Your guide to increasing sales with digital product reviews

TL;DR: Everything you need to know about getting product reviews from customers and influencers, with helpful tips on incorporating those reviews into your digital marketing.

If you’ve ever looked up restaurant reviews on Yelp or compared hiking backpacks, you already know how valuable product reviews are. Whether it’s reading through testimonials, scouring product reviews, or taking a friend’s recommendation, reviews play a crucial role in our daily purchase decisions.

The same is true for customers interested in your digital products. Building a digital product and marketing strategy that generates positive reviews and then leveraging those reviews is essential for any entrepreneur.

You looked up how to create a digital product, designed it, learned how to sell your digital products online, and even sold a few products. But now what? Start getting those reviews!

With so many different outlets and platforms available for leaving feedback and discovering what others are saying about your business, it can be overwhelming to figure out where to focus your energy and how to get started on building a solid product review strategy.

But we’re here to help! We’ve got everything you need to know about generating digital product reviews, where to use them, and how. Use our guide to help you design a review marketing strategy that builds on itself and will help increase sales. 

Before you begin ramping up your digital marketing strategy, start with the basics: product reviews. And what better place to start than with the most powerful search engine? 

Your online store’s Google seller rating—an overall score created using your reviews from Google and other platforms—will only show up in your Google Ad campaigns if you have at least 150 reviews and a minimum of a 3.5-star rating. 

Even though 3.5 is the minimum for Google, studies show that consumers in most categories don’t trust companies or products that have lower than a 4-star rating. Think about it: when’s the last time you saw a 3.5-star item and thought it was worth splurging on? As humans, we love highly-rated products—not middle-of-the-road ratings.

Build a strategy to encourage your most satisfied customers to leave reviews. Not sure where to start? The below strategies can help garner more reviews online:

Several strategies can help turn your product reviews into an effective digital marketing tool that we’ll discuss later. However, it’s important to discuss why customer reviews are such a powerful tool for your business.

Reviews are a pillar of your business’s online reputation, and that reputation is critical for your success. According to Power Reviewers, ratings and reviews are the top factors shoppers consider when viewing product pages online. Even ahead of price. Ninety-two percent of shoppers consider ratings and reviews on product pages. So, as a digital entrepreneur or small business owner, reviews are one of your biggest assets when trying to stand out in a crowded marketplace.

Knowing that reviews are such a powerful ecommerce marketing tool, how can you leverage them in your digital marketing strategy? Let’s dive in!

Finding creative and engaging ways to quote positive reviews on social media is a powerful way to boost your sales. Social media’s purpose, in a general sense, is to build community and drive conversations. Advertising your positive reviews on social media lets the audience know your product is already part of a thriving community and conversation. Inviting new people to be a part of that can make all the difference in selling a few or selling thousands of products. 

Calls to action (CTAs) in social media posts like, “See what our members are saying about our product” help drive engagement online. Numbers to back this up too. Reports suggest that 47% of consumers are more likely to click on a social media post for a product if it features positive reviews.

Product reviews are also an effective advertising tool outside of social media. Incorporating them can boost the impact of all your digital campaigns. Whether it’s search ads, display ads, or email campaigns using a message like, “See why we have 1000+ 5-star reviews and counting” can attract interest in your product and drive clicks to your Flodesk Checkout page. 

Users who search for products in your category need a reason to pick yours instead of the countless other options. Use enthusiastic reviews from existing customers to stand out from the crowd.

Ratings and reviews are among the top factors shoppers look at when viewing product pages online. Ninety-two percent consider ratings and reviews when viewing product pages, and for good reason: we all want quality products. 

And verification from other customers helps us feel more secure when purchasing. So, if your reviews are positive, it makes sense to feature them prominently on your landing and purchasing pages. 

Look at Flodesk member, Light Livin Photography’s, checkout page with impressive testimonials potential customers can easily access. 

Building a Flodesk Checkout page that features a client testimonial or a blurb about your number of 5-star reviews can help give consumers that final push they need to complete a purchase. You can also feature highly-rated products on your checkout page as upsells. If you’ve ever seen a checkout page that says, “users who bought product x also love product y,” then you’ve seen upselling in action. This makes it easy for customers to find similar products they’re likely to enjoy.

