It's the Reviews, Stupid

About a month ago I asked Why not allow user reviews on your B2B website? Julie Powers, who inspired the initial post, followed up with a link to a MarketingSherpa report on the success label printer Dymo had with reviews. Good info, but hey, they make high-volume, low dollar products.

Then I ran into this pithy analysis by Andy Sernovitz, Who is reading your reviews?:

"68% of online shoppers read reviews before buying.

Stop and think about this: Your entire marketing effort expenditure drives customers to the reviews. Not to your landing page. Not to your shopping cart.

Who is in charge of reading online reviews at your company?

Nothing impacts your online sales more than customer reviews. Do you even know what they say?"

Pithy part repeated: "Your entire marketing effort expenditure drives customers to the reviews."

So if this is true for those with reviews online, what's the implication for those without: you need them! Yes, us even us B2B guys with a dozen excuses about why its not possible.

(Links provided by Andy: MediaPost, New York Times)