Verified Reviews or not...?

[EvilDragon]

As the shop is growing nicely, I plan to improve ranking, SEO, customer base, etc. a bit.

One way to do it would be to use Verified Reviews.

While I like the general idea of reviewing products, I'm not sure if everyone of you would be happy to receive an eMail from a different company (Verified Reviews) after ordering from my shop.

It's common these days, but I know I've got special customers and I'm proud that all data entered in my shop are mostly kept in my shop so far (well, except for payment and shipping services, where it is absolutely necessary).

Verified Reviews has a free trial period and to make a good start, they'd send emails to all of the customers who bought a product within the last half year to get reviews.

Those reviews would help me with SEO, Google Ranking and would even appear in Google AdWords, so certainly helping with unknown products in various categories.

Once a customer places an order, he/she would receive an eMail from Verified Reviews one week later (which I can customize myself after the trial period) asking to give a review for the product.

It would just be one mail, no reminder or anything else, everyone could simply ignore the email and be done with it or help to improve the shop by giving a review.

What would you think of that?

Would you be annoyed to receive that eMail?

Would you be angry?

Or would you just delete it and ignore it?

Or give a review?

Do you think I should do the trial?

Most of you are my customers, so you can help me decide here.

Thanks

 

[ghostpatch]

are multiple products beeing combined in one email, or is it really one email per product?

I don't mind if it helps you and Payra. Already get enough spam mails. reviewing a product will depend on my mood. How long will the link be valid? I might write reviews after,,,, dunno six months or so

 

[EvilDragon]

are multiple products beeing combined in one email, or is it really one email per product?

I don't mind if it helps you and Payra. Already get enough spam mails. reviewing a product will depend on my mood. How long will the link be valid? I might write reviews after,,,, dunno six months or so

One mail per order of course

 

[rygD]

Will this be a review of the products, or the shop, or both?  For the products I would buy from your shop I would complete the reviews.  With other products that are a bit more common from larger sellers (like Amazon) I might not review unless it is better or worse than I expected.  I typically look at reviews before buying something or giving my money to a company that I have never purchased from before, so for your shop and products I wouldn't mind helping out.  Plus I prefer supporting small businesses, which includes you and your shop, and those who made some of what you sell.

 

[EvilDragon]

Only the products, not the shop.

But as I've got a lot of unique products which can't be gotten elsewhere easily, that's fine.

Please note: 

I don't want to find out whether you would write a review or not.

For the beginning it's more important whether you would be annoyed by getting a mail from a 3rd party contracted company for the reviews or whether you don't mind.

 

[rygD]

Please note: I don't want to find out whether you would write a review or not. For the beginning it's more important whether you would be annoyed by getting a mail from a 3rd party contracted company for the reviews or whether you don't mind.

Well that changes things a bit.  Normally I am irritated by my information being shared with a third party, and I will ignore/delete such things.  If I was not aware that you were using a third party (such as a notification during the transaction) for reviews I probably wouldn't even look at it.  By the time it gets sent out (a week after purchase) I may have forgotten, and I might not yet have the package.

Again, small businesses are a special case, so as long as it has your shop name in the subject I would probably not mind.  I will change my answers to reflect this.

 

[notaz]

Personally I'm starting to really hate this aspect of online shopping to the point that I now tend to prefer to go to a "offline" place and pay a bit more. The ability to anonymously buy stuff with cash to keep the marketing people away is becoming a privilege.

 

[EvilDragon]

Personally I'm starting to really hate this aspect of online shopping to the point that I now tend to prefer to go to a "offline" place and pay a bit more. The ability to anonymously buy stuff with cash to keep the marketing people away is becoming a privilege.

Yes, it's the same for me I also simply ignore those review mails.

That's why I am trying to find out what others think.

Otherwise I have to think of other ideas getting reviews of products and thus more publicity.

 

[elw3]

As a customer i dont want my email given away to a third party. 

But if it is possible to have this as an option in form of a clear "yes i want that"  no one would care...

 

[Binky]

I don't like the idea of more people (and worse, more databases) getting my email address.

Furthermore, my instant reaction to any kind of "Hey! Why don't you do this!!!" message, in any medium, is "No, f- off" 

In the same way as I automatically ignore any brightly coloured boxes, on the assumption that they are adverts, I automatically put a black mark against anyone who seems to be sending me marketing material.

When I buy something, its a business transaction. I pay money; I get goods or services.

I like small businesses because they tend to keep things simple, and typically have competant humans on the end of the customer support system.

Now I do appreciate that reviews are useful for driving sales, and this is a shop I would like to suceed, so I suggest this:

Inside every shipment, include a slip of paper asking people nicely to write a review, and with instructions and a URL to visit. Not a flashy, glossy flier. Just a simple, text only, request.

That way theres no third party, no opt-in/opt-out and no security concerns.

The note is less bothersome to people who don't want to write a review, and stands more chance of being positively recieved by people who might than an automated email.

