In product marketing / development, we constantly hear about the importance of reviews. With the pandemic completely changing the shape of consumer purchasing habits, this has increased dramatically. Discovering beauty products was once a 1 to 1 experience, with consumers visiting a store to enjoy a first-hand assessment of a product. Nowadays, this just isn’t as feasible as it once was. Instead, consumers are turning to online reviews as part of their discovery phase. In the early months of the pandemic, reviews interaction was up by 89%. This staggering statistic shows us reviews are more important now than ever. Keep reading to find out why your health and beauty brand needs them and, more importantly, how to get them…
Research
According to a study by Trustpilot, since the pandemic 25% of people are spending more on beauty products and 55% of people are spending more on health products. People are spending more and more on health & beauty, but with the various lockdowns meaning word of mouth is no longer an effective way to discover a product, reviews are now a much bigger part of the research phase of the user journey. It’s essential that your reviews are up to date as the older the reviews are, the less a consumer will take note of them. Plus, older reviews have lower SEO value, so won’t rank as high in Google SERPs.
Supporting conversion rate
With lots of different conflicting articles about what’s good or bad, and not to mention differing advice based on skin or hair type, you can forgive consumers for feeling a little confused with knowing where to start. That’s why it’s essential that your health and beauty brand has UGC in the form of reviews. To help your customer decide what’s best for them and ultimately make a purchase with you. According to Qualtrics, 93% of customers read online reviews before buying a product. You really can’t underestimate the power of reviews in supporting a healthy conversion rate.
Scepticism of influencers
Using influencers is a great way to develop brand awareness and recognition. Your product being used in a high-quality setting is undoubtedly an effective way to create genuine interest. However, a recent survey by YouGov found that 96% of people in the UK were sceptical of what influencers say. Respondents indicated that they felt influencers can sometimes lack clarity and transparency. This shows us that influencers should always be considered as one part of a wider campaign, rather than relying solely on them. The second part will be having genuine reviews in place to reinforce the information that is shared.
Understanding the strengths and weaknesses
It’s not ideal but if your product has been negatively received, ultimately, it’s better that you know about it. Dissatisfied customers typically tell 9 to 15 other people about their experience; some tell 20 or more. Having this person leave a review will give you the opportunity to fix the problem and prevent any other customers from telling more people. Plus, if you deal with the complaint well, others will be able to see that you care and are addressing the issues or concerns. You may even find the customer willing to respond or update their review.
Now on to how you go about generating these all-important reviews for your health and beauty product. Here’s our 4 step plan engage not just current customers but also past and future too…
1. Ask via your product listings
Simple and effective. People usually only think of including reviews on product listings as a way of supporting conversion. That’s true, but why not also use it as a way of generating even more reviews? Including a ‘leave a review’ button in with your reviews will ensure that you’re always generating new content – and not relying too heavily on content of the past. Think of it as an evergreen reviews lifecycle… Your SEO team will love it!
2. Tell customers how do it – and ask ask ask!
To get reviews from current customers all you need to do is ask! Keeping a mention or even a banner on all customer touch points is a fantastic way to get more reviews. I mean, who’s more qualified to leave a review than a current customer? To make it easier for the customer, give lots of information about how to do it and ask as few questions as possible in the reviews process. Essentially, to get the most out of this activity, you need to make it super easy and straight forward for your customer. The more difficult or laborious the process is, the fewer people will be inclined to complete it.
3. Sampling
A targeted online sampling campaign is not just a great way to get your product into the right people’s hands, it’s also a great way of generating reviews. An average of 10 to 15% of consumers leave a review after sampling a product, allowing your brand to get a high volume of reviews and do it quickly. Great for when launching a new product, as it’s not always practical to ask when you’ve just launched. Sampl integrates with leading review platforms to capture reviews seamlessly and have them populate to your website and/or retail partners. More information on how to run a successful sampling campaign can be found here.
4. Run a competition
Finally, you could also run a competition to generate interest for past purchasers who did not leave a review. Many people aren’t prone to leave a review simply because they don’t feel strongly either way. Sending out a communication offering those that leave a review the opportunity to be entered into a draw will help to encourage those who are neutral to do so. Understandably, most review sites won’t allow you to offer an incentive for just positive reviews. Instead, be a little more selective with who you target the campaign to. Try to think about targeting those who are neutral, rather than those who may have left a review already.
Get in touch today on +44 (0) 20 3974 7458 or sayhello@samplmarketing.com to find out how Sampl. can support your health and beauty brand in getting new product reviews for your product listings.
