As you probably know, effective marketing relies on putting the right message in front of your market at precisely the right time.

While email makes it possible to do this, it’s important you understand how to do it. As an Amazon seller, high-quality emails could take your business to the next level or they could be a complete waste of time.

We’ve identified three types of emails that are proven to build rapport with customers and increase the likelihood of earning those all-important product reviews.

Email Best Practices for Amazon Sellers

Before we look at these high-conversion emails, let’s cover a few basic notes about how to make the most of them:

• Don’t Send Too Many – After the third email, sending them can easily become counterproductive.
  You might actually end up with negative reviews because a customer found your emails excessive.
  With SMART you are not allowed to send more than three.

• Send Emails with Purpose – When sending emails, don’t pin your hopes of success on “casting a wide net.” Instead, take aim at specific targets. Each email should be produced with a specific reason in mind.
  Never send one without first considering what you hope to get out of it.

• Establish Concrete Goals – For most Amazon sellers, the most important metric they’ll use to measure their success is how many sales lead to positive product reviews.
  Track your success rate with this and then make small changes as necessary to improve it.

With all this in mind, let’s now look at the three types of emails Amazon sellers should be sending after every sale.

The Confirmation Email

Send this email whenever you receive an order confirmation.
Usually, you’ll receive this two days before the product arrives, so this email is a great way to build anticipation in the customer.
Don’t just send a “Thank you” email or a “Your order is shipped” email, though.
Amazon is already doing that for you. Instead, provide value.

Send an eBook or share some tips and tricks and how-tos for your product.

Don’t mention things like issues and problems.
This will remind many buyers to actively look for them.

The entire goal of this email is just to build rapport with the customer.
You’re not asking for anything. You’re just introducing yourself and opening the lines of communication.

You also want to remind them about the product: what it is and why it was such a good choice.

Here’s how the others are doing it:

 Hi [first name]!

Thanks again for ordering [[product-name]].

You can review the details of your order here [[order-link]].

According to the available tracking information, your item is already out for delivery.

If you have any questions about your order, please [[contact-us-link]] ASAP and I’ll reply to you as soon as possible.

I’m here to ensure you get the best possible customer support and are 100% satisfied with your purchase. 

Thank You,

[Your Name]

Pretty boring don’t you think?

2 Days After Their Product Is Delivered

2 days after their package has arrived is a good time to follow up with a customer.
At this point, they’ll still be very excited about their purchase.
The first impressions of their product will still be fresh in their minds, too.

This email is the one that should solicit a seller feedback.
We are testing the waters with this email to see if they are happy with their purchase.
If they are not, we will be able to remove the feedback and blacklist the buyers so they won’t receive any more emails from us.

Remind the customer of why they should be so pleased with their purchase so they’re more likely to leave a flattering review.

Here’s what normally this email looks like:

 Hi [[first-name]]!

I see that [[product-name]] recently arrived, so I wanted to check to make sure you’re 100% happy with your purchase.

Could I Ask You for One Small Favor?

I know your time is valuable, but I was hoping you could take a minute to leave me some feedback as a seller.
As a small business owner, I rely on this feedback to keep attract other customers.
Without them, I’d go out of business.

Your Feedback Is Very Important!

I would greatly appreciate it if you would leave me feedback by clicking here: [[seller-feedback-link]].

Thank you so much for being our best customer ever.

[Your Name]

This one converts about 2%. Not bad, Huh?

One Week After Delivery

After the customer has had the product for a week, they have probably experienced its full scope.

This third email is a fantastic way of bringing the purchasing cycle full circle by providing customer support, reviewing the value of their purchase (and, specifically, your brand), and get that product review.

Remember: you only want to send three emails. So if you haven’t received a product review at this point, this is your last opportunity to earn it.

While we recommend you send this email after a week from the day the product arrived, you could use a longer time frame. If you think your customer will need more time to truly experience the product, wait until you think that’s happened.

The other reason to wait is that the customer may write a review on their own volition, without any encouragement from you.

At the same time, the longer they wait to write the review, the less likely it is that they’ll bring strong emotions to it, which is exactly what you want.

Of course, as time goes on, they’ll also be less likely to actually write the review, even after you remind them.

 Hi [[first-name]]!

I just wanted to thank you for ordering [[product-name]].
Hopefully, you’ve had time to try it out and it’s met your every expectation.

Could I Ask You a Small Favor?

Product reviews are important to us. We’re just a small, family-owned business, so we need every purchase we can get and reviews give other customers the confidence to make them.

If you haven’t already, it would mean the world to us if you could take just two minutes to leave us a review.

We love hearing about how happy our customers are with their purchases.

If you’ve used your new [[product-name]] and are happy with it, please let others know [[product-review]]

If you’re not satisfied, for any reason, we would greatly appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns before you leave a review. All you need to do is email us and we’ll do anything we can to make you happy.

Thank you so much for being our best customer ever.

[Your Name]

You can throw in some humor and your logo, but it’s still lame.

Your Amazon Seller Emails Will Only Be as Good as Their Images

Earlier, we mentioned how important it was that you send out more than just an email of plaintext.

So while the text we just covered is important to emulate, don’t forget to include images in your messages, too.
The moment someone opens your email and sees an image, they’ll immediately feel the compulsion to see what the message holds.

Consider the following before you ever send another email to your customers:

• People form their first impressions in just 50 milliseconds – Managing Your Brand Reputation Online in 2015
• They remember about 20% of what they read but 80% of what they see – The Power of Visual Communication
• Visual IQ is growing so fast that, by 2018, 84% of communication will be visual – 014 Complete VNI Global IP Traffic Forecast for 2013-2018
• Posts (not strictly emails) with images receive 650% better engagement than posts with just text – Adobe Digital Index Q4 2013 Key Insights
• 65% of recipients prefer emails that are mostly just images; only 35% prefer them to be more text-heavy – The Ultimate List of Marketing Statistics

Lastly, always pick personal images for your emails. Those that feature people, especially happy people, do a better job of grabbing attention.

So, as you can see, adding compelling visuals to your emails isn’t just a good idea.
It will make all the difference in terms of your success rate.

The SMART Email Advantage

Instead of plain text emails, which show very little effort on your part, you want custom designs that tell your customers they’re more than just a number.
Show them you’ve gone the extra mile and they’ll be more likely to leave you a review and return to purchase more products.

Unfortunately, if you’re not a professional designer, this is hard to do.

Even if you do have impressive design skills and knowledge of HTML, Amazon will strip most of your work away – leaving a boring, plain-text email.

Those usually get deleted the moment they’re opened.

We designed SMART Followup to make it extremely easy to send high-quality, personalized emails that actually get read and trigger that valuable feedback every Amazon Seller wants.

With our drag-and-drop software, you can create your own beautifully-designed email in a matter of minutes or use one of our best-converting templates and modify it to fit your needs.

We even give you our most compelling subject lines, which are essential for getting any email opened in the first place.

Once it is opened, your customer will see their name in a beautifully-crafted header, so they’ll continue reading the rest of your message.

Begin using SMART Emails and you’ll not only see better open rates but an influx of customers leaving you reviews.

These emails take just minutes to create yet will greatly improve your success.

Go try it at rivercleaner.com