5 Elements of a Successful Product Review Email Campaign
How to Craft Winning Product Review Emails That Convert
Yes! You got the online sale! But that doesn’t mean you should let the engagement with your customers end there. Post-purchase product review emails are a great tool for helping e-commerce businesses build brand credibility, boost search engine rankings, and drive sales. Here’s why you need them, plus some tips on how to craft them.
Product Reviews Have a Powerful Impact on E-commerce Purchasing Decisions
Check out these stats that show just how much product reviews can influence consumers’ purchasing decisions:
- In this Nielson report, 68% of consumers said they trust online opinions from other consumers.
- 55% of online shoppers in this survey reported that customer reviews influence their buying decisions.
- This study showed that products with reviews had a 12.5% higher conversion rate compared to those without. Plus, products with more than 20 reviews had an approximate 84% higher conversion than products without reviews.
- Regularly updating your website content with product reviews is a highly effective way of improving your search engine rankings (search engine spiders like new content). Plus, searching for online product reviews plays an important role in the purchase journey of many customers. For example, a recent study found that, when purchasing technology products, 64% of online consumers read online reviews.
Key Elements of a Successful Product Review Email Campaign
So, how do you encourage customers to share their opinions about your products? Here are five key elements for your next product review email campaign to help ensure that they do just that.
- Time it right. Not only do you want to be sure your customers have received your product, but you also want to ensure that they had the chance to use it. That means the timing will vary depending on the type of product being reviewed. So, be sure to test and optimize the time sent to find the sweet spot for your specific products and target audience
- Personalize your product review emails. As we pointed out in a previous feature, personalization pays off in email marketing. So, use the customer’s name and specifics about the products that were purchased in your product review emails to help optimize the response.
- Offer an incentive. Customers are often willing to complete a product review; however, as this survey demonstrates, a little motivation helps: Although 63% of respondents said they would be willing to write a review or a testimonial for a brand, 39% of the respondents said monetary or material incentives would increase the chance that they’d refer a brand.Free shipping, a percentage off the customer’s next online purchase, and the chance to win a gift are a few examples of ways to encourage customers to submit a review.
- Keep the review short and simple. Your customers likely are busy people, so ensure that your review process is quick and easy to complete. Don’t overwhelm customers with a long explanation about how much you value their input in your product review emails. Instead, get right to the point with a brief survey. A good way to get the ball rolling is with a star-rating system, similar to what Amazon.com offers.
- Test and optimize your product review emails. To get the best response from your product review emails, be sure to test and optimize various elements, including:
What to Do with a Bad Review
Nobody wants a bad review, but occasionally you may get one. Should you include the negative reviews along with the positive? As long as there aren’t too many bad reviews, mixing in a few may actually help boost consumers’ trust in your product reviews. In fact, one study indicated that including some negative reviews actually helped increase conversions: 68% of consumers trust reviews more when there are both good and bad ones, whereas 30% of consumers suspected that reviews may be fake when there were only positive ones listed.
Need help crafting effective product review emails, as well as leveraging those customer reviews to drive more sales at your e-commerce site? Contact the email-marketing experts at FulcrumTech, and we’ll show you how to get it done!