Making the most of product reviews during sampling campaigns

One of the most common reasons for running a targeted sampling campaign is that it is a fantastic way to generate a high volume of product reviews. Product reviews act as a reliable form of social proofing and play a huge part in building trust. This fact is true regardless of the source of a consumer's review, however reviews gathered as part of a sampling campaign have the edge in the insights they can provide to us. By providing a free sample to a consumer, you have incentivised that consumer to provide you with more detailed feedback. This affords you the opportunity to ask more specific questions and gain a more nuanced understanding of that consumer's reaction to your product. This fact can at times be overlooked as it is assumed that this product feedback is only valuable to the people responsible for developing the product itself and not for those marketing it. If used correctly, there is a goldmine of information available to help hone in on an effective marketing strategy. Let’s explore some of the ways in which product reviews can help you in your efforts to promote to and engage with your customers.

Refine your targeting strategy

By asking the right questions, a review can give a much more detailed picture of who your ideal customer is. Depending on what you want to know more about you can ask people about their favourite brands, where they like to shop, why they use certain products, how they use them etc. All of the above can start to form a more intricate picture of who your customers are. For example, “where do the people that left positive reviews shop compared with those that left negative reviews". This information can help you to fine tune the audiences you show ads to. Additionally, you can ensure that they target consumers who are more likely to respond positively to your products.

Optimise your messaging

You likely already have a good idea of what your product does well and not so well. But do you really understand what makes your product the best? Product reviews are a great insight into this. By asking consumers what it is they like most about a product you can become clearer on where your messaging should be focussed. Combine this with the idea above about refining your audience and maybe you find out that different audience segments are attracted to different aspects of your product. You can now adapt your messaging depending on the audience that you are talking to.

Evolve with your consumers needs

For new product developments, you may already have a bunch of the insights mentioned above from the product development process. However, consumers' needs and expectations are continually changing over time. Either influenced by societal changes or by competitor pressure, the way in which consumers react to a product is always subject to change. Product reviews are a great way to stay one step ahead of these changes. Looking at how responses change from campaign to campaign can show you how your audience is evolving.

Even if the campaigns are using different products, so long as they target the same audience you can use this information to develop an ever changing picture of your ideal customer. What you want to find out using product reviews will vary from product to product. Every time you run a sampling campaign, ask yourself what you want to know about your product / audience. Then find ways of asking questions in your product survey to uncover those insights. Most importantly, once you have identified those insights, put them into practice. You'll then start to reap the benefits of a better understanding between you and your customer base.

How we can help you make the most of each product review

At Sampl we build sampling experiences that enable you to maximise your return on investment through making the most out of every single review you receive. We do this by employing an expert term of campaign managers that craft bespoke and highly targeted review questions that get to the heart of what you want to find out from your consumers.

We couple this with dashboarding & reporting functionality that enables you to hone in on the insights most important to you. These dashboards are also designed to encourage discoverability, so you can uncover the insights that perhaps you weren’t looking for.

Ready to make the most of your sampling campaign reviews? Reach out to sayhello@sampltech.com to explore how we can help you craft a sampling campaign tailored to your objectives.