Customer reviews are the modern-day version of “word-of-mouth”, and they’re imperative for the success of a product and a business. Studies show that:
- 79% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations
- 85% of consumers say that they read online reviews for local businesses
- 73% of consumers say positive customer reviews make them trust a business more
If you ask someone where they look for reviews for products, Amazon is going to be one of the first places they suggest. In fact, many visit Amazon just to read the reviews even if they don’t plan on buying the product there. It’s a wealth of valuable information that’s too good to ignore, for both consumers and entrepreneurs.
The moral of the story is that if your product isn’t being reviewed, you’re missing out. This is where “Amazon Reviewers” come into play, and naturally, there are ways to target some of the best Amazon Reviewers out there.
Why Reviews and Reviewers are Important
First, the more reviews you get on Amazon, the more visible your product becomes. This is due to Amazon’s algorithm putting weight (although how much is not public knowledge) on the number of reviews you have. The more reviews you get, the higher up on the search list your product becomes, also known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO). If you’re not familiar with this marketing strategy, you can visit a marketing agency webpage to learn more.
Second, people trust products that have been reviewed a lot vs. ones that haven’t. If they’re trying to decide between a product that has 4 stars and has been reviewed by 20 people vs. a product that has 3.7 stars and been reviewed by 200, they’re going to go with the latter. More reviews look better and are more convincing to consumers that your product is a good one.
And last but not least, not only do you want a good quantity of reviews, you want credible ones. The most credible reviewers on Amazon are known as “top reviewers.” Top reviewers are able to review any product- they’re not limited to a specific genre. You’ll know them because next to their name will be one or more titles like “top ten reviewer”, “hall of fame reviewer”, “vine voice”, etc. These titles are what lend these people their credibility.
How to Target Top Reviewers for your Business
Look for Top Reviewers.
Click on this link to get to a page with a ton of listings for top reviewers. The “hall of fame” reviewers are generally considered the best of the group. You can go through this list and find the reviewers who have written reviews for products similar to yours. Do this by hovering over the reviewer’s names to search for their most used tags.
Target the ones who have tags that are in the same field as your product, and then check out their Amazon profile page to look for an email address. You then simply just email them and ask them to check out, and possibly review, your product.
Tip: if you can’t find their email address, look for a blog website URL; a lot of these people have their own blogs where they’ll post reviews, so you might be able to find some reliable contact information there. This whole process is very labor-intensive, however.
Make Your Review Pitch Stand Out
You also need to make your review pitch stand out. These people get tons of review requests every day, and if yours looks like everyone else’s, chances are they’re going to pass you right up. Do some legwork and learn about the reviewer. Include information about reviews they’ve done in the past and why you feel like they would be the right person to review your product. Also include some personal information about yourself.
Respond to Reviewers of Your Product
Another strategy is to connect with your reviewers on Amazon. Did you know you can respond to the reviews left for your product? You simply click the comment and then click “Add a Comment” or “Reply to this Post” if you’re replying to an already existing comment.
As for authors, you can actually respond to the people who have written reviews for you by logging into your Author Central page (which uses your regular Amazon login information). The way to do this is:
- Log in to your Author Central Page on Amazon.
- Click on Customer Reviews in the header
- A list of all your reviews will show up, and underneath each one is the option to “Add a comment.”
In any case, you can comment back just to add a personal note of “thanks,” or you can do it to try to encourage these reviewers to review more of your products. Really engage and connect and start to establish a relationship. People who review on Amazon are likely to review again, so those are the people who can help you ramp up your numbers.
Think Long-Term Relationships Outside of Amazon
Finally, the last strategy goes hand in hand with the first two: cultivate relationships with your reviewers. Going to all the trouble of finding contact information, developing personalized pitches, sending free products, and responding to reviews shouldn’t be part of a short-term marketing goal.
Once you have the top reviewers hooked, you want to hang on to them to review future products by connecting with them outside of Amazon. Then make the effort to say “thank you” when they leave you a review, whether through an email, a post on their blog, or a comment under the review. Try to add value to their community, preferably before asking them for a favor. If they have a blog, join in the discussions presented on it.
Engage with them and their followers by asking and answering questions pertaining to topics that are important to them. You can also do this by finding and following them on forms of social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Participate in their conversations, add value, and show that you are interested in, and care about, the same things they do.
Only after you’ve done this should you reach out and ask for a review. And once you get it, don’t stop doing these other things outside of Amazon. The goal is to develop relationships and keep them coming back, so don’t stop working just because you’ve gained one review. This should be a long-term plan, and in the long run, it will help your business immensely.
So how are you going to get started targeting Amazon’s top reviewers? Do you know of any strategies not mentioned above?
Originally from the public sector, in 2022 I founded Clockwork Copy to bring a breath of fresh air to the content writing industry. We pride ourselves on being a firm that practices consistency, professionalism, and honesty, with the eventual (lofty) goal of being one of the best in the world.