When you want to buy something online, what’s one thing you would do before you make the purchase? If you said that you’d check the reviews, then you’re not alone! Nearly nine out of ten consumers worldwide read product reviews before buying new products. This goes to show how important it is to collect reviews from your customers.
In this article, we’re going to show you how to get product reviews for your private label makeup line!
The social proof concept
Social proof is the idea that consumers will adapt or change their behavior according to what they see other people are doing (or buying)! In marketing, social proof in the form of reviews help customers make a decision and feel as if they are making the right decision when purchasing a product or service. This is why online stores heavily focus on collecting reviews to bring in new customers.
A prominent example of social proof is in the idea of word of mouth marketing. When people talk about the products they love, they are promoting your brand to the people closest to them. This is the biggest significance of social proof and shows how word of mouth marketing positively impacts your brand image and products!
How will displaying reviews increase sales?
Before we take a look at how displaying reviews help increase sales, it’s good to know the best practices of how to display reviews on your webshop.
Potential customers can find details and specifics about your products through reviews. A great way to display reviews is giving your prospects the opportunity to filter reviews by tags, star review ratings, and filter your reviews by date!
Instead of doubting and questioning how legitimate your store and products are, customers trust positive reviews as the “go-ahead” to make the purchase.
In fact, reviews increase your brand’s credibility and build trust between you and the customer. With higher credibility and trust, this results in an increase of visitor return rate and conversion rate on your store!
Not only do reviews give potential customers more confidence in their purchasing decisions, they are also helpful for noticing what your customers like and dislike about your products and services.
So, what are the ten proven ways to collect reviews for your private label makeup line? Read on and find out!
The 10 proven ways to collect reviews
1. Ask in your post-purchase emails
Have you considered your post-purchase emails? About 1-2 days after your customer has received their order, automate a post-purchase email asking if they are satisfied with their product!
The closer you are to the day they receive their products, the more likely they will leave a review as the new purchase is still on their mind.
One of our favorite tools to build out emails is Okendo’s email sequences. You can set up automated email requests for review collection, and keep track of performance all within the Okendo dashboard.
Okendo has worked with an Australian beauty brand where their tools have helped the brand receive over 700 reviews and UGC (read about UGC in point #6). Who doesn’t love collecting reviews?
You can also create post-purchase emails right out of Shopify Plus. Read more about the apps you could try in #3!
2. Collaborate with experts to talk about your makeup line
Having experts come into your social media space allows potential customers to build more trust with your brand. Consumers will want to know that what they are purchasing is recommended by professionals. In this case, you can bring in makeup experts or makeup artists to demonstrate and use your products.
Inviting makeup artists or estheticians to try your products can be considered a testimonial! You can feature their testimonial videos and collaboration on your website, as sales collateral or even on all your social media channels, with their permission of course!
Other than the brand recognition by respected influencers and professionals, doing collaborations like this on social media platforms will help reach new customers! The collaborations may be posted not only on your social media, but on the experts’ social media channels as well for bonus exposure.
3. Apps to keep it simple
Keep your eyes peeled for apps you can integrate with your ecommerce store. We found that one of the easiest ways to collect reviews is by using apps that do most of the heavy lifting for you.
Reviewbit has been growing in popularity because of its simplicity to collect reviews from texting your customers on Whatsapp. Stamped.io is another highly-rated Shopify app that you can integrate directly to your Shopify website.
Keep in mind that you don’t need to learn how to code to start collecting reviews on your store – there are always easier ways to display and collect reviews with an app that plugs into your site in a few clicks!
4. Host a review contest “Review it and Win it”
If you’re ever thinking of launching a social media contest, this would be a good one to try! As long as you have a decent amount of followers and existing customers, you can start a contest where you encourage your followers to review your product to have a chance to win a gift card or products!
Blanka tip: you can include other brand’s products in your contest that matches your brand aesthetic for a more appealing giveaway and more reach by leveraging their audiences, too!
5. Include “Tag Us” on your insert card
We love this feature for an insert card that can be included in your shipping packaging! Not only does this help build your community of loyal customers, you are also creating user generated content (UGC), which we will talk more about in the next section.
