Consumer Reviews Vs Traditional Advertisements

Consumer Reviews Vs Traditional Advertisements

Today, experts agree that two of the most effective ways of marketing products and services are standard advertising and the creation of consumer reviews. Although the latter is a newer strategy compared to traditional advertising, it is nonetheless a brilliant method of building your brand and improving your name to the point of letting others call you an expert. Hence, are reviews better than ads? Let us examine that in the lines below:

How Do They Differ?

The key difference between consumer reviews and advertisements is the ability of the former to be more informative and in depth. When a potential customer reads reviews, he'll surely learn a lot since reviews are mostly coming from other customers' personal experiences. Customer reviews are less advertorial in nature while maintaining their strength for potential for marketability. It is a very comprehensive medium, because reviews can show almost all aspects of the product without being asked for advertising space or broadcast time. They need not look attractive unlike ads, because people are merely interested on the info that they offer.

Another difference between the two is how consumers generally feel about them. When it comes to reviews, consumers feel that they are being given intelligent advices from fellow consumers. In the case of advertisements, they often feel that they are being motivated to buy.

Consumer Reviews Are Cheaper and Easier To Make

Although both modes of marketing can drive significant profits, consumer reviews usually end up with making less effort and using up fewer financial resources. If you come to think of it, reviews are usually written free of charge. Some reviews even place html links and tags that influence online consumers to click or to be redirected to the official product page. This is clearly a very effective strategy. Similarly, advertisements are also very effective, but you usually need a creative marketing team to conceptualize the best ads that can instantly grab the attention of the readers or viewers. Furthermore, ads need to be attractive enough even at the expense of paying huge amounts of money just to create one.

Consumer Reviews Are More Believable

Branding is better improved through consumer reviews. As a matter of fact, more consumers believe in reviews as opposed to advertisements. Most of these reviews actually come from people who have experienced using the product. This means they are already experts in their own right.

The problem with print or video ads is because they usually employ popular celebrities as product endorsers. Aside from the high cost of hiring one, intelligent consumers already understand that these celebrities aren't really experts of the product. In fact, it is safe to say that not all endorsers use the product they endorse.

This limitation is fortunately addressed with reviews. People can share their expertise to other individuals by sharing the advantages and disadvantages of the product they're using. At present, consumer reviews have already penetrated almost all types of media. You can read, listen or see consumer reviews as testimonials across many platforms like print materials, websites or blogs and even on TV.

by: Kurt Ross

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