Know-How Exchange : E-Marketing

In as much as many employees and family members buy from the company I don't think it's wrong.

If someone told me their son sold cars and he's really helpful, it wouldn't discount it automatically.

Michael

I don't know of any established best practice guidelines for product reviews.

But I would definitely ask myself this question: At any point in time, under any circumstance, could anyone reasonably be offended by the practice used in obtaining these reviews?

Also, I would definitely tell all upfront if these are reviews by employees. There is just too much risk of this going wrong if you don't.

With friends, this is a bit more delicate. Where does friendship start?
If two very well know friends promote each others products, this does not have as much clout as two people who are not friends. Your customers are not stupid... and they are not isolated either.

Paid reviews leads down a very rocky path if there is any employee or friend connection. Ultimately this is probably not a good investment at all.

Your potential customers will value independent reviews more: whether they are solicited, unsolicited, paid or unpaid.

I think the degree of credibility and appreciation then increases as you move along the scale towards unsolicited and unpaid reviews.

Looking at this from another angle...

You know... I do book reviews on my blog, and I only do them for books I would buy and give away as presents. And I really prefer to them totally unsolicited. Why? I'm not in the business of producing book reviews, nor am I in the business of promoting people blindly.
I also choose where I spend my money. When someone has a good product but I disagree with their ethics or something else about them, I stop buying from them.
The result? Well, my friends listen to me and usually buy what I recommend or take more educated buying decisions. And I do the same with my friends.

It can be challenging for businesses to get those first reviews.

Think about your value proposition and look where this resonates most. That's the best place to look for reviews.

Problems getting good product reviews?

- Strengthen your value proposition
- Find a reviewer/market where your value proposition means something

...or get a better product to promote.