Kevin Lee: The Many Methods Of Getting Online Reviews

Didit Editorial

11 years ago

Kevin Lee

Jan 19, 2014: In his new ClickZ column, Didit CEO Kevin Lee writes about the many methods that marketers are using to garner online reviews. Some of these methods are completely legal, ethical, and “white hat,” but some of them are harder to define. For example, is a method that subtly invokes the guilt of a user after receiving a free gift completely above-board? He writes:

The importance of reviews in Google and Bing can’t be underestimated in both the paid advertising areas of the SERP and organic results. A good review manifests itself as a set of gold stars in the listing, thus increasing the CTR and allowing advertisers and online marketers to capture a greater share of the highly valuable, limited supply of click volume out there.

On eBay (which you can think of as an e-commerce search engine), ratings and reviews have a major impact on the relative visibility of one merchant’s listings over another. And while Google may no longer count the lift in CTR derived from the existence of reviews toward your Quality Score (lately they seem to have started normalizing the CTR lift from ad extensions in general), it’s still great to be able to use reviews to capture additional click volume.

But online reviews are a tough game. Reviews are challenging to get for nearly every online marketer or business with an online presence. Tactics to get them range from the above-board to the punishable “black hat,” and you’ll need to make the call as to which kind of method you’ll use.

White hat, grey hat, or black hat?

It would be great if there were clear demarcation lines between each of these “hats.” But it’s never quite clear whether certain review-generating methods are black hat, white, or grey. For example, my wife recently received a complimentary “thank you” bracelet inside an order of apparel from an online merchant. Attached to the bracelet was a set of instructions for how to leave feedback/ratings and also a request to leave a positive rating.

Black hat, white hat or grey? It probably depends who you ask. The letter didn’t say one couldn’t leave a bad review, but it simultaneously created an incentive (emotional guilt) to leave a favorable rating about the company, creating a situation where the odds of getting a favorable rating go way up.

Here are some other white, grey and black hat ways that business owners and online marketers are increasing the number of reviews they have and improving their ratings.

Because the rules for getting reviews are similar to rules for getting SEO links, you’ll notice some very similar tactics.

Paying For Reviews: This black hat method of paying for reviews is against the Terms of Service Agreement of every place you can leave reviews on, including Google, Amazon, eBay, and Yelp.com. That said, it’s likely that some of your competition are doing it right now.
Trading Reviews For Discounts: This method is really the same as buying reviews (although no cash changes hands).
Guilt-Based Gifting: (see example above): Clearly not pure black hat but definitely an effective way to both incentivize reviews and probably tilt them positively (which puts the tactic in the grey hat area).
Friends and Family: I think you can probably guess that this is considered a black hat tactic.
Asking Customers For Reviews Via Email: Email remains a great way to communicate. Your email list is a powerful way to generate repeat business and drive reviews. But asking for reviews vie e-mail is definitely “very dark grey” territory.
Asking Customers For Reviews Via Social Media: Social media users are accustomed to commenting. You may not always know who your customers in social media environments are (which is one reason to add social CRM to your current CRM database).
Live Review Opportunities Within Your Point of Service Location: I’ve seen iPads out in mounts or computers in lobbies with signage that encourages reviews or positive reviews. At the same time, this tactic may violate the TOS of many review sites.
Printed Leaflets or Call to Action on Business Cards: Print communication is far from dead. Use it.

Choose Your Method with Care

Whichever method you choose, be aware that black-hat methods — even if they’re not detected immediately — may come back to haunt you in the long run. This past week, a case in Virginia held that the identity of anonymous Yelp.com reviewers can be outed in certain circumstances. You need to keep in mind the TOS of the sites on which reviews can be left (and be aware that those TOS documents can change at the whim of the review site).

Also be aware that some professions do not allow for the licensed professional to ask for a positive review, and their rules may further require that, if reviews are solicited, they must be solicited in exactly the same way to every customer or client.