Picture this: You’re walking through the store, your stomach is growling, and you’re looking for the perfect thing to eat. Then, out of nowhere, a person shouts, “Free samples!” and hands you a hot bite of pizza just oozing with melted mozzarella cheese. And hey, it’s dinner time…you want more! *Add to cart.*

Now, replace that pizza with anything else — wine, ice cream, a handheld vacuum. Once customers try it, they’re more likely to talk about it, buy it, and share it. That’s why, despite the costs, product sampling marketing is one of the most effective ways of collecting authentic content and increasing conversions on your e-commerce site, social pages, and beyond.

Chapters:

1. What is product sampling?
2. When should you launch a product sampling campaign?
3. Why you should launch a product sampling campaign
4. Product sampling strategies
5. Get started with product sampling

What is product sampling?

It’s the practice of offering goods or services to your audience in exchange for increased brand awareness, brand loyalty, reviews, feedback, and other revenue-boosting user-generated content (UGC). This is a form of experiential marketing because consumers are able to completely absorb and engage with the product prior to buying it.

Quick history lesson: Product sampling is a tried-and-true marketing strategy dating back to the 1850s. Benjamin T. Babbitt, a soap manufacturer, was one of the first people to hand out samples to his fan base. As time passed, the power of this marketing strategy was realized by others and has since become popular in a variety of industries.

Today, there’s several different product sampling methods:

• Traditional sampling means giving away free product samples to customers, so they will feel more confident buying the product
• Digital product sampling is a sustainable sampling method, where customers buy a product in a store or online with a provided coupon, or receive money back after uploading the receipt — no samples need to be shipped meaning no unnecessary packaging waste
• Sampler packs include small or trial-size products. If the customer likes the sample, they are more likely to buy the product at full size
• Mail drops are when you mail free samples directly to customers’ homes
• Limited time samples are free only for a specific amount of time, such as three days, a week, etc. This adds excitement and plays to the psychological fear of missing out (FOMO!)
• Virtual sampling is when consumers are able to try out a product online without visiting a store or receiving something in the mail. This type of product sampling campaign relies on technology like an app or artificial intelligence

When should you launch a product sampling campaign?

You should launch a product sampling campaign when you need to boost word of mouth or get feedback on a new product.

• You have a high-quality, effective product ready for people to test. It’s important to make sure you’re delivering something genuinely good before people’s opinions start flying. A bad product will be all the more maligned by product sampling
• Your budget can handle sampling costs. This includes the cost of the samples as well as shipping, handling, staffing, and marketing. Note: Digital product sampling alleviates a lot of fulfillment costs!
• You need increased brand awareness for an existing product. If your brand isn’t well-known but you have a great product, you need positive word of mouth to increase brand awareness and fill your sales funnel. Just make sure expansion is feasible for you based on your current business model
• You have a new product to launch. Product sampling will help with product development, as well as create some additional buzz. People who sample your product and love it are more likely to buy it, tell their friends, and even create shareable content about it

Why you should launch a product sampling campaign

Product sampling marketing helps brands boost feedback, conversion rates, positive reviews, and social content for both small and enterprise brands alike.

Get valuable product feedback

Product sampling is a way to connect with and get feedback from your audience.

According to Ryan Stewart, a marketing expert and the managing partner of WEBRIS, “We normally ask them questions about their experiences with our services, show how they use them, or even invite them to take part in an online contest that involves using our services.”

You can also use surveys to collect quantitative and qualitative data. This feedback can help you further develop the product into something your audience will love.

Boost sales and conversion rates

Sampling a product makes customers want to buy it. It’s wired into our psychology. Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist at Duke University, knows samples create desire. “If I gave you a tiny bit of chocolate,” he says, “all of a sudden it would remind you about the exact taste of chocolate and would increase your craving.”

Take Costco, for example. An oft-cited study about Costco revealed the grocery store saw a significant boost in revenue thanks to its free food samples. And Stewart confirms sampling is a solid way to increase sales. He asserts, “People who feel like we value their opinions are more likely to buy from us when they need something similar in the future.”

Gathering UGC and reviews from shoppers also gives brands a significant boost in sales. Absolution Cosmetics wanted to support product launches, build brand awareness around their healthy skin care messaging, and boost customer loyalty and engagement to ultimately increase sales. The brand implemented a dual review collection strategy, combining an evergreen sweepstakes on their website, ensuring a constant influx of fresh UGC and reviews, and targeted product sampling campaigns to support new product launches.

As a result, in just a six-month period, Absolution increased its revenue per visitor from 14% to 123%, customer engagement from 28% to 61%, and earned $107K directly attributed to ratings and reviews.

Encourage positive reviews due to a sense of reciprocity

Free samples encourage potential customers to play into the idea of reciprocity. In other words, people who receive the sample want to do something for your brand in return — like posting a positive review on social media.

This by no means every review is going to be positive of course. Neither should that be expected. Product sampling isn’t “we’ll send you a product sample in return for a positive review.” By contrast, reviews should be honest regardless of the sentiment. And even negative reviews provide added authenticity for your brand.

But one of the reasons sampling does yield such positive results is because the right provider (like Bazaarvoice ) can create campaigns for a hyper-targeted audience across demographics, behaviors, preferences, and more. When the recipient is the exact target audience the product is for, the review is much more likely to be positive. Just make sure your sampling provider can accommodate this.

“Product sampling allows us to get our audience involved in the creation of our content, which gives them a sense of ownership over what we’re sharing,” says Stewart.

For instance, after TTI Floor Care North America allowed top brand loyalists to sample Dirt Devil vacuum cleaners for free, they saw an 86% response rate and more than 700 reviews full of positive, authentic UGC. As a result, Dirt Devil product reviews went from 2.8 to 4.5 stars. These reviews not only filled TTI’s own webpage but were also syndicated on major retailers’ sites.

Supercharging brand awareness with social content

You probably already know that social content is an important way to reach consumers. Combining the reach of social media with the effectiveness of sampling gives you a unique marketing campaign powerhouse.

Most Bazaarvoice Sampling customers are brand managers who use sampling to generate and feature content on social media.

“Linking sampling to social is a core tenant of any e-commerce plan,” says Kerry Bridge, Global Director of Advocacy at Bazaarvoice. “You need to be able to collect that great content from social in order to populate your product pages. Plus build your community.”

We’ve pinpointed a few different reasons why social content and sampling go hand-in-hand:

1. New product launches benefit greatly from large amounts of recent UGC. 89% of shoppers check reviews before making a purchase, and 60% of shoppers feel more comfortable making a purchase if they can see product images or videos first. A great way to collect this valuable UGC is to employ sampling
2. Entering new markets helps you expand your reach. Each demographic is different, and over 70% of shoppers are looking for perspectives that reflect their own. Product sampling can help you get your foot in the door and provide UGC that speaks to these new markets in a relatable way
3. Supporting your core SKUs with product sampling allows you to collect quality content at scale. Your core products are hot sellers for a reason — get them in your fans’ hands through a sampling campaign and encourage them to create content. Data from our Bazaarvoice Network of over 12,500 brands and retailers found a 135% increase in conversion rate and a 164% increase in revenue per visitor when shoppers engaged with social content from their peers
4. Working with the right content creators can help you skyrocket your brand awareness and success. Creator collaborations add to your content volume, and by sharing with their own engaged audiences, they also extend your reach

Relaunch your products

There may be times when you want to shift your brand strategy and reformulate or reinvent your product. With the introduction of the FTC’s 2023 review hijacking legislation, reformulating your product isn’t just about tweaking its features — it’s about ushering it into the market as if it’s an entirely new line. It’s a unique challenge, with the daunting task of resetting your review count and content collection to zero. But sampling can help you rapidly rebuild from this new starting line.

• Relaunch your product with fresh advocacy: Successfully relaunch your reformulated product by targeting the right audience, providing an experience, driving UGC from day one, and gaining actionable insights from product samplers
• Combat misleading reviews with authentic content: If the reformulation means the product is “substantially different” in “one or more material attributes” from the prior version (as per the FTC), it would be deceptive to continue using existing reviews. A sampling campaign can generate fresh reviews and customer photos quickly and effectively so you have an arsenal of new social proof you can show off to shoppers

Product sampling strategies

Ultimately, all sampling campaigns help your potential customers get a preview of what you’re selling while helping you get more visibility for your product and brand overall. The individual strategies can take several different forms, from in-store food samples (Costco) or mailed glasses to try on (Warby Parker). The details depend on your business model and campaign goals.

Here’s seven examples from the masters that you can imitate when you craft your own campaign, including the relevant sampling program they used.

Costco nails the traditional sampling strategy

Costco is famous for the traditional, in-store, free sample method. People have gone so far as to tour the sample tables at various Costco stores. The more samples people try, the closer they get to a free lunch. Personal finance and food bloggers have picked up on this idea as well and have even written articles encouraging the practice.

Costco’s store sampling draws people to its stores, thanks to one key message: Going to Costco is fun (and yummy!)

While you might be nervous about handing out “freebies,” the benefits far outweigh the costs. In fact, according to the College Marketing Group, “Interactions — the company that handles Costco’s sampling — found that their efforts led to a 71% increase in sales of beer and a 600% increase in frozen pizza.”

Traditional sampling works especially well for supermarkets like Costco, as well as other brick-and-mortar stores like makeup counters. Just remember that the goal for this type of sampling is to increase sales and positive word of mouth. You probably won’t get a lot of usable content out of it.

L’Oréal gets personal with virtual sampling

Since its target market is focused primarily on beauty, personalization and creativity are everything for L’Oréal. That’s why L’Oréal’s special offers and promotions are tailored to this demographic’s specific preferences and needs in the form of virtual sampling.

Customers simply select a product like hair dye or blush. Once they grant L’Oréal access to their camera, a small window shows them what they would look like wearing that product. It’s kind of like Zoom + the Sherwin-Williams ColorSnap Visualizer. But instead of paint, it’s a beauty product.

Virtual sampling is attractive because it’s incredibly scalable, not to mention germ-free. Brands aren’t limited by physical space in stores or the cost of making or shipping the product. Instead, consumers are able to instantly get a good idea of what the product would be like for them without the hassle of applying the sample color to their wrist (eww), applying to a program, handing over their personal info, or potentially wasting a product if they don’t like it.

This technique is also sometimes more helpful and realistic than physical store samples because the tool takes into account different product combinations and how they affect each other. For example, if I dyed my hair bright red, would that red lipstick look good? Hmm… maybe a more subtle shade would be better.

Brands can use virtual try-ons to fill their social media calendars. If you have a tool like this, inspire your customers to post a photo of themselves on social media “trying on” your product. Then collect, store, and track that content using Bazaarvoice’s AI-powered Media Library.

