DESIGNBigger3 Ways To Get Reviews Without

(Outright) Begging For ThemChristopher Smith | September 13, 2014

Why Won’t Reviews Happen?

• People don’t know how or where to find the right place to leave a review.

• They have no incentive to leave one.

• They feel no emotional connection to the brand.

Make Reviews Happen

• Create a frictionless review funnel.

• Incentivize reviews by action, not swag.

• Build a great brand users care about by uniting them in the real world.

Make It Easy (frictionless funnel)

Review Microsites• Search for “MyBusinessName reviews”

• Take note of what review sites show in the first 10 results. Pick two of those that need more review action.

• Build a microsite: biznamereviews.com. Make it nice-looking, and link users directly to the review sites. Utilize the two you picked, along with Google and industry-sites (DealerRater, Angie’s List, Yelp).

• Use Schema markup everywhere you can (addresses, testimonials, etc). Post a number of good, legitimate testimonials that are not already on review sites, along with some supporting content. You want to rank the site for the keyword “bizname reviews”.

Review Microsites Work

Incentivize Without Swag• Show action on negative reviews by responding personally.

• Call out the (legitimate) negative reviews in a blog post and detail how you’re going to fix the problem, and how it makes things better for the customer. Win back the customer by how far above and beyond you’re going to fix their problem.

• Thank employees publicly and reference the good reviews. Make it shareable (Facebook, Twitter, etc).

Unite users as a brand-builder

Create a “sub-brand”• Build a microsite around the culture of your customers.

• Utilize tags from Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and display that content in the microsite (use IFTTT). Make it shareable, and encourage use with contests, photo hunts, and product usage photos.

• Figure out how to start conversations about your brand in the real world, not just online, using your sub-brand.

• Funnel users from here to review platforms.

It’s really that easy.

• All three of these tactics can be done for cheap or free.

• They do not require a large time commitment.

• Ultimately, they’re simply ways of connecting with your customers and building loyalty around your brand in a way that is sustainable and profitable.

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