Review blog posts are a great way to provide value to your readers.
A review post is one that reviews products or services.
The first way these posts provide value is by collecting information for readers. It’s a lot of work to research products in a certain group.
Say you’re a new mom looking for cribs. It would take a long time to gather information on, say, 10-20 cribs. And if you’ve never done it before you’re not really going to necessarily know where to start your search.
Second, review blog posts usually look through various online reviews looking for trends and insight. Or they have used all the items themselves and can provide firsthand knowledge. Sometimes they also include interviews from those that have used the items. This is more work done for the reader giving them the information they need to make a decision.
Third, the author of the review post will usually provide a recommendation. Sometimes that’s all the reader is looking for from these posts. They trust the author or blog or brand enough to just go with their recommendation.
Let’s say your dad always drove Ford trucks. You’re in the market for a truck. You don’t know much about trucks, but you do know your dad. You trust his judgment so you would likely have no second thoughts about buying a Ford truck based on his recommendation.
People Trust Blogs & Bloggers
Blogs have been around a long time. Over the life of the Internet people have looked for online sources of information. The blogs that provide the best information that is correct most of the time are the most trusted.
Obviously some blogs don’t have good information. They steer people in the wrong direction. But these blogs don’t usually have long shelf lives.
If you’re not helping people they will stop paying attention.
One survey found that bloggers are one of the most trusted sources of information.
Right behind family and friends and ahead of coworkers and journalists.
Another survey found that moms trust blogs more than any other form of social media. And those moms are showing their faith by spending money on products based on the reviews and recommendations in blog posts.
And the trend is growing with younger generations.
Creating Review Blog Posts
Many blogs create review blog posts as part of an affiliate business or program. They review products and let readers know that if they are to purchase any of the products mentioned on the site or in the post that the author will get a commission from the seller.
Obviously there can be some potential for misleading information, but again, if authors and influencers share information about products that don’t deliver they will lose the trust they’ve build with readers.
So authors and influencers have motivation to recommend and review products and services that deliver.
But you don’t just need to write review posts if you’re an affiliate.
You could be a brand just looking to build traffic and an audience and trust with those readers.
Here are the steps to take to writing a really good and valuable review post.
Step 1. The Intro
The introduction serves the purpose of acknowledging the topic promised in the title. The reader has clicked to the article from somewhere based on the promise of the title. They want to know within a couple seconds that the article will be what they’re looking for.
The intro should also provide some kind of promise or hook. You can do this by acknowledging who the writer is and why they really can benefit from the information you’re about to review.
The intro can also provide some validation for who you are by providing some background or some statistics.
Let’s say you’re writing the following post: Best UTV for Midwestern Farmers.
You could open with a stat that addresses the need midwestern farmers have for a good UTV. That acknowledges who the audience is and that the article will deliver on the promise of providing reviews on UTVs.
Then to validate yourself and the information you can include a sentence of how you gathered all the information in the post.
Step 2. The Overview
The next part is giving an overview of what the products or services are and the important consideration points for buyers.
You might start by telling readers what UTVs are. Maybe a little history. How people use them.
Then get into some key decision points. Different features. Maybe something about 2-wheel vs. 4-wheel drive. All the things a potential buyer would want to consider so they know why you recommend certain UTVs vs. others and so they can fit each recommendation to their specific situation.
One consideration point might be speed vs. power. They can both be good. A farmer on flat ground maybe prefer speed while a farmer in hill country may need the power.
Step 3. Reviewing Each Product
Something that’s common with popular review posts is they’ll look at the most popular products or services.
They are mostly positive.
They kind of take the approach that if a product is not good it’s just not worth writing about.
And that’s kind of what most readers are after. They want to skip right to the best. One pretty good indicator that something can be trusted is that it’s been around for awhile and that a lot of others have tried it.
It’s like that curve where you always have a small number of early adopters, but most people follow the leader.
For each product you want to include the full title. Then a little background on who makes the product or provides the service. A little background on why the product was developed. The need it fills or why people use it.
People also generally like the specifications. How big it is. How much it weighs. That kind of stuff.
Or if it’s a service what exactly customers get when they buy the service.
From here you get into about 3-5 main points that make the product or service unique and valuable. These could be trends you consistently read in reviews about the product.
Like if the UTV consistently gets reviews where people mention the smooth ride that’s a main point to include. And you could back it up by mentioning that this UTV company made it a point to beef up the shock absorption system or something like that specifically to make for a smoother ride.
Final Thought
The review post may include a conclusion or wrap up. This would be where you can make a few final points about how readers can make a decision. Or you can include your final recommendation. And a final call to action can be good to.
When people finish reading a post they’re going to take some kind of action. If you don’t ease them in a certain direction they may just leave the post for another site feeling a little unsatisfied with the post. And you don’t want that.
A final thought here from me on review posts is that you want to be thorough. Perhaps 5-10 items to choose from. About 1,000 or more words for the post.
And also include good formatting. A good separation of each section and item. With proper headings and subheadings. Images also provide a good reference point and help to break up the content into sections so readers can bounce back and forth easily.