E-reputation reflects a brand’s image on the Internet at a given time, particularly through user reviews. Even before weighing the pros and cons of positive or negative reviews, it’s important to understand how to generate and collect user feedback. Discover how to take care of your e-reputation by obtaining product reviews and increase your conversion rate!
E-reputation, Why Bother?
Regardless of the sector or brand, the Internet has infiltrated all relationships between businesses and consumers. According to an IFOP study conducted in February 2019, 55% of French respondents have already published a review on products or services. 80% of them have used social networks to express themselves about a brand, both to report their dissatisfaction and to praise its merits. Having a good reputation on the web has therefore become essential, especially in certain sectors where consumers particularly rely on customer reviews before making a purchase: we can think of nutrition, tech, beauty, wellness, or baby products.
To address this new challenge, many companies have hired a Community Manager: publishing content on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram, brands compete in inventiveness to improve their online image and win new customers. But the Community Manager alone cannot make the brand known and generate real sales. Consumer reviews then have a big role to play!
The Importance of Obtaining Reviews
Customer reviews are almost always linked to a personal experience with the product. They therefore have the power to boost sales as they reassure the internet user who sees themselves in the comment they are reading. Indeed, according to a Nielsen study, nearly 88% of internet users consult customer reviews before making a purchase, hence the need to generate positive reviews. But what about negative reviews? Some brands mistakenly think that allowing consumers to leave their opinion is a danger to the general opinion of the product or brand. But a negative review can often be as constructive as a positive one. Let’s take a simple example: a customer buys a cream for dry skin but finds that it doesn’t suit her skin type. By leaving her review with her skin type, she completes the product sheet and reduces the information asymmetry between brand and consumer by providing this precision. Or, when buying a computer, scrutinizing comments related to the different characteristics of the product will help verify the accuracy of the information present in the description sheet. In summary: consumer reviews are now IN-DIS-PEN-SABLE!
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Trustt is a digital marketing solution that allows you to create a virtuous circle between your brand and your consumers.Techniques for Obtaining Reviews
Listing Products on Online Platforms
Today there are numerous online platforms allowing the sharing of information about products from all brands. These have the power to significantly influence purchases of consumers, who are accustomed to searching them before validating their cart. Indeed, by providing a wide range of products on which everyone can give their opinion and share advice, they are an ideal solution that internet users employ as a real guide.
Readers of these comments, or even articles, can easily get an idea of the product quality they wish to buy, the optimal way to use it, and whether it will suit their needs.
As a bonus, they allow internet users to express themselves freely and “without filter” after testing a product, which therefore reinforces the confidence that readers of these platforms place in the reviews they browse. E-reputation thus relies not only on the brand image through its own communication channels, but also on factors that are more difficult to control, such as comments that testers share on different types of sites (on your online store’s product pages, on review collection platforms, in blog articles, by publishing content on social media, by writing a review on Google…).
Organize Product Tests
To get reviews, there’s no secret, you need to encourage your potential customers to test your products! And for that, nothing is more effective than product testing campaigns. These campaigns indeed have more than one trick up their sleeve: whether it’s asking for consumer opinions on the launch of a new product, a new packaging, or simply giving an extra boost to one of your best-sellers, product tests are an effective way to directly engage your audience. By being chosen to participate in a test, consumers and influencers feel invested with a mission: to post, at the end of the test, clear and detailed content in order to report on their own experience and inform a community of potential buyers.
Some brands have well understood the interest of product tests, especially when they involve influencers. Not only will an influencer be able to produce quality content to share their advice and feelings about your product, but they will also share it with their followers, be they many or few. Choose influencers who can provide relevant reviews with high added value for your web page.
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Use Sponsorship on Social Media
Social media have given rise to a new marketing lever: sponsored publications. Like a classic advertising campaign, the use of sponsorship on social media addresses several challenges for companies. Highlighting the company’s presence on networks where the brand’s audience is already strong, standing out from competitors through the creation of a universe, or targeting mass audiences using social media databases. Sponsorship allows you to gather reviews: sometimes it’s enough to encourage your followers to give their opinions directly on your Instagram or Facebook posts. Often, hundreds of comments will be available right below your posts. Be careful, however, social media allow for immediacy and spontaneity but do not guarantee a 100% reliable review. Moreover, it is difficult to reuse them on other media like your product page.
Work on Email Marketing
An almost ancestral marketing technique, email marketing remains today a privileged way to maintain your e-reputation and to obtain reviews. The call-to-action encourages your subscribers to give their opinions. Introduce a “I give my opinion” button in a typical Newsletter email, or even better, in a post-purchase email to boost your engagement rate (marketing automation technique). Remember that a customer will be much more inclined to leave their review if they are invited to do so, so don’t neglect the call-to-action!
Use a Solution
Product tests, publishing content on social media, effective email marketing… You have all the tools at hand to get plenty of reviews for your product pages. However, implementing these three levers can be time-consuming and tricky: how do you organize a product testing campaign, by the way?
Don’t worry anymore: solutions like Trusst are here to help you skyrocket your KPIs and become a leader in your own market! Trustt takes care of automating your testing campaigns for you, carefully selecting a panel of strategic consumers and influencers to help you collect your best product reviews… But also to help you generate quality User Generated Content thanks to satisfied influencers and to make your brand name resound in newsletters that drive traffic to your online store!
So, are you ready to boost your e-reputation?
