Amazon Review Strategy #: Launch A Rebate Promotion With Facebook Messenger
In general, reviews tend not to stick when you make a sale on Amazon at a discount higher than 30%.
As a result, heavily discounted promotions or giveaways are great for generating sales velocity but dont work well for gathering reviews.
The best way to build verified reviews is to have your customer pay full price first and then reimburse them later with Paypal.
This way, the customer gets a free product and you get full credit for the sale in the form of a verified review that sticks.
If this review strategy sounds grey hat, it definitely is which is why it carries a safety rating of 8/10.
However done correctly, its very difficult for Amazon to detect and you can quickly build a set of reviews for your newly launched product.
While there are services out there like RebateKey that promote rebates to a large audience of Amazon buyers looking for freebies, I generally dont recommend using a rebate service because the customer footprint is relatively easy to detect.
For example, if the same group of people consistently review the same set of products over and over again, Amazon can detect this practice and potentially flag your account.
The best way to run a rebate campaign is to use a Facebook Messenger bot and drive your own traffic to your products.
Heres how it works
The beauty of running an Amazon rebate promotion is that you get a full priced sale for your product in the eyes of Amazon so reviews are much more likely to be posted.
Submit Products To Amazon Vine
There is one exception to the dont exchange free product for reviews rule, and its called .
This program is only open to sellers with fewer than 30 reviews. You submit 30 units, which are then shipped to specially selected Vine reviewers for free. Vine reviewers dont have to pay for the product or shipping.
The value of this Amazon reviews program is that Vine reviewers, known officially as Vine Voices, are chosen by Amazon based on the helpfulness of their other reviews. You may have a better chance of receiving more detailed reviews through this program, than you would through other channels.
Dont Take A Negative Review To Heart
As mentioned earlier, book reviews are different from other product reviews. Not only do you, as the author, need to make sure your book is good quality, with correct packaging and shipping, you also need to keep an eye on the quality of your creative writing.
If a reader leaves a negative review of your book, and a few other reviews noted the same thing, use it as a learning opportunity to improve upon your writing. On the other hand, remind yourself that writing is subjective and not everyone is going to enjoy your writing style, and thats okay.
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Why You Need Amazon Customer Reviews
Online reviews are the modern media world-of-mouth theyre immensely powerful and can have a huge affect on how your business is perceived. A study last year found that:
- 79% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations
- 85% of consumers say that they read online reviews for local businesses
- 73% of consumers say positive customer reviews make them trust a business more
When you wish upon five stars, it makes no difference who you are your business dreams come true! OK, in truth youll need a lot more than wishing to obtain a great Amazon star count. In this post well talk about why Amazon customer reviews are important and the various ways you can earn them .
Amazon Review Strategy #: Amazon Early Reviewer Program
Even though Amazon made incentivized reviews illegal for sellers, they do allow compensation for reviews as long as Amazon is the one providing it.
In 2016, Amazon introduced the Amazon Early Review Program where Amazon encourages customers to share an honest review about your product in return for a small gift card.
Participating in the Amazon Early Review Program costs $60 per product and here are the rules.
- You must be brand registered
- Your product must have less than 5 reviews
- Your product must sell for more than $15
If your product meets all of the guidelines above, then signing up for the early review program is a no brainer. Not only is the fee reasonable at only $60 but the reviews that you obtain are pretty much guaranteed to stick.
When it comes to launching a brand new product on Amazon, 5 reviews is often enough to jump start your listing. However its important to note that you still must generate your own sales.
If your product is not selling, then Amazon will not be able to incentivize a buyer to leave a review. As a result, you must still run Amazon PPC and employ other strategies for boosting your sales velocity.
Editors Note: For more information on how to boost your sales, check out my post on
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Meet Customers Where They Are
Don’t email your customers to ask them to leave you a positive review on Yelp.
Instead, make sure your requests match up with the avenue where you want your customer to write a review. If you’re sending out an email asking for a customer review, make sure the email links to exactly where they can leave their feedback. If you want reviews on your Facebook Page, send the request via Messenger. And if you have to ask for a customer review cross-platform, make the request as integrated as possible — for example, by linking to your Yelp page in your email signature, or asking customers to review their purchase from your Amazon store in a follow-up email post-purchase.
Here’s a review request I received from a third-party Amazon seller — along with some helpful tips for how best to use the product I had recently purchased:
Friend And Acquaintance Reviews
Most sellers have used their friends and acquaintances to get Amazon reviews. The process involves getting your friends or close family members to write positive reviews about your products on Amazon.
