How do you collect good reviews for a new product so you can use them as social proof later?
One of the most effective and affordable marketing strategies is WOM (word of mouth) – getting other people to share your product and potentially spark curiosity or create a domino effect.
Over the past few days, several people:
– have shared screenshots of my tool on social media,
– sent me DMs saying they like it, or
– left reviews on the Chrome Web Store.
I plan to use them in:
– the landing page
– marketing materials (Chrome Web Store)
– possibly advertisement and "show off on socials"
Which could attract more users.
When the product has a positive sentiment, I would consider creating profiles on Trustpilot, AppSumo, or G2, where I have less control over the reviews, but they may be perceived as more genuine by potential users.
What is your approach to getting positive reviews (social proof) on your 1st product?
Replies
We got lucky to have some beta partners with Salestrics give us some early reviews during our first Product Hunt launches. We've mainly been using those on our website as social proof.
I'm thinking of launching a Trustpilot account as well, but I hadn't heard of G2. Do you know of any other directories?
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@austinbuhl To be honest, these are more cited, maybe also Google reviews could help a bit :)
The bottleneck is not collecting them. It is that most people cannot write one worth citing.
I wrote six product reviews this morning and the only reason they were writable is that I had used those tools long enough to have a number. Download size before and after, the bug that showed up in exactly one place, the thing that fell over on a slow connection. Without one of those, the honest version is "I liked it", and every landing page already has that sentence.
So I would ask at the moment someone tells you something specific rather than on a schedule, and I would ask for that specific thing rather than for a review. "Can you put the bit about X on the store page" gets you a citable line. "Would you leave a review" gets you five stars and no sentence you can quote.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@abdullah_javaid3 What do you think is enough time for a user to test the product and ask them for a review? 7 days, 14 days? or?
@busmark_w_nika I think days is the wrong unit, and picking 7 or 14 is what causes the weak reviews.
On day 14 some people have a story and some have nothing, and you get both because the trigger was the calendar. The one with nothing still answers you, politely, and that is where the five star with no words comes from.
You already have the trigger inside your product. It is the first week where their screentime actually dropped. That person has a before and an after, they can see the number, and they know which one they are. Ask on that day, whether it lands on day 4 or day 40, and skip everyone who has not hit it.
Fewer people qualify and that is the point. Ten reviews that each name a number beat a hundred that say nice app.
Your instinct to sequence it, capture the organic stuff first, then move to platforms like Trustpilot or G2 once sentiment is already positive, makes sense. Going there too early with an unproven product just risks your first reviews being lukewarm on a platform you don't fully control.
One thing that's worked for me is turning DMs and screenshots into something more citable than just "someone liked it." When someone sends a nice DM, I ask if I can quote them with their name or handle on the landing page, most people say yes and it turns an unverifiable claim into something with a real person attached. Anonymous praise on a landing page tends to read as filler, but "Sarah, who runs X" attached to a specific sentence about what actually helped her carries a lot more weight.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@terranicgerald Of course, when they will be okay with sharing their name and Profile photo, it will be more trustworthy. :)
The three sources you listed are the ones least likely to work as social proof, and it is worth being blunt about why.
A DM saying I like it, a screenshot, a five star with no words. All of those tell a stranger that somebody was pleased, and none of them tell a stranger what the product did. Pleased is not evidence. A wall of short praise reads as collected rather than earned, which is the opposite of what you are paying for.
I wrote two reviews here recently, both unprompted, and neither was praise. One says the tool will report a change as done when the build quietly used a stale kernel and nothing landed on the device. That sentence is why the rest of it is believable. The criticism is what buys the credibility for everything else in the review.
So I would stop asking for reviews and start asking one question at the moment somebody hits a result: what were you doing before this, and what changed. You get a sentence with a before and an after in it, which is the only shape that persuades. Ask at the outcome, not on a schedule.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@abdullah_javaid3 BTW, I think it would help if someone sends me a video review too :D :)
After a certain number of successful uses of the product or at the end of the main task, gently nudge the user and ask, "Are you satisfied with the product?"
No—Give them a feedback form -> generates great feedback
Yes—ask them to rate the product -> generates 4/5 * reviews
Many products use this flow to increase the store rating and number of reviews. Tried and Tested.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@roopesh_donde wow, I first wanted to push the review pop-up straight away, but this appears to be a better option! :D
I think the most valuable reviews are the ones that come naturally, without asking people to praise the product.
Instead of asking, "Can you leave a review?", I prefer asking, "What helped you the most?" or "What would you improve?"
Honest feedback builds a better product, and genuine reviews become a natural result of that process. In the long run, trust is more valuable than a large number of five-star ratings. 🙂
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@foued_sendi That's true, but sometimes you need to prompt users to leave you a review (to be more vocal), because they will not do that when they're not satisfied; the most loudest users are the ones who are not satisfied. So you need to be proactive with getting good reviews. :)
@busmark_w_nika That's a great point, Nika. I completely agree that satisfied users are often the quietest ones, while negative experiences naturally receive more attention.
I think the balance is to make leaving a review easy and timely—right after the user has experienced genuine value, without making them feel pressured. That way, the feedback stays authentic while encouraging more people to share their experience.
Thanks for bringing up this perspective. It's a valuable reminder for anyone building a product. 😊
I would create multiple channels for feedback instead of depending on one platform. Different users prefer sharing their experiences in different places.
App Finder
For my Android app, I have a page on my website where I collect nice reviews from Google Play and also some other places like Product Hunt and Reddit (I need to updated it with new reviews). Importantly, everything has a link to the source.