Online Reviews in Sales

I’ve never seen a DTC brand do Meta ads this way (Scaled to $40m in 18 months too): John Hefter bought Angry Orange (Hear the whole story on Episode 134 of the Operators Podcast) He saw 100% organic reviews saying "This saved my marriage." But he didn't stop there like most brands, he put a framework and structure into place to tap into EXACTLY what made the product powerful. Then he used that to drive creative strategy. Here's the framework: 1. Step 1: Export Your 3-Star and 4-Star Reviews 2. Not 5-stars (too positive). Not 1-stars (complainers). 3. 3-4 stars tell you what's good AND what's missing. 4. Pull last 500 reviews. Use Helium 10 or any scraper. Step 2: Score Each Review Create this formula: Review Score = (Emotional Language × 2) + (Repeat Purchase × 5) + (Competitive Comparison × 3) + (Use Case Expansion × 2) Look for: → Emotional: "I can't believe this worked" (score 1-10) → Repeat Purchase: "Buying my 3rd bottle" (Yes = 5 points) → Competitive: "Tried 6 products before this" (Yes = 3 points) → Use Case: "Bought for X, now use for Y and Z" (Yes = 2 points) Sort by highest score. Top 20% = your creative goldmine. Step 3: Turn Reviews Into Ad Hooks Framework 1: "I was about to spend $3,000 replacing carpet. Then I found this orange bottle." Framework 2: "I bought this for one room. Now I use it in 6 places." Framework 3: "This product saved my marriage. (And my dog.)" Framework 4: "I don't believe in miracle products. But this proved me wrong." Use exact customer language. Not your voice. THEIR voice. Step 4: Test Week 1-2: Create 20-30 ads from top reviews Week 3-4: Test at $20/day each Week 5-6: Scale top 5 to $100/day Target metrics: → Hook Rate: >40% → CTR: >2% → CPA: 20% better than current Why This Works: - Your customers already told you what to say. You just have to amplify it. - Most brands spend $10K on agencies to "find their voice." - Your customers gave you the voice for free. Do This Today: 1. Export 500 reviews 2. Score top 20% 3. Extract 5 hooks 4. Create 10-15 ads Your reviews are sitting there right now telling you what ads to make. Go read them.

The Voice of the Customer (VoC) can be your secret weapon in making smarter decisions. This valuable data is a treasure trove of insights that can help analysts truly understand what customers are thinking. Whether it comes from online reviews, social media posts, or survey responses, VoC data provides real-time feedback on what matters most to your target audience. But simply collecting this data isn't enough; it's important to analyze and make sense of it. This is where tools like Topic Models come into play. See the example below used to visualize three of the themes that emerged from a few thousand hotel reviews posted by customers to an online review site. These models categorize feedback into important themes such as pricing, customer service, or product quality, allowing you to uncover the driving forces behind customer sentiment by seeing the words they use when speaking about that theme. Topic Models can also be combined with quantitative data like star ratings or sentiment analysis, which measures the intensity of customer perception and emotions. By carefully analyzing VoC data, you can turn unstructured feedback into actionable insights that can improve your products, refine your marketing messages, and enhance your customer service based on what your customers are really saying. You’ll not only be listening to your customers — you’ll be learning from them, too. Art+Science Analytics Institute | University of Notre Dame | University of Notre Dame - Mendoza College of Business | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | University of Chicago | D'Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University | ELVTR | Grow with Google - Data Analytics #Analytics #DataStorytelling

