We Don’t Live In A 5 Star World: The Power of Reviews … Even Negative Reviews
Are you considering allowing user reviews on your website for your products or services? Maybe you should.
Matt McGee of Small Business SEM is responsible for this headline as he pointed out that not only are good reviews a positive thing, but negative reviews are as well. Matt explained that people expect some negative issues with a product or service as "we don’t live in a 5 star world". That had me cracking up and thinking it was a great angle at the same time.
In his video interview by Web Pro News at the San Jose SES Conference, Matt discussed user generated content and reviews. Matt pointed out the positives of user reviews and also addressed solid points to prevent a business from being held back by the fear of negative reviews. You can download Matt’s slides from his presentation on his post, but here are some main points.
Positives of User Reviews:
- Users support product or service strengths
- Users add content containing keywords to the page
- Users add unique content and help long tail searches (multiple word searches)
- Reviews educate the customer, build trust and that leads to more sales
The Real Deal on Negative Reviews:
- 80% of all reviews are 4 star or 5 star level
- "We don’t live in a 5 star world" … people don’t expect perfection
- Users decide if they can live with the faults or weakness
- Product or service provider can learn from users feedback
- Users build trust with more information … good or bad
I think Matt did a great job with both his presentation slides and his interview … it made me wish I was at SES to absorb more.
The bottom line is that as consumers grow more savvy, marketing pitches laced with "you’ll love our perfect, most best-est, world changing product" doesn’t hold much ground. User reviews, that give the interested consumer more details, peer reactions and even point out chinks in the armor are seen as solid facts to base a decision on.
So if you have a good product or service, maybe it’s time to let the truth be known and let your users do the talking.
Posted on August 29th, 2007 by Aaron
Filed under: marketing, seo, content
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You’re absolutely right, but what about the ‘paid review’ thing in today’s internet marketing?
Good question … here is my thoughts. We reward and incentive people to give us feedback all the time. Eat lunch somewhere and you’ll get a survey or a web address to hit up and share your thoughts. Most often there is a reward for filling it up or a chance at prizes. This isn’t much different.
So I guess I view paid reviews as the payment being the incentive for the effort, not a buyout for a glowing review.
Good thought in fact! I appreciate this. But I’ve come across some paid reviews/posts etc whereby the reviewee is of the opinion that if he’s paying he should get all positive feedback. That’s a bit confusing for me, coz when you’re asking for feedback, it can either be positive and negative, and that’s exactly what you can improve through.