The reviews are in—and here are 5 smart ways you should be using them
Hint: It's more than just pulling quotes on your Instagram
👋, I’m Kimberly. I’ve been creating obsession-worthy brands for the past fifteen years. And now, I’m giving away my secrets every week in this newsletter.
I’ve written before about all of the awesome things Glossier does right in its marketing (here’s what any brand can learn about UX design from them). And thanks to Glossier’s incredibly clever new Lash Slick campaign, I’m about to do it again…
I can’t tell you the last time I actually remembered a mascara advertisement—but I can tell you what most of them look like.
Either smiling or sultry girls, with lots and lots and LOTS of eye closeups. Phrases like “dramatic length!” “explosive volume!” and “high impact!” Occasionally, you get a great product name—my #1 being Too Faced's Better Than Sex (which, according to Sephora employee lore, is what Too Faced’s founder exclaimed when he first tried the formula).
Glossier just made all the usual mascara suspects look like rotten tomatoes with a blockbuster new campaign that puts customer reviews in a literal starring role. They created a series of movie trailers and posters inspired by five different film genres that dramatically depict comments from 3,000+ customer reviews of Lash Slick.
An anime-style trailer created by Soon Kyun Lee depicts a winking girl getting caught in waves with the reviews: “Wore it to the beach,” “Got caught up in a riptide,” and “Mascara didn’t even smudge.”
Another ad shows “Saturday Night Live” star Ego Nwodim screaming loudly in a car, after crying on a couch: “Withstands VERY emotional therapy sessions,” and “Completely cry-proof.”
And my favorite, staring Gina Lee, is a sendup of the film noir genre complete with black and white lighting and foreboding music: “By some sorcery, this mascara stays on all day” and “I’m buying it until the day I die.”
When you break down this campaign, there are a lot of things to love:
It’s an emotional play to hit on people’s nostalgia for movies (as we’ve been quarantine-deprived of full cinematic experiences this year)
It’s a cool-kid play to use indie stars and filmmakers that fit right in with Glossier’s current + cool vibes
It’s a business smart play to takenover the marquees at empty theaters on the cheap with posters, and to market out-of-home when out-of home is where we all want to be after a winter of being cooped up
But the #1 thing I love about this campaign (and what I’m excited to dive deeper into right now!) is the truly unique and 100% impactful use of customer reviews.
Why am I SO FRIGGIN’ EXCITED ABOUT CUSTOMER REVIEWS?
Because they are a GOLDMINE of information and inspiration for your brand. And most marketers are not using them to their full potential.
Below are five awesome ways to use reviews (both yours AND your competitors) to make your brand better.
1. Lean Into Your Dislikes
There’s a bar in San Francisco called Kozy Car. Kozy Kar is a very distinctive drinking establishment—the entire bar (including the bar itself) is wallpapered in 70’s porn. The booths are either old hot tubs (not filled with water) or water beds (filled with water). And instead of sports, the TVs play (you guessed it) 70’s porn on loop. Kozy Kar is definitely not the kind of bar that’s for everyone. And that’s ok.
It’s so ok, that Kozy Kar takes delight in splashing some of their worst reviews on billboards promoting the bar: “I was, and still am, shocked and appalled and disgusted.” “It’s the embodiment of trash with a capital T.” “This place is gross and weird. I hate it. I felt dirty when I left. Never coming back.”
Obviously, Kozy Kar is not the kind of bar one would seek out if you were looking for a classy establishment—and the shock value is its appeal. So, these seemingly negative reviews have the exact opposite effect on the type of customer they’re looking to attract.
Your brand doesn’t have to be as “shocking” as Kozy Kar to try the same technique. Take a look through some of your negative reviews—is there anything haters hate, that your ideal customers love?
2. Look for Your New Marketing Phrases
Copywriting is a bit of an art and a bit of a science. There’s a reason you hire professionals to do it. But sometimes, your customers say things better than a writer ever could. It’s always a great idea to keep an eye on your reviews, and note the kind of language your customers are using to talk about your product and services.
First, you might uncover real gems. Some of the people who take the time to write reviews like to have fun with it… and use it as an opportunity to unleash creative writing skills they might not use in real life. Your next great marketing line could be waiting in your reviews.
And secondly, you can start to uncover trends. If twenty people have used the same language to describe your product, that’s probably language they know and understand—and you should try using it.
This past year, I rebranded a skincare company called Y’OUR Skincare. And during the course of their Branding Sprint, we combed through their reviews. We found that a lot of the positive reviews from their customers had similar phrasing—whether people had been struggling with acne or wrinkles or dryness, they were happy and amazed that the skincare “just worked.” The simplicity of this phrasing inspired their tagline: “It Just Works For You.”
3. See What People Don’t Like About the Competition
Whether you’re a new brand developing your product or an existing brand with a product on the market, you should always keep an eye on the competition. And even more so than looking at their ads—you should be looking at their reviews.
What do people not like about them? Maybe they’re not so into the smell of the product. Perhaps it takes too long to see results. Or maybe the product comes in way too much packaging. You can use this kind of information to improve your product and your customer’s experience.
Or even better… if your product is already better in ways that the negative reviews speak of, then you can immediately promote this more heavily in your advertisements. (It’s fragrance-free! Start seeing results in only two weeks! Minimal packaging that’s all recyclable!)
While you’re at it, make sure your product is up to par with everything people like about your competitors, too. If people comment that they love your competitor’s transparency about ingredients, fo example—you can use that information on the flip side and add information about your ingredients to your site.
4. Get Them On Video
These days, it can be really hard to trust reviews. People write reviews of products they haven’t purchased. People get paid to write reviews. And brands are known to manipulate their own reviews—as well as their competitors’ listings.
The problems have gotten so bad, the government has had to get involved. In 2020, the US started charging people with conspiracy for bribing Amazon employees to manipulate reviews. And skincare brand Sunday Riley got in BIG trouble with the FTC for writing fake reviews on Sephora’s site for almost two years.
When customers are looking at reviews on your site, no one knows “Laura from NYC” from “Ben from LA” from “Sandy from Greece.” That’s why it’s worth it to try and get your customers to put more of a face to their reviews. A photo is good, but video is best.
And even if you’re only able to collect a handful of video reviews, these are the ones you should highlight the most in your ads and on your site. The video quality doesn’t need to look super professional—video shot on a phone or TikTok-style instead of studio-lit is great, because it comes across as much more authentic.
Here’s an example of how 99designs showcases a testimonial video above the fold on its homepage.
5. Publicize Your Progress
We are social animals. We like attention. We like expressing ourselves. And we really, really, really like being listened to. Why else would being “a good listener” make most people’s lists of top ten qualities in a perfect mate?
When people complain about your company or your product, it’s best practice to respond in some way. If their messages to you are private, then your responses typically are as well. The same goes for public grievances… if someone comments on your Facebook ad or Twitter post with a complaint, you usually respond on the same string.
But one thing you don’t see often is companies publicizing their complaints—and then showing how they’re fixing the problems or doing better. I call this a “work in progress” marketing approach.
In this example, a chef from a restaurant made a video to respond to some of the good and bad comments in Yelp reviews of his restaurant.
Today more than ever, people are holding brands accountable for their actions, their supply chains, their products, and their services. Things are bound to go wrong sometimes. And as a customer, I always appreciate knowing that a company is willing to course correct or go the extra mile to make something right. Because I’m a work in progress too.
And there you go—five smart ways you can make reviews work harder for your brand.
Now, I hope you all give this Brands That Get You newsletter five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐.
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