Ratings, Reviews, and Email Marketing. A partnership made in heaven.

Are you aware that 95% of consumers read online reviews before they purchase?

Or that email marketing generates four times as much ROI than any other marketing channel?

Imagine how powerful these two channels could be if they joined forces.

Not only can email be used to gather and promote reviews and ratings, but when combined, the two channels become far more compelling. Helping to improve trust, personalisation, and purchases.

Read on to learn 5 ways that ratings, reviews, and email marketing can be combined to superpower both channels.

Generate positive reviews through email

Build trust in your offering

Encourage recipients to finish their purchase

Build a community

Promote product insights

Next steps

Generate positive reviews through email

83% of consumers prefer businesses to contact them through email over any other channel. So, when it comes to gathering reviews and ratings from your customers, email is the perfect place to start.

Once a customer has an interaction with your brand, whether that be a purchase, consultation, or via customer support, ask them for their feedback.

This simple approach brings multiple benefits:

Firstly, you are able to gather valuable reviews that you can then utilise on your website alongside other marketing channels.

Secondly, you are making the customer feel valued by asking for their feedback and input into your business.

And thirdly, you can provide the customer with an outlet to leave any negative feedback or suggestions, which can then be handled privately. As opposed to being splashed over your social and review channels.

Build trust in your offering

There are lots of benefits to incorporating reviews and ratings into your email marketing strategy, some of which we will go on to cover later in this blog post.

However, the overarching benefit is trust.

By regularly incorporating reviews and ratings into your emails, you are continuously reinforcing that other customers have trusted you and had a great purchase experience with your brand.

These reviews and ratings can be general to your business, or specific to certain products and services. You can keep it as simple as a star rating from your Trustpilot page, through to showcasing specific customers and their stories.

Even if this content doesn't encourage an immediate purchase, you will be subtly building trust in recipients’ minds. Making you a reliable brand to purchase from when the time comes.

Encourage recipients to finish their purchase

According to Baymard Institute, 69.57% of online shopping carts are abandoned. And that number rises to 85.65% on mobile devices.

Incorporating a well-designed basket abandonment campaign into your email marketing strategy can significantly help improve these numbers by reminding and encouraging shoppers to finish their purchase.

This is the perfect place to incorporate customer reviews.

Businesses can utilise dynamic content to pull through the specific products left in their basket, alongside their specific reviews. This reinforces how others have enjoyed this product, and offers a nudge to convert.

Alternatively, they can include more general positive reviews and ratings about their business. This helps to build trust in those consumers that are uncertain about making a purchase with a brand they’re not familiar with.

Build a community

Unlike social media, email marketing can sometimes feel like a one-way communication.

But with many consumers now craving community from the brands they buy from, making recipients feel connected to both the brand and other customers is more important than ever.

Reviews and ratings can offer the user generated content needed to deepen customer relationships through email. Recipients can see themselves and relate to other customers that post reviews and ratings, especially in the challenges, uses, and positives that they mention.

Even better, by utilising more visual reviews in your email marketing strategy you are helping consumers to imagine themselves using your products. Whilst feeling an even stronger connection with your community.

Promote product insights

Businesses want to shout about their products. And we don’t blame them.

But listing every benefit of a product that appeals to every target buyer can become lengthy (and boring). And in some cases, retailers may not even be aware of all the benefits a product is bringing to their buyers.

Customers offer the best insights when it comes to the benefits of a product. They can speak from first-hand experience, offer genuine proof, and are relatable.

Not only is this incredibly useful insight for a business, it is also something that can be shared through email marketing. Instead of taking up valuable email real-estate with lengthy copy, brands can showcase their reviews for more succinct, targeted, and even visual product information.

Next steps

As we’ve discussed, there are multiple ways to combine these powerful marketing channels, from the simple to the more complex.

As well as boasting impressive email marketing campaigns, knowing how to capture the best possible review and ratings is essential to make the most out of this tactic.

If you’re unsure where to begin, or lack the resource to take your email marketing strategy to the next level, you can always contact the experts for additional support.

If this sounds familiar, then get in touch with our friendly team at Jarrang for more information and support - we’re here to help.