Winning Reviews with Emails for Your Ecommerce Website

Feb 19, 2015
Ecommerce website reviews

Ask anybody how often they get influenced by reviews and the answer would be standard – most of the times. In fact, stats say that 61% of customers read online reviews before making a purchase decision. The one thing that this finding conclusively points to is that reviews is a proven sales driver, and if used strategically, it can be used to persuade people to buy.

So, if you are planning to build an eCommerce website or redesign an existing one, having a well-knit strategy to invite maximum reviews can help you meet your objective of wining more conversions.

Having a way for customers to leave a review is one thing and getting customers to actually leave a review is another. If the purchase experience is bad, customers’ won’t wait to vent out their ire. But if it is good, they will simply forget to review the product, or won’t feel inspired to write a review. Your challenge lies in winning over the dis-interested lot.

 Making Emails Work for Your Ecommerce Site

A proven way to win reviews is by sending email to your customers. Surely, there can’t be a better way to get in direct touch with them. But at times, customers may be slow to respond. Repeated reminders may piss them off and, thereafter, they may not care to read your email.

The trick, therefore, lies in connecting with your customers at a personal level. Send emails to talk and not communicate with them. It pays to take the marketing stuff out of your emails. Instead, use your emails to wish them, inform them about unknown facts and interesting quotes or even humor them. Conclude by talking about their purchase, and gently remind them that a review is pending. What about couching your message in an e-card? Send them engaging ones, and they’ll be driven to pen a few words.

Many customers find it irksome to be redirected to the review page of your eCommerce website. If a couple of mails fail to elicit a response, embed the review metrics at the end of the e-card and request them to rate. Based on the ratings, you spin out a message and seek an approval from them to get it posted against their name.

What if this fails too? It’s time for you to dangle the carrot. Talk about some monthly giveaways or discounts that you intend to offer for writing a review. This tactic can be good enough to bring around even the most unresponsive kind.

A lot also depends on how and when you send the emails. Don’t send everyone the same thing. Segment your users and send them mails based on the frequency of purchase, how recently have they purchased and how much they spend for a purchase. Reserve the best designed e-card for the most frequent buyer Automate the process to ensure no same two e-cards land with the same person.

If you use your emails to deliver value, nudging your customer to write a review gets a lot easier. In the process it also helps you to maximize brand impact and online ROI.