How to use user reviews to increase trust in Web3

So you've managed to figure out your goals with generating user reviews, and you've created a solid campaign that's got your users to leave them. 

Congrats!

But the process isn't over yet. 

Once you've got the reviews, you've got to work on getting the most out of them.  

Let's look at what you can do once you've generated a good number of user reviews for your Web3 project. 

Basic goals of using your user-generated reviews

Let's look at how you can put those reviews you've worked your arse of to collect to work.  

We're gonna do this in two steps. The first is to look at the goal of using reviews - more of a macro top down analysis of what you can do. 

Then, we'll look at specific tactics you can employ to actually achieve these things.  

But first, let's look at the 2 basic forms of user reviews.  

Individual and aggregated results

So at a high level you can group your user reviews into two camps.  

1. Individual reviews
2. Aggregated results

These are exactly what they sound like, and they both have different uses. 

Individual reviews are the actual thoughts and opinions of one person about your project. For example this review of BlockSee.  

Use cases of individual reviews include...

• Great research for feedback and what to prioritise
• Creating detailed ads to speak to your ideal audience's needs
• Building trust with testimonials

They're great for really helping persuade your users in detail of key features and benefits.  

The other are aggregated reviews which are often done int he form of a star rating.  For example this from Binance.  

These are great for...

• Trust and guarantee seals
• Quick attention-grabbing
•  Building trust on key assets and sales/marketing material

They're great for building trust and giving users a quick and dirty overview of how well your brand is regarded.  

Now let's get into the details of these high-level goals. 

Grab attention

Marketing in general is a busy space. 

Web3 is, as I write this, relatively quiet. However, each and every day there's an increasing number of brands in the space that are vying for attention. And use reviews are being woefully ignored. 

It basically means that you can stand out from the crowd pretty easily with a decent review-generation partner.  

I mean, take your own shopping habits on Amazon as an example. When you search for something, what's the first thing that stands out to you on pages like these.  

Star rating, right? 

You're looking for the product with the best ratio of rating to number of reviewers.  

Those star ratings help brands of all kinds stand out in the noise. With our reviews here, you can get them to show up in Google search so your page stands out from he competition. 

Case in point these Alchemix results...

Our listing of Alchemix stands out above the rest thanks to the review rating on the page. 

And that level of standing out helps with... 

Increase CTR

Star ratings and reviews help your marketing assets stand out. And as they say, the nail that sticks out gets hammered.  

Getting noticed is one of the biggest steps to increasing CTR. 

Google reports that star ratings in their results pages can increase CTR by up to 17%.  

And that's not going to just impact Google results. You could use your star ratings in social ads and other marketing collateral.  

Improve trust and CVR

The big issue we have right now in Web3 is that trust is painfully low.  

In fact, when it comes to crypto, trust is lower than any other tech vertical.  

As I've mentioned in other intro articles to review generation, user reviews are one of the best ways to increase trust and, as a result, conversion rate.  

• 93% of customers consult online reviews before making a final decision
• Customers are 63% more likely to trust a brand with online reviews
• Every extra review star increases revenue up to 9%
• Customers pay 31% more for companies with a good reputation
• Reviews produce an average 18% increase in sales

You need to be using user reviews in your marketing for more effective growth.  

Get more reviews

Weirdly, when someone sees your project getting a lot of reviews it spurs them to also leave one.  

Humans are naturally community-focused. Often, a review of your project can spur others to also leave a review. 

Some will want to corroborate what you've said, others will have a different view point and want to express their experience. 

Whatever the reason, starting a review generation campaign can bring lasting results.  

The best thing you can do here is use each review someone leaves and share it with others who are likely to leave reviews to sput them to take action.  

Specific actions you can take with user reviews

Now that the basics are out of the way, let's look at some more specific methods you can use.  

Research to improve product and marketing

This is, in my opinion, the most valuable use for mass user reviews.  

back when I was working as a copywriter and growth strategist, I would collect and collate user reviews from as many destinations as possible. 

We're talking on-site, review sites, forum comments, 1-2-1 calls with customers, and even Amazon books that address similar problems.  

I'd collect anything that was detailed and well thought out in a spreadsheet, then I'd analyse the results. 

You're really looking for trends here. The more common a pain point, benefit, transformation, or language is in those reviews, the more common it is with your best users. 

With the right analysis, you can walk away with the key talking points and language you need to focus on in your marketing to attract more of your ideal customers.  

And you'll also get detailed feedback on the product so you know what you should do more of, improve, or deprecate. 

Using user reviews for analysis is key to effective growth. 

On-site trust-building elements and seals

One of the most popular uses of user reviews is with on-site trust seals. 

If you know when a user might be thinking "is this legit" you can drop a review summary element like the below from Streamflow to help build trust and show the user exactly how others view the project. 

These kind of trust seals are great for building trust and increasing conversion rate. 

User reviews in ads

Running ads is hard.  

Finding the right audience, angle, and CTA to get the best results can take a lot of testing. one of the most overlooked advertising methods are simple testimonial ads. 

I mean, when 88% of users trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation, you'd be mad not to use them.  

You can use these in a number of ways.

The simplest is to simply use your star rating and say "Our users give us a X star rating! Find out why". Or something similar. 

You could also pull key quotes which, if you've done your research of reviews and know your audience, speak to their key desires. 

You can then simply copy and paste these into your advertising to make more of an impact as you'll see below.  

These kind of ads will build more trust as you're not blowing your own horn, you're simply letting people know what others in their position think of you.  

Press releases

Press releases are one of the best ways to get quick and easy press coverage. 

Whenever we partner with a brand, we write and distribute a press release post campaign. This is partly to help the brand get more coverage in news publications and show what they've managed to achieve. 

It's also partly to get backlinks so their site ranks higher in Google search organically.  

Here's an example of one we did with BYDFi a short while ago.  

It's amazing how well these press releases work to increase overall reach of your brand. 

Summing up

This might not be the full potential uses of user reviews for your brand.  

But these are, in our experience, the most impactful and useful. 

If you've not enabled a review generation campaign and want help setting one up, reach out to the team here and we'll see what we can get working for you.