I think customer reviews are the single most important factor for product purchases today. Think about the way you buy… When purchasing a new product, what do you trust more: a sales pitch, a product video about features, or a real user review? 85% say they check reviews. Whether you’re buying through an online or offline channel - you will google to compare prices but also to see what others say.  1 customer experience has the potential to influence 100 others. The harsh reality for brands (and I see founders complaining about this all the time) is that humans have a strong negativity bias. Hence, consumers tend to review more on a negative experience than a positive one. The data says: → Only 47% of consumers share +ve experience, but as much as 95% shout from rooftops about a -ve one. → And, 1 -ve review reduces the likelihood of purchase by 42% Clearly, managing this is crucial. So, what should brands do? Getting rid of the review section all together is not an option. Here’s what I’ve seen works: ✅ Engage with the detractors:    Customers feel  +ve after seeing a business owner responding to a review. If we got a very negative review I’d pick up the phone and talk to the customer. Trust me, honesty and an apology go a long way! ✅ Get as many reviews as you can: Yes, customers look at the number of reviews. 92% of customers hesitate to make a purchase when there are no reviews. And no, buying reviews or faking reviews is not the answer. It’s a dangerous activity that can get a brand banned/cancelled or in a place where customers completely lose trust. So, do it the ethical (and long-term) way: ➡ Incentivize reviews: think coupons, discounts, or even freebies. ➡ Spice things up with contests ➡ Trying is believing: send out samples to these folks – Follow up with discounts on condition of reviews ✅ Display reviews everywhere: On your website, product packaging, social media, marketplace listings and anywhere else you can think. What very few understand, More Reviews = Strong UGC = Stronger SEO Reviews naturally contain relevant keywords that enhance the visibility of search results and align with the algorithm preferences of search engines like Google. I’d say reviews are an underrated marketing tool. In the most basic sense, it’s what customers are saying about you. An advantage here can enable D2C brands to compete with incumbents. This is something we experienced firsthand at Dr. Vaidya's ! Reviews and UGC will become even more important over the next 5 years as the marketplace gets more competitive and democratic. Winning in this sphere is a must for any brand to win. Do you agree? How much do you index reviews on your purchase decision? #consumerinsights #d2c #customer #reviews #brands

If you think consumer reviews are just a side note, think again. Look, reviews are no joke. They’ve become the modern-day word of mouth, and they can either make or break your brand. It might be tempting to ignore them especially when you think your product is already flawless. But trust me, every single review whether glowing or critical offers nuggets of wisdom that can help elevate your game. I remember hearing about a startup that almost derailed because they didn’t pay attention to early customer feedback. They were so focused on the product that they missed what their customers were actually telling them. It’s a rookie mistake, but it's one that can cost you. Reviews can help customers plan their purchases. Like travel sites like Booking.com where customer reviews are the reasons customers reject or select a hotel. After all, in all likelihood you might be going to a new country or city for the very first time and these reviews can help you plan your travel. Amazon I’d a great example of how reviews help a brand grow. With their Customer Review Highlights feature, they’re using AI to extract key customer insights and display them front and center. Think of it as giving customers a megaphone, where their feedback is automatically showcased in bite-sized, easy-to-read segments titled “Customers Say.” It's a quick and efficient way to show exactly what people love (or don’t love) about a product. And the best part? Amazon doesn’t just let anyone drop a review. They’ve got systems in place to make sure that the feedback you’re reading is legit. Pro tip : a good 4+ review score also helps you improve your ACOS & TACOS as your listing rank improves organically. Simply put, if you gave a better rating than your competitor then you would get featured higher in search results even eoth a lower bid or organically too! For shoppers, reviews are also segregated with a Verified Purchase tag, so you know you’re hearing from people who actually bought the product & used it. Also, they use smart algorithms to calculate the star rating, so every review is weighted based on its authenticity. And that’s how they’ve built one of the most trusted brands in the world. Ignoring reviews is like ignoring your customers' voices. If they’re talking, you better be LISTENING. If you respond, adapt, and keep improving, you’ll have a brand people can rely on. So, would you buy from a brand that listens and fixes its reviews? Or one that doesn’t? The answer we all know..... #customerreviews #feedback #branding #marketing

I recently sat down with Megan Poinski at Forbes to talk about the role customer reviews play in building brands - and why they’ve become such a powerful lever for modern CMOs. One stat that continues to stand out: 86% of people check online reviews at the very start of their decision making process. That makes collecting & displaying reviews one of the most powerful ways to build trust with potential customers. What we see working best: ⭐ Brands using reviews not just as feedback for CX, but as credible proof in their marketing; ⭐ Transparency as a trust builder - showing the full picture, not just the highlights; ⭐ Open customer feedback outperforming closed systems, especially in the age of AI - all those NPS comments you've gathered over the years are invisible to Gemini & ChatGPT. Ultimately, trust doesn't get built by what brands say about themselves. It’s built by what customers say - and how openly that feedback is shared and acted on. Check out the full Forbes piece here.... https://lnkd.in/evdxRjb7

