How to set up a cost-effective review collection process for your product?
We at Linguix struggled with this question for quite some time and, through many mistakes and unexpected ideas, developed the following algorithm:
Step #1: Boost through partnerships
When you have a new application and not many users yet to ask for app reviews, you can consider showing your product to some unrelated users. We didn't think of this immediately, but later, when we did, we helped our colleagues in this way - we found a more popular non-competing product with a similar audience.
Next, we offered a sponsorship partnership to the team of that product - for a couple of hundred dollars, many bootstrap startups are willing to send one or two emails to their user base with an offer to try your app and rate it. This approach can help you get honest - people actually try and evaluate the application - organic reviews.
Step #2: Motivated reviews on your own user base
When you already have a certain number of active users, they may not leave reviews actively on their own. But you can motivate them!
This knowledge cost us several thousand dollars paid to the G2.com platform. All they did was take our email database and send them a message like - write your review of Linguix, the first 20 reviews will receive an Amazon gift card. As a result, we got more than a hundred of these reviews!
But why pay a review platform when you can directly reach out to your users? When we realized this, we were able to quickly and inexpensively get honest reviews from people about us on various platforms - both on Capterra, Trustpilot, and in the Chrome store.
Example of an email from one of the review campaigns
We didn't always offer gift cards - for example, during Product Hunt launches, we simply asked for support and honest reviews, and it worked.
Step #3: Support as a feedback collection channel
Another effective method that we didn't come up with ourselves. Several times, customers wrote to us with a problem, and after resolving it, they asked where they could rate the product's quality and support. Here's a typical example:
But it makes sense - you've solved a person's problem, they're grateful, why not ask them to leave a review? We even used our product to automate such requests - support managers used a special shortcut within Linguix to quickly insert a note asking for a //review in any email.
Linguix helps gather reviews quickly using shortcuts
Step #4: Collecting reviews at the moment of maximum satisfaction with the product
But the number of reviews really started to grow when we linked our review request to the moment of maximum user engagement. We created an algorithm to determine this engagement - in our case, active interaction with the product over n days. After applying our AI's recommendations, we ask the user to rate the app.
If the user clicks on a dissatisfied emoji, we ask them to send feedback to us. If satisfied, we encourage them to go to the store and write a review.
Surprisingly, this simple mechanic turned out to be very effective. Before its implementation, most of the reviews came during motivated review campaigns. Afterward, we receive organic reviews every day.
Conclusion
I hope these tips will be useful! It's also important to mention that I personally and the Linguix marketing team are currently taking on projects for support. Here's how we can help you:
Consulting on product promotion in the international market.
Launch on AppSumo.
Launch on Product Hunt.
Publications on the tech portal Hackernoon.com (I'm a contributor there!)
Content marketing from blogs to email newsletters.
Ping me at alex@linguix.com or here - I'll be happy to call and explain how we can help!