As sellers continue the rush to find legal ways to drum up reviews for their products, Amazon is quickly responding with a crackdown on many commonly used practices. Apparently, when the retailer pulled the plug on incentivized reviews a few months ago, it sent a flood of activity through their messaging platform. That intense surge put Amazon on alert to watch for illegal practices and stop them before they infected their system.
3 Common Practices That Could Get Your Account Suspended
Amazon is not in favor of marketing, plain and simple. They prefer listings to be factual with no “subjective” language, and they feel the same about emails. If you owned your own ecommerce website, it would make sense to include the following elements in your after-purchase emails. Amazon, however, could slap you back for using them because they view them as manipulative and/or salesy.
- Asking Only for Positive Reviews
On the Prohibited Seller Activities page of Seller Central, Amazon clearly states that you cannot weed out negative reviews by asking that shoppers leave 5-star/good reviews.
If your current emails include any of the following, I would advise that you remove / change that content quickly:
- If you’re happy with your product, click here to leave a review.
If you’re unhappy, click here for help.
By filtering happy customers to a product review page and unhappy ones to an email (to ask for help), you are manipulating the system. Amazon wants all shoppers to share their views whether positive or negative.
It is perfectly fine to offer a means of help for customers who have questions or want assistance, but you can’t direct pleased buyers to one place and disgruntled ones somewhere else.
- If you love (are delighted with, are thrilled with, etc.) your new {product}, we’d appreciate a 5-star product review.
This language also weeds out those who might leave neutral or negative reviews by only asking for 5-star reviews. Avoid using words that would indicate that the customer has to be satisfied with his/her purchase to leave a review.
What can you do instead of #1 and #2? Communicate with all buyers, not only those who can provide a positive review for you. As you write, think of all your customers and say things like:
- We’d love to hear your opinion.
- Share your thoughts.
- Your feedback is valuable.
These types of statements invite every shopper to leave a review. They do not only speak to those who might give your product 4 or 5 stars.
- Including Links for Any Marketing/Purchase-Related Information
In an attempt to build their own email lists, many sellers include links either in the body content of product review request emails, on an image inserted into the email, or in an attachment.
Perhaps you send shoppers to an instructional video on YouTube. Maybe you include an attached flier with dosage information for your nutritional supplement and the flier has your web address or email address on it. I’ve seen some sellers asking customers to register on their site for an extended warranty.
All of these approaches are illegal.
No cross-selling, upselling, or redirecting of any kind is allowed. This includes providing links to websites for customers to download ebooks. The one exception is providing links to the product review section or to the Amazon messaging system.
How Can You Get the Most Out of Your Amazon Product Review Emails?
Simply … by providing exceptional customer service. That doesn’t mean using the same old boring email template for every product. It doesn’t mean continuing to send messages that an Amazon shopper has received from dozens of other sellers and probably never reads.
In the body of the follow-up email, provide useful, helpful information (not marketing language) that customers will read and appreciate. What might that include?
—> Other Uses: Let’s say you sell an apple slicer. You could send customers several other ways to use the apple slicer on pears, strawberries, potatoes (for potato wedges), etc. They’d love knowing how to get additional use from their purchase.
—> Fixes: Did your product come back not-so-perfect from the manufacturer? Handle these quirks and make sure your customers are satisfied by including quick fixes in your email. If your digital timers are set to a factory default of a ring and most cooks prefer a beep, give simple instructions for changing the tone.
Amazon Is on the Prowl
Because Amazon is on a mission to control black-hat review practices, you’ll want to be extra careful about what you do and don’t include in your messages. As long as you focus on taking excellent care of your and Amazon’s customers and not on trying to skirt the terms of service (TOS), you’ll be on the right track.
If you’d like additional, detailed techniques and templates for legal Amazon product review request emails, check out my new ebook, “Review Advantage: Email Strategies for Getting More Amazon Product Reviews (Legally).”
All the information is up to date and legal (verified with Amazon). Right now, it’s also on sale! Save $10 when you use coupon code —-> revblog10 <—- (lowercase, no spaces).
Thank you so much for this!
You bet!
Thank You Karon!
You are most welcome!
can you please share the AMAZON WEBPAGES where you got all those “screenshots”? I can’t find where it says that you can not add your storefront etc etc. Thanks
I did share it. Read the paragraph before the image. 🙂
Thanks Karon! I am wondering whether Amazon would allow including a brochure in the packaging box which includes all the product information and also asks for review? Do you know?
Because Marketing Words is a copywriting agency, we focus on words so this is not in my wheelhouse. However, I have been told by Jessica Larrew and many other sellers that Amazon can’t control what is inside your product package. If the flier/brochure is sealed inside the box with your product, it would OK (from what I’ve heard).
Thank you so much Karon! Much appreciated 🙂
Hello Karen,
Do you know whether it would still be okay to send emails to customer who have left positive seller feedback to ask them to add this as a review. We have read that Amazon might well interpret this as selective targeting because we are not emailing buyers who left negative feedback the same.
How would you approach this?
No, this would not be an acceptable practice. Sorry 🙂
Hi Karon,
Since providing a link to any website violates TOS, could I send the buyers the name and the publisher of the Youtube video on Amazon messaging system?
Thank you
Peter
My second questions is there a more effective way to send instructional youtube video to buyers?
Most people include an attachment of some kind with the email. A short guide, cheat sheet or checklist. You can (at least for now) include links in those. Amazon may very well soon restrict those also, but for the moment it is legal.
Bear with my conservative nature, Amazon states that message in a permitted email to an Amazon customer could not include Links to any websites. Do you mean this rule does not apply for the attachment in that permitted email?
That is my understanding.
Hi, I’m looking for clarification on this part of your post: “The one exception is providing links to the product review section or to the Amazon messaging system.”
Where are you seeing that this is an exception?
Dave
A Seller Central rep informed me of this.
Hello Karon,
would be okay to send emails to customer who have left positive seller feedback to ask them to leave a honest product review with no obligation?
Hi JC. No, that’s not providing customer service. That’s asking a customer to do something for you. Sorry 🙁