Warby Parker masters the mail drop

Warby Parker prides itself on its choice selection when it comes to new, stylish, and comfortable eyeglass frames. It provides a quiz to help customers determine exactly what type of frames will best suit them and then a personalized selection based on their responses.

After completing the quiz, customers can choose up to five frames that are delivered right to their homes, where they can test them for five days. After finding that perfect pair, customers can buy what they want and ship the rest back. The return shipping is free with Warby Parker’s return label.

For something you have to wear all the time (like glasses), comfort and style are paramount. Warby Parker helps customers feel assured that both needs will be met because customers can literally see the results for themselves at home before buying.

For brands that want a turnkey sampler program, Bazaarvoice offers a white-labeled sampling program to help retailers get their product samples directly into the hands of their community and start generating UGC.

Neuro optimizes product development

Sampling isn’t just to market and sell existing products. Kent Yoshimura and Ryan Chen, co-founders of wellness company Neuro, explain in this podcast one of the key ways they achieved their success: making sure Neuro Gum was as perfect as possible before they jumped into product activation. They gave out free samples of the gum to family, friends, and co-workers to test a variety of key details such as:

• Different ingredients (20 milligrams of caffeine to 80 milligrams of caffeine)
• New flavors
• Different sweeteners
• Hard chews vs. soft chews

After perfecting the product, Yoshimura and Chen surpassed their crowdfunding goal in just three days and ended up selling over 12 million pieces of Neuro Gum. And those people who sample the product became loyal customers.

“Once we introduce that product to somebody, the repeat purchase rate can be up to about 40, 45%,” said Chen. “Our challenge is getting people to try the product. Sampling is a really big opportunity for us.”

Neuro ensured it had a good, high-quality product and an active community of fans, thanks to product sampling. According to Chen, “We’ve grown such a loyal group of customers that they give us feedback all the time. It’s built a community which has been inspiring for us and has given us the motivation to keep going.”

After their initial success, they continued sampling with specific cohorts like the CrossFit community. They’ve also shipped product samples to new distributors to explore a potential new market in Africa.

Using samples and collecting customer responses is the most effective way to get meaningful feedback about your product, so you can improve it and launch with confidence.

Bazaarvoice’s sampling programs can help you learn from sampler feedback and expand into new markets via our robust, global Influenster community.

Home Depot doubles conversion rates with Managed Sampling

Home Depot Canada wanted to increase the volume of UGC, particularly reviews, its brands get on its product pages. So they partnered with bazaarvoice to create the Home Depot Seeds Sampling program.

“UGC is becoming increasingly important. It’s no longer a ‘nice to have.’ It’s a necessity. We see our site as a research tool, so even if people come into the store, they still use their phones to see ratings and reviews and make a final decision.”

Gabriela da Silva, Senior Brand Advocate Analyst, Home Depot Canada

Seeds Sampling is a review-seeding program that puts a brand’s highest priority products into the hands of its shoppers, in exchange for honest reviews on HomeDepot.ca. Since the program’s inception, it’s already led to some brands doubling their conversion rates on HomeDepot.ca.

It’s not just legacy products either. WiZ, a brand featured on HomeDepot.ca, used Seeds Sampling to generate buzz for new products and earn that UGC before they’d even launched. 

It worked, too. The conversion rate for the products used in Seeds Sampling was 68% higher than products not part of the program. Not bad at all.

Home Depot isn’t the first retailer to turn to Bazaarvoice for a Managed Sampling program. We’ve built sampling programs for Walmart, Target, and Sam’sClub, to name a few. And you could be next.

Get started with product sampling

Ready to experience the power of product sampling marketing in your own business? Bazaarvoice makes it easier than ever to get your products into the hands of the perfect customers, leading to a surge in reviews, social media buzz, authentic word-of-mouth, and sales.

You can learn more about Bazaarvoice Sampling here, or get started directly below.

LEARN MORE

Buyer’s guide: Find the perfect product sampling partner

Read here

Chances are you’ve most likely been to a Home Depot or ordered from them online. Need a new drill? Repainting your living room? Updating your lighting? Bored on a Sunday? It’s off to Home Depot. 

The home improvement retailer has 2,200 stores in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, and offers more than one million products for its shoppers. They serve DIY customers, professional contractors, and installation businesses across North America. 

For brands that sell their products on HomeDepot.ca, figuring out how to maximize channel sales is critical for business. Brands can of course come to HomeDepot.ca with their own user-generated content (UGC) — like reviews, Q&As, and social posts — but the retail chain partners with Bazaarvoice specifically to provide robust UGC collection tools for brands. 

A UGC strategy done right increases the discoverability of products, boosts sales, and creates a valuable dialogue with customers and new shoppers. It also informs SEO benefits, provides insights for product innovation, reduces return rates, and ensures shoppers have a positive experience with your brand. The impact of reviews by numbers:

Customers who interact with UGC are 2x more likely to convert, according to Bazaarvoice research. Reviews help customers validate their purchasing decisions and feel more confident about the products they buy. 

Home Depot Canada has launched several Bazaarvoice solutions and features that improve the customer experience and help suppliers optimize UGC. One of its most successful solutions is its sampling program, the Home Depot Seeds Program. 

What is the Home Depot Seeds Program?

The Home Depot Seeds Program is a product sampling program that puts a brand’s high-priority products in the hands of Home Depot Canada’s most loyal shoppers, in exchange for honest reviews on HomeDepot.ca.

Bazaarvoice and Home Depot partnered to help brands select which key items to sample, identify Home Depot Canada audiences within the sampling community, and guide brands through fulfillment. 

How to leverage the Home Depot Seeds Program

Home Depot encourages its brands to enlist the Seeds Program for seasonal, exclusive, and new products. Or even any products that just need a fresh crop of reviews:

• New products: Brands can collect authentic UGC for products ahead of a new launch. Insights found within reviews ensure your products launch with a bang, and will help future shoppers feel confident about purchasing your new products
• Seasonal items: Optimize seasonal item product pages with UGC to boost discoverability and increase conversions during their limited time
• Home Depot exclusives: If your brand sells products exclusively through Home Depot, then HomeDepot.ca is the only place where shoppers can see that valuable UGC
• Products with outdated reviews: Search engines like Google favor pages with fresh content, so a a continuous flow of review content means more traffic to your product pages, which means more sales

Getting started with Bazaarvoice + Home Depot

The Home Depot Seeds Program has already helped some brands on HomeDepot.ca more than double their conversion rates. In addition, the program has been so successful that Home Depot vendors in the United States are now interested in using it to collect reviews for their Canadian exclusive items and product launches. 

Learn more about the Bazaarvoice + Home Depot partnership and more ways you can utilize strategies to increase channel sales over on our partnership page. Or get in touch directly below to get started.

Stock images and catalog-esque product descriptions used to be the way to win over Sam’s Club members shopping online. But today they crave more inspiring, authentic content. Most notably, they crave the opinions of fellow Sam’s Club members. User-generated content (UGC), including ratings, reviews, and member questions and answers, is the prime way to connect and engage with them. 

UGC builds trust, inspires loyalty, and has a significant impact on product discoverability and purchase decisions. It’s a key conversion driver on SamsClub.com product pages, so brands that sell products on the site must focus their UGC strategies to stay highly competitive. UGC can’t be an afterthought. 

Our research shows that just one customer review on a product page can increase purchase likelihood by 10%. Plus, 88% of shoppers rely on reviews to discover and evaluate products and 89% always consult them before making a purchase. Shoppers pay attention to the quality, volume, and recency of reviews, so keeping reviews flowing and fresh will help your products stand out. 

Bazaarvoice, Sam’s Club’s preferred ratings and reviews partner, leads the industry with best-in-class UGC solutions and services. Not to mention unparalleled review content authenticity and moderation standards. Bazaarvoice offers a range of solutions to help Sam’s Club suppliers optimize their product pages with content to boost discoverability when shoppers search and drive revenue. 

What is Sam’s Club Star Reviewer sampling program?

The newest solution in this realm is Sam’s Club Star Reviewer, a turnkey sampling program developed with the aim of helping brands big and small collect more written and visual product reviews on SamsClub.com. Check out the video below to learn more about how the sampling program works: 

4 reasons every Sam’s Club supplier needs the Star Reviewer sampling program

There’s multiple benefits to uitilizing Sam’s Club Star Reviewer and these are just the top four. But they all have one thing in common: helping you stand out and drive sales on Samsclub.com.

1. Boost sales of your seasonal products 

Whether it’s Halloween costumes, patio furniture, or winter apparel, there’s often a short window to drive sales for seasonal products. Star Reviewer helps Sam’s Club suppliers get ahead of the peak sales curve. Collecting reviews before seasonal shopping begins aids consumers in making quick decisions once they’re ready to shop. Especially when the UGC includes written and visual reviews. 

About half of shoppers want more photos in the reviews they consult. Visuals offer a real-world glimpse into how a product looks or works. This lends more authenticity to the shopping experience, and persuades your customers to click add to cart.

2. Market new items and collect reviews prior to product launches

Shoppers are often very wary of purchasing new items with zero reviews. Running a pre-launch promotion using Star Reviewer helps suppliers to boost review volume quickly, in turn increasing conversions at a faster pace once these products are available on SamsClub.com.

Gathering reviews from Sam’s Club members before a product launch also provides Sam’s Club suppliers with valuable intel. You’ll gain insights into how shoppers actually use the products, and it can reveal use cases that you haven’t thought of. Is a line of clothing running too small? Would a product suit a different color better? Customer frequently leave these details in their product reviews.

Reviews also identify problems or issues with a product and inspire new product innovations. Consumers appreciate brands that listen to their feedback and actually make product improvements based on their reviews.  

3. To highlight Sam’s Club exclusives

The ability to drum up excitement for products available exclusively at Sam’s Club is key to a product’s success. And the best way to drive visibility, discoverability, and sales is by increasing a product’s review volume. Brands can see a 138% lift in conversions when shoppers engage with reviews on best-in-class Bazaarvoice sites (such as SamsClub.com!) 

Quality reviews build trust and exude authenticity. And you shouldn’t worry if reviews aren’t all positive. 71% of consumers say that negative reviews are as important as positive reviews in their purchasing decisions, according to a Bazaarvoice study. Most shoppers feel that negative reviews actually contain more details about a product’s best and worst attributes. 

4. Freshen up reviews for legacy products 

To keep tried-and-true products relevant in shoppers’ minds and keep sales up, make sure that you have a fresh crop of new reviews coming in. Star Reviewer helps identify a brand’s loyal shoppers or those who’ve purchased similar items to sample your core products and review them. 

