Sellers: How to Write Emails That Get People to Review Your Product

October 31, 2015

I receive about 5-10 emails a day from Sellers on Amazon asking me to review their products. I have archived almost all of them (for various reasons), and they now number in the hundreds.

The vast majority of the emails I have received are badly written. I often have a problem understanding what it is they want me to review, and sometimes even what they want me to do in order to get the product. Some emails end up in my spam/junk folder, while others have subject lines that read like they should have gone to my spam folder.

Here we are going to go over how to write a compelling email that potential reviewers actually want to open, and more importantly, understand.

From the Reviewers’ perspective

In the vast majority of cases, Reviewers are really looking forward to getting emails from Sellers asking them to review products. Some reviewers sign up for campaign companies that send them alerts of new products, but for the most part they have followed the steps on my previous post “How to get free products to review on Amazon” and are waiting for you, the Seller, the find their email in their Amazon profile and contact them with an offer.

This is key: most are waiting for your email. You don’t really need to sell them on why it is important to a Seller to have reviews on Amazon—they get it, and are ready to review.

Cut through the clutter: write a great subject line

You are not the only person sending them emails. And if other Reviewers are like me, I have put my ‘junk email address’ on my Amazon Profile to keep my ‘good email address’ somewhat clean of spam. You are also competing with a ton of other people sending them emails: family, spammers, Facebook notifications, etc.

Your subject line does double-duty here: one for getting their attention and another for helping them find your email later (we’ll talk more about the latter in a bit.)

Let’s start with some of the bad subject lines sitting in my inbox now

• review7
• Top Amazon Reviewer
• Fall in Love with Scratch Concealer

The first one “review7” is not a typo on my part. This kind of subject line— just one word, often “review”—doesn’t tell me anything about the email and can get overlooked. I now know to open these, but new Reviewers may not.

The second one “Top Amazon Reviewer” may get opened more than the first, but again, doesn’t tell me anything about what I can expect in the email. If I am busy I will likely skip it.

The third “Fall in Love with Scratch Concealer” is getting more common in Seller emails, yet still does not help me understand that it is an email asking my review a product in exchange. These types of subjects are simply the tagline or marketing copy for the product, and in some cases can be confused for spam, never to be opened.

Examples of good subject lines for Seller emails

These too are pulled from actual Seller emails I have received.

• invite to review product from the seller on Amazon
• Ridiculously Comfortable Travel Pillow Awaits Your Review!
• Product review Free Coupon code – Stainless Steel Zester Grater (Black)

The first example “invite to review product from the seller on Amazon” is a good start. I see some keywords here that pique my interest to open it: “review”, “seller” and “Amazon”. But, it’s missing something that will make it a great subject line and differentiate itself from the others in my inbox. The other two have that…

The second example I just received today. Right off the bat they tell me that a comfortable pillow is waiting for me. What makes it great is that if I am not interested in pillows I can save my valuable time and skip this email. It’s also telling me that it’s not just any run of the mill pillow, but a “Ridiculously Comfortable” one. Cool! Now I am interested, and open it up.

The third example is great because it tells me that the product is “free” AND what type of product it is. In the pillow example above, I’m not sure if the product is being offered at a discount or for free. So, I still have to open it up to find out. In some cases, I get real intrigued by the subject line only to find that it’s a 10% off coupon. Boo.

How I would write subject lines

Make sure you have the three important pieces of information: request for review, cost, and the product title (keep it short).

Examples of subject lines I would write for an “LCD Projector”:

• Review this LCD Projector for free on Amazon
• Product review: LCD Projector with coupon for 99% off
• LCD Projector needs product reviews. Full discount available to first 49 replies.

NOTE: keep in mind that you are playing with fire using some of these terms, such as “free”, “discount”, and “coupon.” They are traditionally spam triggers, so your emails may end up in the spam folder if you use them too much in your emails.

The contents of the email

Now that the potential reviewer has opened your email, you need to write succinct, factual and interesting copy. In my opinion, many Sellers overdo it in this area. They write too much and say too little. Again, your potential Reviewers are busy people with inboxes that are likely overflowing. So, let’s get to the point.

You simply need to convey the following:

• What you are looking to get reviewed
• Links to the Amazon product detail page for the product(s)
• The cost of the product the Reviewer is expected to pay
• Any deadlines or other mandatories (such as a video review)
• Your name and company info

What you are looking to get reviewed & links

This is where you will present the product(s’) name, brief description (a couple lines will do), and link to the product(s’) detail page(s).

The cost of the product the Reviewer is expected to pay

This is important. Be upfront about the cost to the Reviewer in the initial email. Don’t be elusive about it or play games by making them find out in the checkout it is only a 90% off coupon. State clearly that the product is being offered for “free”, or at a discount. And state exactly what that discount is. If it will bring the price down to $1, then say that. If the coupon code is only for 90% off, then say that.

