Consumers no longer trust marketing and advertising. Even digital advertising is suffering, with overall click-through rates across all ad formats and placements at a bleak 10%. This makes brand differentiation necessary and customer reviews more important than ever.
The strategy, then, should not simply be to market the product directly. You can present it more effectively through your customers.
Anyone can express an opinion about a brand through online reviews. Customer feedback is recognised as a valuable form of social proof. If you are not using customer reviews in your marketing campaigns, you are ignoring the most important voice available to you.
Let us look at examples of how to incorporate customer feedback, remain authentic and make a substantial impact.
Ways to Use Customer Reviews in Marketing
1. Use Customer Reviews at Key Touchpoints
85% of consumers take other users' recommendations as seriously as personal opinions. Analyses show that people read at least 10 reviews before making a purchase. Before trusting you, consumers want to learn from other people's experiences what they can expect from the same transaction.
How can those experiences encourage a purchase?
Build consumer confidence by showing existing customers' experiences with your company. Key pages include your homepage and other high-traffic pages, such as product, pricing, checkout and landing pages. Reviews here demonstrate transparency and give consumers the reassurance they need to complete a purchase.
For example, consider how dolap.com, a second-hand clothing marketplace, uses product reviews:
2. Use Reviews in Search
Search engines do not rank your pages solely on how well they are built. They also consider what you offer people and what those people think about you.
Customer reviews help demonstrate how you meet prospective customers' expectations and the quality of your service. Maintaining a consistent flow of fresh reviews can also help you obtain rich cards and Google seller ratings.
The benefit in Google Ads: Seller ratings displayed beneath text ads help people searching on Google find businesses that offer quality service. Seller ratings can help advertisers improve advertising performance and attract more qualified leads.
The orange stars, score and number of reviews provide useful feedback for searchers. Before shoppers even visit your website, this helps your listing stand out and establish trust ahead of competitors.
3. Use Customer Reviews on Social Channels
Enabling your audience to interact with other consumers can deliver a substantial marketing benefit. It can turn an undecided visitor into a loyal customer who shops with you regularly.
It would be incomplete to say that every plan succeeds with the right structure alone. A brand should approach a dissatisfied customer with the same care it takes to win a customer's favour. Satisfying the customer matters more than making a marketing strategy succeed.
For purchases that matter to them, consumers often research brands on social media and other review networks before looking at the brand's own website. They examine what existing users say and assess the reviews. At this point, one in four users starts the buying process through social media. It is therefore reasonable to say that customer reviews belong on your social channels.
Digital marketers recognise email as the best channel for ROI, earning ten times more for every ₺5 spent. Using positive reviews in email messages therefore affects click-through and conversion rates while building credibility away from your website.
4. Use Reviews in Ads and Marketing Materials
88% of consumers believe ads are more trustworthy when they include online reviews. Ads created with customers who have used the product receive four times as many clicks.
MailMyPrescription incorporated reviews into product videos so that customers could tell their own stories.
Start Strengthening Your Reputation
With 92% of consumers reading reviews as part of their purchasing decisions, it is important to display customer feedback more often. This gives you more opportunities to build trust throughout the user journey and turn customers into conversions.
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