How To Write A Perfect Product Review in 8 Simple Steps

Think about your own buying habits for a while. Normally, the higher the price (or the more crucial to your well-being a given product is), the harder you strive to make sure your choice is the only right decision. To feel confident about the purchase, you look for solid proof of the product’s quality.

And it doesn’t matter what that purchase might be — whether it’s food, books, kitchenware, vacation rentals or even dog’s toys…

You always check out online reviews.

OK, now switch perspectives. This time you aren’t a buyer but a seller — or, even better — a promoter of given product. A reviewer, to be specific. Here is a simple fact any marketer (or blogger or website owner) should take to heart:

No matter what you are trying to sell — one of the easiest ways to make money on your blog is by writing great product reviews.

What Are Product Reviews?

If you’ve been marketing for, well, a minute or more, you’re certainly familiar with product reviews. But let’s quickly recap the definition so we’re on the same page.

A review — as discussed here — is nothing more than product-centered content that should investigate in-depth both the benefits and drawbacks of specific goods or services. Some full-time writers and marketers focus on testing and reviewing products. Then, they labor on submitting them to third party websites, blogs, and platforms.

Ideally, a product review should come from an independent author. Such a reviewer would presumably shed light on various products, and represent a neutral, unbiased perspective. Otherwise, when reviews are crafted by in-house content creators with skin in the game, they lack credibility and are rather one-sided.

What’s more, reviews often prompt readers to discuss, rate, and comment on products they might have purchased or are thinking about buying.

The Role of Product Reviews

Product reviews can do much more than just make your product seem enticing; they can boost your product’s image and make it the go-to product. In fact, online reviews are essential to marketing and branding any company these days.

Why?

Well, first of all, customers are heavily-dependent on reviews which are often authentic articles written by real users. So, reviews are social proof and help build trust and loyalty.

Second, the more product reviews an item receives, the more transparent it seems and this boosts its credibility. People trust social proof — especially when the review’s author isn’t related to the brand and isn’t anonymous (i.e., can be addressed by name and their social profile can be looked up).

Consequently, if proof of a product’s or service’s quality gets corroborated by multiple and unrelated sources, this positive vibe resonates across the web. This boosts the odds that a prospective buyer will pick that particular product.

Why People Read Product Reviews

Why do people read product reviews in the first place? After all, do savvy shoppers buy anything without checking online reviews?

Here’s an example. Imagine you are reviewing Headspace, the meditation app. This is a real life example because, personally, I’m a Headspace believer and practitioner. 😉

Or we can go with a different example — this time, let’s make it something B2B. For Instance, LiveChat:

So, what should you begin your review with? People want to get to know some practical facts, so:

• Talk about how the product grew on you and share first impressions (and all the consecutive ones!).
• Share your experiences with the product.
• List real pros and cons of the product.
• Tell the readers if a product is aimed at them [who the target users/buyers are].
• Rule if the product is of the highest quality and whether it’s simply worth buying.
• Is it user-friendly?
• Discuss some potential pain points.
• Provide alternatives.

Online reviews should touch on both pros and cons of a product, service or even a whole brand so that shoppers understand the key selling points as well as its market strengths and weaknesses.

A powerful product review should clearly point out who the product is for. Another reason why people read product reviews is even simpler. Users want to make sure the product is the best of its kind.Take marketing tools — people want to make sure they’re straightforward, user-friendly and generally easy to handle.

Moreover, people are curious about alternative solutions. Though, to be honest, they just want to make sure that the product they want to buy is the undisputed king of its category. Also, other users’ experiences aren’t meaningless. Readers want to confront as many opinions as possible before making any actual purchase.

What Are the Benefits of Writing Product Reviews?

First and foremost, people trust product reviews — a whopping 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. There you go — positive product reviews can bring a substantial rise in sales.

Here’s what you get out of writing reviews:

• Money– you can earn some extra money by reviewing products as an affiliate.
• Authority– you build authority as a reviewer and people will trust your opinion if you play it right.
• Freedom– as an independent reviewer and marketer only you decide what products you want to review, recommend and what to write about.
• Traffic– your content helps you gain organic traffic and you can rank your website for strategically chosen keywords.

There are also many other perks (and also drawbacks) of becoming an independent product reviewer. Okay so now, with all those reasons in mind, it’s time to figure out what you can do to craft a genuine product review.

How to Write the Perfect Product Review

Get into details at partners.livechatinc.com

Bottom Line

Online reviews are a great way to monetize your blog, start your affiliate marketing business and get it up and running. It’s a proven method, and we’ve got hard data to back it up. BrightLocal conducted a consumer review survey, an annual exploration of how consumers read and use online reviews.

What are their key findings?

• 84% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation
• 7 out of 10 consumers will write a review for a business if they’re asked to
• 90% of consumers read less than 10 reviews before forming an opinion about a business
• 54% of people will visit the website after reading positive reviews
• 73% of consumers think that reviews older than 3 months are no longer relevant
• 74% of consumers say that positive reviews make them trust a businesses more
• 58% of consumers say that the star rating of a business is most important

Interestingly, according to Econsultancy, even bad reviews improve conversion by 67%. Hope these facts are convincing enough for you. As you can notice, there is a point to creating product reviews.

Go ahead, become a LiveChat affiliate and start reviewing our product, making a solid profit. Don’t limit yourself to just us — feel free to review brands and products from other industries to fully harness the power of your site.

That’s all for now on writing a powerful product review. Once something new comes around, I’m going to supplement and update this write-up.

Speak your mind and share your own ideas or concerns on this topic. How do you feel about it? Are reviews performing well in affiliate marketing? I would love to hear your thoughts so get in touch with me on Twitter.

Happy marketing!
Kasia

Originally published at partners.livechatinc.com on July 27, 2017.