Pro tip: Promote your upsell offers using a sequence of upsell emails that entice subscribers to become customers.

Every review, positive or negative, is a customer trying to communicate with you about your product and how well it’s meeting their needs. We’d all like to think our digital products are perfect, but from time to time, you’ll get negative reviews. Fortunately, all reviews are a piece of information you can use to learn.

Pay attention to how people talk about your product, their experience with it, and whether they’d recommend it to others. The more you know about each of these categories, the more you can improve your product or lean into alternative use cases you may have never considered.

We’ve focused on how reviews can be a tool to create new interest in your product, but it’s important to remember that reviews are a line of communication with your existing customers, too. And how you respond to negative reviews can be just as influential in winning over customers as the number of positive reviews you receive. Did you know that 89% of consumers are likely or highly likely to use a business that responds to all of its reviews online? 

Equate this dynamic with being on a blind first date at a restaurant. The way your date treats waitstaff or other diners can be just as telling about their personality as the conversation between the two of you. Online reviews work the same way. Be sure to respond to each of your reviews, positive and negative, in a timely and courteous manner.

Responding to customer reviews can also help turn negative ones into positive ones. Since many platforms allow users to edit their reviews, reaching out to a frustrated customer to solve an issue, offer a refund or future discount, or help them to better understand how to use your product can lead to a change of heart and a change of score.

Surveys tell us that 80% of consumers would be likely or highly likely to leave a new review if their negative experience turned into a very positive one. Make an action plan to address negative feedback, continue the conversation with your customers, and help turn your harshest critics into advocates for your level of customer service.

Reviews from your main customers aren’t the only piece of the digital marketing puzzle. Getting reviews from respected and influential people in your space can help supercharge your marketing efforts and build consumer trust. 

They’re called “influencers” for a reason, right? No matter what industry you’re in or what your digital product is, some voices already have your audience’s ear. Here are three examples of influential sources you can work with to promote your e-commerce business.

Social media is one of the first things that comes to mind when you think of influencers in 2022. This is for good reason too. Data from Traackr found that 70% of consumers are more likely to buy a product if the brand works with an influencer they know and trust. 

Each social media platform has its unique ecosystem and best practices, and the best one to use depends on the type of digital product you sell. Facebook and Instagram are the top platforms for influencer-based commerce according to Traackr, and fashion, beauty, and electronics products are the top-selling categories there.

When looking for influencers to partner with, follower count isn’t everything. Sometimes, working with smaller accounts or “micro-influencers” can be equally as rewarding in terms of digital product sales. 

Look to find accounts whose audiences are engaged with their content, including comments, tags, and shares. This typically indicates a high level of trust in the influencer that can be even more valuable for your product than working with a higher-profile account.

YouTube as a platform is unique enough to warrant its own category on this list. Since YouTube videos are much longer than those on other social media platforms, influencers can build deeper and more personal relationships with their audiences. YouTubers are often looked at as friends and peers of their audience, whereas Instagram and TikTok influencers are more aspirational for their audience. 

Depending on what digital product(s) you sell, getting reviews from YouTubers in your niche could do wonders for your sales. The most popular product types on the platform are electronics, food and beverage, and fashion. Like other social media platforms, raw subscriber count isn’t the be-all-end-all metric to find influential partners. Engagement and watch hours are better metrics to gauge consumer trust and sales impact.

Even though social media platforms have become increasingly influential for digital products, don’t forget about the power of traditional media outlets. Working with newspapers, magazines, blogs, tv shows, radio, and podcasts to review your product and tell your story can still be incredibly valuable. It’s likely not as expensive as you might imagine.

Traditional media exposure will work better for some digital products than others. If your product is targeting a very small niche, using social media platforms is a better option for you to narrow your audience down directly to the people who are most likely to buy. 

However, if your target segment is broader, it’s worthwhile to get your product into the hands of influential journalists focused on your category.

Putting together a comprehensive digital product review strategy can be overwhelming. But now that you’ve got the know-how and the tools to do so, you can get started. Start simple. 

Use Flodesk Email’s beautiful email templates and powerful automation to solicit new reviews after each sale. Highlight your best customer testimonials using your Flodesk Checkout page to influence those final purchase decisions. And repeat the cycle over and over again for all your products. The best part? You can do it all for one flat fee.