When you sell on Etsy, you definitely want to encourage people to leave reviews, because it helps your shop build a good quality rating.
But how do you encourage people to leave a review without being obnoxious? Since Etsy sends a lot of reminders about reviews, how much is too much?
What are some subtle ways to ask for a review that won’t irritate customers?
Some ways to ask for a review on Etsy are to add a message to the outgoing order email that Etsy sends, and to add some printed materials into the package itself. You can’t offer anything like a coupon or free items in exchange for a review, and you should keep in mind the fact that Etsy sends out feedback reminders to customers already.
Table of Contents
- What messages can you send to customers?
- Can you send emails or Etsy convos asking for reviews?
- What messages does Etsy send?
- Can you send people inserts in packaging asking for reviews?
- Can you send coupons in exchange for reviews?
- How to add an automatic message to your orders on Etsy.
Some of the links in this article are affiliate links that will pay me a small commission if they’re used to purchase something. To see the entire affiliate policy click here.
What messages can you send to customers?
The only messages that you can send to customers on Etsy need to be about things that are directly related to the order itself. Spam laws in most countries limit contacting customers to “transactional” communications, which need to be directly tied to the order itself.
This basically means that you can’t randomly email people or send them convos unless you’re communicating with them about an order.
If someone signs up for your email list on their own, you can email them, but you can’t take an email from an Etsy order and add people to your list without their permission.
In the same way, you need to be careful about sending emails and convos to people outside the reasonable time period that their order took place.
Can you send emails or Etsy convos asking for reviews?
You can send an Etsy convo to ask for a review if the order has been delivered, and it’s not too long after the customer received it. There’s a 100-day window to leave a review, but waiting that long is going to seem weird to most people.
If you have people who haven’t left reviews within a week after the item was delivered, you might want to send a VERY short convo thanking them for their purchase and asking if they would leave a review.
If you add the link to the purchases and reviews section from your shop profile, the link will take the customer to their own account when they’re signed in, so that makes it easy for people to find it.
Review request message example:
Hi- I’m checking in to see if you’re enjoying your product, and whether there’s anything else I can help you with. If you love it, I’d appreciate it if you could take a minute to leave a review, because 5-star reviews help my shop a lot. This is the link to get to the review page if you’re signed in to your account: https://www.etsy.com/your/purchases
Does sending this message run the risk of reminding someone that they should be leaving a low review? Yes, it could.
But on the other hand, it’s probably worth the risk if you are a newer shop that needs reviews.
Most people will let you know if they had a problem if you approach them this way, and that will give you a chance to help them out, which could then lead to a good review!
Keep in mind that if someone checked out as a guest, they can’t leave a review for that item unless they register and claim it, so it’s best to not ask people who did the guest checkout since it involves more work for them.
What messages does Etsy send?
Etsy sends multiple feedback reminders to customers after the review window has opened, so you might not want to add to the number of review requests your customers receive. This is a personal decision since newer shops can benefit from reviews a lot, and it’s probably worth asking for them, while more established shops might get a lot of reviews without having to ask.
Etsy has really started sending so many messages and reminders asking for people to leave feedback that it gets to the point of annoying people, so you don’t want to add to that.
Some people in my Facebook group have said that people have left low reviews that say things like “I’m not reviewing the product, I’m reviewing the harassment to leave a review.”
That’s clearly not what you want, so if that happens don’t contact the customer with a request to remove it, because they’re probably not going to appreciate more harassment. Just report the review to Etsy and try to have it removed.
Can you send people inserts in packaging asking for reviews?
You can add promotional materials to your packages, and you can definitely put a card in that has a review reminder on it. Don’t put too much in a package, though, because a lot fo people won’t bother to go through all of your business cards and other materials if there’s too much.
Remember that the date that the package arrives might be before the review period opens, so customers might not be able to leave a review if they try too soon.
Don’t expect people to run and leave a review just because you added a card to the package, most people don’t work that way!
But putting a reminder into the package is fine, and it’s less intrusive than sending a ton of messages.
Another thing that you can do is to write a hand-written note to orders thanking the customer and asking for a review.
This usually works pretty well because it’s more personal than an email, and people tend to respond positively to that.
Can you send coupons in exchange for reviews?
As a general rule, most countries have laws around product reviews, and paying for a product review isn’t allowed. This includes offering anything of value in exchange for a review. There’s a lot of debate about whether asking for an “honest review” counts as long as the person can still get the coupon if they leave a bad review, but to be on the safe side, don’t give things in exchange for reviews.
The FTC guidelines for online reviews
specifically say that if you give something in exchange for a review, whether it’s a good or bad one, the person who leaves the review has to say that they received something in exchange for it.
Since customers aren’t going to do that, it’s better to just leave the incentives out.
You can set up a thank you coupon that Etsy will send automatically, though, and since it won’t be tied to a request for a review, it’s compliant with the laws around that.
For a more in-depth article about sending coupon codes to buyers on Etsy, click here.
How to add an automatic message to your orders on Etsy.
The easiest way to send a request for feedback is to add an automatically-sent message to the order confirmation and the receipt. To do this, go to your shop settings and the info and appearances tab, then scroll down to add a message to buyers. This will be sent to buyers after a sale and will appear on the receipt.
Setting up a thank you message means that the customer will have it included on the update emails that Etsy sends when the order is shipped and delivered, so you can add a reminder to leave a review here.
This is an automatic way to send a reminder without being overwhelming to the customer, since it just adds something to the existing emails that are sent out anyway.
Message to buyer examples:
You can see Birgit’s message in the photo above, and this is the message that I send to my Etsy customers automatically when they buy something:
“Thanks for your order! Remember that you can go to acaketoremember.com and sign up to receive the newsletter and a discount code that you can use on future purchases. By signing up you’ll receive news about new items, upcoming sales for club members only, and other decorating ideas.
“If you have any problems with your purchases please contact me. If you love your purchase please take a minute to go to your Etsy profile and leave a 5-star review, and make sure to post a picture of your project!”
To see the full Artisan Shopping Directory sections, including signups for discounts, click here.
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