🚀 User reviews are the compass for how well our product truly performs. But getting those reviews? Yep… usually a painful process. Either you dig through your own database, or you integrate multiple sources just to collect scattered insights. And if you want to monitor competitor products too? Even more painful. Right? 😅 So I built a smart automated workflow to solve this once and for all. I���m using Google Sheets as a central URL database, making it super easy for other teams to add or update product URLs without touching n8n. Then comes the fun part: Using Decodo, the workflow scrapes the reviews and structures them cleanly. This one is breakthrough brooooo. After that, AI sentiment analysis kicks in, giving me high-level insights and summaries in seconds. ✨ What this solves: - No more manual digging through reviews - Zero engineering overhead for data updates - Shared access for cross-team collaboration - Fast understanding of customer sentiment I’ve published this workflow so you can try it too. If you’ve already used it, I’d love to hear: How did this automation improve your productivity? https://lnkd.in/g2nhkiV9 Let’s make review monitoring smarter, not harder. 💡

AG1 built a billion-dollar brand on a single SKU. All by turning reviews into their growth engine. AG1 puts their over 50,000+ 5-star reviews front and center on their website. Because those reviews fuel their brand trust, loyalty, and customer referrals. But AG1 didn't stop at customer reviews; they layered in expert authority. Early partnerships with Tim Ferriss, Andrew Huberman, and Joe Rogan gave them "medical-adjacent" credibility that no ad could buy. Then they paired that trust with a subscription-first model. Once a review brought a customer in, recurring revenue funded the next wave of acquisition. That’s the AG1 Trust Flywheel: 1) Customers → Reviews → Proof 2) Proof → Ads → Credibility 3) Credibility → Subscriptions → Revenue → More customers Reviews are the foundation of brand trust, loyalty, and referrals. And they’re what helped build the engine behind AG1’s demand. Reviews are how you stand out when 20 identical products surround yours. No reviews means no trust. No trust means no conversion. And no conversion means no visibility. Too many brands go live, wait months, and wonder why nothing’s happening. By then, the window’s closed. Use the AG1 method: - Turn your customers into your sales team, let them prove your product works. - Use referral codes to incentivize word-of-mouth. - Repurpose customer reviews in your ads to build instant credibility. Reviews validate your product. Build trust first, and sales will follow. AG1 understood the impact of trust and used it to win. That’s how every lasting brand does too.

There’s a tired narrative in B2B circles that review sites like G2 are just noise. “Everyone gets a badge.” “It’s just pay-to-play.” “Buyers don’t trust those reviews.” If you followed the experts on here you would think G2 Reviews don’t matter… Right? Except they absolutely do. According to data from Profound (see the chart), G2 is the 4th most-cited source in ChatGPT responses right behind Reddit, Wikipedia and Forbes. That means the reviews left on G2 are shaping the content, answers, and research people see everywhere. So no, it’s not just about the badges. It’s about the data. G2 has over 3 million verified reviews across 180,000+ products. That is a data gold mine. And that data is feeding the AI your buyers are using every day. Ignore that at your own risk.

Stop doing expensive creative tests to guess what customers care about. They already told you in their reviews. You just ignored the transcript and chased the applause. Here’s a better play: mine review data like gold and turn customer language into ad hooks that actually convert. Why it works: 1️⃣ Reviews are unfiltered copy ↳ Customers use the exact words they think and feel. That language outperforms marketer-speak in hooks and CTAs. 2️⃣ Reviews reveal friction clusters ↳ Word clouds show common words. Co-occurrence maps show which problems travel together. Those clusters = micro-personas. 3️⃣ Negative words are assets, not liabilities ↳ Use the most common complaint as a discrediting hook. Filter out bargain hunters. Attract the customers who actually value your solution. How to do it in 4 practical steps: 1. Extract all reviews into a sheet 2. Run a word cloud + phrase frequency and a co-occurrence matrix 3. Cluster into 3-6 micro-personas (pain, language, desired outcome) 4. Draft 5 hooks per persona and launch 5x creatives per cluster, not 50 random variants Example insight: if “takes 2 minutes” appears in 27% of reviews, that phrase should be your headline, not a footnote. Stop A/B testing your ego. Test what your customers already wrote. Found this useful? Like, follow, and repost ♻️ so others can too! ps. struggling to turn reviews into high-converting creative? We can help.

🚨 Fake reviews as blackmail? It's happening more often. A client recently got two 1-star Google reviews—names she’s never worked with, no record in her CRM, email, or phone. Both came in minutes apart. The goal? Scare the business owner into paying to "clean it up." What I’ve learned from handling this and from the Google forums: Do not engage. Replying only encourages them and often triggers more fake reviews. Instead: Flag the reviews Block them if they try to reach out Lock down your GBP access Document everything If needed escalate in the Google community forums