Review recency matters to shoppers. 85% of shoppers look at when a review was written before they buy an item, a Bazaarvoice study found. Shoppers are turned off when products have no recent reviews, as they think the item isn’t popular. Many consider reviews written within the past three months to be most reliable.

Boost sales with Bazaarvoice + Sam’s Club

Increasing the number of product reviews you have, ensuring review content is authentic, and keeping reviews fresh builds trust with Sam’s Club members and will help you stand out among competing products/brands.

Ready to sign up with Star Reviewer? You can learn more on our Sam’s Club + Bazaarvoice brand invite page. Or get in touch directly below to get started.

Bazaarvoice recently met with Oliver Richard, Senior Manager of Site Merchandising Operations at Samsclub.com, to learn first-hand how brands can win at SEO, prepare for large promo events, and become best-in-class using Sam’s Club new vendor scorecard. You can watch the full on-demand conversation below.

FEATURED RESOURCE

Masterclass: Retail Talk with Sam’s Club

Watch here

Get ahead on planning your perfect timeline with this guide to every season. Looking to nail your holiday shopping season? Jump to our winter campaign timeline. Not sure how to plan for Halloween? Skip to our fall campign timeline. Or for the perfect marketing timeline for every season, just dive right in.

Chapters:

1. Winter campaigns: How to plan a marketing timeline
2. Spring campaigns: How to plan a marketing timeline
3. Summer campaigns: How to plan a marketing timeline
4. Fall campaigns: How to plan a marketing timeline
5. Nail your marketing timeline strategy with Bazaarvoice Sampling

Shopping never stops. Consumers are always browsing for something they need or just want, whether it’s a new outfit, fresh home decor, holiday merchandise, or gifts for loved ones.

24% of consumers say they shop weekly, and 9% shop every day. Most consumers shop both online and in stores. 

While shopping is always-on and available everywhere at the tip of your finger, consumer behavior shifts from season to season. So, what does that mean for you? Being tasked with juggling marketing campaign timelines year-round to attract shoppers with the right content at the right time.

What they’re looking for is your branded content mixed with user-generated content (UGC), which includes ratings, reviews, photos, and videos. It’s considered more authentic and trustworthy because it comes directly from real people. 

One of the best ways to collect UGC quickly is via product sampling, where you send consumers samples of products to try in exchange for honest reviews.  

To develop successful sampling campaigns, you’ll need to change things up every season. Use these guiding timelines to rock your seasonal marketing campaigns. 

Winter campaigns: How to plan a marketing timeline

Shoppers are making their naughty-and-nice lists and stashing away gifts earlier and earlier, especially as budgets are being tightened. 

So, you need to be ready. For the best results, you absolutely can’t wait until November 1st to kick off your holiday campaigns. Start months ahead to lure shoppers during this time of hustle and bustle.

Early planning and preparation also ensure you’ll be ready for anything unexpected like supply chain issues, pressures from inflation, or delayed product launches. We’ve created a helpful marketing timeline to set yourself up for a joyous holiday season. 

March/April 

Right after the previous holiday season is the best time to solidify your budget and map out an internal timeline for getting ahead of next year’s holidays. And that should include a budget for UGC.

Collecting UGC and adding ratings, reviews, and customer photos and videos as early as possible means the difference between a successful sales season and a lump of coal in your stocking. 

Best-in-class sites containing UGC see up to a 190% revenue lift per visitor and up to a 145% increase in conversion rate. A few other things to do during this time include: 

• Contact other brands to initiate partnerships for must-have winter holiday products
• Secure places on in-person and digital retailers’ shelves
• Decide which ad campaigns to run 

May/June

With the holidays about six months away, lock in your advertising and sampling campaigns. Product sampling is an excellent way to pack your product pages with fresh UGC. 

Just look at Kraft Heinz. They use sampling to drive awareness for new products and have seen massive success. Campaigns for Kraft Dressings Vinaigrettes, Twisted Ranch, and Bitten brought in 20,000 reviews and 39 million impressions.

“The campaigns over-delivered on our targets for the program, delivering 2x the product reviews we expected, and the earned media was over 5x our program investment,” Kraft Heinz Associate Brand Manager Elizabeth Northrup said.

That’s because new UGC is crucial. 80% of shoppers say review recency factors into their purchasing decisions, with most shoppers saying they’d rather buy something with fewer reviews if they’re recent. 

July 

Known as “Black Friday in July” thanks to Amazon Prime Day, this has become the unofficial holiday shopping season kickoff. 

Prime Day is an amazing opportunity to organically collect UGC, even if you don’t sell on Amazon. Use email and text messages to encourage consumers to leave reviews with these best practices: 

• Use a simple, catchy subject line
• Keep your ask short and focused on the review request 
• Give shoppers time to receive and experience the product

MeUndies for example grew review volume 218% simply by asking shoppers to leave a review. After optimizing review request emails, submission rates and page views jumped drastically. 

“Customers trust the volume of reviews that they see,” said Ross Houslander, senior retention lead at MeUndies. “Bazaarvoice allows us to collect reviews and create consumer trust. It also allows us to do things like offering consumers a quick way to write reviews themselves.” 

Long story short, UGC drives sales on Prime Day. 88% of shoppers said they relied on ratings and reviews to complete a purchase during the event. More shoppers are relying on visual UGC, too. Our surveys show that 74% base Prime Day purchase decisions on photos and videos from other customers — just 18% look at written reviews alone.  

August/September

If you haven’t started your sampling campaigns by August, now’s crunch time. But don’t worry — there’s still enough time to collect UGC before Cyber Week in November. Sampling also isn’t the only way to go: 

• Identify gaps in your UGC coverage
• Run a social media campaign or retarget customers for feedback on their purchases to boost on-site and syndicated UGC
• Take note of reviews and questions without responses — 69% of shoppers who write a negative review expect a response, and responses to positive reviews go a long way in building trust with shoppers

October 

It’s almost showtime. October is when most people start holiday shopping. So, it’s a great time to make sure your team and systems are ready to handle shopping spikes. Here’s how: 

• Firm up any planned code freezes, increase staffing, and have a plan in case a system breaks or goes down when people are browsing and buying
• Add social content that you’ve collected from sampling campaigns before your code freeze. This will inspire shopping decisions and increase sales, as 75% of shoppers want to see visual and social UGC on product pages when they shop 
• Keep responding to reviews and questions. It’ll build relationships and help shoppers buy with confidence

November 

The holiday season is officially here! Go ahead and put up your twinkle lights and Christmas tree, and get your holiday playlist on repeat. 

Once Halloween is over, consumers really start thinking about holiday gift shopping (if they haven’t already). If you started prepping in March, you’ll have a solid UGC strategy in place to be ready for Thanksgiving week, including Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday. You’ll see shoppers flocking to your website and filling their shopping carts.

December 

Holiday shopping is still going on, and there are plenty of last-minute shoppers hitting the stores digitally and in person. 

Learn from your Cyber Week successes and failures, and finish the holiday shopping season strong. Think about ways you can tweak product descriptions or bring fresh content to your social content galleries. 

And keep engaging with shoppers — it’s a crucial time to continue responding to UGC. 

3 examples of winter seasonal marketing campaigns 

Here’s some of our favorite examples of brands that perfected their marketing timelines, jumped into the holiday spirit, won over shoppers, and boosted sales.

1. Fresh

The all-natural beauty brand used Bazaarvoice Review Syndication to launch limited-edition products, including holiday gift sets. By the time the sets launched, Fresh had a trove of reviews and visual UGC on its product pages.

The brand consistently drives a 10.7% conversion rate when shoppers engage with UGC. 

2. Albertsons Retail Media Collective & PepsiCo 

PepsiCo debuted a social-focused cashback campaign, rewarding shoppers when they posted photos and comments about Tostitos chips and salsa on TikTok and Instagram. 

The campaign generated 7.3 million social media impressions, and about 90% of consumers said they’d recommend PepsiCo/Tostitos to their family and friends. 

3. Patchology 

To boost awareness for its All Eyes on You kit ahead of the holidays, Skincare brand Patchology created a custom Influenster VoxBox and sent it to 1,000 millennial skincare enthusiasts.

The campaign resulted in over 1,700 reviews and 6.3 million impressions. 

Sampling gives your winter campaigns a boost 

Is your brand ready for the holiday shopping season? Read our full winter marketing timeline guide to help you get ahead and set yourself up for a joyous holiday season.

Spring campaigns: How to plan a marketing timeline 

Flowers are blooming, birds are chirping, and the chill in the air is starting to fade. Springtime brings so much newness, and it will inspire consumers to shop. 

The season also encompasses many events and holidays — think: Easter, Passover, Mother’s Day, spring cleaning, and the first barbecue of the year. Shoppers will be looking for new outfits, gifts, and items to spruce up their homes and outdoor spaces. 

If you’re thinking about hopping into spring with a vibrant sampling campaign, late summer is the best time to start. This marketing timeline will help you get ahead and set yourself up for a beautiful spring campaign.

August/September 

As summer winds down, start thinking about springtime. It’s a good time to finalize your budget and think about what resources you need well in advance. 

Establish a UGC budget. Collecting ratings, reviews, and shopper photos and videos and adding them to your product pages will give them a refresh for spring. Remember, 89% of consumers always or mostly check reviews before purchasing something. 

If you have ideas for springtime partnerships with other retailers and brands, get in contact now. This will give you plenty of time to develop something exciting for your customers. And, don’t forget to secure your spot on store and digital shelves and start thinking about your spring marketing strategy. 

October/November

Spend time in the fall, before the holiday hecticness, to settle on your advertising strategies and activate your sampling campaign. 

You’ll have plenty of time to send out samples and bring in a fresh crop of review content before March. New, relevant content inspires shoppers. They care more about how recent a product’s reviews are than how many reviews an item actually has. 

Retailers should invite brands into their UGC programs by encouraging review collection and syndication — McPherson’s is a great example. The consumer products brand uses sampling campaigns to boost reviews on its e-commerce platform and syndicates them to partners to drive excitement for new product launches. About 20% of its new reviews come from sampling. 

December 

With consumers busy holiday gift shopping, it’s time for you to focus on spring. The influx of holiday sales makes it an optimal time to collect organic reviews. 

Send an email or text message to consumers after their purchases to ask them to share feedback — just give them enough time to try out their items first. And keep the messages short and sweet!

December is a great time to launch your sampling campaign (if you haven’t already). Identify products that need more or fresh reviews. Then, ask consumers to try out those items and leave a review or post photos of themselves using the product on social. 

