Walking on the streets of Rome, my friend said, “I missed those times when we didn’t have Google Maps.”
I didn’t know what my friend meant. Google Maps saved my life when I was lost in the same country.
We were headed to a restaurant with hundreds of 5-star reviews on Google.
The restaurant reserved a table for us and we already knew which dishes we’d order, based on reviews.
Without Google Maps, we would still be wandering and wondering what to eat for dinner.
But later I realised what my friend meant — we no longer get to explore places by foot and by chance. No adventure. No trusting our human instincts and our five senses to sniff out new places.
Because now, we only trust Google Maps, online reviews and some of our friends. Not just for food, but also for products and services.
For marketers, this means that testimonials, reviews, and 5-star ratings are your most valuable marketing assets.
In fact, research shows that 98% of consumers read online reviews and 87% use Google to evaluate a local business. That’s a lot of users to capture.
So you’ll need to collect them in parallel with all your other marketing activities and use them in your collaterals. And when you do, you’ll start to see your conversions go up and up.
There are 3 levels to harvesting reviews.
Level 1: Ask directly
When you’re just starting out, you’ve got to know your customers intimately.
Work with them to figure out ways to improve your product or service. What’s missing? What could be better? What frustrates them the most?
And when the customer is (finally) happy, seize the chance to ask for a testimonial.
Level 2: Automate your request for ratings or testimonials
At some point, you’ll have so many customers you won’t be able to reach out to all of them. You might go wonky if you do. This is the time you automate things.
If you had gone with level 1, you should have enough testimonials. So set up triggered emails or WhatsApp messages to ask for ratings and reviews instead.
Direct them to your review site of choice. This depends on where your customers check reviews. For EdTech company LingoAce, it’s Trustpilot. For our catering business at Grain, it was Google reviews.
Here’s an example from Grammarly.
Level 3: Encourage them to share on socials
At this level, you should have an army of fans who would readily talk about your brand.
Facilitate this by dedicating a hashtag and a story highlight (assuming Instagram is your social channel). Just like this.
You can also add a cute little note in your emails to nudge other passive users to share their experiences 🙂
All in all, reviews and testimonials are powerful tools in your marketing arsenal. Start asking for them if you haven’t.