If you sparingly use this technique, the detection levels from Amazon are low and generally, if Amazon is suspicious of a small number of reviews, they will simply prevent them from being published.
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Give Your Customers A Great Buying Experience
To first golden rule when it comes to generating positive reviews is to give your customers some top-notch buying experience.And the best way to do that is by staying as much honest about your product as possible.Try to provide accurate information about your products that doesnt mislead your customers.Most customers leave negative reviews when they feel they are tricked into buying your product or when they dont get a satisfactory product.Heres how you can give your customers a great buying experience:Communication: Maintain good communication with your customers. If they try to get in touch with you, try to address all their queries in a friendly way. Be quite clear with what youre offering to avoid any miscommunications later on.Packaging & Shipping: Take extra care when delivering your products as bad packaging can instantly ruin your customers buying experience. Use high-quality packaging and ensure your product doesnt get damaged along the way. Attach a Thank you note with your product as a friendly gesture.Product Listing: Make your product listing as transparent as possible without appearing salesy. Avoid slangs, use beautiful images, and accurate descriptions to give early hints about your product.Pricing: Get really competitive when pricing your products. Dont overprice your products but also dont try to keep your pricing low. Research your competitors pricing and balance yours in the best way possible.
Amazon Early Reviewer Program
A more affordable alternative to Amazon Vine is the . It asks customers who have already bought a product to give honest feedback about that product in exchange for a small reward .
The program is meant to help products with few or no reviews acquire some early reviews that help future shoppers. Just like with the Vine program, sellers are prohibited from having any contact with the reviewers to prevent them from influencing the review.
You have to be enrolled in before you can join the Early Reviewer Program, which you can learn more about here. Once you enroll, you will gain access to the Early Reviewer Program portal in the Seller Central dashboard. The portal is under the Advertising tab.
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Whats A Good Sales To Review Rate
The average review rate for Amazon products is around 1-2%. Meaning, every 100 sales you make, you should expect 1 or 2 reviews.
The average ratio of 1-2% may seem low. Ive heard a lot of sellers complaining that they struggle to get reviews, when in reality they are at or above the average.
You should be able to generate a little higher than the average review rate. Consider that most Amazon sellers dont have a smart way of getting reviews.
With an effective strategy, you can easily get a sales to review ratio of 5% averaging approximately 20 sales per review on Amazon.
Be aware, anything that looks unnatural to Amazon may get you in trouble .
A review rate significantly above average, or a quick spike in reviews, can trigger Amazon to block future reviews for your product, or worse delete past reviews you worked hard to get.
Thats why its important to think long-term with reviews, and not try to get a lot of reviews all at once.
Gifts And Promotions Can Get You Good Reviews
Good word-of-mouth marketing is one of the most potent forms of social media.
And offering discounts can also get you good reviews. A little gesture of generosity can go a long way at the right time. A practice most content marketers wont stop considering is the effect that gifts have on their audiences behavior.
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Why Product Reviews Matter & The Human Hardwire
Studies have shown that word of mouth is the most powerful marketing tool even in an online age, when a fellow human being tells us about something great, we listen with open ears. Although our lives are vastly different than our neanderthal ancestors, we arent as far removed as we think. We are still programmed to make choices based on the actions of others. There is safety in numbers with the herd mentality, so when we see a lot of people recommending an item and saying they HAVE to have it, we tend to feel likewise.
As someone who frequents Slickdeals, a website that aggregates the daily online deals, Ive witnessed myself and many others fall victim to the herd mentality. Many silly purchasing decisions have been made all because of a forum swarming with users saying, in for 3, what a great deal! or unbelievable price on these, theyll sell out quickly. This results in unnecessary, even down-right useless purchases an outcome that many on the site dub the SD affect. The truth is that were programmed to act quite sheepish.
Bah ram you, sheep arent so true
Join The Amazon Early Reviewer Program
These last two suggestions are for new products only. Heres how they work.
According to Amazons rules for reviews, sellers arent allowed to pay customers for reviews, but they never said Amazon cant do the same thing. With their Early Reviewer Program, Amazon sends shoppers a nominal gift card in exchange for their review.
You can receive up to 5 reviews through this program, which will all be identified with an Early Reviewer badge:
As you can see, theres no guarantee the review will be positive. However, this Amazon-approved approach to get reviews can be worth it for newer products.