Any deadlines or other mandatories

Do you need the reviews to be posted within a specific period of time after they receive the product? Then say so before they buy it. Some Sellers have asked that I post my review within a week after receiving it, others have stated a specific calendar date (“Nov 23rd”). Another Seller stated that I had to post a video review of no less than 1 minute. You don’t have to have a deadline date, but if it is important to you, please state it upfront.

Your name and company info

More real world examples of bad signatures in Sellers’ emails:

• Best regards Gaga
• (no name, no company, no signature at all)
• Bfun

None of the above email signatures help me feel like you are a real person, a real Seller on Amazon, let alone a real company! If you are asking me to pay money for your product and enter into a ‘handshake’ agreement to write a review for you, at least give me some info about who you are.

This is how you should sign off at the end of an email asking a person to review your product:

Thank you!
Mike Wilcox
Founder of Wilcox Magic Pillows
Amazon Storefront (link)

Feel free to add more information like a link to your website, Twitter or Facebook page. Keep in mind this is a business transaction, so treat it that way and be professional.

An example email

Here is an example email I wrote for the “LCD projector” I used above. Feel free to copy this and make it your own.

Subject line:
“Product review: LCD Projector with coupon for 99% off”

Email body:
I noticed you write product reviews on Amazon. We are looking for 49 people in the U.S. to test and write an unbiased and honest review for our latest 1080p LCD Projector. It is compatible with Mac and PC, and has HDMI, USB, composite, and s-video ports for flexible input options.

The 1080p LCD Projector on Amazon: (put link here)

We are requesting that reviews be written and posted to Amazon within 10 days of receiving the item. If you cannot do this, please do not request a coupon code.

If you are interested in reviewing this projector, please reply to this email and we will send an Amazon coupon code that will bring the price down to $5.99.

To ensure your review is in compliance with Amazon’s Review Creation Guidelines, please write “I received this at a discount to evaluate and provide an unbiased review” in your review.

Thank you!
Billy Bologna
Sr. Marketing Manager
Acme Electronics
Our Amazon Storefront

Or, for when you are shipping it to them directly…

Subject line:
“Product review: LCD Projector, ships direct from Acme”

Email body:
I noticed you write product reviews on Amazon. We are looking for 49 people in the U.S. to test and write an unbiased and honest review for our latest 1080p LCD Projector. It is compatible with Mac and PC, and has HDMI, USB, composite, and s-video ports for flexible input options.

The 1080p LCD Projector on Amazon: (put link here)

We are requesting that reviews be written and posted to Amazon within 10 days of receiving the item. If you cannot do this, please do not request a sample item.

If you are interested in reviewing this projector, please reply to this email with your name and shipping address, and we will ship it to you directly.

To ensure your review is in compliance with Amazon’s Review Creation Guidelines, please write “I received this at a discount to evaluate and provide an unbiased review” in your review.

Thank you!
Billy Bologna
Sr. Marketing Manager
Acme Electronics
Our Amazon Storefront

Be sure to include a link to the Amazon detail page for your product. This is very important for those of you sending items directly (see last paragraph below.)

Also, if you are shipping the item directly to the Reviewer, PLEASE send a confirmation email that you have sent them the item. So many Sellers just silently send the item—we often have no idea if you got our reply email and shipped it.

Things that you should NOT put in your emails to Reviewers

NEVER put the following on your emails:

• “Please give us a 5-star rating” – this is strong-arming the Reviewer and goes against the community guidelines of “writing an unbiased and honest review”.
• “Please vote ‘helpful’ on other reviews for this product” – this is part of the voting game and not allowed. In fact, Amazon is suing 1,114 reviewers for this sort of activity.
• “You buy the product and we’ll send you a gift card for the cost of it” – Again, payment and gift cards is expressly forbidden in the Review Creation Guidelines.
• (No link included in email.) “Search Amazon for ‘Acme LCD Projector’, then put in Wish List, then…” – My god, no. This tactic is being used to inflate Seller’s search rankings by making dozens or hundreds of people do fake searches on Amazon hoping Amazon sees they are getting organically popular. When Amazon finds out—and they will—your Seller account may be closed. Just put the detail page link in the email.

I also HIGHLY recommend you NOT put coupon codes in your initial emails. Sure, it makes it easy for you to blast a 100 or so Reviewers and those that are interested can just buy it without replying. But the problem is that many reviewers will get to the checkout and find the coupon code expired or no longer working because too many people already used it, likely because someone shared it publicly. This practice is often frustrating for Reviewers.

Why subject lines and well-written emails matter to direct shipments

We learned that subject lines and body copy of an email helps people understand what you want reviewed and how we are going to get it. But, if you are offering to send an item directly, know that the Reviewers do NOT have the luxury of going into our Orders on Amazon to click on the “Write a Review” button. We have to search through our emails to find the one you sent with the link to the product detail page. If your email is badly written—such as missing the title of the product—how are we supposed to find it? Doing a search on Amazon could come up with numerous lookalike products, causing a Reviewer to write a review on the wrong product!