Reviews and comments play the key role in building trust with your future buyers and boosting sales. We’ll not only show you how to properly motivate customers to leave a positive review (not to scare them off!), but cover all the strategies — both free and paid — that can help you get positive feedback for your online store on a regular basis.
Do you REALLY need reviews?
Establishing a business reputation
So imagine this: you got your first handful of orders. Great, right? But how about you collect reviews from your customers on those orders to attract even more buyers and profits to your store? Yes, that’s the goal!
Reviews help potential buyers trust your store and bring you more profit by ordering more on a regular basis. Just look at these two reviews and see for yourself how convincing they are:
Improving your service
Reviews can also serve as a form of customer support and community engagement. Often, shoppers will leave comments asking question about your products. This is your time to shine and show off the products you have: answer your customers and, at the same time, show your best product pictures or videos of the products in action. You should also give your client additional information or even a special offer. This not only will boost that customer’s loyalty and satisfaction, but also motivate others to ask questions, leave reviews and hype up your store, in the end.
What NOT to do
There are many ways to gain customer reviews, but many of them suck and can ruin your business. For example, if you annoy and beg your clients for good reviews and spam them, you will get nothing but hate.
What to avoid doing
- Overly persistent requests: While it’s fine to remind customers to leave a review, bombarding them with constant emails or sliding into their direct messages with a 100 requests can be annoying!
- Attracting reviews inappropriately: Offering incentives for reviews can be a great way to encourage participation, but be cautious about how you do it. Avoid offering incentives that seem too extravagant or that could be perceived as trying to buy positive reviews. Keep it simple.
- Disrespecting the customer’s privacy: Avoid sharing their personal information or using their reviews in ways your customers haven’t consented to. Also, make it clear how you’ll use their feedback and give them the option to remain anonymous if they prefer.
So, what are the effective ways of getting good reviews? Let’s check them out.
How to get reviews FOR FREE
Directly request reviews
After a customer receives their order, send a notification or an email requesting a review. Remember? Every customer of yours gives you their email and other personal contact info that you can use to communicate with them. You can offer small incentives like discounts, complementary products or coupons to encourage customers to share their experiences. This fosters goodwill and incentivizes repeat purchases. A personalized touch can significantly increase response rates.
And remember: you are the face of your brand! Don’t just write whatever comes into your head, especially when you can just use one of our templates:
Review sites
You can register your company on various review platforms. That’s how people would be able to find your company and leave reviews themselves. Why do you need it? Because any time you want you will be able to visit your profile on this reviews website, take screenshots of the most positive and cool reviews, and post them on your Instagram page, Stores, TikTok, Facebook, etc. That’s a very cool way of promotion too, because it shows how people love your store and products to the whole world! While there are many of reviews sites, three of the most popular platforms are Trustpilot, Sitejabber and G2. These platforms allow your site to appear more legitimate and trustworthy.
How to use review sites
So let’s see how you can easily start using review sites without any prior knowledge or experience.
How to connect your business to Trustpilot
- Go to Trustpilot Business. Then, click the button “Create free account”.
- Under Create a free account, sign up using Google or enter your business’s details. It’s best to choose an email address that matches your business website’s domain. For example, if you claim the domain www.example.com, choose yourname@example.com.
- Next, click “Create free account”. You’ll get an activation email.
- Check your email address’s inbox for the activation email. If you don’t receive it within a few minutes, check your spam folder. In the email, click “Activate account”. You’ll be redirected back to Trustpilot to choose a password.
- Lastly, enter your new password in the field and click “Complete setup”.
And you’re all set!
But if you claim your business with an email address that does not match your business website’s domain, you’ll also have to verify your domain as an extra step.
Verify your domain
- Select the option to verify with your domain email. Type in an email address that matches your business website’s domain. For example, if your website is www.example.com, use an email like yourname@example.com.
- Then, click “Send”. We’ll send you an email to confirm your verification.
- Next, check your email inbox. If you don’t see the email within a few minutes, check your spam folder.
