Every product sold on Amazon could use more reviews. Whether your product is brand new to your inventory or has been around for a while, getting more reviews helps you gain attention from interested customers. Roughly 95% of online shoppers read reviews before making a purchase, so when they see your highly reviewed products, they are much more likely to buy.
How can you reap the rewards of positive reviews? Here’s how to get reviews on Amazon in five different ways, as well as some practices you should avoid and what you can do about negative reviews.
- Retarget Recent Customers with Follow-Up Email Campaigns
Amazon automatically sends out an email to your customers asking them to review products they’ve purchased in the past. Unfortunately, these emails are relatively unengaging and ineffective.
But just because Amazon’s emails don’t work doesn’t mean follow-up email campaigns can’t be effective. One survey found that 80% of respondents believe email marketing improves their business’ customer retention. Those same respondents saw up to a 760% increase in revenue from their email marketing campaigns by segmenting their audience and sending customized, personal emails to customers that meet specific criteria.
So, if Amazon’s email marketing strategy doesn’t work, come up with your own. Send out emails to your Amazon customers to request a review.
But how do you get your customer’s contact info? The easiest way is to direct people who visit your website to subscribe to your blog or newsletter. Once you have their email address, you can send out nurture campaigns to encourage them to leave a review.
- Utilize Amazon’s Request a Review Button
In your Amazon Seller Central account, you can access the details page of every order a customer makes. Within the details page is a “Request a Review” button. Click on it to send an email to your customer encouraging them to leave a review.
Unfortunately, you will not be able to customize the message Amazon sends in any way. Amazon will simply include your company’s name, the name of the product, an image of the product, and an option to review your product and your company. Amazon will also translate this message into whatever language your customer uses.
This option is a simple way to request reviews while still operating under Amazon’s complex review solicitation policy.
- Use Product Inserts
Product inserts are small cards you can put in your product packaging. The card can include a short and concise thank you note to the customer and a request for them to leave a review after they’ve used your product. We recommend including a QR code that leads customers to your product review page.
- Enroll in the Early Reviewer Program
One way to get more Amazon reviews is to connect with customers who specialize in reviewing. Amazon’s Early Reviewer Program is designed for new products that have few reviews. You can enroll your new products into this program, and buyers will be randomly selected to review it. These reviews help you gain those initial reviews that can attract and inform your future customers.
- Follow Up Through Buyer-Seller Messaging
Buyer-Seller Messaging is a way your business can more easily communicate with potential buyers and current customers. Amazon uses data encryption to hide sensitive information about your customers (like their email addresses) so they can message companies without the risk of getting spammed by marketing emails.
With this messaging platform, you can reach out to buying customers and ask them to leave a review of your products. When doing this, make sure to follow Amazon’s guidelines:
- Only ask for a review once
- Don’t specifically ask for a positive review
- Don’t include any marketing material within the message
What Not to Do to Get More Reviews
Now that you have some ideas of how to get reviews on Amazon the right way, here’s what you shouldn’t do.
As previously mentioned, Amazon has incredibly stringent guidelines on how companies can request reviews. While you should read through these guidelines before making any attempt to contact customers, here are some of the important things to consider:
- Sellers cannot review their own product or a competitor’s product.
- Sellers cannot offer monetary compensation for a review. This includes free or discounted products, financial rewards, or full refunds.
- Family members of the seller cannot review the seller’s products or those of their competitors.
- Sellers cannot ask a reviewer to change or remove their review.
- Sellers cannot divert negative Amazon reviews to other review platforms.
How to Handle Negative Reviews
When customers leave bad reviews, there are two things you can do to mitigate the negative attention:
- Respond to the review. Leave a comment that offers your perspective of the problem and describe what you are willing to do to help that customer have a better experience. You may also want to encourage the customer to reach out to you via the Buyer-Seller Messaging service so you can help them more directly.
- Ask Amazon to remove the negative review. If a negative review goes against Amazon’s review guidelines, you can request it to be removed. Be warned; Amazon rarely removes negative reviews—the review must violate community guidelines in an obvious way.
Let Buy Box Experts Help You Get More Reviews
Are you ready to garner more customer reviews? With the help of Buy Box Expert, you can find the customers who are more likely to leave a positive review, thus gaining more reviews and improving your overall rating in the process.
Contact Buy Box Experts today to chart your path to success and attract the positive attention you need to succeed.
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Reach out to Buy Box Experts for a free analysis of your Amazon business. We’ll let you know exactly how you can improve your effectiveness and how to get more reviews on Amazon.
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