This is a guest post from our friends at FeedbackWhiz.
Wendy, a frequent Amazon shopper, is out to lunch with her friend. Her friend is telling her all about how into juicing she’s been lately and all of the health benefits she’s been getting from it. Wendy is impressed and decides that as soon as she gets home, she’s going to hop on Amazon and get herself a juicer.
Of course, as soon as she types “juicer” into her search bar, she’s met with thousands of results. To help narrow down her search, she adds a few filters to display options in the style she’s interested in and the price range she’s comfortable with. There are still plenty of options to choose from, so how does she decide on which juicer to buy?
Scenarios like this occur thousands of times a day on Amazon. For many shoppers like Wendy, customer reviews are a key deciding factor when making a purchase. Positive reviews from other customers give potential buyers a sense of comfort, and a high number of reviews suggests that a product is popular and that the review score can be trusted.
As such, Amazon sellers should do everything in their power to try to generate more positive reviews on their products. The most effective tool at your disposal as a seller is a good email campaign. We’ll go how to set one up, but first let’s cover what you can and can’t do when asking for reviews.
Understanding the Rules of Email as an Amazon Seller
The ability to email customers directly is a valuable feature on Amazon that you can use to your advantage. But before doing so, it is important to understand Amazon’s buyer-seller messaging guidelines.
Amazon’s goal is to keep the integrity of its marketplace intact by making sure that the reviews on its products are honest. To help achieve this goal, Amazon has cracked down on how sellers can request feedback. Sellers used to offer incentives like coupon codes in exchange for positive reviews, but these types of transactions are now strictly prohibited.
Even more subtle attempts at swaying a customer towards positive feedback are no longer allowed. For example, saying that “if you are having a problem with your product please contact us, if you are enjoying it then please leave a review” is an illegal if/then statement because it insinuates that the customer should only leave a review if it is positive.
Above all else, make sure that your email campaign adheres to Amazon’s guidelines to make sure that you keep your seller account in good standing. We’ll show you some examples of how to structure your email campaign to request feedback in a way that adheres to the rules.
Taking Advantage of Email Automation Tools
One of the reasons that some Amazon sellers don’t take advantage of email campaigns is that they don’t have the time. Even with a template saved on your computer, manually sending out an email after every order would be an extremely time-consuming process. This process gets even more complicated when you have to send out multiple emails as a part of your product review acquisition strategy.
Fortunately, there is another way. FeedbackWhiz takes all of the stress out of your email campaign by allowing you to schedule exactly what your emails will say and when they will go out, automatically.
Templates can be built using dynamic tags that populate information specific to the buyer and purchase. For example, the phrase “Hello [[Customer_First_Name]], thank you for your purchase of the [[Item_Title]]” becomes “Hello Wendy, thank you for your purchase of the Juicer 9000” for one customer and “Hello Greg, thank you for your purchase of the Juicer Recipe Book” for another. Once these templates are set up, the information within them will be populated automatically.
These emails can also be scheduled in advance to go out on specific queues such as when the product is ordered or two days after it is delivered. Different products can be set up with different templates and schedules based on your needs. FeedbackWhiz even allows you to set up a different template to go out to returning customers than the one that first-time customers receive.
Let’s look at some examples of what one of these automated email campaigns might look like.
Showing Your Customers Some Appreciation in Emails
When reaching out with your first email after your purchase, you don’t want to ask for anything just yet. This email is designed to thank your customer for their purchase and to let them know that you are available if they need anything. It can be sent out shortly after the order is placed or when the item has shipped. For example:
Hey [[Customer First Name]],My name is [[Seller Name]], and I just wanted to personally thank you for your purchase of [[Item Title]]. I hope that you enjoy it!You can track its progress using the following link: [[Link Shipment Tracking]]. In the meantime, if you have any questions at all about your order or any of our other products, please don’t hesitate to contact me at [[Contact Seller Link]]. Take care,[[Seller Name]]
Making Your Call to Action
While the first email was just designed to establish a relationship with your customer, the second one will be where you make your request for a product review. Before sending this email, make sure that your customer has had a chance to try their new product out and form an opinion on it.
As a rule of thumb, about a week after the product has been delivered is probably a good time to reach out. But this may vary; if your product is something easy to use like a water bottle, you could probably send this email 3-4 days after the customer has received it. On the other hand, a video game might require 2-3 weeks to ensure that the customer has had time to play it.
Hey [[Customer First Name]],According to our records, you received [[Item Title]] about a week ago. We hope that you are enjoying it thus far!Please consider sharing your feedback on this item with a product review. We sincerely appreciate the feedback that we receive on our products from valued customers like you. It also helps other customers on Amazon with their purchasing decisions! Thank you for your consideration. [[Item Review Link]]If you have any questions about your product or anything else I can help you with, please let me know. [[Contact Seller Link]]Thanks,[[Seller Name]]
This email politely asks for a product review without insinuating that it has to be a positive one. FeedbackWhiz lets you know if the customer does leave a product review after receiving this email. In the event that they leave a negative review, you could reach out to them with an email to try to remedy the situation and hopefully have them remove that feedback. If they don’t leave a review after this email, you could send another after a week or two to remind them how helpful it would be.
Adding Your Own Brand’s Flare to Emails
Of course, these sample emails are just a basic illustration of how to set up your product review email campaign. In practice, you can customize your script and add GIFs and images to make these emails better represent your brand and products.
Another feature that makes FeedbackWhiz beneficial is that its software allows you to build links into images. So, when calling for action, instead of simply posting a standard blue link, you could create an attractive button with an action-inducing color like red or orange.
Even something as simple as how you title your emails can have an effect on how often they are opened. FeedbackWhiz has A/B testing that allows you to send your emails out with two or more different titles and to receive analytics on which titles are leading to the highest open rates. Through fine-tuning and testing, you can build the perfect email campaign for you and your brand to start maximizing the number of product reviews you receive and the increased sales that come with them.
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