Shall we talk reviews? Not in the mood to talk? No worries.
Perhaps a meme?
The day I figured out how to make my own memes, my life changed for the better (and your life changed for the worse). Let’s continue.
As humans we’re wired to do things or like things that other people do or like.
Us marketers should ALWAYS be using social proof on our landing pages and websites. In our ads. On our owned social. In our emails. In our texts. Slap social proof on EVERYTHING.
What’s the most effective type of social proof? I’m so glad you asked!
In my experience, the best form of social proof comes from cold, hard, auto-approving, never filtered, never creepily solicited, never edited… REVIEWS!! And, many thousands of ’em ideally.
REVIEWS: WHAT TO DO
1. Choose the right tech.
I’m a die-hard Okendo girl.
2. Stylize your review section on site!
We can’t Go-to-Millions by cutting corners. YOUR REVIEWS NEED TO FEEL NATIVE. THEY NEED TO MATCH THE PDP’s THEY SIT ON.
Mix and match here – some hard-coded reviews that you cherry-pick (cart / homepage / checkout if on Shopify Plus) and some widget (PDP, collections page).
3. Auto-publish all reviews.
1 star reviews get published. When you hide a review, the customer who left that review switches from an unsatisfied customer to a ROYALLY PISSED CUSTOMER.
If you hide their review, they won’t just go away. They’ll find you!!
REVIEWS: WHAT NOT TO DO
1. Don’t send your review request TOO early
Trigger your first review requests to send at least ~5 business days AFTER the product is marked as delivered.
Do you know the amount of 1 star reviews I’ve seen that say this: I gave this 1 star because it didn’t even arrive!!
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Yes, in this instance, your customer is being rude. But, it’s still on you.
2. Don’t request by email ONLYSMS = THE FUTURE
3. Don’t forget to back off
I love reviews, I really do. However, sometimes you just gotta call it a day. If your customer has opened your review requests without taking the action of leaving a review, then at some point it’s better to leave them alone.
When you repeatedly ask (over and over and over), you’re kinda begging them to give you a bad rating, aren’t you?
REVIEWS: DON’T YOU DARE
1. Never, ever lie about your reviews
THAT’S SCARY. IT’S WORSE THAN NOT HAVING REVIEWS ON SITE.
SKETCHYYYYY. DON’T DO IT. I’M A GROWTH MARKETER – I LOVE TO PUSH THE LIMITS. LOOK AT ME NOW. I’M USING ALL CAPS.
However, you’ll never catch me altering or running away from customer feedback – your customers are in charge and their opinions (and your ability to make them truly happy) will dictate your success.