- In the email, click on “Confirm domain access”. You’ll be taken back to Trustpilot where you’ll see a confirmation message. Click “Log in”.
- At last, enter your account details (the email you signed up with) and click “Log in” on the next page.
How to connect your business to G2
Video walkthrough
Step 1: Create your account
To get started with G2, click on this link to sign up for an account. When you sign up, you’ll see four options to log in: LinkedIn, Facebook, Google, or your business email.
The quickest solution is to use LinkedIn or Google to log in, as they don’t require email verification.
Step 2: Verify your business
If you choose to use your business email, you’ll need to verify your business.
G2 will send you a link to your email inbox, and you’ll need to click on it to validate your email before you can log in this way.
If you don’t receive the verification email, you can resend it from the login screen. Also, check your spam folder if you still don’t see it.
Step 3: Claim your G2 profile
Once you’re logged in or signed up for your G2 account, you can claim your G2 listing to manage your brand’s information. Just click on the blue “Update this Profile” button, which you’ll find in the right-hand column of your product’s page, above the categories and usually below any sponsored ads.
Step 4: Add an admin user to your G2 profile
Now that you’ve created your G2 account and claimed your listing, you might need some help updating your brand’s information. To add colleagues as admin users, they’ll need to create their own G2 accounts. You can share the sign-up link with them or invite them directly. Just go to the Account tab, then Admin Users, enter their email in the Invite Users section, and choose their role. Once the invitation is sent, your colleagues will need to accept it in their email to gain access.
How to connect your business to Sitejabber
Step 1: Create a business account
Firstly, you need to create an account. Go to the SiteJabber homepage and click on the “For Business” button in the top right.
Then, follow the instructions to set up your business account.
Step 2: Claim your business
After creating your account, you need to claim your business. To do this, search for your business name on Sitejabber. If it’s already listed, click on “Claim this business”. If it’s not listed, you can add it by clicking on “Add a Business”.
Step 3: Verify your business
Once you’ve claimed your business, Sitejabber will ask you to verify it. This is to make sure that you’re the owner or authorized representative of the business. Just follow the offered steps by SiteJabber itself and you’re done!
How to show off your customer reviews
Now that you’ve connected your business to a review site, you can put your customers’ reviews on your social media pages. This will make your store more trustworthy and reliable. Here’s en example of how a good reviews look like (yes, it’s not necessary to have all 5-star-reviews, because trustability involves variety of opinions, 4 start would also do great:
Go to your store’s Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or other social media page and add new post with this screenshot of many or one particular review. Do it multiple times a week to showcase latest or best reviews in between regular social media posts you make.
Where should you seek paid reviews?
You can also gain reviews using freelance marketplaces like Fiverr, Upwork, or Seoclerk.
While these platforms technically don’t allow paid reviews, you can find freelancers who offer their opinion videos or “post comments services”. These freelancers can often give their review on your products in an engaging video format and if you like the result, you can share it on social media, again. Especially TikTok will push such content greatly and give you new clients!
Important considerations when choosing a freelancer
- Look beyond ratings: High ratings are good, but remember that you need a nice review video as a result, so better look at the examples of their work before you purchase.
- Check their activity: See how many orders the freelancer has and when their last order was. A long gap in activity might be a red flag.
- Use common sense: Don’t be afraid to send a private message explaining you’d like reviews for specific platforms like Google and Trustpilot. Avoid mentioning ratings or specific wording – a good freelancer will understand.
What good reviews look like
Organic and natural reviews come in different looks, but the general rule for you is to choose those that have 4-5 stars and an overall positive vibe:
And of course, simple yet dynamic product videos work perfectly better than a thousand of written words! These you can both get from your customers and Fiverr bloggers as was written above in this Guide:
Keep most of the reviews concise — most customers appreciate short, to-the-point feedback. But while concise reviews are most common, occasionally you should also aim for detailed feedback to add depth and credibility to your store’s reputation.
By following these tips, you can effectively generate positive reviews and comments for your online store, earning trust with potential customers and boosting your sales. Remember, building a strong online reputation takes time and effort, but the rewards are well worth it.
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