Take time to respond to existing UGC and answer any questions that shoppers left. They expect brands and retailers to respond to positive and negative feedback, and doing so builds trust. 

January/February

It’s a brand new year! Consumers are celebrating Valentine’s Day and shopping for cards, candy, jewelry, and flowers. 

But, spring is just around the corner. Now is a terrific time to spring clean your website. Revisit old content, revamp product descriptions, evaluate core pages, clean up your shop’s data, and respond to new reviews and questions. 

And incorporate social content and other UGC you collect from your sampling campaigns. It’ll instill trust and build authentic connections with consumers. Shoppers want to see how products look and work in real-life settings — 62% of shoppers are more likely to buy a product if they can view customer photos and videos

March

You made it to spring, and all your hard work is paying off. Consumers are researching and getting ready to shop for the season’s most-wanted items. They’re looking for green ahead of St. Patrick’s Day, plus grills and outdoor accessories as the weather starts to warm up. 

Start running promotions ahead of Easter, and you’ll see shoppers buying their chocolate bunnies, baskets, and pastel dresses early. 

April 

What worked well and not so well in March? This month, take stock of your early spring strategies. Look for product pages that need a few tweaks or fresh social content that you can add to a gallery. After all, shoppers are more likely to buy products when visual UGC is featured on product pages. 

It’s crucial to continue engaging with shoppers as your spring campaigns wind down. Responding to UGC, including reviews on your website or social media posts featuring your products, lets shoppers know how much you value their feedback. 

3 examples of spring seasonal marketing campaigns 

Below are a few brands that launched stand-out spring campaigns thanks to a stellar marketing timeline. 

1. Kärcher 

Cleaning equipment company Kärcher uses Bazaarvoice Sampling to target customers with new product launches and generate high-quality reviews quickly. Ahead of one of their first product launches with sampling, 98% of consumers who received samples left a review.

Kärcher also features UGC on its product pages, which increases conversions and deepens its relationships with retailers. 

2. Clarins

Sampling helps Clarins collect fresh UGC for existing products and leading up to new product launches. One campaign brought in 138 reviews in 36 days, and the luxury beauty brand sees a whopping 111% increase in conversions when shoppers read reviews on its website. 

3. LG UK 

For new product launches, LG UK uses sampling to pre-populate product pages with reviews before the items are released. Every consumer who receives a sample usually leaves a review, and the company averages a 4.9 rating.

LG UK also uses review syndication to ensure reviews pop up wherever consumers shop.

Spruce up your spring campaigns with sampling 

Are you thinking about hopping into spring with a vibrant sampling campaign? Our sampling community is your content engine. Read our full strategic marketing timeline to help you get ahead and set yourself up for a blissful spring shopping season.

Summer campaigns: How to plan a marketing timeline 

The summer retail season is one of the busiest: School’s out, vacations are booked, pool days are the norm, and consumers have a lot to shop for. Father’s Day and Prime Day also drive summer purchases.

To ensure your summer campaigns are sizzling hot, start planning while your holiday campaigns are in full swing. This will set your summer retail season up for success. Use this proven marketing timeline to help.

December 

Kicking off a UGC campaign now is the best way to get ready for summer. Decide which products need more reviews and more recent reviews. Starting to collect UGC now means you can help shoppers make the most informed decisions by the time summer rolls around. 

Consumers trust UGC just as much (if not more) than recommendations from friends and family. They especially appreciate seeing fellow shoppers wearing and using items in real life. It’s no wonder that 62% of shoppers are more likely to buy something if they can see customer photos and videos. 

Also, don’t forget to reach out to brands that you want to partner with on summer products or campaigns. Talk to retailers about securing shelf space for your products. 

January 

Launch your sampling campaigns now! This will get new and relevant reviews flowing in, which shoppers rely on as they’re browsing for things to buy. 

Consumers love freebies and appreciate opportunities to try something and provide feedback. Sampling inspires loyalty, as many consumers start buying the items they’ve tried out. Plus, you reap the benefits of word-of-mouth marketing, as 87% also recommend the product and brand to friends and family. 

Sampling also provides a wealth of UGC that you can display on your product pages to instill confidence in consumers as they shop. This UGC can also be syndicated on retailer websites to reach even more shoppers. 

February 

Valentine’s Day means love is in the air, and consumers are shopping for their significant others, friends, family, and pets. Use these holiday purchases to drive your UGC collection efforts. 

Sending an email or text after Valentine’s purchases will spur organic review collection. Just keep your message short and focused on the review request. Don’t forget to give consumers enough time to receive and try out the product before asking for a review. 

As an example, Petmate increased review volume by an impressive 380% after activating In-Mail, which enables shoppers to rate and review products directly in their email, and Multi-Product Submission, where they can review all recent purchases in one submission form. 

“The moment we enabled these two features, our review volume skyrocketed,” said Chad Siegert, Director of Consumer Marketing, Petmate. 

March

March is the last call for sampling campaigns to collect new UGC before summertime and back-to-school season kick off. But, there are other ways to boost review coverage, too. 

Identify your top-selling summer products and see which product pages need a refresh. Run a social media campaign or target customers who’ve purchased those items to ramp up UGC collection, especially visuals. Shoppers are more likely to buy products with consumer photos and visuals. 

While you’re reviewing your product pages, pay attention to reviews and questions that haven’t been addressed and respond to them. Shoppers expect retailers and brands to respond to both negative and positive reviews — it shows that their feedback is valued. 

April 

This month, finalize your summer plans. This will free up your marketing teams so that they can relax over the summer. 

It’s a good time to make sure your website is mobile-friendly. With so many people traveling in the summer, you want to make it easy for them to browse, shop, and buy from your store on their mobile devices, wherever they are. 

More and more, consumers take an omnichannel approach to shopping. According to our research, 63% of consumers use their phones while browsing in stores to compare prices and look up product reviews, and 36% have purchased something via mobile shopping while in a brick-and-mortar store. 

Here’s some other things to add to your April to-do list: 

• Add social content from past sampling campaigns to your website
• Keep responding to existing reviews 
• Answer questions that your customers have posted 

May 

Memorial Day, the unofficial beginning of summer, is just ahead. Consumers are getting ready for the season by shopping for swimsuits, sunscreen, patio furniture, and pool floaties. Start running promotions on these items to get shoppers in a summer state of mind. 

Leverage social media by featuring some of the visual UGC you collected from the sampling campaigns over the past couple of months. Social commerce inspires purchases. Just make your posts shoppable — 54% of consumers are more likely to buy a product on social media when they can click on the post and get info right then and there.

June 

It’s officially summer! Your summertime campaigns are making a splash, but the work doesn’t stop there. Engaging consumers is a year-round business. 

Keep an eye on your product description pages. Add UGC to your galleries and respond to reviews that flow in. These minor tweaks will help you stand out and let customers know that their feedback is your number one priority. 

3 examples of summer seasonal marketing campaigns 

These brands hit it out of the park with their summer campaign marketing timelines. 

1. Samsonite

Last summer, the iconic travel brand Samsonite encouraged consumers to “Take What’s Yours” and use up their paid time off. The campaign incorporated social media posts and hashtags.

The brand also uses Bazaarvoice Galleries, which has helped them increase conversions 4x, time spent on product pages by 5x, and average order values by 254%.  

2. The Athlete’s Foot

The Athlete’s Foot created a hub to help parents shop for their kids’ back-to-school shoes. To encourage sales, the brand leverages Bazaarvoice Ratings and Reviews and Review Syndication.

The combo of the two helped the brand collect thousands of reviews and more importantly, boost conversions by 26%. 

3. Fresh

Beauty brand Fresh used sweepstakes to increase engagement during the summer. They asked consumers to leave reviews for their favorite products from their Rose collection and enter to win a $100 gift card.

The fun campaign brought in 145% more reviews than normal and a fresh set of review content for evergreen products. 

Heat up your summer campaigns with sampling

Do you know what you should be thinking about in the midst of winter? Your summer shopping season plans. Put some sizzle into your summer campaigns with our full summer marketing timeline below and set yourself up for a successful summer season.

Fall campaigns: How to plan a marketing timeline 

Pumpkin spice lattes, jack-o-lanterns, crisp air, and colorful foliage — fall is hands-down the coziest season. There’s a lot of shopping going on, too. Consumers are looking for Halloween costumes, Thanksgiving cookware, festive decor, and trendy new clothes. They’re also starting to think about holiday gifting. 

To capitalize on the increase in consumer spending, you’ll need to start planning in February. Here’s a specific marketing timeline to help prepare for a bountiful fall season. 

February/March 

The early part of the year is the optimal time to gear up for fall. Get a timeline and budget in place for UGC. 

Ratings, reviews, and customer photos and videos can zhuzh up your product pages — which can mean the difference between a successful fall and a flop. Best-in-class websites with UGC see up to a 190% boost in revenue per visitor and up to 145% higher conversion rates. 

Set up partnerships with other brands for must-have autumn products. Discuss your fall plans with retailers to ensure you have a place on their shelves and identify which campaigns to run. 

April/May 

Spring is the best time to start a sampling campaign to increase UGC volume for fall. Sampling campaigns are a surefire way to impress your retail partners. 

Sampling drives product discovery and spurs UGC collection. It also encourages customer loyalty. Shoppers that try samples often buy the product again and again, buy more things from the brand, and recommend it to friends and family. 

Consumers love sharing their thoughts with you. So, sampling brings in an influx of reviews and freshens up UGC content. Seven in 10 shoppers would rather buy a more expensive product with higher ratings and reviews than a less expensive product with fewer reviews.

June 

Pride Month is celebrated globally in June. Diversity and inclusivity are a core part of many retail campaigns during the month. 

It’s a good time to capitalize on any summer or Pride-related purchases by sending texts or emails to customers asking them for a review. When you seek out reviews in this way, keep the messaging short and to the point, and make it easy for consumers to leave a review. 

There’s also still time to launch a sampling campaign before the fall. Identify your hero items for autumn and get them into consumers’ hands. This strategy will bring in fresh UGC that you can feature on product pages to lure shoppers. 

If you’ve identified gaps in your UGC coverage, another way to boost collection is via social media campaigns. Make a note of reviews and questions without responses, and be sure to respond. Shoppers have grown to expect brands to respond to all feedback, negative and positive.

July/August 

It’s almost fall! Make a plan for your team and your systems so that they’re equipped to handle anything unforeseen, especially big spikes in shopping around back-to-school. 

Setting a code freeze, increasing staffing, and having a backup plan are essential steps to be ready in case a system breaks or goes down while shoppers are on your site. 

