Using Customer Reviews in Ads, Emails and Product Pages

You can reuse customer reviews in ads, emails, landing pages and packaging, provided three things hold: the reviewer agreed to it, the quote means what the full review meant, and your selection does not misrepresent what customers say overall. This guide covers where reviews work, how to get permission, and how to quote and attribute honestly.

Where do reviews work in marketing?

Wherever a shopper is hesitating and your own copy has already had its say. Four places repay the effort.

• Ads. A customer's sentence as the headline or opening line reads differently from brand copy. Choose a review that names a specific result or settles a specific doubt. If the ad shows a star rating, it must be the product's real, current rating.
• Abandoned-cart emails. The shopper wanted the product and stopped. A review of that exact product, speaking to the likely doubt such as sizing, quality or delivery, is more relevant than a generic reminder.
• Landing pages. A campaign page has no review history of its own. Two or three reviews chosen to match the campaign's promise give it some.
• Packaging and inserts. A quote on the box or a card speaks to the customer after purchase and to whoever sees the product next. Print lasts, so choose reviews that will not date, and do not print an average rating that will change.

On the product page itself, a single short quote placed near the buy button can bring forward what the full review section says further down. There is a guide on where to place reviews on a product page.

Do you need permission to reuse a review?

Get it, and get it at the moment the review is written. The clean way is a line in the terms shown on the review form, saying that the review and any photos submitted may be displayed on the store and used in the store's marketing. That way the permission is asked for once, in plain words, before the review exists.

Two situations call for a direct request as well:

• Photos and videos showing a person. Before a customer's face goes into a paid ad, ask them individually and keep their reply.
• Reviews collected before the terms said so. Ask the reviewer, or leave the review where it was posted.

The rules on consent and on using someone's image differ by country. Treat this as good practice and check the rules for your market.

How do you quote a review without changing its meaning?

Shorten it; do not reshape it. Trimming a long review to its most useful sentence is normal. Changing what the customer said is not.

• Keep the sentence whole where you can. If you cut within it, mark the cut with an ellipsis.
• Do not lift praise out of a criticism. 'Lovely fabric, but the seams came apart in a month' cannot become 'Lovely fabric'.
• Do not join two reviews into one quote, and do not move a quote from one product to another.
• Leave the wording alone. Correcting an obvious typing slip is as far as editing should go. Swapping words for stronger ones makes the quote yours.

When does choosing the best reviews become misleading?

When the selection implies something about the whole that is not true. Everyone expects an ad to feature a happy customer. It becomes misleading in cases like these:

• A quote presents an unusual result as the typical one.
• A rating is shown that is out of date, or belongs to a different product.
• 'Rated 4.8' appears with no indication of how many reviews it rests on.
• A review given in return for a reward is shown without saying so.

Here is an example with made-up figures. Say a skincare product has 200 reviews. Most say it is a pleasant daily moisturiser, and three say it cleared a long-standing skin problem. Building the ad around one of those three implies an outcome most buyers did not report. Building it around what the bulk of reviews say is weaker copy and an honest claim.

On incentives, the guide to verified product reviews on Shopify sets out the principle that incentives are disclosed next to the review. Carry that disclosure with the quote wherever it travels. The article on offering a discount for a review covers the detail.

How should you attribute a quote?

With a first name and an initial, such as 'Priya S.', and the product reviewed. That is enough to show a real person wrote it without exposing them.

• Use 'verified buyer' only when the review really is matched to an order.
• Never print a full name, a handle or a photo without specific permission.
• Never invent a name for an anonymous review. Attribute it as 'a customer' or choose another review.

Verified reviews are the safer source for marketing, because you can show where each one came from. Marka Reviews marks a review verified only when it matches a real order, so the label on a quote means what it says.

What records should you keep?

Keep a simple list of which review each quote came from. For every ad, email or printed piece, note the review, the date and the product. Three things follow from it:

1. If anyone challenges a quote, you can show the original.
2. If a customer asks for their review to be taken out of marketing, you can find every place it was used.
3. When a product changes, you can retire the quotes that described the old version.

Quotes used across a site also fit well on a dedicated page, and there is a guide on building a testimonials page.

A short checklist

1. Add a line to the review form terms covering display and marketing use.
2. Ask individually before using a customer's photo or video in ads.
3. Shorten quotes without changing what they mean.
4. Show ratings only when they are current, with the number of reviews.
5. Attribute with a first name and initial, and the product.
6. Keep any incentive disclosure attached to the quote.
7. Record which review every quote came from.

Marketing built on reviews depends on the reviews being real in the first place. Marka Reviews collects them from fulfilled orders and lets you approve each one before it appears.