A business review is a narrative account of a customer’s experience with a company’s products and services. It presents the customer’s assessment of the company’s offerings, so that potential customers can make an informed decision as to whether the company is a good match or their needs.
According to research, more than 70 percent of customers base their decisions about doing business with company on the reviews that others have written about that company. In other words, more than half of potential customers decide what bank to switch to, what PR firm to hire, what smartphone to buy, or what hosting service to choose based on other people’s experiences with these products and services.
The above statistic drives home the point that a business review could actually attract potential customers to business or repel them from it. As a customer, there are times when you are so much satisfied with a product or service that you want others to know about it as a way of giving back to the company. By writing a review of such a company, you want more people to enjoy the same experience.
Similarly, there are times when you regretted ever trying out a company’s product or service. Writing a review of the company would be your own way to warn others about the company and save many other people from the same bad experience.
Six Reasons People Look for Product Reviews
- To get knowledge of the cons and pros of a given product
- To discover if the product is meant for them
- To confirm if the product is of high quality and easy to use
- To get more knowledge about alternative solutions
- To get informed about other user’s experiences with the product
- To ultimately understand if the product is worth buying
Having discussed what a business review is and how important it is to both companies and consumers, let’s now look at the steps involved in writing a good business review—a detailed one that leaves the reader asking no questions and is enough to help him decided whether to patronize the business.
How to Write a Product Review That Sells – Sample Template
1. Figure out the goals and objectives of the company
Your first step is to identify the goals and objectives of the business you are reviewing. For example, it could be to help arrange fun-filled vacations for customers, to protect companies from sudden loss of vital information, to offer flavorful and economical meals to low income families, and so on.
Including the goals and objectives of the business you are reviewing will help the customer decide right from the start whether they should be reading the review in the first place. A customer looking to travel to a nearby city within the same state or country has no business reading a review of a company that arranges for international tours.
2. Outline the aspects to be reviewed-: Make a list of the various aspects of the business you are reviewing. These will vary depending on the business and the product or service it offers. For example, if you are evaluating a web hosting service, some of the categories to address would be price, website structure, customer support, efficiency, and add-on services. But in the case of a catering company, you will be assessing it based on price, presentation, delivery, quality, taste, and freshness of the food.
3. Ask for or buy the product-: This is always the first rule to writing a review! Sometimes it really amaze me at how many people keep writing reviews without even knowing the product they are reviewing. What I mean is that this act of reviewing products blindly is doable especially if you just want to make a few affiliate sales; but if your goal is to provide reasonable value, then it is absolutely important for you to have the product in your hands or on your computer system.
Now, there are ranges of ways you can have get product. The best method is to simply tell the product owner to give you a copy for free (inform him/her that you are writing a review). If this do not work, you can sign up as an affiliate and purchase the product through your affiliate link. This will permit you to get up 90% off the retail cost, depending on the affiliate commission you will earn. Be aware, though, that some of the affiliate programs do not permit you to purchase your own link, so please check the terms and conditions of the affiliate company before you engage on that.
4. Score the company based on your experience with them-: The easiest way to evaluate the various aspects of the company’s product or service that you used is to assign a numerical value of 1 to 10 to each, with 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest.
For every score you assign to each aspect, give a detailed reason for assigning that score. For example, you can score a web hosting company 2/10 in the area of support because their support staffs weren’t responsive. Or you can score the same company 8/10 in the pricing aspect because their prices are quite affordable and relatively lower than the market average.
When writing your review, try to identify at least at least one positive item to praise about the business, even if it’s not listed among the main aspects to reviewed. If the bulk of your review is negative, be sure to start with a positive comment or observation. Aside that this indicates honesty and fairness on your part, it makes you review sound more natural—not like one written by someone on a mission to malign the company.
5. Find out whether your experience is the norm for the company-: Truth is, your positive experience with a company might be due to ‘ good luck’, just as your negative experience with a product or service might be just a one-time glitch
For example, a thunderstorm might have caused the long downtime you experienced during the one-week period for which you tried out a web hosting service. Similarly, getting your order later than promised by a retail store might be due to some unforeseen problems. So, you would be fair enough on the business you are reviewing to include whether your experience is the norm for that business.
6. Crafting the core content-: Keeping all the issues of purpose and honesty aside, let us concentrate on the core contents of your review. Always see that you provide information on:
- Practical details covering things like: – The price, where to get the product (you can add your affiliate link here), the guarantee attached to the product, how long the customers should wait for the delivery, and so on.
- The main benefit: – There always some benefits that a given product has to offer, and highlighting them is the highest value a review accumulates. Just to explain the idea of a benefit briefly: it is what the features of the product mean to the users, and how those features improve their lives.
- Group target: – This involves information on how the average user of the product is, and why they would want to make use of it.
- Features: This covers information on what the product does.
7. Get Other peoples opinion
For example, if you take a look at Amazon, you will find loads of customer reviews for all products. They are not just there for the sake of it. People are simply very interested in the opinions of others. If you get an access to reliable customers opinions that you can legally make use of, it is advisable to add it to your review.
8. Share you personal opinion-: Finally, your personal opinion should be shared about the product. Mention whether the product is worth purchasing or not, and what your overall experience of it was. Do not be afraid of saying your mind freely here. If you are in love with the product, say that you are and if you hate it, let people know about it too.
Also, add your affiliate link if you want to recommend the product to your readers. You do not have to make it look overly promotional. a big purchase here button may be too much. Simply hook up your affiliate URL to the product name which is usually enough.
9. Offer suggestions to the reader-: If your review is a negative one, you should close it by offering suggestions to the company on how their product or service could be improved. And if you have any suggestions for potential customers, include those as well.
Additional Tips on How to Write a Product Review
- Tackle the problem of honesty-: The problem is that not every product is of high quality. Every once in a while, you will stumble upon a product that is simply garbage. And the problem here is that people involved with you and the products are naturally good. So you wouldn’t want to hurt anyone by publishing negative reviews of their products. So always endeavor to fight the natural resistance and mention every negative part you have stumbled upon. This will strengthen your brand and also your readers will be assured that you are an honest source of information.
- Discover a place to write your review.
- Use concrete instances based on the method on how you used the product when writing.
- Make use of your own voice.
- Always include product image/video.
- Describe the product in terms of size, number of pages, features etc.
- Prove your points
- Always call-to-action etc.