By Hanna Walther & Drew Estes
How to Use Product Packaging Insert Cards to Get Reviews on Amazon (or Anywhere Else)
Do you want to get more reviews and actually build your email list while selling your product on Amazon? Product packaging inserts might be the move for you.
Getting reviews on Amazon gets harder every day. Amazon is constantly making their rules stricter, and deleting any of your reviews that seem suspicious – sometimes even if the review is legit!
To make matters worse, Amazon doesn’t share any customer information with you, making it nearly impossible to learn anything about your shoppers or contact them.
Lately, some of the biggest sellers on Amazon have discovered how to leverage packaging inserts to get more reviews and connect with more customers. You’ve probably seen these little cards more and more often when you order a product from Amazon, and they might just be your next favorite technique in eCommerce.
Tell Me More: What Are Product Inserts (AKA Packaging Inserts)?
A product insert or packaging insert is a small card placed inside your product packaging. When a customer opens their package from your business, your product insert will greet them!
More specifically, product inserts use surveys and rebates to gather product feedback, collect customer email addresses, and increase your review rate for Amazon sales. Shoppers follow a link on your product insert, complete a survey, provide an email address, and are paid a rebate.
Including a product insert in each package is a thoughtful, strategic way to create a focused interaction with each of their customers. It allows a company to not only say, “Thank you for shopping with us,” but also, “Tell us more about your experience” without begging for a positive review. (Doing so would actually violate Amazon’s policy on reviews... but more on this later!)
While this marketing strategy may sound simple enough for a business with the manpower to handle it, many sellers on Amazon simply don’t have the resources to include product packaging inserts.
Here’s the good news - Massview recently launched a service to make the execution behind product packaging inserts much more effective and automated. Within our platform, sellers can create product insert cards with a unique QR code to include in each package.
When a customer receives their package, they simply scan the QR code with their device, answer a few survey questions, enter their email address, and receive a promotional rebate.
Why Should I Use Packaging Inserts for My Products?
To put it simply, there are endless use cases for product inserts. For the sake of time, we won’t try to name them all. Instead, here are the most important reasons your business should consider packaging inserts for the products you sell on Amazon - starting with the headliner.
Reviews, reviews, reviews
Every seller on Amazon knows that reviews are king. The best way to build a brand’s reputation is through reviews. The easiest way to boost sales are reviews. Reviews guide the shopper and help build trust, which leads to more sales at a lower cost. One of the first things a shopper looks at when they discover a product they’re interested in purchasing… you guessed it. Reviews!
Research shows that 84% of shoppers trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation. It’s no secret that having reviews on Amazon can be the fastest way to grow your business. Sellers who know how to get reviews on Amazon are at a competitive advantage, and they’re most likely using product insert cards to get those reviews.
On the product insert included in a package, prompting the customer to leave an honest review is an extremely popular use case.
Survey feedback
Improve the shopping experience for customers by sending a simple URL with a follow-up survey to complete. Survey questions can include:
- How was your experience with our company?
- Did your product arrive on time?
- Was the quality what you expected?
- Would you shop with us again?
With this kind of feedback in your arsenal, improving the customer experience will become much less daunting and more achievable. The ability to gauge customer satisfaction is powerful when competition is high.
Build an email list
Amazon doesn’t provide you customer emails, or really tell you anything about the people buying your product. This puts sellers at a major disadvantage compared to selling in your own store. That’s where packaging inserts come to the rescue: helping you collect emails.
Product inserts are a great way to engage with customers after the initial sale. When offered a discount or rebate, the customer must enter their email address as part of the process to receive it. Down the line, sellers can use their email address to offer deals, share discounts and promotions, and cross-sell other products they think the customer would like.
Once you have a solid email list built from product inserts, you can fully customize and control which products you market customers in the future. The conversion rates from tailored offers and deals via email are generally much more successful than typical advertisements.
Repeat purchase potential
As a whole, consumers tend to gravitate towards the businesses that add value to their life and appreciate their business. People care a great deal more about who they are buying from, not just what they’re buying, in today’s retail landscape.
If a customer has a positive experience shopping with your business, making them feel appreciated with a product insert will certainly increase the chances of a second purchase, and let’s not forget about referrals to friends and family!
Thanking customers for a purchase, offering a rebate or a discount on future purchases is a great way to build a relationship.
Another efficient tactic to establish repeat customers is to include free shipping for their next purchase. The incentive to save money while shopping again can be quite enticing.
Avoid Policy Violations When Using Packaging Inserts on Amazon
Amazon reviews can be a very polarizing topic, and sellers ought to prioritize educating themselves on what is and isn’t acceptable within Amazon’s policies. Not doing so means running the risk of getting a seller account shut down.
Here are some tips on what can and can’t be done when using product card inserts.
DO:
- Follow the rules! It’s always best to err on the side of caution, particularly when your seller account is at stake
- Treat product inserts as a neutral reminder to leave an honest review - don’t make demands
- Encourage buyers to leave an honest review of your product
- Thank them for taking the time to leave a review
DON’T:
- Ask for a positive review
- Offer a discount or incentive for a review
- Provide a discount code in exchange for a review
- Discourage negative reviews
- Ask customers to contact your business instead of writing a negative review
In case you’re confused about how Massview manages to stay compliant with Amazon policies, we make an important distinction: shoppers are given the rebate as a reward for answering the survey, NOT the review. Once they’ve answered the survey though, we make it super quick and easy to transfer their input over to Amazon, so it’s a no-brainer.
Plus, if you don’t feel like getting reviews this way, you can actually turn off the “Review request” part of the process, so you can still collect the emails and data you need without focusing on reviews.
How Can Product Packaging Inserts Help Sellers Who Aren’t on Amazon?
Say it louder for the people in the back - product packaging inserts are NOT limited to sellers on Amazon!
Maybe you’re on Shopify or Etsy, or maybe you’re a brick and mortar establishment with the same goals - building your email list, getting more reviews, and gaining valuable information from survey feedback.
The unique QR code on the product packaging insert will help customers to complete the call to action you’ve provided. The product card insert could offer a discount on their next shopping trip to your retail store, or prompt them to follow your business on social media. Two birds, one stone!
Standing out as a brand in the retail brick and mortar space has its own challenges, but product inserts can help you step up your game by continuing the conversation with your customers.
Where Can I get Package Insert Templates?
Massview currently offers a growing list of templates within our platform. You can sign up here to get started and access the templates. You also get access to Amazon SEO tools to help rank your product, optimize your listing and PPC, and a full package of seller tools to improve your sales rank and sell more.
By using Massview for your product packaging inserts, you’ll be creating an entirely new marketing strategy for your business. And best of all, it’s an automated process that you can set up in a few simple steps!