How To Get More Reviews For Your Dropship Products

Pop Quiz: What is the most effective form of marketing?

It doesn’t matter the product, industry, or price point. The answer is always the same: word of mouth.

Word of mouth was around before the internet and it existed before the term marketing was even coined. As long people have been bartering or selling things, word of mouth has been in use. This seemingly simple idea has been around forever, and it is still highly effective. We’re going to explore some modern-day applications for how to increase word of mouth for your business by increasing the number of reviews you get for your dropship products.

If you aren’t convinced that product reviews increase traffic, boost consumer confidence, and drive more sales, take a moment to read this article. After you understand that reviews are how people utilize word of mouth in today’s digital economy, let’s explore some effective ways to get more reviews for your dropship products.

1) Customize Follow-Up Emails

One of the quickest ways to get more reviews is to simply ask for them. Most platforms have customizable, automated email sequences available. Platforms like BigCommerce have the emails built into their product while Magento and Shopify have apps like these that do the same thing. You can start with the boiler-plate copy, but it helps to rewrite it with your company’s “voice” so people know you put some effort into this. Be nice and ask people to leave an honest review for the product they recently purchased.

2) Email Your Audience

As a savvy internet marketer, you’re probably already collecting email addresses. Hopefully you’re sending your audience useful content to keep them trusting you. If you have a list and they trust you, another simple way to get more reviews for your dropship products is to ask your email subscribers to review their favorite products. You may entice them with a coupon code for new purchases when they’ve left a review, but often times that is not necessary. If your email subscription service allows you to categorize people into “recently bought” or “recently added” segments, this would be a good place to start.

Pro Tip: Focus on one call to action in your email. In other words, don’t send your list a new blog post, some fun products, a news article about you, and ask for the reviews. Ask only for the reviews after you’ve delivered that other content in a separate email.

3) Ask Your Social Media Followers

Again, if you’ve been around for a while and you’ve built up a social following, this is a great way to engage them. Ask your social media audience, on whichever platform you engage them, to write a review for their favorite product. A great way to start this conversation is if/when people compliment you on a social platform. John Lee Dumas of the Entrepreneur On Fire podcast consistently asks for reviews and ratings for his show when people contact him.

Another creative way to get your social media audience involved is to run a contest for the most helpful reviews. Announce and promote the competition via social channels and watch your customers’ competitive sides flourish. What you give away and how you structure contests are completely subjective, all that matters is that you’re focusing people on leaving you honest reviews.

4) Review What You’ve Used

If you’ve used your products, there’s no reason you can’t leave a helpful review. Ask yourself what was left out of the product description. Ask yourself how you used it and give vivid details about your experience. If the product only earned 4/5 stars, only leave 4. Less than perfect reviews are not detrimental to your product – having no product reviews, however, can be.

5) Ask Friends and Family

Chances are you’ve already used word of mouth to tell friends and family about your eCommerce or dropship business. People you know are more likely than anyone to respond to a “will you help me by leaving a review” message than anyone. Get in contact with the friends and family your business has served and ask them to leave you an honest review.

6) Find Influencers

If none of the above options satisfy your need for reviews, there are a few sites that can help. These options don’t get you the traditional reviews on your site that you’re looking for, however they can be helpful in driving sales and giving you content to share on a product page.

FAMEBIT “brings creators to you, making it easy to find, hire and work with influential stars on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and more.” You can work with internet “stars” with large audiences who will give thorough reviews of your products and promote them to their followers for you. Similarly, Tomoson is “software to manage & match influencers with brands.” Depending on your niche, either or both sites could help you find the right influencers to give your products helpful reviews.

Product reviews, today’s modern form of word of mouth, help sell products. The number of stars aren’t as important as the honesty in the review. Fake or cheap reviews can be detrimental to your eCommerce or dropship business so steer clear. Use these techniques to get started adding reviews to your site and keep looking for ways to drive traffic, increase trust, and boost sales.