We’ve covered in the past how to handle negative reviews, but how do you handle a complete lack of reviews? Think about how you personally shop online — after you find a product you’re interested in, reviews are probably one of the first things you look at, right? If your potential customers see that you have no reviews, they have much less to base their buying decision and are much less likely to purchase. Here’s how you can fix that problem and increase the number of reviews you have on your products, whether you sell on Amazon, Ebay, or your own personal site.
Reach Out to Bloggers
Bloggers love doing reviews — they get more clicks and free products, so it’s a win/win for them! There’s a few things to keep in mind when sending items off for review to bloggers, though.
- Bloggers can be surprisingly hard to find — or, more specifically, hard to get in touch with. Services like Tomoson make that a little easier, but it is a paid service.
- Some bloggers will only review products on their blog, not on your listing or site. While this doesn’t help you out immediately, it can result in increased reviews once you make some more sales from those clicks. The backlinks this accomplishes can also help your SEO.
- The more popular bloggers are in high demand, and as such many of them require pay for reviews. In this case, they can only post their review on their own site, as these reviews are not allowed on most e-commerce sites, including Amazon.
Facebook Groups
Facebook giveaway groups can be a very beneficial tool, but they can also be a double-edged sword. Be sure to read the rules of each group carefully, and compare them to the rules on the site you’re selling on. Guaranteed 5-star reviews are prohibited on Amazon, for example, but on some Facebook groups that is all the members can give.
Build Your Own Audience
If you are able to contact your customers (not common on Amazon, but allowed on some other e-commerce sites), you may want to consider offering your customers a discount on their next purchase in exchange for an honest review. If you don’t have a way to contact these customers, you can offer a large discount on your item to your family and friends for the same.
Contact Amazon’s Best Reviewers
Amazon ranks everyone who reviews on their site, and has a Hall of Fame for their best reviewers, based on how many reviews they’ve given and how many people thought those reviews were helpful. These can be very valuable reviews to have on your product. Browse the Hall of Fame, check the profiles of a few different individuals, and see if any of them have interests that might align with your product. Shoot them off an email, and with any luck you might be able to send them an item for a review.
As I’m sure you’ve noticed, none of these methods are free. You have to invest, at the very least, a discount, or possibly as much as a free item or even a paid service. However, reviews are powerful in the land of e-commerce, so think of it as an advertising expense and decide ahead of time what your operation can absorb
