and just plain great testimonial quotes).
Using Reviews to Promote Engagement
Reviews help foster a feeling of community, give your customers a voice and bring your website to life. Think outside of the products for a minute, and consider what else your subscribers could review to contribute to the site and keep them coming back. REI launched a Trip Review site for travel buffs, bringing customers together and promoting travel… indirectly boosting branding, site engagement and possibly even sales as customers may need to purchase REI products in preparation for their trip. You can see the email campaign they sent promoting the site here.
There’s No Such Thing as Bad Publicity
A lot of companies worry that providing review functionality will open them up to negative reviews and inhibit shoppers. Contrarily, a fascinating recent study found that even bad reviews boost sales… in fact, having negative reviews sends a message to the customer that they can trust your site. If your reviews were 100% positive, that could trigger doubt in the mind of the consumer. Additionally, reviews can help you improve your site (e.g. the sweater color was not represented accurately in the photo), as well as the products you sell (e.g. gain a better understanding customer use and expectations). So what are you waiting for? Get those reviews going! And if you’re already doing them, please share your thoughts and tips in the comments below.
Julie Waite
Email Marketing Strategist at Bronto
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Julie,
Good tips and pointers. I would only add that just recognizing the fact that subscriber and customer engagement is critical these days is probably the first important step.
On a separate note, I think this is a great find: “A lot of companies worry that providing review functionality will open them up to negative reviews and inhibit shoppers. Contrarily, a fascinating recent study found that even bad reviews boost sales…” That’s a point worth repeating.
Thank you,
-Stas Antons
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I have had a customer buy my product because she recognised the name of her university lecturer and realised the reviews were genuine! It also helps to include their suburb or state as these will come up in search results for customers living in those areas who want to buy locally.