I noticed that nowadays, bloggers are very familiar with product reviews. Brands are looking at bloggers now to do compelling product reviews for their products. To get their experiences on their products. Although, there are also bloggers who write reviews because they want to.
But, the real question here, in this post, is how to write product reviews on blog that considered good? What are key indicators that bloggers need to mentioned on their product reviews? Is it okay to write the negative side of the products that we reviewed? I was considering writing this post as blogging category for long. And now here it is.
How to Write Product Reviews – Key Indicators Need to Mentioned
Some bloggers would say that on a product reviews post, what matter is the experience using the products. Only that. It doesn’t matter to put some info in the post. It matters to put the good positive reviews instead of an honest reviews. But is that really the only thing we need to concern of?
Sadly, that is what happening at blogsphere here. So, I went through Google and try to find what bloggers said regarding this product reviews. And these are the sum-up from all of them (I mentioned the sources through out the post). The key indicators need to mentioned on writing product reviews are:
1. The Products
First thing to do when writing product reviews is knowing the products. We, bloggers, have to know the products. Specifications, features, ingredients (especially for food and medicines), and many more.
We need to mentioned those on our reviews so readers know exactly about the products. After all, readers read your product reviews to know more about the products before they buy them right? There is one post I loved from Entrepreneur Journey that you can use when you write product reviews:
Those 5 questions are great insight, imho, in writing great product reviews. And perhaps your product reviews considered compelling enough for readers and make them buy the products.
2. Honest Reviews Are the Best Reviews
I took this from an Indonesian Blogger’s post: Grace Melia, she said roughly like this:
No money can buy me up, even-though I do love money and free stuff. I wrote what I did experience, including the minus points.
I took that as the best policy for bloggers in how to write product reviews. We, bloggers, need to give our truthful opinion, even if we got that products from the brands. But we need to be careful on writings on those negative things – wording is everything.
Read also: Review Film Supernova, Ksatria dan Bintang Jatuh – a bad reviews that hated by the author.
About this policy itself, there will be two sides. One who supporting this kind of reviews, one who prefer to undisclosed in their writings. The second one (might) prefer to write directly to the brand instead of mentioning on their post. I am not saying which one is correct, which one is not. It is about your own style.
But, you can consider this: Problogger.net wrote that it is our job, as bloggers, to bring some cons of the products to the surface. While Bloggingpro.com consider this as a balancing opinion and that what makes a great product reviews. Read these quotes taken from several blogs regarding honest product reviews as a part of how to write product reviews for bloggers:
Source: Problogger.net ; Relevance.com ; Entrepreneurs Journey
3. Never Use Marketing Facts
Some of the brands will hand out their marketing materials of the product you are reviewing. Some press release, if you want to say so. Professional bloggers suggest us not to use that.
When you do talk to manufacturers, don’t take what they say for granted. Remember that it’s their job to make the product look as good as possible – while your job is to write an honest, well-informed review. (Taken from Blogging.org)
Readers of your blog are actually looking for something else. They can see that marketing facts on commercial ads on TV, newspapers, magazine, etc. What they actually need from your product reviews are your experience and thorough reviews of the products. Somethings that can ease them deciding to buy or not.
4. Readers is Important
I had mentioned this before at the beginning, that many bloggers consider product reviews as their own PoV. As I read through all blog posts, I found that, professional bloggers don’t do this.
They focus on what readers need to know and want to know from the products. Writing product reviews with your own style is allowed but we have to put ourselves on readers’ shoes. Some would like to read technical pov, some don’t, you have to consider them all in writing compelling product reviews.
You need to know what is it that your readers looking for.
When you write a product review, it’s important to come at it from your own perspective. But it’s equally important to think about your readership. Your readers are not all the same – they have lots of different points of view. You need to take this into account when you write about a product, so that your review really resonates with your diverse audience. (Bloggingpro)
Focus on readers and inputs from them – like what Dani was doing for his post. You can edit your post based on comments. Whether you edit it or not, it’s another question.
5. Put an Interesting Pictures and Media
You can add pictures, videos, infographics for your product reviews. For instance, when I did review Uberpool Jakarta, I made info-graph about how this service do and the effect on transporting. I also put plus minus on this service.
Pictures or videos on how to use the product is a great plus point when you write product reviews. As mentioned by mbak Carolina Ratri on her guest post on KEB’s Blog.
6. Conclusion Conclusion Conclusion
When we write product reviews, we have to set a conclusion of it. Why? This is the most important part of the post. Some readers might just scanning your product reviews post and directly looking whether the products worth to buy or not.
In conclusion, you can also put some of your own opinion of the product reviews or you can also put others’ opinions regarding the products. Remember, your words as blogger are powerful. Readers might making decision based on that. So, choose your words wisely.
Read also: Your writings is your weapons
Giving rating or stars on your reviews also a nice approach, like I did on all my movie reviews lately. I used it because of this theme I used. It comes with review plugin (of course plugin only for self-hosted blog). This helps other to read the conclusion about the reviews directly.
And, you can also put a Call to Action, as Mbak Carra wrote on her post on KEB (link above) at the end of your product reviews.
Conclusion on how to write product reviews for bloggers
Well, at the end, you, bloggers, have the power to decide on how to write product reviews on your blogs. Which one you want to follow, what kind of reviews you like and do write on your blogs.
But, remember. Bloggers are powerful when persuading readers. You can use it towards good things or bad things. Even if you are monetizing blog, there are policies that you need to follow, such as from Google or local government. At least, at the US it already set rules for bloggers.
Back to you now, how to write product reviews that compelling and persuasive as bloggers. What is your type in writing product reviews? Please do share your insight on the comment below.