But, before you set a code freeze, add the social content you’ve collected from your sampling campaigns. 75% of shoppers say they want to see UGC on product pages while they shop — and they’re looking at reviews, too. 78% of online shoppers trust online reviews the most, so keep responding to positive and negative reviews and questions. 

September 

This time of year includes Halloween, Black Friday, and the start of holiday gift buying — consumers are researching products, looking for fall inspiration, and gearing up to shop. 

If you run promotions early and have a solid UGC strategy in place before September hits, shoppers will start buying as soon as autumn rolls around. 

October 

Take stock of what worked well and not so well in September. What tweaks can you make to product descriptions that’ll inspire shoppers to click buy? Is there any fresh social content that you can upload into a gallery? 

These minor adjustments will draw consumers. Shoppers crave UGC in order to make informed purchasing decisions faster. So don’t forget to respond to UGC during this time — it’s crucial for increasing conversions. 

3 examples of autumn seasonal marketing campaigns 

These brands launched exciting campaigns that made a mark on fall shoppers. 

1. Petco 

To help pet parents learn about new products for their fur babies, Petco launched the Spotted Sampling Program, including themed boxes for Halloween. The program has led to a 405% increase in review volume and a 48% jump in revenue per visitor for sampled products. 

2. Land O’Lakes 

Consumers celebrate fall by gathering with friends and family, so grocery shopping is essential. To inspire shoppers, Land O’Lakes used Bazaarvoice Sampling to send butters and spreads to select customers and collected more than 1,000 reviews.

The brand has also syndicated over 30,000 reviews to retail sites across the Bazaarvoice Network. 

3. Home Depot Canada

To get high-priority products into loyal shoppers’ hands, Home Depot Canada launched a Seed Sampling program. Targeted audiences receive products in exchange for leaving honest reviews.

As a result of the campaign, the program has helped the retail giant double its conversions.

Supercharge your fall campaigns with sampling 

It’s never too early to start thinking about the fall holiday shopping season. To get it right, you need to begin prepping as early as May. Our full fall marketing timeline below will set you up for a successful fall season.

Nail your marketing timeline strategy with Bazaarvoice Sampling

Bazaarvoice Content Activation Solutions (CAS) can fuel your UGC program. You can easily tap into our sampling community of over 7.5 million shoppers and collect high-quality UGC that will inspire shoppers and boost sales. 

Our solutions help drive 3x more reviews with photos, 2x longer reviews than native benchmarks, and 5% average social engagement from sampling participants. 

We can help you target your ideal customer profile and ensure that the right shoppers and creators engage with your products and generate relevant UGC for your brand. Learn more about Bazaarvoice Sampling here. Or get in touch below to learn more.

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Buyer’s guide: Find the perfect product sampling partner

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What is Influenster?

Influenster is an end-to-end influencer and creator marketing platform, powered by everyday consumers. You might know of Influenster from their coveted VoxBoxes. Who better to explain it than Influenster themselves:

@influenster Allow us to reintroduce ourselves #greenscreenvideo ♬ Chrysanthemum Tea – Prod. By Rose

The Influenster community’s love for product discovery has led to over 55 million product reviews, growing on average by a million each month. This makes the Influenster App second only to Amazon in the online product review space. And with 98% of that content added organically and non-incentivized, Influenster App members are genuinely passionate about sharing the brands and products they love. 

The Influenster App empowers everyday shoppers to be influential for your brand. By tapping into the Influenster community your brand can build a solid, transparent relationship with the shoppers that matter most and empower them to become your biggest advocates.

Influenster App benefits for brands

Here’s a few ways your brand can utilize the Influenster App and connect with the everyday shoppers who are actively raising their hands to engage with brands, and empower your future customers to buy with confidence. 

Take advantage of existing, organic content 

Influenster’s wealth of user-generated content (UGC) includes shopper reviews, photos, videos, discussions, polls, and more — across a variety of product categories from beauty to baby to food and beverage.

Whether sharing their opinions on a new eye shadow purchase or finding the best organic pet food for their beloved cat, members are using the Influenster App to research and review products that make up their daily lives. 

Over 50,000 pieces of UGC are added to Influenster everyday but this activity doesn’t have to be siloed to just the Influenster App. What makes Influenster unique is the ability to take this content and syndicate it across different channels that inform their customer’s next purchase. 

For example, Pacifica Beauty used the Influenster App to supply 12 retailers with thousands of new, high-quality reviews. Within just months of leveraging existing UGC, Pacifica gained over 2,000 reviews across nearly 200 products.

Capturing UGC organically can be a challenge, but the Influenster community is highly engaged, and we saw this as a good way to drive purchase intent.

Michael Kremer, Chief Marketing Officer, Pacifica Beauty

Those organic reviews were distributed to become more than 10,000 syndicated reviews with a 4.5 average rating across 12 retail sites such as Target and Bed Bath & Beyond.

Find and connect with your brand advocates

The Influenster App provides an easy way for brands to foster advocacy through the ability to activate hyper-targeted audiences and form one-to-one connections that can be scaled across social and onto your product pages.

Members don’t pay to be a part of Influenster. Instead, by filling out a profile of age, interests and shopping habits, linking their social channels and reviewed products, they’re connected to the brands that matter most to them.

Brands can leverage this hyper-targeted network that stretches across a variety of categories to segment the exact shopper they are looking to reach. Using over 900 data points per member, brands can activate both loyalists and competitive users, members who shop at key retailers or those with specific dietary or skincare needs, to test their products and share their feedback. 

By connecting your products with the exact, desired audience your brand has top of mind you will not only bolster your UGC strategy with authentic content, but will build life-long brand fans. 

Activate the Influenster community with product sampling

Consumer trust in influencers has dwindled over the years. A study from Bazaarvoice reported that 47% of customers are tired of influencer content that appears inauthentic. And according to our recent survey of 10,000 shoppers, it’s actually the every day social media user, like you and I, that reigns supreme.

In today’s market authenticity is key. Shoppers are turning to social media to inspire their purchases but are much more likely to trust recommendations that come from voices like their own.

Hyper-targeted sampling solutions help brands connect with their ideal consumer and lets these engaged Influenster members build brand awareness for them. Not only do these turnkey solutions drive social content and reviews, but through a post-campaign survey, brand’s can get a look into their target consumer shopping behavior and preferences.

Product Sampling is customizable for brand OKRs, whether you’re sending product to their doorstep in a dedicated box or scoring valuable space in a non-competitive shared campaign.

In addition to building up brand trust, sampling helps create a strong relationship with your target consumer. Since the majority of members are everyday shoppers, they aren’t receiving PR packages or getting paid to review products.

When members receive your product at their doorstep, they’re engaged and excited to share their opinions. Creating this branded experience helps build relationships that last long after the program’s end. 

For example, L’Oreal brand Redken wanted to generate buzz and authentic word-of-mouth for a new hair care product. So they activated Influenster members via the app to target a specific audience, including women ages 20 to 46, who have oil-prone hair, frequently hit the gym, or have busy schedules. 

Redken sent out over 2,5000 boxes to these everyday influencers, and in return generated:

• 7.7 million impressions
• 1,700 organic reviews
• 84,000 posts, shares, and likes

But most notably, the campaign generated $567,000 in earned media value. “We didn’t spend that much, so the performance was incredible,” said Monique Salas, Director of Marketing for Redken at L’Oreal.

Better understand shopper preferences through data

Customer ratings and reviews are a crucial component of the shopping experience, impacting everything from sales to SEO. But, unlocking the meaning and trends behind UGC is often time-consuming and labor extensive. In fact, according to Bazaarvoice research, half (49%) of brands and retailers report that they don’t have the resources or tools to collect insights from their UGC.

With 50 million product reviews, Influenster can source robust first-party insights on brand and products. From an in-depth review analysis that helps brands better understand their target audience to custom surveys that help fill in data gaps, insights can help guide and improve brand strategy and inform product innovation.  

Shopper data from the Influenster App can also help inform and enhance ad campaigns and marketing efforts. Brands can leverage post sampling campaign insights to create testimonials and claims that bolster brand credibility.

Also, brands can leverage Influenster’s robust targeting capabilities and high-quality member content to power their paid media strategy. ReviewSource turns their top reviews and UGC into highly-targeted digital and social ad units, bolstering brand reach, and credibility. 

The Influenster App: Your next favourite thing

For brands not yet utilizing the Influenster App, there’s a goldmine of engagement and data waiting for them to take their business to the next level.

The ability to hyper-target consumers based on behaviors and other characteristics beyond typical demographics was a key benefit in choosing Influenster

Elizabeth Northrup, Associate Brand Manager, Kraft Heinz

Bazaarvoice can help you create and customize targeted campaigns that connect with the right audience of shoppers to build brand awareness, generate authentic UGC, and create lasting brand loyalty. Learn more about the Influenster App here. Or get in touch below to get started.

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Building sampling into a successful brand strategy

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Chapters:

1. Why launch a product online?
2. 8 strategies for a successful online product launch
3. Follow up post-product launch
4. Create your online product launch plan

Why launch a product online?

In short: pandemic shopping trends are here to stay. When most people had to stay at home, consumers began browsing and shopping online through necessity. In March 2020 alone, page views on e-commerce sites increased 25% year over year, and order counts grew 21%, according to data from across our network of 12,500+ brand and retailer websites. We saw this increase even further in later months — page views are up 75%, and order count is up 95%. 

But even now the world is back open, consumers are still mainly shopping like it’s closed. And it’s not just the traditional e-commerce realm either. 80% of shoppers say their time on social media has increased significantly, which has helped spur the meteoric rise of social commerce.

And given that social commerce, the buying and selling of products and services through shoppable content on social media, is projected to to reach $79.6 billion in 2025, launching your product online only ensures you’re meeting shoppers where they are. Here’s how to do it.

8 strategies for a successful online product launch

To get your new product in front of shoppers, you need to meet them where they are. Here’s eight strategies to successfully teach you how to launch a product online.

Or, for ease, you can jump down to our short masterclass on how to have the most successful product launch possible.

1. Determine the market need for your product

The best way to uncover whether there’s a market for your new product is to look at what consumers are buying and how your product aligns with those trends. Maybe it’s setting up your own private label brand to coincide with the struggling economy. Or it’s a new TikTok tool to keep up with rapidly-rising TikTok e-commerce.

But, shoppers are browsing and purchasing lots of other things online. In recent years we’ve seen over 100% growth in orders across the following categories:

• Home improvement: Tools, paint, furniture, and building materials
• Sporting goods: Athletic equipment, fitness items, bicycles, and recreational vehicles
• Health & beauty: Cosmetics, over-the-counter medications, hair care, grooming items, and fragrance
• Food & beverage: Fresh and packaged foods, and alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages
• Arts and entertainment: Books, video and music downloads, and streaming services
• Consumer electronics: Computer programs, apps, and appliances

Aside from just researching current consumer buying behaviors, examine your own data about customer behavior to understand shoppers’ interest. What are they browsing and buying? How have related products performed? Which products are shoppers reviewing?

