By now, we all know reviews are a crucial part of growing a beauty brand. This should come as no surprise: 95% of consumers read a brand's reviews before deciding to buy.
Here is the thing: most people only buy a product after they have seen social proof like reviews. Shoppers feel like they are making the right decision after they have seen somebody else confirm your brand’s credibility.
Based on research, 92% of shoppers trust reviews as much as personal recommendations. Moreover, 86% will hesitate to buy a product if it has negative reviews or doesn't have any at all.
With this in mind, you know product reviews are essential for you to grow your beauty brand.
But what if I tell you it's not enough?
I mean, having reviews on your site is good, but it won't help you reach your full sales potential. You may grow your beauty brand with product reviews, but that alone won't be adequate.
You may be wondering, "then what will make my beauty brand grow?"
Here is the answer: if you want to grow your beauty brand, you should use photo reviews.
The importance of photo reviews
While text reviews are good, they seem generic nowadays. Everybody uses them — from small companies to large ones. On their own, their effectiveness doesn't live up to the standards.
Photo reviews will turn your persuasiveness up a notch and help you sell more on your eCommerce store.
After all, a photo is worth a thousand words. Before deciding to buy, customers want to see how the product looks in real life. In this case, photo reviews will do that for them.
Give your beauty brand legitimacy
Would you buy a new makeup palette you haven't seen someone else use before, whether on-screen or in person? I bet you wouldn't— it's too daunting to buy a product you haven't seen someone use before.
The same applies to your beauty customers. If you don't have several photo reviews of your beauty product, and if shoppers haven't seen or heard of you before, they probably won't buy it.
In the beauty space, you must make sure your products have actual customer photo reviews associated with it.
On its own, the product image is convincing - but only to an extent. But if there is a real customer on the photo review, the level of persuasion for your shoppers will be higher.
Show your product in action
Besides, photo reviews also show how other people use your product in different ways. As potential customers will be seeing photo reviews of your product, they will see various ways in which people use it.
This will give them crucial insight on how to use your product. They’ll be able to see how it will fit in their lives.
Build trust
Once you have started adding product reviews, you’ll see your sales get better! That’s because photo reviews make you look genuine, and as a result, people will trust your products.
Foster community
Lastly, with photo reviews, you will build a community around your brand. Since you’ll be re-posting and responding to photo reviews, you’ll show shoppers that you truly care about the people who buy from you. You’ll look more authentic and credible when you have a community.
Not only that, but once you have a good fan base, you’ll have loyal customers who will use your beauty products like their lives depend on them.
How to get photo reviews for your beauty brand?
You have seen how photo reviews can help you grow your beauty brand. By now, I'm certain you are dying to know how you can use them for your brand's good!
Start with a great product
This seems like it goes without saying, but if you want to get photo reviews for your beauty brand, your product has to be great. If it isn't, you won't get photo reviews.
Nobody can praise a product if it doesn't live up to their expectations. Therefore, make sure the product is good-looking and doesn't have any flaws.
Give customers an amazing unboxing experience
If you want to get more photo reviews, you have to make the unboxing experience outstanding.
This factor is often overlooked by many beauty brands, but it's one you should consider. By making it extraordinary, you will stand out from the crowd.
I'm certain you have heard this before: the first impression is everything.
Therefore, be unique with your packaging. For a great unboxing experience, you should use
Use branded boxes
Insert unique packaging materials
Add personalization
Give free samples
In doing so, you will have a cutting-edge advantage over your competitors which will help you grow your beauty brands photo reviews!
How can you generate photo reviews like major beauty brands?
Major beauty brands are the kings of getting photo reviews.
They know how to interact with their customers, and because of that, they constantly get great feedback on their products from them.
The good news is, you can do it too. The strategy they use is straightforward.
Would you like to know how they do it?
Let me break it down for you.
Ask for reviews directly
First, you should start by asking your customers directly.
There are many ways you can do that. Ask for reviews
In person
Over the phone
By email
Through social media (direct messages, chatbots, or posts)
Via thank you pages
Personalize your review request
Always make sure your request is personalized— tailor it to your specific customer.
To do so, include their name and specific details like the product they have ordered.
Customers don't want to feel like they are reviewing your product for your benefit alone.
Personalization will make them feel special and valued, and because of that, they will review your product without hesitation.
Make the review process easy
After that, make the review process a breeze to follow through on.
You should keep in mind that customers are doing you a favor by leaving a photo review. So don't make it hard for them.