This is a subtle way for your customers to give reviews for your makeup line, plus it makes them feel special! For example, your customers will be featured in the “Tagged” section of your Instagram business page to gain more likes and views. It’s an incentive for your followers to tag you and show some appreciation!
6. User-generated content (UGC)
Did you know that 93% of customers consider UGC’s to be helpful before purchasing? Customers also see UGC’s as more authentic than brand-generated content. UGC comes in the form of text, video, posts, and audio. Using UGC for digital ads is also an effective way to attract new customers because it’s often considered genuine and real.
One of the more popular methods of collecting user-generated content is by incentivizing your customers to share an Instagram post and tagging your brand. Your customers have the freedom to create posts that match their aesthetic, personality and utilize their creativity, and you have the opportunity to use their content for your feeds and advertising with permission!
Another way of collecting UGC in the makeup industry is by creating unique hashtags for your users to tag you, as well as incentivizing your customers to create UGC makeup videos to promote your makeup line!
7. Offer discount or loyalty points with every review (bonus for pictures)
Do you know how beneficial loyalty programs are when it comes to the makeup industry? In a research done by Annex Cloud, 58% of consumers shop at stores whose loyalty programs they’ve joined at least once per month. Creating a sense of brand loyalty helps create returning customers because of perks and increased appreciation of your products!
You can set up a loyalty program for your private label beauty store using apps to create redemption points when your customers post a review!
SHEIN is a great example of encouraging customers to leave a review. They use loyalty points with each review customers make and almost all their products receive an average of 3,000 reviews.
The smartest move that SHEIN had implemented was their point system rewarded extra points when customers post reviews with an attached picture of the product they received. Bonus! You score some great UGC from this, too! Not only does it show true authenticity in their customer reviews, their customers get double the points than a regular text-based review.
If you have a Shopify store, there are apps you can download to start your own loyalty program. Here are a few apps you can try: Smile and Loyalty, Rewards and Referrals! This makes it easier for you to start incentivizing your customers to share reviews!
8. Know where you can ask for reviews
A good practice to keep in mind is that there are always places to get your customer’s attention and incentivize them to leave a review.
Here are some popular places where you can ask for a review from your customers:
- Order history page
- Email marketing newsletters
- Create a landing page for reviews
- Ask for reviews in email receipts
- Ask for reviews with text messages
There are so many opportunities for you to nudge your customers to leave a review!
You can set up a system where your customers can create an account to view their order history page, save their billing and shipping information, and include personalized features like offering a “wish list” option!
As you grow your online makeup business, you can start to personalize customer experiences by allowing customers to create accounts with your store! The best part for you is that your business can grow your customer email list for future marketing campaigns!
9. Follow up on FB and IG
When potential and current customers are engaging with your online content, remember to respond to them. Engagement is a two-way street.
Not only does this technique drive engagement in your social media channels, you can also take this opportunity to ask for reviews or leave feedback.
A common response brands use in response to their customers’ comments is, “Hi {{first name}}, thank you for your comment! Please share your experience with us by writing a review at: {{link here}}!”
This is a great way to connect with prospects when you don’t have them on your growing email list.
10. Create polls on social media channels
Using the polling and Q&A feature is a great way to interact with your customers! Social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter allow you to easily ask for feedback from your followers.
You can try asking simple questions such as, “If you could give us a review about our product, what would you tell us?”, “How did you like our new eyeshadow palette?”, “What star rating out of 5 would you give to our new lipstick collection?”.
You can use these features to listen to your customers and make improvements to your products and services!
Conclusion
When the reviews start rolling in, you’re going to see your sales and new customers grow! With reviews, the more there is the better. We suggest aiming for a high average review rate and focusing on quantity or quality for reviews! The more social proof you garner, the more trust you can build with new customers that come to your website!
The impact of customer reviews for branding, marketing, and sales have been proven to be useful again and again. There are so many other creative ways to collect reviews for your makeup line. However, with these 10 tactics under your belt, let us know which you would want to try first!