Ratings and reviews especially tend to reveal special product requests, new trends, and overall sentiment about your brand.

2. Set up a timeline for the launch

Getting your product in consumers’ hands as quickly as possible is undoubtedly your number one goal. But, it takes time and planning to get there. Prepping and launching a product generally takes about one to one and a half years, according to Claire Maynard, Head of Product Marketing, New Products & Solutions at Atlassian. Sometimes working backwards from your ideal launch date can help create a reasonable timeline.

You need time to develop a solid online marketing strategy that spans social media, email, and a website. You also need to tap into your creativity to craft your brand’s story, identify your target audience, and get them excited about your product, well before it launches.

3. Collect user-generated content with sampling

Part of your timeline needs to account for allowing time for a sampling campaign. Why? 89% of shoppers check reviews before making a purchase, so launching your product with an existing pool of reviews is going to boost sales. And sampling is how you do it. Product sampling is a tried-and-tested marketing tactic where you offer goods or services in exchange for reviews, social posts, and other user-generated content (UGC). 

For launching new products online, not only does it generate invaluable brand awareness and social proof, it also provides valuable insights into shopper sentiment and potential sales. Including time in your project plan for sampling ahead of launch will give your product a stronger start in the market.

Burt’s Bees for example turned to product sampling ahead of launching a new makeup line — the largest expansion in the brand’s history. Naturally, this made them nervous. But thanks to sampling, they needn’t have worried. Within just two weeks, the brand had collected 300 reviews, with an average star rating of 4.48. After six months, cosmetics accounted for 21% of all sales on the brand’s site.

4. Tell your story in a creative, appropriate way

Telling a compelling, creative story about your brand and product resonates with shoppers. Once you land on your central story, develop content to support it — professional photos and video, UGC, descriptions, landing pages, and more. 

Just make sure the content is appropriate and meaningful. 58% of respondents from the 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer said they only buy from or advocate for brands whose beliefs and values they support. This is especially true when it comes to Gen Z.

In addition, consider factoring in the UGC you’ve collected into your marketing campaigns by showcasing customer testimonials or photos. This is especially beneficial now in a time when consumers are sensitive to brand missteps. Using UGC in your online product launch campaigns is a smart and authentic way to connect with your audience, like these examples demonstrate.

Repurpose content across your entire online presence: social media posts, email marketing messages, websites, digital advertising, etc. Include calls to action asking consumers to sign up for emails, favorite a post, or visit your website too.

5. Generate buzz on social media

Social media plays an integral role in helping consumers discover new products and brands. Countdowns, product previews, “coming soon” messages, giveaways, and hashtags are a few ways to use content to drive excitement for the launch. But consumers also actively turn to social media platforms to discover new products and brands. Scrolling is the new window shopping:

It’s not just discovery, either. After seeing a product or service on Instagram, 92% of users say they’ve taken some kind of action, such as buying the product online, visiting the brand’s website, or following the brand on social media, according to research commissioned by Facebook.  

An example of a brand generating buzz on social media for an online product launch is Tula, a probiotic skincare company. Recently, Tula launched a new size of one of their best-selling primers, so they shared product images on their social channels to get the ball rolling:

Targeted social media ads are another way to reach your desired audience and compel them to purchase your product or engage with your brand. Among social media users, 48% say they’ve purchased something after seeing an ad on social media, according to The CMO Survey. 

6. Partner with influencers 

One of the best ways to make sure you land your online product launch is to use the audience already there: influencers. Social media influencers are helpful in spreading the word about your products because they already have a vast, often loyal, network of followers. Influencers especially resonate with younger demographics, with more than half of Gen Z and millennials saying they trust influencers’ advice about brands and products, according to a Morning Consult report.

If you’re using influencers, make sure they’re genuine, with a high engagement rate and not just a large number of followers. And, examine the type of engagement the influencer receives. For example, are the comments on a product post actually relevant to the content?  

Once you’ve chosen your desired influencer(s), reach out to them and include them in your sampling campaigns outlined in step 3 above to collect authentic, organic UGC.

After Tula had started generating buzz on its Instagram, the brand partnered with influencers to spread further brand awareness and collect feedback.

7. Set up a website or a product landing page

A designated website or detailed product page on an existing site gives consumers a place to learn more about your product. It also builds trust with consumers that could encourage them to place an order.

Product pages are a great place to house a detailed product demo video and a visual coming soon display, like a countdown clock. Nail your product page first time with the following best practices:

Above all, you can use the site to collect details about the consumers showing interest. Most consumers are willing to share their personal information with brands if they get something in return, like exclusive access or a discount. 

8. Spread the word by email

Once you start collecting consumer email addresses, send one-on-one messages. Over half of consumers check their personal email 10 times a day and say email is how they prefer to receive messages from brands.

The first stream of emails should hint about the new product. Then, follow up with details about the launch date. When the product launches, send “buy now” emails with vibrant images and a call-to-action link to make purchasing easy. Add a sense of urgency to encourage purchases by offering discounts or limited-time offers.

Tula also included emails as part of their online product launch strategy:

Pro tip: don’t sleep on SMS marketing. 85% of smartphone owners would rather receive text messages from brands than phone calls or emails.

Follow up post-product launch

The work doesn’t stop when the product launches. Post-launch, focus on customer care. Respond to messages quickly and check your social media mentions. And, keep up the market strategy you put in place.  

Next, don’t forget to email customers who’ve purchased the product and ask for a product review. Just one review can increase future purchases by 10%, according to Bazaarvoice data. Also use the insights provided in these reviews to tune your products accordingly. European retailer Vertbaudet for example amended its maternity line based on feedback from customer reviews, which led to a 12% increase in sales.

Create your online product launch plan

Launching a product online isn’t easy. But over 39% of global shoppers have recently purchased from different brands they hadn’t heard of before and 83% of shoppers will continue to buy from newly discovered brands, according to our Shopper Experience Index. So now’s the time to capture these consumers with your new product launch.

Product launches can bring success even before they go to market. Read our e-book below and learn how you can create a UGC plan, and use it to create the most successful online and offline product launch possible, with easy-to-use tools and best practices.

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Luckily, we’re going to show you how. And why. And possibly even when. Using global brands, and Bazaarvoice’s own client success stories, we explain exactly how you can rock customer centricity.

Chapters:

1. What is a customer-centric selling approach?
2. Benefits of customer centricity
3. How brands use data to implement customer centricity
4. Use UGC to enable the right strategy

Imagine you’re shopping online for a new social media management tool. You’re checking your LinkedIn account, scrolling through your feed, or listening to your favorite podcast at the same time. Suddenly, you get a DM from a salesperson crowing about their platform. You need to sign up right now! Quick! This is a one-time deal! Aaaand… Close browser.

The truth is, most people prefer to buy from salespeople who first establish a friendly connection and then take the time to personalize their pitch to you and your needs. That’s customer-centric selling at its core.

Most e-commerce managers know customer centricity will help them grow revenue and foster customer loyalty. In fact, a Vantage Partners study suggests that companies that adopt a mature customer-centric approach realize 2.5x revenue growth compared with the average company. But in practice, many brands still end up fumbling around in the dark and not really harnessing the data to make this happen.

Here’s how top e-commerce brands use UGC about real customer challenges to inform their customer-centric strategy.

What is a customer-centric selling approach?

Customer-centric selling is a sales methodology that puts customer needs first to establish a successful, mutually beneficial relationship. Engaging in a customer-centric approach relies on empathy and nurturing a two-way dialogue with customers. It’s the approach that actually provides the best customer experience.

Customer centricity also allows brands to modify their processes, product, messaging, and sales timeline to fit customer needs. A brand that adopts a customer-centric selling strategy becomes its customers’ best problem-solving ally because it approaches customers in a way that benefits the customers.

For a successful customer-centric selling approach, salespeople (and marketers, too!) should engage prospects and customers with key behaviors. In the influential book “CustomerCentric Selling,” co-writers Michael Bosworth, John Holland, and Frank Visgatis break down those behaviors into eight basic tenets, which I’ve adapted and simplified below:

• Actively listen with curiosity — not assumptions.
• Ask curious, open-ended questions that give them the freedom to express themselves in a non-pressured environment.
• Focus on helping them overcome a challenge, solve a problem, or satisfy a need.
• Align with their values.

Here’s a great visual that defines customer centricity on four different levels of maturity:

Customer-centric vs consumer-centric

Customer-centric selling is an empathetic, inside-out approach in which all teams — R&D, product management, marketing, sales, support — seek to learn and understand what your customer’s needs truly are.

Compare this to the more traditional consumer-centric selling, which is a product-focused, outside-in approach. Rather than asking questions, consumer-centric selling seeks to make a sale by judging and assuming what the customer’s needs truly are.

The table below offers an easy way to compare the two approaches, adapted from the book “CustomerCentric Selling” and an article published in California Management Review:

A recent example of assumptions gone wrong comes from the wonderful world of Disney. Taking a consumer-centric approach to marketing Encanto, Disney assumed people would love the character of Isabela. She’s classically beautiful, has that perfect Disney princess singing voice, and so on. So, Disney made tons of Isabela merchandise.

Except… Little girls actually loved Luisa. A character whose signature muscles the film’s development team had to fight with Disney executives to keep. Following the film’s release, Disney has had to scramble to meet customer demand for Luisa merchandise.

Had Disney taken a customer-centric approach, it may have been less shocked by changing tastes and trends for women. And maybe Luisa’s beloved, fan-favorite muscles could have been helping Disney generate even more revenue.

In contrast, Blue Bottle Coffee has taken a customer-centric approach by allowing newsletter subscribers to opt out of Mother’s Day and Father’s Day marketing messages.

The company realized that many people struggle with the constant barrage of messages surrounding those holidays. So instead of assuming that their audience relates positively to Mother’s Day and Father’s Day and pushing marketing on them, the company listened to what their audience wanted and took action based on that insight.

Benefits of customer centricity

A customer-centric selling approach is more successful because it’s focused on building a sustainable, trusting relationship. According to Nielsen’s 2021 Trust in Advertising Study, most people place the most trust in recommendations that come from people they know.

Sales and marketing reps obviously can’t be a friend or family member to every customer. But, they can strive to do the next best thing — “put the consumer first in every strategy, plan and execution.” In doing so, brands will earn the trust of customers and foster positive word of mouth.

