Showing posts with label consumer review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label consumer review. Show all posts

Monday, May 24, 2010

Conversion Optimization - Let Them Speak


Including customer testimonials on a landing page is a great way to increase conversion. Allowing users to add their own reviews can take this a step farther. Reading reviews has become almost a standard step in shopping online. It is now extraordinarily common for someone to read reviews of a product or service before purchasing it online. For this reason, if you are indeed selling a product or service on your website, include reviews, both good and bad, from real people right on your landing page. If someone comes to your landing page and finds interest in what you have to offer, there is a good chance they will exit your website in order to look up reviews. Once they decide to make a purchase, they may find one of your competitors instead. By having reviews available right on your landing page, it reduces the necessity of people to exit your site before making a purchase.

I know many of you are wondering why you would want to include bad reviews of your products on your website. There are actually good reasons for this. For instance, having bad reviews reinforces to the user that these are real reviews from real people. The bad reviews will make the good reviews more meaningful. In addition, there are enough places online on which people can speak your mind. If they can't say negative things on your website, they will say them somewhere else. There is nothing you can do about that.

If you need help supporting reviews on your website, there are third-party vendors like BazaarVoice.com that provide the solutions.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Customer Reviews & Its Effectiveness

I'm the type of person who does a lot of research on a certain product, restaurant, book or movie before I buy, and I believe that consumer reviews are the most valuable information, next to the actual product. Reviews allow new customers to ease into becoming more comfortable with the potential product or service they are considering investing in.

There are many websites that allow you to add a review about your business, and it's best to let your customers know about these sites so they can return the favor by writing up an honest review. For local businesses, I am a big fan of Yelp.com, which has become popular with local restaurants, but you can basically review any type of business under the blue sky.

A great way for customers to leave testimonials for your business is to direct them straight to the review website, whether it is a link in a thank you email, confirmation page, or in a prominent area on your website.

Other popular websites to view and write consumer reviews are:
Merchant Circle
CitySearch
Google Maps - easiest if you already have a Google Account
InsiderPages
Judy's Book
Kaboodle

Of course, it's best to take any review written with a grain of salt, since anyone can create reviews.