Review generation is a strategy businesses can use to increase the number of online reviews they receive from real customers.
Strategies involve encouraging customers to leave reviews by outright asking them, gently reminding them about review platforms a business is on and improving service well enough for customers to want to leave reviews on their own.
In this post, I cover a review funnel you can create to generate positive reviews from satisfied customers and encourage dissatisfied customers to leave feedback on how you can improve.
What is Review Generation?
Review generation is the practice of increasing the number of reviews you receive from customers.
While the definition certainly includes blackhat practices, such as generating fake reviews with AI, it’s best to stick with whitehat techniques that generate reviews from real customers.
Related: Should You Buy Google Reviews?
Three review generation techniques I recommend using are:
- Letting customers know which review platforms your business is on
- Improving your products, services and customer experience
- Asking customers for reviews directly
1. Let Customers Know You’re On Google
Some customers are more prone to giving feedback than others, and a select few know how important reviews are for small businesses.
That’s why it’s important to let customers know that you’re on review platforms and are ready to receive their feedback.
If you create your own products, add a “Rate Us” section on product packaging with logos for review sites you’re on.
If you don’t create your own products or if you ship products, add this messaging to a small cardboard handout you can insert in customer’s bags/packages.
If you have a sit-down establishment, add this messaging to posters throughout your business, such as on table tent displays.
You can also have employees end customer conversations with “don’t forget to rate us on Google!”
Related: What is Google Business Profile?
2. Improve Your Business
According to online review statistics published by BrightLocal, the number one reason customers choose not to leave reviews is because the experience they had wasn’t noteworthy enough.
If you want customers to start leaving reviews on their own, you need to make sure they have a unique experience that outshines what your competitors are offering.
However, it’s important to create a balance between higher quality and unique because unfortunately, being too unique is a turnoff for some customers (e.g., the “millennial burger joint” meme).
Go through your competitors’ negative reviews to see what customers complain about the most. This includes similar business types in your area, not just direct competitors who sell the same products and services as you.
3. Ask Customers Directly
If you don’t want to wait for customers to realize you’re on Google and leave reviews themselves, ask them!
You can do this in person, but a more efficient way to get this strategy going is by sending customers through a marketing funnel designed specifically for review generation.
Do this via email or SMS.
Here’s how a review funnel works when it’s initiated via email:
- Stage 1: Set up an automation trigger that sends an email to your customer automatically after they’ve made a purchase. It should have a call to action that leads to a funnel page.
- Stage 2: Ask the customer a simple question on your funnel page: “are you satisfied with your [product name],” “were you satisfied with your order,” “how did we do” or “how would you rate your experience?”
- Stage 3: Give your customer two options: one associated with a positive response, such as a thumbs-up button, and one associated with a negative response, such as a thumbs-down button.
- Stage 4: Create a message for each response: one that emphasizes a review link for positive responses and one that emphasizes a feedback form for negative responses.
This is a typical review funnel, one that our plugin Starfish Reviews can help you create.
Related Help Doc: Creating Your First Funnel
Prep Your Review Funnel
Before you build your funnel, consider the following:
- Which review platforms do you use?
- Which of your review platforms need more reviews than others?
- Which marketing channels do you use to communicate with customers throughout the sales process?
- Do you have a website?
Which review platforms do you use?
Make a list of the review platforms your business is on, particularly ones you actually promote and monitor.
Which of your review platforms need more reviews than others?
Your customer is not likely to post their review to every platform you list.
Plus, some platforms are more important than others. Google is especially important for local SEO.
Because of this, review generation is most effective when you use it to promote one platform.
Consider which review platform(s) you’d prefer customers to leave reviews on.
Crucial Data Point: Businesses who appear in the local pack have over 240 Google reviews on average.
Which marketing channels do you use to communicate with customers throughout the sales process?
This will impact how you build your funnel.
If you use email, you’ll send customers to a funnel page on your website.
If you use SMS, you’ll execute your entire funnel via text.
Do you have a website?
If you don’t have a website and you use email for customer communication, you’ll need to create a simple website or use a dedicated landing page tool.
Our plugin Starfish Reviews requires you to have a WordPress site.
How to Create a Review Funnel
- Choose a delivery path (email or SMS)
- Decide when to ask customers for reviews
- Set up an automation trigger to send customers through funnels automatically
- Create a funnel page
1. Choose a Delivery Path
You can use email and SMS funnels simultaneously, but I’m going to focus on email funnels for the purpose of this tutorial.
If you only want to use one delivery path, use the one that has the highest open rate. This ensures your funnel has the highest rate of success for your audience.
If your SMS and email open rates are equal, use the one that has the highest click-through rate instead.
2. Decide When to Ask Customers for Reviews
Timing the initiation stage of a marketing funnel is difficult. If you ask customers for reviews too early, they’ll just ignore your request. Ask too late, and they might not remember enough about their experiences to even care.
Consider the following:
- How much time customers spend with your products and/or services
- When customers receive your products and/or services
If you’re a restaurant, customers almost always consume your products immediately.
But if you sell used camera gear, customers likely need time to actually use equipment they purchase from you before they’re able to form an opinion on the reliability of your service.
Lastly, if you sell products online, customers need to receive their products via shipping first.
With that said, consider these timeframes:
- Immediate consumption*: Within the hour, or same day at the very least
- Products/services that require use: Three days after purchase minimum; one week maximum
- Products/services that require delivery: One to three days after delivery if the product can be consumed immediately; five to seven days after delivery if the product requires use.
*”Immediate consumption” doesn’t just apply to food and beverages. It also refers to businesses where patrons receive services while at your establishment, such as salons, movie theaters, amusement parks, etc.
3. Set Up an Automation to Trigger Your Funnel
This step works differently depending on which email marketing service you use. Even so, almost all of them allow you to set up automation workflows these days.
Emails that have ecommerce purposes are known as “transactional emails.” Common transactional emails your email marketing service likely offers are order confirmation emails and shipping emails.
If you have these types of emails set up, create an automation workflow that’s designed to send an email after an order confirmation or shipping update email is sent.
MailerLite, in particular, has an ecommerce-based trigger called “Buys any product,” which allows you to trigger an automation when a customer buys anything from you.
The workflow will allow you to delay your funnel email based on whatever timeframe you choose (suggestions listed in Step 2).
Here’s a quick and simple template you can use for your initial funnel email:
- Subject: How did you like your order?
- Preheader: We wanna hear from you!
- Email Body:
-
- Hi! We’re so happy you stopped by our little [business type] on [street name business is located on]. We wanna hear about your experience.
- [insert button or link that leads to your funnel page here with a call to action that says “Rate Us” or “Share Your Experience”]
- Feedback helps other customers learn more about the quality of our service, and it lets us know what we need to improve on. Thanks for sharing! Kind regards, [business owner’s name]
4. Create a Funnel Page
Create a simple funnel page that contains the following content:
- Heading: Such as “How would you rate your experience?” or “Would you recommend [business name]?”
- Two Options (in the form of buttons): Two buttons customers can use to rate their experience as positive or negative
- Message for Positive Responses: A message that only appears if customers click the positive button. It should include a review link
- Message for Negative Responses: A message that only appears if customers click the negative button. It should include a feedback form as well as a review link
Here’s an example of the kind of funnel page Starfish Reviews helps you create:
The message that appears for positive responses:
And the message that appears for negative responses:
Review gating is disabled by default.
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