Product and packaging inserts — or those printed materials you include with a package when shipping it off — are a fantastic way of building your brand, enhancing your marketing message, and increasing the odds of feedback. But before you throw in a postcard-sized piece of paper into dozens of boxes, FeedbackExpress has some important do’s and don’ts for maximum success.
Packing Insert Do’s:
- Ask for a review: The key thing here is to keep it neutral. Don’t ask for a positive or favourable review or incentivise your request, just ask that they leave one. Amazon has very clearly banned asking for favourable feedback and incentivising reviews, so stick to just asking for one.
- Explain what the product does: I ordered a hammock tent from Amazon a while ago. You’d think setting it up would be pretty self-explanatory, right? Attach the ropes to trees and get in the hammock. And it is pretty simple, but it turns out setting up a hammock requires a few details I was unaware of — that is, until I opened up my package and saw a simple infographic on what I needed to know. Helping your buyers settle into their new purchase as quickly and easily as possible really goes a long way in establishing yourself in their memories as a good, knowledgeable and trusted seller.
- Include your brand and logo: If you don’t include your brand and logo on the packaging insert, you might as well be sending a generic postcard. Packaging inserts are golden opportunities to further cement the relationship between your product and brand, as well as draw attention away from the competition.
- Work on securing the next sale: Just because your buyer received their product doesn’t mean the selling process is over. You want them to feel valued and motivated to make a repeat purchase, and a crucial place to do that is with your packaging insert, like offering a discount on the next thing they buy. If you’re worried about losing too much profit, maybe offer the discount on a slow-moving product — they get the discount and you move the item.
Packing Insert Don’ts:
- Violate Amazon’s Terms of Service: You have pretty wide autonomy in what you can include on packaging inserts, but you also need to stick to Amazon’s Terms of Service. Not doing so can lead to suspension or closure of your account, and that means zero sales.
- Incentivise reviews: We said this before, but we’ll say it again. Do not offer a discount or any kind of throwback in exchange for a review, and definitely don’t do it for a positive review.
- Skimp on the product packaging: You might have the best product or package insert ever, but if the overall packaging sucks, then you’re only hurting your chances of landing a great review and/or repeat sale. Follow our tips on how to use packaging to your benefit.
- Lead buyers away from Amazon: One thing you most definitely cannot do is try and divert buyers away from Amazon. It might be a bit more profitable to make a sale on your own site, but if you’ve sold the product on Amazon, your packaging insert has to stick within that frame. This means no calls to action that lead them away, like including your store email or URL.
- Trash talk the competition: Joe Blow might be your biggest competitor that you haven’t managed to topple just yet, but don’t be tempted to use the packaging insert to smear the seller. Stick to talking about how awesome you are and leave other sellers out of it.
Final Thoughts
Whether you create them yourself or hire a third-party to do the work for you, using packaging inserts on Amazon product shipments is a key way to build brand recognition and trust, increase future repeat sales and bump the odds up of getting more feedback. If you’re finding yourself stuck on the last one, that’s okay because there’s still another awesome solution out there: FeedbackExpress. By automating this part of the selling process, you can do much better at filling your Amazon page with more (positive) reviews so you rank higher and sell more. If you’re on the fence, then just sign up here and check things out with a free 14 day trial.
