Online reviews are a digital form of word-of-mouth and guide Internet users in their choices. How can brands stimulate the production of testimonials on their strategic platforms, while ensuring their authenticity?
Activate Shoppers: Shiseido Case
82% of consumers read online reviews before making a purchase decision. During sales periods, 60% continue to take this time to make the right choices (study conducted in August 2020, 41,663 respondents). This is why, before Black Friday 2019, a brand of the Shiseido group called upon TERRITORY Influence to generate reviews on 3 partner e-commerce sites. The agency launched a call for applications on its French nano influencers platform TRND.fr in order to identify and activate the current owners of the beauty product. Results: more than 150 reviews were published in 10 days, exceeding the target of 50 reviews submitted per product sheet. This success can be explained by the daily management of the operation with a dedicated project manager who was able to support Shiseido customers in writing their reviews (advice on the characteristics to be evaluated, the length of the feedback, where to find the product sheet, etc.) – thus guaranteeing quality without compromising sincerity.
Recruit Nano Influencers: Essity Case
Following the launch of a digital strategy aimed at redesigning their brand platforms, the ESSITY group asked TERRITORY Influence to enrich its new product pages. Why did they ask us to do this? In order to reassure consumers with testimonials, improve SEO, then collect insights. An annual multi-brand plan has been set up on TRND.fr to cover all category needs: from make-up remover to handkerchiefs and nappies. This time, the objective was to recruit ‘non-consumer’ nano-influencers and to provide them with experiences at home.
Examples of results for the Okay brand:
- Objective: a total of 200 reviews on Okay.fr
- 248 reviews published with an average score of 4.7/5
… and for the Lotus brand (3 categories):
- Objective: 550 reviews on Lotushygiene.fr and Lotusbaby.fr
- 642 reviews published with an average score of 4,8/5
Beyond volume, the value of ratings is an important factor in decision-making: 63% of consumers need a minimum of 4 out of 5 to buy a product. Alix Arnaud, Digital Content Manager at ESSITY France, confirms the success of these operations: “Our various rating & review activations have been a great success. In addition to working on the natural referencing of our products (SEO), they allow us to understand and quantify the commitment and satisfaction of our consumers towards our brands. They also enable us to collect a lot of content (visuals & quotes) that we can reuse in our communications: as an end tag on a TV ad, in-store on our packaging, on social media, in digital with display campaigns… This provides a real consumer endorsement“.
Engage CRM Members: Nestlé Case
Since 2016, the agency has been managing the Nestlé Ambassadors Club with a white label solution on its CRM website ‘CroquonsLaVie.fr’. In each influencer marketing campaign, a specific ‘reviews’ mission is added to generate traffic and content on the product pages. To date, more than 40,300 authentic reviews have been published for the group’s food & beverage brands. This performance can be explained firstly by the qualification of the database with the identification of the most engaged and relevant profiles according to categories. Product education ensures the experience and quality of the reviews. As in the Shiseido and Essity cases, no incentives are offered to guide purchasing decisions in a sincere and therefore more effective way.