Can You Offer Customers Discount Codes on Amazon in Exchange for a Review
How to Legally Get Reviews on Amazon without Incentives
Discussion of mouth is one of the all-time ways to get new customers and grow your concern.
We've all told friends about this great new book we read or an amazing kitchen gadget we just bought. That kind of endorsement from a trusted source is what sells people on buying a product themselves.
If you run a Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) online store, your customers tin can leave reviews providing valuable feedback on your products and business concern. That'south helpful to you, considering it gets more customers buying your products.
But in 2016, Amazon changed one key bit of their review policy: y'all tin can't incentivize reviews, pregnant you tin't pay for them by providing free or discounted products specifically in return for reviews.
And so, brusk of crossing your fingers and hoping that your customers get out feedback, how do you lot go product reviews on Amazon? Let's break downward this change and look at the right manner to get people to get out reviews for your products and boost your business.
Reviews Thing More than Y'all'd Think
Customers read — and more importantly, make decisions based on — reviews.
BrightLocal, a search marketing visitor, does an annual consumer review survey virtually how consumers read and use online reviews. According to their findings, 84 percent of consumers trust an online review as much as a recommendation from a person they know, ninety percent of consumers read fewer than ten reviews before making upwardly their mind, and 73 pct of consumers think reviews older than three months are out of date. It would be fair to say that reviews matter, and a lot of negative reviews are going to damage your Amazon sales.
These numbers show us that people rely on these types of reviews to make decisions, and that the outset reviews they see matter well-nigh. Reviews human action as social proof, which could be the difference between yours and competitor's products.
Timely, existent reviews are valuable to online shoppers. Merely customers are savvy; they don't trust fake reviews or reviews that are overly enthusiastic (because they're probably made up). Honest reviews, even if they aren't perfect, will always look better than glowing, over-the-top five-star reviews.
Positive reviews benefit y'all because they aid raise your search rankings in Amazon's search engines, which means your product has a better hazard of being seen past potential customers.
Bad reviews can be a trouble, of course. But they're also an opportunity to discover bug with your Amazon product or store, and fix them. Responding to negative reviews tin can be a chance for you to provide practiced customer service. And if you demand to remove negative reviews, there is a way to do that.
Recognizing that reviews are important, how does an FBA business possessor get those good reviews for their brand new production?
No More Incentives for Reviews
A time-honored tradition for new products has been to get people to endorse them afterward providing some kind of gratuitous sample or access. These incentives are essentially paid reviews, by offering a free or discounted product in render for those reviews.
Upwards until October 2016, you could offer incentives to your FBA customers in exchange for leaving a review. Information technology was a elementary way for a FBA shop to move upwards in the rankings, which made it easier for customers to observe them, thus growing their business. A tactic that was oft used by sellers on Amazon was to attain out to the list of top reviewers and offer them a free product in return for a review.
But people raised the question, "How can you judge if a reviewer is being fair if they got paid to give the review?" Fifty-fifty with full disclosure of payment, many customers don't trust paid reviewers.
And Amazon did a study that found one result of incentivized reviews was that people left more stars for products they received in exchange for offering reviews. Amazon decided that wasn't fair to shop owners who did not or weren't able to offering incentives, so they changed the policy, making incentivized reviews against Amazon'southward terms of service.
What Amazon wants are organic, genuine notes from customers who really liked or really hated a product.
Simply these real reviews aren't just helpful for new customers looking to purchase; they're useful for business owners who need to better understand their production and customer base of operations. Genuine reviews permit you lot engage with your audience and learn what they want, what their hurting points are, and what makes them happy.
Sure you could go friends and family to requite you 5-star reviews or run a giveaway to heave your star rating but you aren't going to learn anything from that.
Know those things, and you can shape your business organisation and the products yous offer to reverberate that, which will help you grow your business faster and more than solidly than if you tried to game the system.
How to Get Organic Amazon Reviews
If y'all want to get Amazon product reviews, there are four things yous can exercise. Two of them involve post-obit upward with your customer and two cover the way y'all tin can use promotional content without breaking the rules.
The commencement, and really most of import, thing you should be doing is communicating with your client to build a relationship. Engaging with your customer creates a sense of trust, which ways they may become a render customer, and return customers are more likely to leave good feedback for you, especially if yous enquire them.
Fifty-fifty if you lot choose to offer promotional content to your customers, building solid lines of communication with them helps your business overall and may improve your conversion rate in the future.
one. Follow Upward with Customers
A adept way to specifically ask for feedback is through a follow-upward email requesting a review.
Amazon already generates a review request e-mail that asks customers to review their purchases. In that location's as well the pick to send out a review request by pressing the 'request a review' button in Amazon Seller Central which will send out an e-mail asking for seller feedback.
Yous can besides accomplish out through the buyer-seller messaging to request reviews but Amazon only like this to exist done one time per customer, so double check their terms and conditions.
Hither's an example using a recent book purchase of mine (and, for the record, a groovy book). Amazon sent me this email:
When I choose how many stars I want to give the purchase, I'one thousand taken to this site where I can get out a written review to become with the number of stars:
Amazon can be a chip pushy near information technology (new emails include reminders to review past purchases equally well), just that's good considering you want Amazon to remind your customers to provide a review.
You might decide to also generate your own electronic mail to customers, though go on in mind, it's probably best not to overwhelm them with emails.
If you cull to transport your own email to your customers, there are two ways to frame this follow-upwards: offering added value, or go on it to a uncomplicated feedback request.