The goal isn’t to become better sellers but rather “buyer facilitators,” said Chris Sargent, senior director of Global Sales Enablement at NICE inContact, during his discussion on sales training.

If employed correctly and combined with the right data-collection tools, a customer-centric selling strategy will help your brand better resonate with customers and bolster both customer success and customer support. It will target their specific needs and pain points.

Your customers will be better served because your brand will be providing a better overall value.

As a result, loyalty and trust will grow. Loyal customers will transform into full-fledged ambassadors who will help positively characterize your brand by word-of-mouth. Your entire company will better understand and empathize with its audience. This will promote more innovative product development and an elevated cycle of inspired, engaged employees.

The more engaged your employees are, the better the customer experience will be. And the better the customer’s experience is, the more customer loyalty and retention will increase — not to mention your revenue.

How brands use data to implement customer centricity

The best customer centricity strategies rely on asking the right questions and actually listening to customer responses. Traditionally, brands hired consumer psychologists to design focus groups and surveys. But this process is long and arduous, not to mention expensive.

Today, brands can utilize sophisticated software to source and use first-party data and user-generated content (UGC) in their marketing and sales efforts.

Enventys

According to Roy Morejon, President and Co-founder of Enventys Partners — a B2B product development, launch, and marketing firm — customer-centric data is often found through interactive data tracking. This involves tracking data such as the number of confirmed purchases, abandoned carts, and returns.

Brands can also collect quantitative first-party data through recurring email subscriptions, Morejon explained, by analyzing open rates and measuring how many customers click the links within the emails they received.

“Analyzing this data in comparison to other user details,” said Morejon, “such as general internet behavior, job, lifestyle, and other personal data (age, gender, etc.), provides insights that you can use to optimize customer-centric selling.”

Morejon mentioned Pardot as a specific tool to help harness this data.

“Pardot is a great feature integrated with Salesforce. This app tracks how customers move through the sales funnel, tracking purchases, abandonments, and returns. It provides data on how customers interact with digital marketing assets, such as social media ads and emails, and even offline interactions. It gathers data submitted through user forms, Salesforce, and other integrable platforms.” — Roy Morejon.

Unilever

UGC, like reviews, and questions and answers, is a common method to bolster customer centricity. Unilever set out to get more user reviews, which it then used as a marketing tool to improve revenue. In doing this, it also improved customer loyalty and satisfaction, and increased organic search traffic and engagement.

This success was facilitated by Bazaarvoice-powered sampling campaigns. Unilever saw a massive increase in customer reviews across all its brands, numbering in the hundreds of thousands. This, in turn, gave Unilever additional leveraging power.

“When we include reviews in social ads and display ads,” said Jenna Spivak Evans, Innovation and Digital Capabilities Manager at Unilever, “we see about a 20–30% improvement in performance.”

“Because UGC delivers such rich content, you can see increases in search traffic of 15–25% as a result of using customer-generated content,” said Evans. “You will also see increases in website engagement metrics such as product page views per visit, average time spent onsite, and return-visitor rate.”

Unilever also cross-referenced the people leaving reviews with the customer data it has about those people in its CRM. Doing this not only helped collect UGC and demographic data, but it helped increase personalization as well.

According to Evans, “Integration of UGC into CRM will give us deeper demographic information and provide an incremental way to understand different customers’ needs.”

For a closer look at Unilever’s path to success, check out the Bazaarvoice case study.

Kärcher

Kärcher, a global cleaning technology company, uses UGC to collect customer insights, drive conversions, and strengthen its relationships with retail partners. By monitoring customer feedback and reviews throughout the sales process, the brand was not only able to create new products customers would love, but also improve pre-existing products and set a company-wide quality standard.

“Having reviews in place just before the retailer releases our products gives consumers the confidence to try our new products right from the start,” said Kevin Wiredu, Senior E-Commerce Specialist at Kärcher. “It’s a key to our success.”

In Kärcher’s first sampling campaign, 98% of sample recipients responded with a review. The brand received hundreds of high-quality product reviews, videos, and images. Currently, it’s collected over 280K reviews across 73 retail sites.

With new valuable UGC data at its disposal, Kärcher was able to jumpstart its latest sales cycle and product launch by having numerous, high-quality reviews ready and available the moment new products went live.

Even better, leveraging UGC data helped Kärcher address some issues with product messaging. After reading some customer reviews, the brand realized that many customers didn’t understand the purpose of one of their products — or even how to use it. So, the company was able to tweak the product messaging and packaging to better communicate the product’s intended use.

This is a key example of customer-centric selling because the brand listened to customers and made relevant changes to address their needs.

You can read Bazaarvoice’s full Kärcher case study here.

Nestlé Canada

By leveraging UGC data, Nestlé Canada improved both its overall performance and its relationship with customers. The types of UGC that proved most beneficial were customer reviews and insights, customer feedback, and customer questions.

Thanks to Nestlé’s broad reach, it receives thousands of reviews on a constant basis. But all that data can be difficult to manage. So the company used Bazaarvoice Insights and Reports to make sense of the flood — and, more importantly, to inform business decisions.

Other helpful solutions Nestlé Canada leveraged were Bazaarvoice-powered focus groups and Questions & Answers. In fact, within three months of enabling Bazaarvoice Questions & Answers, Nestlé Canada received over 700 questions from its customers.

The driving force behind Nestlé Canada’s focus on reviews is that the company wants to listen to customers and solve their needs. “Consumers do the talking for us,” said Lee Beech, Director of Consumer Experience at Nestlé Canada. “They speak, and we listen and take action. ”

By leveraging all these solutions, the Nestlé sales team observed that many of its neutral product reviews contained customer questions. In response, Nestlé implemented Bazaarvoice Salesforce Connector and began devoting time each day to provide responses, enhancing customer support all from a single tool.

“It saves, on average, eight minutes to code a case,” according to Kristina Rapljenovic, Website Manager at Nestlé Canada. “We previously didn’t have the capacity and had to let go of engaging with as many of the reviews as we wanted. It would have taken eight minutes to open a case and transfer all of that content. Now, it’s all automated.”

For a more in-depth look, check out the Bazaarvoice’s Nestlé Canada case study.

KidKraft

Like Nestlé Canada and Kärcher, KidKraft uses data from UGC to make product changes. It’s been able to fine-tune its product positioning and fuel its marketing messaging due to the automated ways it can now collect customer feedback, reviews, and customer-shared product photos.

As a mark of its success, KidKraft has collected over 100,000 reviews across the Bazaarvoice Network and achieved 100% review coverage on retail sites as a result of syndication.

“We work really closely with the product development team,” said Heather Stables, the Director of Consumer Engagement at KidKraft, “to make sure that if we see consistent issues or questions being raised by consumers, we can go back and address that by making changes to the actual product.”

One example of this comes from KidKraft’s playhouses. Using Bazaarvoice Insights, KidKraft was able to quickly observe that many customers were DIYing one of the playhouses to have a white, more modern appearance. Recognizing the need, KidKraft released their own white, modern-style playhouse and saw a huge uptick in sales as a result.

Check out Bazaarvoice’s KidKraft case study to learn more.

Adeo

Adeo, a French home improvement retail company, launched a successful UGC program across all its brands. It also implemented strategies to handle fake reviews by collecting UGC data directly after a sale and including a verified purchase badge. Even more, it accessed new markets that, until recently, had low brand awareness. Its latest goal is to reach an overall customer satisfaction rating of four stars.

To begin implementing its customer-centric selling approach, Adeo began collecting UGC data such as customer reviews and ratings. Similar to Nestlé Canada, it also took into account customer questions. And like KidKraft and Kärcher, it utilized customer product photos.

UGC was particularly important to Adeo because its products are often used to complete technical projects like plumbing and electricity that require a degree of expertise. UGC helps to solve a common customer problem — confidence.

“Incorporating reviews, photos and questions by our customers on our products and services pages provides this reassurance and complements the expertise of our sellers,” said Nicolas Fillat, Marketing Business Leader, Customer Care and Feedback at Adeo.

Adeo also places a high value on reviews written in a language that customers can read. With the Bazaarvoice Translated Reviews feature, Adeo has been able to ensure both ratings and reviews are always presented in the customer’s preferred language. This way, customers benefit from reading insights from other customers.

“Bazaarvoice, with its strong global network, allows us to support our customers regardless of country or language,” said Fillat. “This has allowed us to collect, moderate, and display product reviews throughout ten group business to date.”

Check out Bazaarvoice’s Adeo case study for more info.

Wayfair

Wayfair stands out as another example of successful customer centricity. For its UGC campaigns, Wayfair encourages customers to share their design ideas using the branded hashtag #WayfairAtHome.

By measuring both demographic and UGC data, Wayfair has been able to deepen its understanding of its audience and deliver a hyper-personalized experience. It’s achieved this through analytics and predictive AI. Wayfair creates a detailed buyer persona through this AI system. This helps to show customers only the products most relevant to them. Wayfair simply has too much content not to do this.

Customer centricity isn’t just a choice for Wayfair. It’s a necessity.

“On average, we capture and store four terabytes of data every day and over the course of a year, we track approximately 40 billion customer actions on our site. Data has been democratized across the organization — it can be accessed and used regardless of whether an employee works in marketing, logistics, or engineering. Data has allowed the company to better execute on its strategy through improved personalization.” — Steven Conine, Wayfair Co-founder

By focusing on customer centricity, Wayfair has avoided the problem of customer experience becoming overwhelming and time consuming, which would certainly hurt sales metrics and decrease Wayfair’s overall revenue.

Instead, Wayfair has successfully streamlined the buyer process, thanks to its machine learning technology.

Use UGC to enable a customer-centric selling strategy

Customer centricity is a better approach to selling. To do it well, you need the right data and tools to collect it:

• Sampling campaigns
• Focus groups
• Insights and Reports solutions
• Questions & Answers
• (Translated) Ratings & Reviews
• Integrated reviews with CRMs

Now that you know how and why to put the customer first in sales, enable customers to make those sales for you by using product sampling and user-generated content. Or get in touch directly below to request a free demo.

You can check out more of our Long Read content here for more marketing strategies, tips, and insights.

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Reviews are a crucial part of the shopping experience. Why? One word: Trust. 

Reviews are considered trustworthy and authentic because they come from experienced buyers. In fact, 85% of consumers say they think online reviews are just as trustworthy as personal recommendations from friends. 

But for brands and retailers, the challenge is figuring out how to collect more reviews for e-commerce growth. 

Why you should encourage customers to write reviews

Less may be more in many instances, like fashion (just ask Coco Chanel about her better-to-be-underdressed mantra). But, when it comes to customer reviews, more is truly best. 