They want a process that's easy to follow through, one that doesn't waste their time.
To do so, use a product review app like Fera that will create a simple to your form that shows up on your website!
This will make it a lot easier, and it won't leave any room for them to guess what they should do.
Offer an incentive
Lastly, offer an incentive. Let's be honest here: customers are too reluctant to leave a review if there isn't anything they get from it.
For some, giving a review is a sort of trade— they give one for something in return.
So give them that extra push in the form of an incentive.
Offer incentives like
Discounts
Cashback
Loyalty points
Free products
By using incentives, you’ll motivate people to give photo reviews of your product.
But be careful when you offer your incentives though! Super high value incentives won’t always bring out accurate reviews from some customers.
They may get carried away with the incentive, and as a result, they will give reviews that aren't genuine.
Benefits of beauty brands using loyalty points as an incentive for reviews
Loyalty points are a great incentive for your products. They are a simple yet effective strategy for getting more photo reviews to grow your brand.
How they work is simple.
You create a loyalty program with smile.io, and after purchasing a product and giving a review, customers will earn points. Over time, they will accumulate to a huge number which will be used by your customers to get a reward or major discount.
Sounds good, right? It does indeed.
Unlike other common methods of incentives, loyalty points encourage customers to give honest reviews that aren't made up and helps you retain them for longer! This will make your business more genuine to first time shoppers and grow your brand.
How to display photo reviews
If you have an eCommerce website and want to add reviews to it, you should use Fera Product Reviews.
With Fera, customers can send in photo reviews with ease.
On the backend, you can approve or decline reviews before they show up on your store. This ensures that you only display high-quality reviews for your shoppers to look at!
Fera can also send review reminders to your customers through email and will automatically provide your customer with a coupon after a customer's review is publicized.
It's a great way to display your photo reviews on your e-commerce site.
How beauty brands use photo reviews to grow their brand via social media
Nowadays, more and more people spend most of their time on social media. Around 4 billion people use social media in 2021, and the average person spends 2 hours 22 minutes per day on those platforms alone.
These statistics are staggering, and that's why beauty brands use social media to broaden their reach and grow their brand.
How they do it is simple.
They normally post before and after photos of a customer who has used their product or lifestyle photos of their customers with their product.
Here is the thing: this method works. Showing off product photos like that on social media shows how a product can change a customers' life, and for that reason, it persuades followers to give your product a try.
Simply put, when you use your photo reviews on your social media you’ll come across as more credible.
That's why reviews are the best form of social proof. They shape your customers' perception of your beauty brand and products.
Real customers will be praising your product, and because of that, your product will be flying off the shelves!
How to cross-post reviews to social media?
Cross-posting on social media can be a game-changer for your beauty brand. We all know it's great—and it saves you time.
But still, many people do it wrong.
So, how do you cross-post correctly?
Don’t copy paste
Cross-posting your photo reviews isn't all about copying and pasting the same thing across all platforms.
To do it correctly, you should first understand each social media network on which you will post upon. Figure out how each social platform works, and also take note of its functions and capabilities.
Optimize photos for each platform
After that, optimize your photo review for each specific platform that you’ll post on. If a particular post works well on Instagram, don't expect it to do the same on Twitter. Be sure to refine the same post to work on each platform.
If you cross-post your photo reviews the right way, you will grow your beauty brand without much hassle.
How to build a community on social media with customer photos
Creating a community on social media is good, and customer photos will help you achieve that.
If you want to build a community on social media, you should make your photo reviews engaging.
Only post high-quality photos & tag your customers
The images you post should be of high quality. Since you’ll be posting your customers' photos, be sure to tag them! Doing so will make them feel special and emotionally connected to your brand.
Ask questions
Ask questions related to the photo review to ignite engagement. If other customers do comment on your photo review posts, make sure you reply to them.
When you do so, don't reply with close-ended answers—try by all means to keep the conversation going with unique answers that leave room for further dialogue.
By doing so, you will build your community on social media, and you will grow your beauty brand.
Final thoughts on how to grow your beauty brand
You have seen how photo reviews can level up your eCommerce game.
Not only do they offer your customers a way to see how your product works in real life, you also build brand loyalty and trust.
If you spend a little bit of time growing your photo reviews with automatic review request emails and sharing these photos on social, your sales and brand loyalty will increase.
When you follow the advice I gave you in this article, you will grow your beauty brand effectively.
So go ahead -- start using photo reviews to grow your beauty brand!
