This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey there, what's up? Side hustle school listeners, community, awesome people on the internet. I am so glad you're out there. My name is Chris Guillebeau. I have the privilege of making this show for you every day, telling you different stories, bringing you examples, tips, answering listener questions.
That's what we're gonna do today. Got a listener question. How can I get more reviews on my Amazon listing? Now this listener is using fulfillment by Amazon with some success, but she needs more reviews on her listing page. What can she do to encourage customers to sing her praises?
So this is a great question because reviews matter a lot. I think online reviews matter a lot in general, no matter what your platform, no matter what you're selling, especially until you reach a decent number. Like there's a point of diminishing returns once you have like a ton of reviews, the next review doesn't necessarily help you that much. But getting to a decent number, whatever it is for that platform, for Amazon, I think, getting to at least your first 25 reviews, 50 reviews. You know, if you can get to a hundred, that's great.
I think after that, it doesn't matter so much. But getting to that point is really important. So I'm gonna give you a couple of systematic tips you can use to ask for reviews based on what successful sellers are doing. That's what we'll look at in this episode. [Music]
Hi, Chris, this is Krista from Omaha, and I have been listening to the show for two years.
Love the puns. I need help getting more reviews. Since I've been listening to the show, I started researching and then selling using FBA. I can't say what industry it's in, but I promise it's nothing bad. And I need more reviews from customers, real ones.
I always ask, but the vast majority of people don't do it. Amazon will give me their contact info to follow up. Any advice? How can I get more people to leave a review? Thanks.
[Music]
Hey, Krista, thank you so much for listening. And I'm so glad that you have made some progress in researching and selling using FBA or fulfillment by Amazon in your little mystery niche, whatever it is. I love how Krista is like, "I can't say what industry it's in, but I promise it's nothing bad." And she does need some reviews. Like I agree with her that this is an important challenge, something that is worth paying attention to. So let's talk about it.
Now, Amazon won't share their mutual customers' contact info. And this is kind of a key part of the problem here because you would think, if you're not familiar with how it works, you would think, oh, if I'm selling something through Amazon, a customer is choosing to purchase from me, they're using Amazon as the platform, but surely I get access to the customer's info, right? Like I get to know who's buying my product. But in most cases, you do not, at least when using this program, that's just how it goes. Those are the rules of Amazon.
It's kind of their way or the highway, and they have a lot of leverage. Obviously they can kind of do whatever they want. If you choose to participate in this platform, that's just what you have to accept. So what do you do when you do realize like, "Hey, I do need to have some reviews." What I've seen a lot of sellers do in ordering lots of different third-party products from Amazon, I noticed increasingly, when the product arrives, I'm also getting a note of some kind. Sometimes it's a handwritten note, which I think is particularly effective.
Like the owner, the small business owner who is using the massive weight of Amazon to sell his or her products is, still taking the time to write these handwritten notes. And that handwritten note is like, "Hey, thank you for purchasing." Would you do me a big favor? If you enjoy the product reviews help us a lot. You're just kind of explaining it. Now, obviously that could take a lot of time.
So it doesn't have to be handwritten. More commonly, I'm getting like a postcard or some little insert. And it says effectively the same thing. "Hey, reviews are awesome." If anything at all is wrong with your product, please tell us, please let us know before you leave us a bad review. We will fix it absolutely.
And if you love the product, give us a good review. What I've also seen, also increasingly is a lot of sellers are incentivizing in some way. And there's some rules about this too, but it seems that as long as you are offering something extra or complimentary that's not required for the product itself, then that's okay. What I mean by this is, if you order say a journal, sometimes there's a little postcard that's like, "Hey, you ordered a full-size journal, but if you'd like to get a free mini journal, we'd be happy to send that to you free of charge. Just go and leave us a review and then let us know that you did it over here." Even that is kind of skirting the rules a little bit.
Sometimes you can just kind of give the gift without any expectation, but also say, "Hey, it would be awesome if you could leave us a review." We talked a while back about the five factors of persuasion and reciprocity is one of those factors. So if you give somebody a gift and it's actually a meaningful, genuine gift, then they will be more inclined to do something that you ask of them, which in this case is asking them for a review. Now, if you're sending out free stuff, like, "Is this gonna cost you money?" Well, maybe, but can it be worth it? I think that's the question. And I think the answer is yes, especially, as I said, when you're trying to generate that traction in the beginning to compete.
You can always pull back later and stop offering free items, but you may find that in doing so, there's another benefit to that. And that benefit is that people like gifts and gifts increase loyalty. As I said, it has to be a real gift, no strings attached. I've also seen a couple of things that are a little bit shady in terms of sellers using Amazon's logo or kind of making it look like Amazon is asking them to leave this review and obviously it's coming from the third-party seller. So you have to be careful, but if you do it in the right way, I think it can help.
All right, good luck, Krista. And anybody else out there who is selling, using Fulfillment by Amazon or other models, there are various challenges, but of course there are some real rewards as well, if you get it right. And if you have a question, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. We are featuring them throughout the year, along with updates from other listeners as they launch their projects. Take care of yourself out there.
It's a crazy world, but we are in this together. I am cheering you on. Once again, my name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
