In the last issue we covered the first five most common mistakes. In this issue we cover the remaining five.
Mistake #6: Underestimating the time required to manage the program
Review programs take far more time to manage than most people realize. Creating all of the materials, sending out evaluation copies, tracking progress, following up with reviewers, troubleshooting problems, etc. can take twenty to thirty hours per week or more. Don't make the mistake of thinking this will only take a few hours per week - you'll find that you end up being unresponsive to the reviewers and they will treat you accordingly in their reviews.
Mistake #7: Not addressing the competition
It is very common for a company to release a new product, ignore the competition and then have their product show up with an unfavorable comparison in product "roundup" articles. This is a naive approach. Publications like to categorize and group your product with similar products and include them all in one roundup piece. If you fail to acknowledge your competition and fail to present a compelling competitive argument then you are leaving it up to the publications (or your competitors) to set the terms for comparison and you will likely lose.
Tell the press what category you are in, who your competitors are and why you beat them. Give them a competitive comparison chart. Make your competitors respond to your claims. Chances are if you are better prepared than they are the reviewer will use your materials to create the review criteria, and you have a better chance of winning.
Include a competitive comparison chart that shows why your product
is superior to other solutions (this one is in the Product Review Program Toolkit).
Mistake #8: Undefined goals beforehand
Many companies run review programs without clearly defining their goals up-front. As a result they are often disappointed with the results.
Get clear about what you want to accomplish. How many reviews do you want to receive? What publications are most important to reach your target market? What are the top three messages you want the publications to repeat about your products? Are you trying to use reviews to drive revenues? If so, how many sales are you expecting? Are you trying to re-set the competitive landscape so that your product is the favorite?
Setting goals like these and making them as concrete as possible allows you to do a reality check when you are writing your review program plan. If your goals are ambitious make sure you have enough time and resources to achieve them. Don't rely on wishful thinking here - nothing can upset your company and team more than receiving poor (or no) reviews when you all believe you have a winning product.
Mistake #9: Lack of relationship building beforehand
One critical success factor for good reviews is to make sure that you have built strong relationships with reviewers before they receive your product for review. The person running the review program should go on the press tour, meet the reviewers and start to build relationships with them. Email the reviewers before, during and after the review to let them know you are there to help in any way. Get to know them - ask their opinions about the market and other products.
Building relationships like this can save you if your product does have some problems during the review process. If you have built some rapport, shown you are responsive and shown you are on top of things oftentimes a reviewers will give you some leeway if they know you. If they have never met you before and there is a problem you may not be given the chance to ask for forgiveness. Also, if you get to know them well they may call you for an opinion when your competitor releases a new product, giving you the chance to put the best possible spin on how your product is superior.
Mistake #10: No reviewer's guide
Writing product reviews is difficult and time consuming. Your goal with a review program is to provide the reviewer with absolutely everything they need to make it easy for them to do their job. Reviewer's guides are an excellent way to do this, and can be a good single source of all of the information they need. Don't make the reviewer search through your website or other places for answers - give them everything in one reviewer's guide. Also, provide the reviewer's guide to them in electronic format so that they can borrow text from it to use in their articles (for features and benefits or other areas).
If you provide an excellent reviewer's guide, build up a good relationship and do a great presentation and demo on the press tour you will sometimes find that the reviewer doesn't feel a need to do a thorough analysis of your product. They may simply read the reviewer's guide and give you a positive write up without ever installing or using the product.