We all know that customer reviews are important, right?
They give your online store social proof; meaning they immediately trigger trust and desire in your new customers.
I mean, who wants to date someone with no friends on Facebook?
Well, in this article we’re going to go one step beyond acquiring new customer reviews. We’re going to breakdown how to use the data collected through your customer reviews to create highly-personalised emails and ads.
By implementing the steps outlined in this post, your customers will soon feel like they’re being emailed by a caring best friend – rather than blasted by a faceless corporate machine.
Why customer reviews matter
Before we look at advanced segmentation, let’s quickly recap why it’s essential for every growing brand to have a process for generating high-quality customer reviews:
- Reviews stimulate the buying decision – By giving people a glimpse of the benefits and emotional payoffs of owning your product, shoppers will be eager to try it for themselves.
- Reviews demonstrate your customer care – Customer reviews are an opportunity to engage with a buyer in a (somewhat) public setting.
- Reviews build loyalty for existing customers – By displaying and sharing your customer reviews with existing customers you foster an added level of trust and loyalty.
And if you’re still not convinced – here’s a few numbers to drive it home.
It’s been reported that…
- 82% of shoppers read online reviews before making a purchase. Yep, 82%.
- Displaying your customer reviews can increase conversion rates by over 207%.
A study from 2012 also found that 92% of people trust recommendations from their peers, and 70% of the consumers trust a recommendation from someone they don’t even know!
How product reviews are revolutionising customer journeys
Ok sure, the social proof generated from your customer reviews is amazing.
It’s actually hard to overstate the benefit of this for the long term growth of your brand.
But now there’s another extremely powerful opportunity to use your customer reviews to drive the growth of your brand…
A method as simple as it is effective.
We’re talking about: capturing customer data in your reviews to create highly personalised customer journeys and email marketing flows.
By doing this we can not only drive more revenue for your brand but also create a much better experience for your customers. It’s a win-win and a complete no-brainer.
How to capture and leverage your customer review data
Here at Andzen we help our clients get more out of their customer reviews. A fantastic tool we recommend is Okendo. One of our favourite features of Okendo is how it allows us to help our clients gather ah-mazing data about their customers (as they leave a review).
With Okendo we’re able to ask customers leaving a review to input all sorts of important information about their purchase and about themselves. This can include things like:
- Age.
- Gender.
- Body type.
- Waist size.
- Bust size.
- Shoe size.
- Hair texture.
- How they use your product.
- And the list goes on…
Through integrating Okendo with your email service provider we can then set up segments for creating highly personalized emails to these customers.
Imagine being able to send out a promotion for your new range of activewear and customise the email to suit your customers body type, color preferences, age, and reason for buying previously.
Pretty cool stuff.
Let’s look at a few examples of how successful brands are currently utilising Okendo:
Below apparel brand, Brass ask the customer to input their pant size, height, and waist size:
In this example, mens shoe brand, Beckett Simonon, ask the customer to input their age range and the reason for their purchase:
Here homeware brand, Country Chic asked their customer to input their age range and how they used the product:
The fact is, most customers are more than willing to add a little context to their review by giving you (and people reading the review) more information.
Remember this not only helps you drive more revenue through hyper-targeted promotions and messaging but it also helps you to create a more relevant customer journey for your audience.
As stated by the 1950s Mad Men era advertising luminary, Howard Luck Gossage… “People don’t read ads. They read what interests them. Sometimes it’s an ad.”
Without a doubt, leveraging the data from your customer reviews is one of the most powerful ways to make your ads (and your emails) “interesting” to your customers.
Here at Andzen, we’ve helped many high-growth eCommerce merchants leverage their customer reviews to create an amazing experience for their customers.
If this is something you’d like our help with, get in touch today to have a chat with our team.