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The Donts Of Getting More Amazon Reviews
Throughout most of this guide on how to get reviews on Amazon, weve focused on what to do. But equally as important as knowing what to do is knowing what NOT to do.
Weve referenced the Amazon guidelines throughout this article. As a seller, its in your best interest to get familiar with them. Violations can lead to serious consequences for your store. So, heres some more information about some of the no-nos.
Build Relationships With Your Customers
The best way to consistently get positive reviews is to build relationships with your customers, and create a brand persona that resonates with your target audience.
This is not a quick, push-button way to get reviews. Thats why its the best method because its not easy for your competitors to copy.
If you build a brand that your customers love, theyll reciprocate the love by helping you out. Your loyal fans will write reviews on their own accord. Even better, theyll be in-depth, quality reviews that help you get a higher conversion rate.
Some things you can do to start building relationships include:
- Being active on social media
- Consistently emailing your audience
- Providing value to your audience
- Delivering a great customer experience
- Crafting a likable brand persona
An important part is delivering value to your audience. Too many people build a list or social media audience, and only contact their list to ask for something or try and sell something.
Thats not an effective way to get people to respond to you .
Get your customers to love your brand, and I promise, youll get reviews on autopilot.
Summary: your brand, and the relationships you build between your brand and your customers, is the most powerful thing you can do to get more organic reviews.
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Why The Amazon Request A Review Button Is So Important
Once upon a time, Amazon encouraged sellers to proactively reach out to customers with personalised messages. They could send helpful product information and polite review requests.
But some sellers abused the system, so Amazon began to introduce tough restrictions. For example, it banned incentivised reviews and created strict communication rules .
Most recently, Amazon stopped sellers from responding to reviews and ended its Early Reviewer Program. The latter was one of the only official ways for sellers to obtain reviews for new listings.
As a result, many sellers now believe its impossible to legitimately request reviews. Amazons confusing, conflicting, and changeable rules are a minefield, but it is clear that the new Amazon Request a Review button provides sellers with a free and foolproof way to request reviews without breaking any rules.
Requesting Customer Reviews From Freelancers
Once upon a time, you could buy positive Amazon reviews with different freelancer platforms. For instance, Fiverr was very affordable, with its rate at $5 per review. Nevertheless, Amazon soon put an end to this, and now it is impossible to do so. Paid testimonials without a verified purchase are high-risk strategies with a chance for success. Google has also dealt with this practice, and companies that have been caught purchasing reviews have even been sued.
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White Hat Tactic #: Launch New Products To An Email List
Hopefully, you’ve been building your off-Amazon email list. If you have an email list, then when you launch new products do not send them links to your website to purchase, instead send them directly to your Amazon product detail page on Amazon. This accomplishes two things:
- You get vital initial sales velocity for your products
- Your email list is more likely to produce satisfied customers who will subsequently leave reviews
Sales velocity is critical for Amazon. There are some who believe Amazon also rewards brands that produce sales on Amazon from outside of Amazon.
Second, your email list is likely to be an audience of people who like your product. Subsequently, they’ll be more likely to leave positive reviews. You can also get into grey-hat strategies and in your email blast ask customers to email you after purchase and offer them some kind of refund via PayPal. You’re not refunding them in return for a review you’re just offering a product discount. Of course, once they email you, you’ve gotten that critical customer engagement and it’s easier to solicit reviews from them.
Choose One Category To Focus On
Pick a niche to focus on, so you’re not the jack of all trades, but master of none.
As an Amazon reviewer, it’s best to pick one niche category to focus on. That way, you can get to know that category very well rather than reviewing Amazon products in all categories.
It’s good because:
- You will communicate in the language of the industry
- You will become labeled as a professional instead of an amateur reviewer
Consider choosing a category to review products for based on your interests or passions. You can also go for a category that has higher paying commissions. It’s your choice.
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How To Get Amazon Reviews With Email Launch Lists
Its no secret that an email list is your most powerful tool in eCommerce. Its owned traffic in that it doesnt cost you an extra penny to continually market to with the goal of getting Amazon customer reviews.
But did you know that when it comes to getting Amazon reviews that its also your secret weapon?
When Im working with my clients, this is t typically where we start.
Here is how it works:
How Email Launch Lists Get Amazon Product Reviews:
You see how powerful that is to get Amazon reviews?
But wait, theres more