In affiliate marketing, high ranking quality content does not matter if customers are not enticed to click the affiliate link. At the end of the day, affiliate marketing is about making sales and earning commissions to compensate for the effort you put into building a website, promoting it to the right audience, and producing compelling content.
The problem is that it is not always easy to include an affiliate link in your content without being spammy or sounding salesy. Remember that you need your content to flow naturally; abruptly adding an affiliate link can disrupt the reading experience of your audience and cause them to lose trust.
However, by writing product reviews, it is a lot easier to include affiliate links naturally. After all, reviews are built specifically to encourage readers to check out the product for themselves. But you need to write convincing reviews that will spark the interest of your readers. Below are some strategies that you need to remember in order to write effective product reviews.
Be as Exhaustive as Possible
One of the biggest mistakes in affiliate marketing is adding the affiliate link too early or not having enough content to “warm up” readers. First of all, remember that more content means higher rankings in SERPs. According to research done by serpIQ on the average content length of the top 10 search results, the 1st place usually has 400+ more words than 10th place.
The reason why is that, on top of providing quality content, the highest ranking pages have a lot more to offer web crawlers. Web crawlers are bots that search engines such as Google send to index web pages.
From the point of view of your readers, learning more about a product increases their confidence in making an investment. You need to build value with your content first if you want people to be interested in you and be more likely to convert. Furthermore, providing in-depth details about a product shows that you know what you’re talking about and improves your credibility.
Empathize with Your Readers
Remember that the actual product review must be relatable and believable to your audience. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes and write about the problem the product is trying to solve—not the product itself. Focus above all on building trust, keeping in mind that your job is to write a review, not an endorsement.
It is a good idea to test out the product yourself so you can offer personal insights and share your firsthand experience with it. Don’t forget to include practical, out-of-the-box tips to further increase the authenticity of your review.
You should not be afraid to use a conversational tone since your audience wants opinions from an actual person. Try not to obsess over formality and just write as you would when writing to a friend.
Be as Objective as Possible
Millennials, and particularly members of Generation Z, can tell from a mile away if a review is biased. That is why your review needs to be as objective as possible. Talk about the product in detail, rather than making shallow descriptions taken right from the product page. Stick to the point and avoid making side comments about the seller.
To stir up interest in your product, focus on its benefits and what they mean for your audience rather than reiterating specific product features. But remember, there’s no such thing as a perfect product, and your audience knows that there isn’t.
Mention ALL the Pros and Cons
When it comes to being objective, you should leave no stone unturned and explore every possible aspect of your product. For example, which specific group of users benefits from a particular feature? How can a certain con affect the overall performance of the product and what can users do to avoid that problem?
A good example of this kind of impartiality is this SiteGround review from Marketever. Aside from thoroughly discussing the pros and cons of SiteGround, Marketever also did a wrap-up that lists the key takeaways from the entire review. This strategy is an excellent way to end a review since it helps readers with the decision-making process. You can achieve this effect with the use of online marketing tools.
Use Add-Ons or Plugins for Conversion Optimization
You need to be familiar with all the tools required to create actionable reviews. As in the example above, you need to make conclusive summary boxes that give the audience a quick recap. A good call-to-action in popup form may also make the difference between a visitor and a buyer, providing that extra “push” your audience needs to convert.
Keep in mind that most affiliate marketers build their sites with WordPress to access a wide selection of tools and plugins. These tools maximize functionality in order to improve user experience and increase conversions. You can refer to this post to learn more about the best affiliate marketing plugins for WordPress.
Now YOU Can Write Effective Product Reviews
At the end of the day, writing product reviews is only another content strategy that must prioritize user experience. To be successful as a marketer, you need to acknowledge your obligation to provide relevant and useful information to the online audience. In return, people will turn to you for insights and reliable data that will empower their online purchasing decisions.
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As a product reviewer, I can’t stress how important this is to me, Thanks Chris!
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Very Impressed and exactly what I am looking for my blog. Actually, i started an entirely new blog on affiliate products for that i need how to promote the products with a review. Your valuable tips arose some interesting ideas how to reach more customers, all the points will definitely follow. Thanks, Christopher! for sharing your knowledge mate.
Nice post Christopher, very informative. I really liked the you’ve mentioned all the major aspects we need to take care of while writing a Review.
Looking forward to more posts.
Best,
Hadi
This blog post is really helpful especially with me that is just starting learning about Writing Effective Product Reviews.It is very informative and you explain it well. I learn something about blog commenting. Thanks a lot
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Christopher your five proven product review strategies are extremely straight forward.
And you have provided five extremely practical strategies, to take into consideration,
any time we are seriously considering, doing any type of review of a product
or service.
Your post could easily be converted into a lead generating step by step
“how to” guide as well!Thanks!
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This tips really helpful improve in writing reviews. ,this is really awesome post about write effective product reviews
Hey! Christopher,
You’ve crafted such a awesome guide for Reviewer in the industry. I really loved the you’ve mentioned all the major aspects we need to take care of while writing a Review.
I’m curious to read your Next Article on Growmap and christopherjanb.com .
Thanks, Babar!
Dear Christopher Jan Benitez thank you for sharing this information to us.this tips really helpful improve in writing reviews. ii will use it.its nice article.thanks.
Glad you liked it, Arif!
Impressive Article Christopher. I liked this part when you mentioned “You should not be afraid to use a conversational tone since your audience wants opinions from an actual person.” I agreed to that. Product life-cycle also can be taken in account when you write reviews for any brand. Right from product launch, Placement, Price, Positioning, Marketing, After Sales, Feedback Management etc. as well.
Great article Christopher,
Any review written with the above in mind would be the kind of review I feel I could trust… like you state, “there are always some cons”, but these usually take more experimenting, preferably by a heavy user who already has access to a couple of products in whatever field of expertise (social media tools, cameras). Glowing reports tend to make me wonder if 1) you’ve actually ever used this product, 2) if you’ve tried everything the average user would try with it, 3) if you’ve tried to ‘break’ it and 4) if you’re being paid for your review by the company that makes the product. Thanks for this post!
Great points you mentioned, Tracy! You really need to build trust with your readers through your product reviews by being transparent as possible. Readers do not want the reviews to be positive because it becomes obvious that you are trying to get them to buy the product without being honest about it. Therefore, you need to cover all grounds pertaining to the product to provide all the information the readers need before making a purchasing decision. They may not buy the product (especially if you don’t think the product is good at all), but they will certainly appreciate your honesty, which will be crucial in the long run.
We should thoroughly provide in detail all the pros and cons of the product. Providing details will give a good image of yours on the readers and they will buy the product. We should truly give negative points and does not think that providing negative reviews can stop our sale.
Exactly, Dnaksha! The purpose of a review is to provide readers all the information they need to know about the product, whether they are good or bad. If you don’t think the product is good enough, you need to mention it in your review and explain why so. While it’s good to make money from your reviews through affiliate links, the most important thing to consider is TO PROVIDE VALUE to readers at all times, and being honest in your reviews would do that.
Hi,
This is really awesome post about write effective product reviews. Thank you so much for posting this helpful article.
Hy,
Really Awesome post you have a great time to write this useful post. Information is very useful. Business point of view this post is really Awesome.
Thanks for sharing.
You’re welcome, Obaoye!