A high number of reviews has the biggest influence on shopping decisions, even more so than an overall rating. 70% of shoppers would buy a product with more reviews and a lower rating than something with fewer reviews and a higher rating. 

Increasing review volume on a product page translates to higher sales and more organic website traffic. According to Bazaarvoice Network data, a single review can boost purchases by 10%, while eight reviews drive organic search traffic. At 100 reviews, brands will see a 37% increase in purchases, and a 44% boost in purchases with 200 reviews. 

Another reason it’s important to collect more reviews? Because review recency matters.

54% of shoppers said how recent a review was shared significantly factored into its credibility. 81% of shoppers say review recency is equal to, or more important than quantity.

Consumers consider reviews written within the past month or so to be the most relevant. 

There’s many reasons why you need more reviews. But, reviews don’t always happen organically. You’ll need a strategy to get more shoppers to review the products they buy. Here’s how to encourage customers to write reviews. 

How to encourage your customers to write reviews for you 

If you’re worried about asking customers to write a review, don’t be. Requesting reviews isn’t too much of an ask—shoppers actually love to share their opinions with their favorite retailers and brands. 

Nearly 70% of shoppers are willing to provide feedback when asked. The following tips will help you encourage customers to write a review.

Send your request via different channels 

All shoppers are different and like to be approached differently. So it’s vital to send review requests through a variety of channels. Some of the top ones for growing your review volume include: 

• Email

Review request emails are an invitation (usually automated) for customers to leave a review for a purchase they’ve made recently. Bazaarvoice Network data shows that email can increase review content by as much as 9x. And sending a second follow-up email can drive review volume by another 50%. 

You can send a review request email with a thank you message telling customers how much you appreciate their business or with a shipping update. Just be sure to include a call to action and link right in the email. 

• Text messages

If you collect your customers phone numbers and use text messages in your marketing, you could also be using this channel to ask for reviews. 

Most consumers are willing to sign up for text messages from brands, and more than a third of people say they read texts within just five minutes of receiving them. 

Sending a text to your customers lets you reach them wherever they are during their daily routine to encourage them to write a review. Create automated messages that are sent a week or so after someone receives their order and include a link so they can easily write a review on the spot from their phone. 

• Webpage

Product pages are a great place to ask customers to submit a review. On each product page, include a call to action that prompts visitors to “write a review.” 

You can also prompt shoppers to write a review in their order history. This lets you reach shoppers at key points during their shopping journey and makes leaving a review quick and seamless. 

• Social media 

Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and other social media channels are go-to platforms for shoppers to learn about new products. Social media is a great place to ask for feedback and encourage customers to write reviews, too. 

Brand-related posts that simply ask a question about a product can attract a number of comments. This offers valuable insight into customer sentiment and reveals any issues you need to address. Create posts reminding shoppers to leave reviews for past purchases and even use social media to showcase reviews that you receive—especially in ads. 

Make the process as smooth as possible 

An overly cumbersome review submission process is a turnoff. The easier you make it for customers to leave a review, the more likely they’ll go through the process. Ideally, customers should be able to leave a review with just a few clicks. 

One of the simplest ways to encourage customers to write reviews is to use an interactive five-star rating icon. Shoppers will be enticed to review the product since it’s so easy—all they have to do is click the number of stars that best represents their experience. 

Another way to make it easy? Include all of the products that a customer purchased in one review request. At Bazaarvoice, we call this a “multi-product submission form,” allowing shoppers to submit ratings, reviews, questions, photos, and videos for many different products all at once. We’ve seen a 10X increase in reviews, higher conversion rates, and a jump in submission rates with the multi-product submission form. 

Use incentives to sweeten the deal

Everyone loves freebies and prizes! Your customers will likely be more willing to take the time to write a review when you offer them something in return. Providing an incentive will drive up your review volume and turn some shoppers into loyalists who will return again and again. 

One option is to host a sweepstakes campaign, where customers that leave a review or submit a photo are entered to win a prize. Promote these campaigns on your social media channels to increase engagement and boost conversions. 

Another approach to run a product sampling campaign, where you give products away for free in exchange for review content. Sampling can help you attract reviews for a new product or refresh review content for existing products. It’s an effective way to grow review volume and our data has shown that most shoppers that sampled a product ended up purchasing it again later, along with other products from the brand. 

Incentivizing reviews is a way to reward your customers for sharing their honest feedback about your product or service. That means you should be just as open to negative reviews as positive ones. Many shoppers think negative reviews are just as helpful as positive reviews, and product pages that contain negative reviews are perceived as authentic and credible. Requesting only positive reviews is a no-no. 

No matter what kind of reviews shoppers leave, responding to customer feedback is important. It lets them know that their feedback matters, that you hear what they have to say, and that you care about their shopping experiences. 

A final word on asking for reviews 

Encouraging customers to write reviews may seem like a cumbersome task, but in the end, it’s well worth the effort. Not only will you get more content to help with e-commerce sales, you’ll stand out from the competition by letting customers know you care about them and their opinion.

Ready to get more customer reviews? With Bazaarvoice Ratings & Reviews, you’ll have the most experienced reviews partner on your side to help you remove barriers to review submission, drive review volume and product coverage, and improve the consumer experience. 

How to get more reviews for your business

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Before we think about an influencer strategy, you need to force yourself to think as broad as humanly possible: macro, macro, macro. Consumers are truly global. What’s the current state of the world? That’s going to shape the frame of mind of the consumer.

For example: What’s the state of the markets today? Is the Dow Jones hitting the floor, or is it up? What pressures are impacting consumers? Inflation is at a 40 year high right now. So, the cost of business is increasing, and the dollar doesn’t go as far for consumers.

Is there a political crisis? Is there a looming war? These impacts on costs, as we’re discovering right now. And the state of the planet heavily impacts on Gen Z and their view of companies. They really care about sustainability. 

What’s changing the consumer mood?

Before starting an influencer strategy, we need to look at consumer behavior. Going a layer deeper from that extremely macro, global view, what’s happening with consumers? How does the macro pressure shape the trends and beliefs of the consumer. Consumers are getting more and more diverse every year. Diversity is critical to modern consumers. And they’re deeply content obsessed. Content creators and influencers now make up a $13.8 billion market, up from $1.7 billion in 2016.

That’s a testament to the insatiable appetite for content form consumers today.

Modern consumers are always on. They’re always connected. The online and offline experiences are truly blurred. Retailers and brands are expected to deliver for consumers in their chosen environment. Transparency and authenticity are a bare minimum for them now. 

Consumers encounter messages at every turn. How do we cut through that clutter? How do we get our messages out to where consumers are? 

The best influencer strategy is an Influenster strategy

Well, 86% of women use social media for purchasing advice. That’s huge. They’re looking for that authenticity. 70% of teens trust influencers more than celebrities. They’re genuinely the new celebrities, occupying the same spot. When you’re building an influencer strategy, you need those points of connection built-in.

For example, L’Oreal partners with Bazaarvoice’s Influenster community. You can really work within the huge community to get the right hyper-targeted audiences, so your campaign resonates with the tailored universe for your messaging. For example, last year they used Influenster to target a campaign for a hair product.

Redken, a L’Oreal brand, wanted an influencer strategy that focused on women aged between 20 and 46, who have oil prone hair, who frequently hit the gym, or who have a busy schedule. They used shopping habits, like Sephora and Amazon, as well.

How did it go? They got 7.7 million impressions, and sent out 2,500 boxes of product, generating 1,700 reviews. There were 84,000 posts, shares, likes, and so on. “We didn’t spend that much, so the performance was incredible,” Salas says. They didn’t spend $567,0000 on the campaign — but that’s the estimate of the earned media value of it. 

On Instagram specifically, they had 69,000 like and comments off 6.2 million impressions. Talk about building buzz, chatter, and relevancy in a really authentic way! Across posts and stories, they had a 3.2% engagement rate, which is great. It’s great seeing women really enjoying the product — there’s some beautiful imagery. It’s accounted for $501,405 of the earned media value on its own. 

Think about the buzz that comes with that — that’s what we’re looking for. It drives repurchase intent, and brings people into the brand.

The after survey

One of Salas’ favorite pieces is the post-survey component, and the insights that come in. Over ⅓ of respondents had already bought a different Redken product by the time of the survey. Talk about loyalizing customers in a really effective way. There was also a real interest in trying the new products coming down the line, too.

What a beautiful way to build out an influencer strategy in a relevant way. Learn more about Redken’s influencer strategy here.

The retail industry is as strong as ever. And consumers hold the power like never before. They decide how a brand is perceived, and the risk of boycott in today’s cancel culture is very real. The dramatic power shift to customers has led to heightened actions and vocalizing for authenticity, improved experiences, and above all, for consumers to feel heard. Catch up on Bazaarvoice Summit to see how to win hearts and minds of today’s consumers.

More and more brands today are using product sampling campaigns to generate user-generated content (UGC) in the form of ratings and reviews. Why? To boost awareness and increase conversions. Bazaarvoice found that for every 50 samples we send, we get about 45 reviews back. Even if a product has just five reviews, purchase likelihood is 270% greater than for a product with no reviews.

T2 is a brand that aims to turn the traditional art of brewing tea on its head and create a community of tea lovers. They knew they needed to get creative to get shoppers to fill their cups. So, they recently launched product sampling campaigns to put their products right in front of customers. This way they can try before they buy.

The brand sells over 100 teas, and employees travel the earth to find the best quality ingredients for their products. While T2 is a global brand with physical stores in five countries, it’s had to rely on its e-commerce presence and product sampling during the COVID-19 pandemic because brick-and-mortar stores were closed. 

T2: Launching a new tea 

UGC is a brand’s greatest asset. The majority of shoppers (92%) trust peer recommendations more than brands or retailers. Plus, one Bazaarvoice study found that 77% of U.S. online shoppers read reviews before purchasing for more than half the products they buy. When customers understand more about products, they buy more. It’s really that simple.

T2 understands the power of UGC. The brand was set to launch a new tea in 2020 but knew that customers would be hesitant to buy a product they couldn’t actually taste. That’s why they partnered with Bazaarvoice to send samples to their most loyal customers and our Influenster community to gather UGC for the new product. 

In our brand new case study, we detail how T2 executed this product sampling strategy to help customers overcome purchase hesitation. T2 then uses the actionable insights they gain from UGC to inform business decisions. Like which discontinued products should be brought back. 

We also showcase how T2 took advantage of their increase in UGC to upgrade their marketing materials, like in-store displays, website banners, and email campaigns. 

Read the full case study here to discover exactly how the global tea brand increased conversion by 174%. Not to mention a significant increase in revenue per visitor. Read the full success story here. 

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