Customer reviews are an important part of your company’s success. Obviously, they tend to influence whether other consumers choose to engage with your business. Not to mention that you can utilize them to improve your services.

One way in which too many companies overlook using reviews is in marketing campaigns. This is often because reviews are considered a static and after-the-fact resource that marketers can’t influence. Yet, there are various ways the content and data related to reviews can make for more impactful advertising and outreach strategies.

Let’s explore a handful of ways industries are leveraging consumer reviews when building effective marketing campaigns.

Identifying and Collecting Reviews

The first step industries must take toward leveraging reviews is identifying and collecting them. Taking a casual approach to utilizing reviews as and when they appear doesn’t tend to be successful here. It’s wise to gather as much relevant data as possible so you can better assess and use it.

This starts with recognizing where reviews exist. Certainly, it’s important to go to specific review sites, such as Google Customer Reviews or Yelp. However, it’s also important to assess less-traditional review spaces, such as social media comments.

Indeed, if you’re utilizing influencer advertising, you may benefit from the cache an influencer’s opinion holds. In many ways, reviews from influencers can directly translate into a key marketing tactic. But influencers will also trigger engagement from users that may have purchased or used your products directly. Their comments are also valuable reviews you can utilize.

It’s also important to not only collect the positive reviews but the negative ones, too. Part of this process should involve spotting fake reviews. Look for vague or just plain malicious reviews. On eCommerce sites, look for responses that aren’t related to verified purchases. Wherever possible, contact the site owners to arrange removal. In any event, these should be removed from your data sets as they don’t represent useful insights.

Meeting Niche Industry Needs

One of the key ways industries are leveraging the consumer reviews they find is by applying them to influence niche industry marketing needs. Yes, many reviews will help with more general elements such as identifying key demographics to target or preferences of brand voice tone. However, they’re often most useful for homing in on the actions that best meet your goals.

For instance, in the healthcare industry, patient retention tends to be a key goal for marketing. This is often informed not just by service levels but also by whether patients like or dislike their doctors. Assessing a database of reviews provides invaluable insights into what contributes to the positive or negative connections patients have with a particular practice. Often, it’s best to note adjectives patients repeatedly use in their reviews, as this can help in identifying consistent elements. This can then inform marketing campaigns by placing emphasis on materials that promote the values patients like and suggest improvements are being made in the more challenging areas.

Another good example of this involves green businesses. These companies are very much dependent on consumers’ opinions surrounding environmental friendliness and the authenticity of a company’s efforts. Reviews can help to identify where concerns may lie and what customers are focusing on. This, in turn, can allow businesses to adopt relevant trust signals in marketing campaigns.

Utilizing the Positive Reviews

Aside from the niche industry uses, there are some common approaches most industries can utilize to leverage their positive reviews. While these are good general practices, it’s important to still tailor them to fit your business needs. Remember that your knowledge of your customers can enhance how you utilize their reviews.

One of the most powerful ways to utilize positive reviews is simply to share them. According to a recent study, 70% of consumers will review up to six customer reviews before making a purchasing decision. Regularly posting a handful of up-to-date and optimistic customer reviews on your website and other marketing materials can result in a positive impact. It can also reduce the legwork your consumers must apply to find independent information about your products.

It’s important not to neglect your social media here. 92% of responders to a customer reviews study stated that they used social media reviews to guide their purchasing decisions. Therefore, it’s important to identify and repost positive comments regularly to signal-boost them.

Another way positive reviews can be leveraged to build effective marketing is by influencing personalization. This isn’t something companies should overlook, as 71% of consumers expect personalization from brands they interact with. Therefore, reviews linked to your customer accounts can be used not just to assess the preferences of each customer but also to inform your marketing personas. The elements that made their experiences positive can be applied to the marketing of their demographic in campaigns. This can give the impression of a more relevant and personalized marketing experience.

Harnessing the Negative Reviews

It’s important to recognize that positive reviews aren’t the only materials that can help industries create better marketing campaigns. A 2021 survey found that 96% of customers specifically look for negative reviews when making purchases. So, marketing efforts should be geared toward incorporating these aspects in meaningful ways.

This isn’t a circumstance in which it’s necessarily good to promote your negative reviews. However, consumers do tend to value authenticity in the brands they interact with. You can utilize the reviews to identify consistent areas of concern for customers. You can then use your content marketing assets — blogs, videos, and emails, among others — to highlight these elements and the improvements you’re planning. This not only shows that you take note of reviews but also that you’re open about your company’s shortcomings.

It should also be a part of your marketing campaigns to actively respond to negative reviews. Whether these are on sites like Trustpilot or TripAdvisor or on social media, marketing staff should reach out and connect with consumers. Utilize the brand voice to respond to the problems outlined and seek to address them. This will also be helpful when consumers are searching for negative reviews, as they can see that the company is active in responding to these.

Conclusion

Your marketing team can utilize reviews to influence campaigns. It’s important to first capture feedback from multiple channels to give you the most effective insights. From here, you can apply the insights to focus on specific industry marketing goals and share positive reviews to boost their impact. Nevertheless, it’s vital not to overlook how powerful negative reviews can be in informing marketing that bolsters your company’s reputation. It takes planning and focus, but leveraging reviews can help you to create more relevant and effective marketing.

Beau Peters is a freelance writer from the Pacific Northwest with a passion for purpose-driven business content.