 

[_wb_]

Perhaps if you could somehow modify your online shop so that customers can enter a review for items they've bought, preferably linked somehow to this forum so it can also be moderated and reviews could even just become a forum thread in some subforum, so they can get replies etc, then I think that would be better than through some 3rd party.

Also you could just ask people to submit a review by adding a note about that to the shipment itself, instead of sending emails.

 

[Askarus]

I would dislike it a lot to get an e-Mail.

Enable reviews again is fine but not to get an E-Mail one week later.

Why not enable the reviews again and ask the customer in the "order confirmation blah blah...." mail to write a review?

"Thanks for your purchase. If you want to do so you may help us and write a review for the product."

This would make it more likely to even consider writing a review than with a Mail one week later (I would simply dislike the shop with that extra Mail and be worried to get even more spam).

 

[rSl]

for me, ed's dragonbox shop is a verry nice and valueable


little cosy place, so yes i would do reviews of it's rare products.


but i also hate disclosing my email to 3rd parties, so i


like binky's idea of doing it different and more truly


personal to ask for a review offline.


hey, we want small computers, not "big data" sellouts!


i really hate this "trend" of corporations and


governments to squeeze every bit of data from us


to make this big data sea where everything gets combined


to get more insight/intelligence about the people to


control them better or sell them more!


ultimately "they" want this new hitech oracle thingy!


(and i mean not the software company)


i never give more personal data away as it is absolutely


needed for the task i want to do.


data is the new $ so we have to spend it wisely.


doing things "offline" is super-retro, so it


fits verry nicely here i think.

 

[EvilDragon]

Heh, it's similar how I imagined, that's why I wanted to ask

I also hate getting review mails from other shops and while I simply delete them, I also don't like the idea if an eMail is going to a third party company.

Enabling reviews in the shop is no problem, but it won't help much to spread the products, as it would still be on my website and no more SEOs... anyone know how to improve that? (I'm no SEO expert )

I'd be happy if there was one checkbox where customers can choose to receive that mail and make a review, but they don't offer that... that's why I wanted to ask here first.

 

[rSl]

so we need a big spring "dragonbox is awesome!" campaign!


as most of the products are pretty unique


(last pandoras, mist fpga, soon pyra and the retrode, retro-pi)


it shouldn't be too hard to find it via websearch.


maybe some seo wiz can improve that even further.


also being vocal in other communities to "spread the word"


will help a lot.


so, spread the word!!!

 

[rohezal]

I am no expert but I helped some sites of friends and clubs to get a better google search result place. Google ranks this way:
 

1. Look for the url:

www.emulation-gaming-handheld.com

2. Then for the html file or foldername:

www.emulation-gaming-handheld.com/open-pandora-emulation-gaming-handheld/

3. Then for the title of the html file:

<title>buy open pandora emulation gaming handheld</title>

Maybe get several domains and ask the bloggers (e.g. Pandora alive) to create html files with good looking titles. And cover the relevant keywords:

open pandora, pandora, emulation, pyra, dragonbox, psp emulation, psp emulator (video of the pyra emulating the top 5 games), dreamcast emulator (same as psp emulator), raycast dreamcast emulator (again a site with a video), n64 emulator, n64 to go,  n64 2 go, n64 handheld, n64 portable, n64 emulation portable.

Create own html / php / whatever files, get the title right, and buy at least one (better several) domains which have 3 or 4 keywords (but no more) in it.

Example: portable-emulation.com, handheld-emulation.com, portable-handheld-emulation.com and linux-debian-mini-laptop.com

And on each domain put files like this:

www.portable-emulation.com/portable-dreamcast-emulation-with-raycast-on-mini-laptop.html

<title>pyra pandora dreamcast emulation with raycast on portable mini laptop</title>

And get good youtube videos with good titles and links to dragonbox in their description. And get people to like you on FB, Twitter, youtube (G+).

 

[EvilDragon]

Yes, found some things about that as well.

PrestaShop does it pretty good, but I need to fix duplicate URLs and descriptions for a lot of products... that will take some work.

 

[janvlug]

I would dislike the fact that my email address was given away as well.

Though, on the other side, I would like to support your shop by creating some publicity.

What about sending an email yourself to customers where you ask them to use their social media account (twitter, instagram, google+, etc.) to send a short review? That's something I would happily do #pyra, #openpandorra, @EvilDragon1717, uhm wait... where is @dragonboxshop?

 

[comradekingu]

As part of another email maybe.

Reviews can be posted here: url

Nothing more.

 

[ekianjo]

If you go ahead with it, please make sure that there is a box to tick to agree to forward one's details to this third party. 

Placing an order should NEVER result, by default, in your details (such as email address) to be shared with a separate party. Because then there is no knowing what they do with your data/details as well on their side. 

Personally, I am not interested in that service and would certainly not agree to share details about my orders with them.