To offer added value, you tin provide boosted data that isn't in the product listing, such as information about the production or suggestions on how to utilise it. For case, if the production is a kitchen gadget like a cheese grater, you might send them two recipes that characteristic grated cheese equally an ingredient.
Or you might offer a link to your weblog where there's a community that talks most other uses for your production ("Hey, did y'all know you lot could employ a cheese grater to brand your own laundry detergent?").
Offering them added value increases their goodwill toward you and your shop, and now when yous close the email by asking them to leave a review, they're more likely to exercise so because they experience you've helped them get more value out of that purchase.
A corollary to follow-up emails is being responsive to your customers' questions, whether they come on your FBA page or past direct e-mail. Customers who trust you considering you are responsive and engaging are more likely to want to help you by sending feedback.
Another way to frame a follow-up email is to go on information technology simple and straightforward. You tin can send a curt note that clearly asks for a review and provides a link where they can leave feedback. Remember, this is already something that Amazon does, so y'all may not want to duplicate that try.
This direct approach has the do good of non taking up a lot of the customer's fourth dimension — they can read and respond in less than a minute. Generally speaking, not wasting their time means a customer is more than probable to take a second and exit you a review.
A notation on crafting the right language for your follow-up advice: Be thoughtful and then it doesn't appear that you are pressuring your customer or in any way manipulating the procedure. A request is okay, but don't push the boundaries.
2. Place Inserts in Packaging
Another mode to communicate with your customer is to include an insert in the packaging of the product they purchase. You're sending the same bulletin, but with a tangible card they get when opening the product instead of an email.
Ane instance of a product insert is the sticker Apple puts in every box. You get a beautiful sticker, they go depression-cost visibility for their logo.
You might besides make information technology personal — a signed note of thanks for buying your production and a P.S. with a request for feedback.
It'south important to follow the terms of service. You lot cannot offer a disbelieve or other compensation, or pressure level the heir-apparent for a review.
Only equally with your e-mail, yous can ask if they are satisfied with the product. You lot tin offer value-added knowledge, or a reminder of why this product is the best thing out there.
Like a follow-upwardly email, an insert gives you a chance to communicate with your customer and build that relationship of trust.
3. Go Through Amazon
Amazon has an internal program chosen Amazon Vine that provides products for free to trusted Amazon customers in render for feedback.
Basically, Amazon is running their ain promotional content program, taking certain sellers and sure customers and offer an opportunity for organic reviews to grow out of promotional content.
The customers are called Amazon Vine Voices, and they are given costless new and pre-release products provided by Amazon sellers. Customers are invited to become Voices based on their community reputation as someone who writes skillful, accurate reviews.
Sellers don't have any contact with Voices — the whole exchange goes through Amazon. And Amazon does not influence or edit the reviews themselves; the idea is that Amazon makes information technology possible for their customers to get unbiased feedback on new products from people Amazon trusts.
The catch is that Vine is open only to Amazon vendors. If you lot're running an Amazon FBA, you also need to apply to be an Amazon vendor (or have Amazon's invitation) to participate in Vine. Once you lot're a vendor, yous'll need to pay a fee to Amazon to participate in the Amazon Vine program.
Amazon too has a program called the Amazon Early on Reviewer Program that allows any customer who has purchased certain products to receive a minor "reward" (such equally a $ane-$3 gift bill of fare) for helping other Amazon shoppers past providing their feedback.
Sellers can select products to be featured as part of the plan, and when a client purchases one of those products, Amazon will issue an invitation to the customer for feedback on their purchase. If the client reviews the production, they receive the advantage.
Reviews for these products are marked with an orange bluecoat. At that place is no contact between the vendor and the customer, and Amazon does not edit or otherwise influence the content of the review.
4. Employ Direct Promotional Content the Right Way
Amazon is crystal clear about what you can and can't practise by fashion of promotional content.
I know, I know. Before we talked nearly how Amazon inverse their policy and now you can't give away products or discount them in return for reviews. That's admittedly truthful. Don't do that.
All the same, you tin can give abroad products or discount them. Full end.
Hither's the linguistic communication Amazon uses:
If you requite away or discount a product, it has to be entirely up to the purchaser to decide if they will leave a review. You cannot coerce, manipulate, or require a review in return for the product.
You lot might expect through a list of past customers; better yet, past customers who have provided feedback on your other products. You might send a sample product to a blogger or social media influencer.
It's upwards to yous if it's worth it to your business to give away a product to try and get Amazon reviews, but if y'all even hint at a quid pro quo, you will confront some serious repercussions from Amazon.
Getting Started
Ane more time on how seriously Amazon takes the manipulation of reviews (letting those words speak for themselves): "If we determine that you have attempted to dispense reviews or violated our guidelines in whatsoever other fashion, we may immediately suspend or terminate your Amazon privileges, remove reviews, and delist related products. In add-on, if we determine that an Amazon account has been used to engage in review manipulation, remittances and payments may exist withheld or forfeited."
And, every bit another reminder, don't review your own product. It'south not cool and information technology's also confronting Amazon's rules.
If y'all're getting set up to first an FBA business, or are looking for ways to adjust to not-incentivized reviews, start with good business fundamentals. Use follow-up emails and packaging inserts to ask for or remind your customers about leaving reviews.
If you desire to offer discounts or gratis products, remember that you tin't exercise it in return for reviews. And if you're interested in using resource provided past Amazon, consider the requirements you'll need to run into first.
Getting your customers to offer 18-carat, organic reviews can help grow your business and go far improve; just be sure to exercise it the correct manner.
Photograph credit: zestmarina
Source: https://empireflippers.com/legally-get-reviews-on-amazon/
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