The power of reviews: how to integrate them into your emails to boost sales

Have you ever heard of social proof? It’s the psychological mechanism that instinctively leads to seek confirmation of an action in the choices of others. Among cognitive biases, it’s one of the most known and leveraged by companies in their marketing strategies.

How does this psychological mechanism play out when it comes to Email Marketing? Simple—with reviews.

Reviews are one of the most powerful weapons in convincing the potential customer to finalize a purchase. Nothing’s more effective than a series of other users’ positive testimonials on the validity and convenience of a product.

Other consumers’ positive votes and comments right in showcase emails will strongly encourage the recipient to click on the CTA and complete the conversion.

So what are you waiting for? Read all our tips on enhancing your emails with reviews, and get inspired by some practical examples we’ve selected for you.

Product Reviews

Left by users to comment on the quality and reliability of a tried out purchase, these are the reviews par excellence. These comments refer to what your company sells, and not to the value of your brand. Even if they don’t address your brand directly, they directly affect the trust that the public places in you—hence your sales.

Customer experience

This type of review is more generic and related to the overall quality of your work. This includes the structure of your ecommerce (which reflects on the shopper’s UX), your customer support team, the organization of your warehouses, your delivery speed, your responsiveness, the quality of what you sell, etc.

Therefore, these reviews directly affect your company reputation, as well as the level of trust with your customers and leads.

Comments and mentions on social media networks

Another kind of review involves your community’s and customers’ mentions on their or your social media channels. These may recommend or advise against your brand or products. This type of review is very powerful, both positively and negatively, due to its high public resonance—which is hard to control. In this case, the advice is to constantly monitor your brand’s mentions on social media networks. If they’re negative, then intervene promptly with a moderate, kind language. Stay open to dialogue and try to understand the reasons for the user’s disappointment.

Welcome email

Welcome emails are meant to introduce yourself to the new subscriber and show your Unique Selling Propositions, brand values, and top products.

The inclusion of reviews as a related topic (without taking away from your brand presentation) is a great way to:

• show new subscribers that your products/services are appreciated and effective
• prove, through the example of other experiences, that the new subscriber’s trust is well placed
• increase your brand reputation with evidence of guarantee and trust in what you sell

Cart recovery email

Abandoned cart recovery emails are for inviting an interested user to finalize a purchase. Previous purchasers’ reviews of the product that appeals to the user make the message so effective in stimulating the recipient and facilitating the purchase.

The evidence of user appreciation for the product will help your prospect complete the conversion. How can you resist the urge to buy when everyone recommends exactly what you want?

This email from Casper is a great example:

Launching a product or service

Include testimonials from your community when launching a new product, service, program, or initiative. This will generate trust in your brand’s quality while shedding more light on your news.

In this case, remember to use reviews as an accessory. They shouldn’t take space and the focus away from the message’s core, which is your new launch. This example from Duolingo let’s you see how to best position reviews in this type of email:

Turn the review into a header

Replacing the title above the fold with a review has added a great touch of creativity in this example from Everlane. This strategy fully catalyzes the recipient’s visual attention on the comment that opens the message.

This gimmick isn’t by chance. The message is intended to present one of the brand’s best-selling, top product. Introducing it with a review is consistent, effective, and original.

Product showcase

A further type of message fits the inclusion of reviews for increasing sales: the traditional brand showcase of products and services.

Forget the old carousel of images and prices. It’d be more original presenting your products along with shopper reviews or evaluation scores, as in this case

Besides increasing sales potential, this will also display the offer range of your products and services. This means advertising content that the recipient may not have been aware of.

Offering suggestions

Another way to insert reviews into your campaigns is by suggesting products or services based on the customer’s previous purchases. Reinforcing these suggestions with a review can persuade the user of their soundness.

This is a great way to cross-sell and navigate the user toward your other products. It combines the analysis of the shopper’s preference with your community reviews, as this example illustrates:

We’re going to close the post with this aspect. However, emailing to ask for a purchase review is the starting point. Brands needed to collect all those comments first in order to send the aforementioned examples.

How can a review by email be requested? Here’s the trick.

– Choose the right timing. Sending this kind of email too soon is of little use, since the user didn’t have the time to test your product. On the other hand, emailing after several months implies the risk that the user forgets about the purchase. Estimate the best timing by performing tests.

– Use effective leverage to get the user to review your product. What matters is finding a way to convince your customer to provide a comment or a rating. Use a discount code on the next purchase: a phrase like “your experience is important to us” or “your opinion can help other users” or, again, a promotion that will follow a certain amount of feedback.

Last tip: keep the review process simple, straightforward, and quick. Users shouldn’t get tired of waiting and must be tempted to drop more comments in the future.

Here is a full review about MailUp that can help you discovering all the platform’s features and potential.