Welcome to Ask Shopify, a series where ecommerce experts
tackle real questions and challenges from store owners who are trying to
launch, build, and scale their stores. We’re here to help with every
aspect of your store, from marketing to HR to accounting.
Who’s we? We’re the ecommerce experts both inside and outside of Shopify. Between our team, who spend all day immersed in the world of ecommerce (and who sometimes run stores themselves!) our squad of Shopify Experts, and our amazing customers, we have access to world-class expertise—and now you do too. So let’s dig in and get to your questions, because they’re good ones.
To
help you build a plan to convert those happy customers into satisfied
reviewers, we spoke to Matt Morris, Marketing Automation Manager here at
Shopify. While he was clear email isn’t the only way to
encourage your customers to leave reviews, it’s a useful channel to
start with when you’re looking to solicit reviews from exactly the right
people.
He also broke down the details of how to implement a
review-generating strategy, so if you’ve tried email without much
success before, this might be the fix you’re looking for.
If you’re wondering how to find who those customers are for your brand, Matt has segmentation advice that can help you target the people most likely to leave you reviews, and glowing ones at that.
As you send these emails to your list, keep track of which ones are generating meaningful results, and where you might want to make adjustments to your strategy, segmentation, or email copy.
For example, if your customers frequently Instagram your products with glowing captions, that could be a great place to source reviews in a more hands-on way. But as a first step, start with the scalable strategy that can connect you with your existing happy customers: email.
Have a burning question you want to Ask Shopify about your ecommerce business? Send it over to ask@shopify.com. We'd love to connect you with experts who can help!
Who’s we? We’re the ecommerce experts both inside and outside of Shopify. Between our team, who spend all day immersed in the world of ecommerce (and who sometimes run stores themselves!) our squad of Shopify Experts, and our amazing customers, we have access to world-class expertise—and now you do too. So let’s dig in and get to your questions, because they’re good ones.
Question:
What’s the best way to get customer reviews for my store? I’ve tried several approaches and none have stuck. What’s the best to ask for feedback, and how? I have happy customers and lots of repeat business, but my reviews and feedback don’t reflect it. I’ve had thousands of transactions and only 35 reviews or so over the years.Answer:
Social proof, especially in the form of customer reviews, can be one of the strongest tools in your ecommerce sales toolbox. It’s understandable that you’re frustrated your happy customers aren’t sharing that happiness with others.To
help you build a plan to convert those happy customers into satisfied
reviewers, we spoke to Matt Morris, Marketing Automation Manager here at
Shopify. While he was clear email isn’t the only way to
encourage your customers to leave reviews, it’s a useful channel to
start with when you’re looking to solicit reviews from exactly the right
people.Identify customers likely to leave reviews
Matt shared with us that a blanket approach to asking for feedback might not get you the results you’re looking for, and that to generate reviews, you should focus on customers who’ve recently (or consistently) had a positive experience with your business. They’re most likely to post a review in the first place.If you’re wondering how to find who those customers are for your brand, Matt has segmentation advice that can help you target the people most likely to leave you reviews, and glowing ones at that.
“Have they bought more than one product
from you? Have they reordered the same product multiple times? These are
indicators that they're a loyal and happy customer who would be
inclined to leave a positive review,” said Matt.
“Another data point you could look at is
order value. People who spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on your
site likely get a lot of value out of your products, and they’re an
ideal customer to ask for a review versus a customer who bought a ten
dollar product to try you out for the first time.”
Ask for customer reviews
Now that you’re building a profile of which customers might be poised to leave you great feedback online, it’s time to start asking them. This is where the power of email can help you make a solid impression, and increase your chances of getting reviews.
“The beauty of email is you can have a
one to one, very personalized conversation with someone, but you can
extrapolate that and have it at scale with dynamic content,” said Matt.
“When asking for reviews, I would lean
more towards a plain text email, a format that looks and feels personal,
instead of a template that's over-designed. Use a bit of
personalization in the email, so details like addressing the customer by
their first name, or maybe showcasing the product they’ve purchased as a
reminder.”
Here’s a sample email Matt outlined that you can tweak to fit your brand and your products.
Hi CUSTOMER NAME,
I wanted to send you a quick note because I noticed you’ve bought PRODUCT NAME more than once. I hope you like it, and we’re always looking for feedback! Would you be open to sharing what you like about PRODUCT NAME with other customers by leaving a review? (<-- link to your product review page)
Thank you so much, and thanks for being a great customer! If there’s anything I can help you with please let me know.
YOUR NAME
The example above would great to send to a segment of customers who
have purchased a specific product more than once. Additionally, you can
use your email tool to identify people who haven’t opened or clicked on
the email after a week or two, and resend it just to them with a new
subject line.I wanted to send you a quick note because I noticed you’ve bought PRODUCT NAME more than once. I hope you like it, and we’re always looking for feedback! Would you be open to sharing what you like about PRODUCT NAME with other customers by leaving a review? (<-- link to your product review page)
Thank you so much, and thanks for being a great customer! If there’s anything I can help you with please let me know.
YOUR NAME
As you send these emails to your list, keep track of which ones are generating meaningful results, and where you might want to make adjustments to your strategy, segmentation, or email copy.
Automate from there
Luckily, once you’ve found a winning formula for getting reviews via email, it’s something you can automate. However, Matt’s clear that automation should be your final step, not your first.
“Especially with email, I tend to work
backwards. You start by identifying goals, which in this case is
positive feedback. Then you can deliberately look for people who would
be inclined to give you good feedback, but maybe haven’t done so because
they haven’t been prompted. Once you find them, you look for
similarities between these people, which in this case might be repeat
buyers.”
“Now that you’ve figured out the right
people to message, you can have your emails trigger automatically after
someone places a second order, which means you can send your request for
a review on autopilot at just the right time. That frees you up to
continue monitoring results and optimizing the email content, as well as
parsing the feedback customers send your way.”
If you’re fairly new to the world of email marketing,
pairing this advice with the right tool might seem like a lot to take
in. Luckily, there are a number of email marketing tools that can
integrate with your Shopify store and help you implement this strategy,
and Matt had some advice for people who are just getting started.
“For beginners, I’d recommend setting up a MailChimp account. The MailChimp app for Shopify
will take all of your ecommerce data and purchase data and it'll push
it into MailChimp. You can segment your list of contacts from there, and
send emails to the right groups of customers.”
The same can be said for many of the email marketing apps on the
Shopify app store, so you’re not limited to just one email platform. You
could also look at:Start with email, then build
Sending personalized notes at scale to happy customers is a great place to start gathering reviews for your products, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop there. You can take what you’ve learned from your early results and expand to other platforms, especially ones you know your customers love.For example, if your customers frequently Instagram your products with glowing captions, that could be a great place to source reviews in a more hands-on way. But as a first step, start with the scalable strategy that can connect you with your existing happy customers: email.
Have a burning question you want to Ask Shopify about your ecommerce business? Send it over to ask@shopify.com. We'd love to connect you with experts who can help!
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