Why is customer review data so powerful?
Think about the last time you left a review. Chances are you were pretty honest about the product or service you tried out - whether it was good or bad. You probably remarked on the product quality, the value for money, and you may even have compared your experience to other brands you’ve tried before. You may have also answered some custom questions like your age range or size to make your review more helpful to other shoppers.
This type of data is a goldmine for business owners and marketers alike. As well as the all-important star rating, a review can teach you valuable information about the reviewer’s experience of your product, and potentially also about them as a consumer. You can then use this data to create segments that will improve a customer’s overall experience with your brand, spur a follow-up purchase, and increase revenue over time.
In the sections below, you will learn how to:
- Create segments based on customer review data
- Send targeted content to these segments
If you haven't done so already, check out these best practices for collecting customer reviews.
Create key segments
Let’s create 5 core segments together. As you build, customize the segment definitions to best suit your own customers, products, and business use cases.
4 or 5 star reviewers
This is a hugely important segment for any brand collecting reviews. Someone who is fresh from the high of a hugely positive experience with your brand is someone you want to keep around! This easy-to-build segment can be used in campaigns promoting your VIP program, sourcing beta testers for your latest products or even as a back-up to your 30-day engaged segment. Try alternating those who left a 4 or 5 star review in the last 90 days into your regular newsletter sends, and monitoring how your emails perform with this segment.
3, 1 or 2 star reviewers
Just as important as those who love your brand are those who have had a negative experience. This is a segment you’ll want to see shrink over time, as you’ll hopefully use the feedback acquired by these shoppers to improve your product or service offering. They’re also great candidates for follow-up messages from your customer support team to see how they can make things right.
Collection-specific reviewers
What collection someone has bought from can be a powerful data point. Create a segment of shoppers who have left positive reviews about your store, and who have recently placed an order from a specific product-line or collection. Then, cross-sell related items from the same or adjacent collections to this audience. You’ll get a sense of whether a customer loving one product is a good predictor of whether they’ll love another.
Frequent reviewers
Some people love to write reviews, and these are people you’ll want on your side for upcoming product launches or beta testing opportunities! Even better is if they’ve included media in their review. User-generated content can help to influence up to 79% of consumers’ purchasing decisions, so actually seeing the product in use outside of a brand’s professional product photography is a huge trust factor for consumers.
Reviewers that mentioned something specific
Is there a particular value proposition or key benefit that your product has that you know resonates with your audience? Consider creating a segment to capture reviewers who use those ‘magic words’. Not only can you then easily find the most impactful reviews to use in your marketing materials, you can consider asking them if they’ll create additional UGC for you like a video testimonial.
Reviewers that have a specific profile property
Did you know that you can use reviews to find out more information about your customers in general, and not just their experience with your product? If you use Klaviyo Reviews or if your review provider supports custom questions, you can ask reviewers to answer specific questions about themselves like their age range, skin type, size, or anything else you’d like to know about your customers. These segments will help enrich your customer data and will allow your cross-selling efforts to become highly targeted. (The bonus? It also makes your reviews more helpful to other prospective customers!)
Target your review segments with personalized content
Below you’ll find examples of campaigns you could send to each of the above segments.
VIP program invitation
Segment: recent 4 or 5 star reviewers who have not yet joined SWAK’s loyalty program
Content: a breakdown of the perks of SWAK’s loyalty program and what they’ll get for signing up.
Product update
Segment: recent 3, 2 or 1 star reviewers of Bola’s new red velvet cupcakes
Content: Bola’s heard these reviewers loud and clear - these cupcakes were overly sweet and not to everyone’s taste. They’ve taken time to refine the recipe and want to let their unhappy customers know.
Cross-sell campaign
Segment: recent reviewers who rated Nani’s sensitive skin moisturizer 4 or 5 stars, but haven’t purchased their complementary serum
Content: customer education on the benefits of using these two products together.
Beta tester invitation
Segment: reviewers who have left 3 or more reviews over the past year
Content: Beantown is launching a new blend and they want to send coffee samples out to beta testers who they know are likely to leave a review.
TIP: if you try this strategy, don’t filter the segment by star rating. ALL reviews are helpful to your brand and prospective customers.
Stock-shift promotion
Segment: reviewers that answered the custom question ‘What’s your skin type?’ with ‘Oily’ when they left a review
Content: Nani has a huge batch of charcoal face masks that will soon be past their best buy date. They decide to run a promotion, and those with self-described oily skin form a large part of their messaging strategy.