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Top 10 Product Review Program Mistakes, Part 1

by: jillian@280group.com on Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2010 Time: 5:34 PM

Getting positive product reviews is a critical part of shipping a successful product. Because reviews come from an independent (and presumably unbiased) source, they carry much more weight than other forms of marketing such as advertising. When a positive review appears it supports (and magnifies) all other marketing efforts, and gives the product a much higher chance of market success and hitting its revenue goals.
The key to getting the best possible reviews is to create and execute a plan that is appropriate to meet your goals given your resources, budget and time constraints. This paper will summarize the top ten most common mistakes that we have seen companies make when seeking their reviews for their products.
Mistake #1: Launching the program after the product has already shipped
One of the biggest mistakes that companies make is that the review program ends up being an afterthought after the product has already been released, rather than a well-planned and coordinated effort up-front. This results in several problems:
• The product is no longer new, so your ability to get publications to review it diminishes significantly.
• The time to prepare materials adequately and set yourself up for a great review is reduced and the quality of the materials suffers as a result.
• The reviews are often not timed to coincide with the product launch marketing activities, and thus don't provide additional support and synergy to help get the initial revenues and sales going.
• Many times the company has to respond to negative reviews or competitive roundups that they weren't aware were going to happen. Once something negative is written and released about a product it is very difficult to turn around the perception that is created.
To avoid this problem begin planning your review program four months prior to the product launch. This will ensure that all of your PR and launch efforts can be leveraged, and will give you adequate time to prepare the materials and run a first-rate review program.
Mistake #2: Not being responsive to reviewers
Once you start a review program you have to be ready to respond instantly if questions or problems arise. You should have someone dedicated to getting back to the reviewer VERY quickly (within a half hour). Oftentimes if a reviewer encounters an issue with your product if you respond quickly and professionally to help them they will cut you some slack when they write up the review.
The worst thing you can do is delay getting answers to them. Reviewers are busy people. They are on deadline. They can't afford to have a machine crash on them, or to have to wait to get problems resolved so that they can finish writing up your product. When it comes to responsiveness think Nordstrom's - it will pay off for you.
Mistake #3: Inadequate review materials
Providing inadequate review materials is a good way to ensure a poor review. Your materials should include everything the reviewer needs: a reviewer's guide, FAQs, competitive information, product presentation, etc. These are the materials that the reviewer is going to leverage to evaluate your product. You can make it easy or difficult for them. The easier it is, the higher the likelihood of a good write up.
Mistake # 4: Providing the product to all reviewers at once
Don't try to roll out the product to twenty or thirty reviewers all at once. You won't be able to support all of them if there are problems, and the result can be a catastrophe. Instead roll it out to several "friendly" reviewers first (ideally as a beta under NDA), then prioritize the rest of your list of publications and provide it to them accordingly in phases over the next few weeks. This approach will allow you to address any problems and questions that come up early in the process so that the majority of the reviewers will have a positive experience.
Mistake #5: Putting a junior person on the job
Many of our clients think that a review program is something that simply isn't that important - until they end up with negative reviews and have to scramble to try to fix them. Your review program may be the MOST important marketing activity for your product. As such, make sure that you put a very senior person on the job.
The person responsible for the review program needs to be able to answer tough questions and needs to be responsible and responsive. Make sure that the review program is their number one priority for two to three months after the product first ships - the result will be great reviews that pay off.
Next month we'll cover the remaining five mistakes...

About the Author

Brian Lawley is the CEO and founder of the 280 Group (www.280group.com), and has shipped more than fifty successful products. He is the former President of the Silicon Valley Product Management Association, won the 2008 AIPMM award for Excellence in Thought Leadership for Product Management and is the author of the best-selling books, Expert Product Management and The Phenomenal Product Manager.

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