One of the strongest ways to encourage shoppers to make a purchase is by showing them positive Etsy reviews from other customers. But how do you actually get those reviews? We’re going to break it down for you in this episode of the Jam.
A story
What are we chatting about today? Well, we’re diving right in with a story from Richie! There he was ready to commit. He had a big decision with real and lasting consequences. Locked between the final three choices. How to choose from here? He thinks, “Oh, I know, I’ll learn from others before me. I’ll read the Etsy reviews!”
This is a Valentine’s Day gift for Richie’s wife after all! The stakes are high and this is not a time to take risks. He reads the reviews and guess what?! They swayed him. Etsy reviews will sway your prospective customers as well.
Social Proof in Etsy Reviews
Like Richie, customers want to feel confident in their purchase. You’ve done everything else right, and now you want/need actual social proof. You want reviews and you want them steady and often. So that’s what we’re diving into today! We’re chatting all about getting Etsy reviews for your shop.
They’re important!
Richie’s story probably gave us a little bit of a clue of how important reviews are. They’re front and center in customers’ minds. And Etsy puts them right there on the page. So, how do you go about getting more reviews? How do you get favorable reviews? What are some tips for getting strong reviews?
These are things that you should be thinking about because they’re going to help you make the sale. Reviews help everything all the way around. They are an important tool that you can use to help generate more sales.
Don’t forget this
A very important fact is that most customers just aren’t going to leave reviews unless you ask them to. Even with Etsy’s follow-up reminding them for a review, it’s like a 25% success rate. If you’re not someone that’s already asking for reviews, then Etsy is asking on your behalf which is great!
But at the end of the day, this is from Etsy. It’s not from you. It’s not from the shop owner and that makes it different because it’s not as personal. That’s like DoorDash asking for a restaurant review versus the owner or the chef asking you how it went and how your experience with the food was.
Let’s make a plan to get more Etsy reviews
So how do you get reviews like the shops that crush that 25% do? Of course, we want you to be better than just the average! You’re listening to our channel, you’re with Marmalead here, so let’s go rock this review thing! So what’s the plan? How are we gonna do it? We have five different suggestions here and we hope they really help you collect those reviews more than ever!
1. Follow up
The first suggestion is to follow up with the customers. Etsy might do this on your behalf and prompt them to leave a review for something they just purchased. But don’t leave it up to just that. You want to follow up with your customers yourself.
When you start making your first sales on Etsy, the app will actually even tell you, “Look, you just made a sale, you should follow up with this customer and make sure everything’s good and thank them for the purchase.” This is a good reminder to do that!
It’s usually a good idea to wait until the next day or so after the sale comes through. Then, reach out to them and tell them you appreciate their purchase. You can say something along the lines of, “Reviews really help my shop out, and so after you receive the product you ordered, I would really appreciate it if you came back and left a review for my shop! If there’s anything that I can help you with or if something’s not quite right, please let me know. Reach out and message me here. I’ll be more than happy to help you with those things.”
Please remember
Something important to remember here is (assuming that you actually care) this won’t be perceived as pushy. Again, this is one of those things where the internet is always like, “Don’t do that, ’cause this will happen and that will happen. And it’s bad, bad, bad.”
When people genuinely care and ask, “Hey, how did things go?,” it’s not perceived as pushy. We’ve personally never felt that way. Even the grumpiest of people tend to like it when someone genuinely from the heart, “Hey, how’d this go? I want to make sure you had a great experience.” This is also a chance to resolve any problems before your customer has the chance to leave a negative review.
The fear factor of asking for Etsy reviews
There seems to be a lot of apprehension out there around sellers not feeling like it’s okay to reach out to their customers. We hear sellers often mention how Etsy has all these rules about how you’re not supposed to spam your customers and reach out to them and solicit them. And yeah, you’re not supposed to spam your customers. You can’t reach out to them and be like, “Hey, thanks for buying this! You should also look at these other five things in my shop.” That’s not okay.
But, if you’re being genuine. If you’re reaching out wanting some feedback on your products and customer experience. If you’re offering help with anything they might need help with, that is totally okay! Etsy appreciates that. They know that people come to Etsy for that buying experience and for that one-on-one connection that you get with shops there. This is something Etsy has over Amazon and many online retailers.
2. Thank you card
Let your customers know how much their purchase means to you! Remind them to consider you for their next relevant seasonal purchase. Of course, you want to do this in a non-pushy way. And you can also take a moment in your card to remind them that a review is super helpful and appreciated.
3. Share what a good Etsy review looks like
What does that actually look like? A big part of shoppers not leaving reviews is because they don’t know what to write or say. It’s easy to go in there and throw some stars on a product. Instead of leaving them with no idea what to say, guide them along the way.
Ask them some questions! Whether it’s on that thank you card we mentioned above, or when you reach out to them through Etsy messages. Questions like: Did everything arrive okay? Is the product in good condition? Did it arrive in a timely manner? You want to ask questions where if your customers answer them in a review, they will encourage other shoppers to purchase from you!
4. Follow all of Etsy’s rules
It’s important to remember that you do actually want to follow all of Etsy’s rules and not made-up rules you read in online forums. If you’re following Etsy’s rules, you won’t run the risk of harassing your customers. But go to the source on this information. Actually look at Etsy’s rules. If you’re unsure about something, ask Etsy.
As much help as the internet is for a lot of things if you really want to make sure you’re getting the truth and not getting yourself into trouble, get that information from the source. Ask Etsy support, “Hey, I was thinking about this. This part’s a little bit unclear, I just wanna make sure that’s okay.” They will tell you. They’re not gonna tell you something’s cool and then come back and be like, “That wasn’t cool. Why did you do that?”
5. Measure the data
As with anything that you do, measure it so that you know what changes you’re making and which of those changes are actually working. If you start adding a thank you card to your products, keep an eye on how many reviews you were getting per week or per month before you started doing that. Or, if you started reaching out to customers the day after they make a purchase, how is that impacting the number of reviews that you’re seeing?
Remember, if you aren’t measuring how well something is working, you really don’t know if you should keep doing it. Should you keep spending time on thank you cards or should you keep reaching out to people? It takes time to sit down and write people a note, even if you’re using templates. By measuring things, you can understand which things you’re doing are working the best. Once you know what those things are, you can make a plan on how to implement them into your normal workflow.
Final thoughts on Etsy reviews
It doesn’t have to be complicated. Keep an eye on what you’re changing. Or you can go crazy and use a spreadsheet! Whatever gets you excited to keep going and keep experimenting! All that being said (get ready for a shameless plug), we LOVE hearing success stories and getting reviews at Marmalead, so email us! See how easy asking for that review was?😉
So there you have it! Obviously, reviews are massively important to the success of your shop. As shoppers are out there on Etsy, they’re going to be comparing products and will want to know how other people enjoyed this or that product. The more reviews you can get on your listings, the better it is for you and your conversions and making sales on Etsy.
Happy selling, everyone!
Subscribe to ♥ The Jam ♥ at:
