Reviews are on everyone’s lips and have a considerable influence on conversion. Numerous studies and studies prove their acceptance by customers and dealers alike. Questions as conversion drivers, on the other hand, are in their shadow. Hardly any study deals with the topic more precisely – rightly or wrongly?
Brand owners today have a wide range of possibilities in digital marketing at their disposal. These must be cleverly combined – not only in terms of technical integration, but above all from a communications perspective. The use of personalised communication, which creates added value and offers consumers targeted content, offers enormous potential.
The customer should feel comfortable in the (digital) business, be well advised and always find the way to your company/brand. This succeeds if you learn to understand your customers optimally. This includes knowing the needs of your customers and presenting them with content that will help them in their individual situation along the customer journey or address them personally and last but not least can be seen as a conversion optimization / driver.
Relevance of customer questions on Amazon & Co.
Many people know that product reviews help consumers to make a purchase decision. Among other things, they increase confidence in a product, a service or a brand and thus the turnover, and thus contribute to the success of the company.
If, however, the questions and their relevance to Amazon & Co. are considered in particular, the focus is still far too rarely placed on them. The gominga has devoted itself more closely to the topic of questions. The aim of the study was to find out what significance the “questions” have. Are questions at all relevant in relation to the reviews, or are they completely lost in the number of reviews? Why are questions asked at all? Are they an indicator for missing product information, complex technology or is the user simply too “lazy” to inform himself and chooses the convenient way to get to content faster via questions?
Six major consumer electronics brands with a total of around 10,000 products on Amazon were surveyed. In the comparison period between the first half of 2017 and the first half of 2018, gominga came to the following results in several criteria.
Investigation Reviews:
How has the number of reviews changed from 2017 to 2018? How has the proportion of 1-3 star ratings changed in the respective time periods or the relation of the 1-3 star ratings to the 1-5 star ratings?
Result:
The number of reviews increased by 45% in the first half of 2018 compared to the same period in 2017. If one considers the 1-3 star ratings (which are generally classified as “negative”), the share of the 1-3 star ratings in all reviews (1-5 stars) is 25%. This value was constant both in 2017 and in 2018. On the one hand, the number of negative reviews is to be classified as high, on the other hand it is an indication of an honest rating in comparison to other portals, which often show 95% positive 5-star ratings and one wonders whether these also reflect “reality”.
Investigation questions:
How has the number of questions changed from 2017 to 2018? How does the number of questions relate to the reviews?
Result:
The proportion of questions in relation to all reviews is 71% – this shows that questions represent a more than relevant proportion in the assessment context. In the case of individual brands/products that are particularly in need of explanation, the proportion of questions is 130%. This means that more questions are asked than reviews are generated. The increase in questions at the already high level of 2017, at 16%, is not quite as high as the increase in reviews.
Questions as conversion drivers
Questions are asked immediately before purchase or after purchase for the “installation” and thus contribute extremely to the satisfaction of customers. Questions have a higher relevance for the direct purchase and should be considered as a further point of contact along the customer journey.
Brands can optimise their content (A+ content) on Amazon & Co. accordingly on the basis of the questions asked. Above all, they can directly address the topic and answer the questions “personally”. So if the customer has an “informational intent”, this must be fulfilled concisely but fully and comprehensively as a brand. The customer must get the feeling that all open questions are explained ad hoc. As soon as the buyer is ready to order or buy something, you as the brand should make it as easy as possible for him. Direct customer contact with the end consumer creates a perfect customer-manufacturer relationship. Focusing 100% on the customer in digital marketing means maximising contact quality and indirectly increasing sales by managing customer questions on the Amazon platform.
Conclusion
As a brand owner, take the opportunity to put your product in the foreground and to make direct contact with the end consumer, to advise him, to learn from questions and to promote the further development of your products/services.