How to Get More Product Reviews Using Email Campaigns

If collecting product reviews hasn’t been a priority in your marketing strategy so far, now's the time to make it happen. First thing first is always to start sending review requests to new customers, but there’s more you can be doing. Turning to previous customers for reviews is a great place to start when kicking your online reviews into action.

Want to jump ahead? - FAQ

How do I send a Campaign on Junip?
How far back should I send the Campaign?
What should the email say?
What should the email look like?
Should I offer a discount for product reviews?
How do I get more photo reviews from my customers?
What makes a review verfied?

Get honest reviews by sending Campaigns to previous customers

If you want to get reviews from previous customers, all you have to do is ask. The best way to do this is with a Campaign! They’re sent to customers who have already purchased from you and ask them to write a review. You should only target verified customers who haven't left a review yet or received a review request. The goal is to thank customers for their purchases and ask them to leave a review. The email should also have a clear CTA that brings customers to a review form for the specific product they purchased.

When to send a Campaign:

You’re starting from scratch and have just started gathering reviews
When you previously collected reviews through an on-site review form (i.e. customers could only leave a review on your product page)
Migrating to a new review provider to automate review requests for the first time
Your reviews aren't verified

Benefits of sending a Campaign

If you’re selling online, you already know how important product reviews are for conversion. It’s easy to assume that the more reviews you get the more your conversion rate will increase. However, that’s not exactly true. A study by Northwestern University found that the purchase likelihood of a product increases the most within the first 5 reviews. In fact, it becomes 270% greater in products with at least 5 reviews than those with zero. This doesn’t mean that you should stop caring about reviews once your product has 5. It simply means that a product’s initial reviews have the biggest impact and that getting your first 5 is the key to unlocking the power of reviews.

So, what’s the easiest way to get to 5 reviews on all your products and fast? You guessed it - a Campaign. Running Campaigns are an easy win that quickly brings in volumes of new reviews.

When Sleepy Owl, a venture-backed coffee company started gathering reviews with Junip last month - they were starting at zero. In less than 48 hours using Campaigns, they had 200+ reviews overall and every product on their site had a review. Overnight they managed to pull in 6 months' worth of reviews.

On the other hand Trulean, an all-natural supplement company, migrated to Junip last year so they could power their review requests with Junip’s Postscript integration. After sending just one Campaign, they almost doubled their number of reviews and had close to 2,000 product reviews overall.

These brands are powerful examples that show how successful Campaigns can be in generating reviews regardless of how many you start off with.

Not only do Campaigns get you more customer reviews, but they also re-engage old online shoppers with your brand. Even more so when you offer an incentive. You’re returning the favor when you offer a discount to customers who leave reviews on your products. This makes for more happy customers and brings you more reviews with a side of revenue when they use their discount.

Junip’s review forms bring customers back to your site after submitting a review. This means that with every new review, a returning customer is directed back to your site. These returning customers are your best friend, as they’re more likely to convert and they have higher order values on average. As your star rating begins to increase, your conversion rates will too.

How to send a Campaign

The first important step is choosing a date range to send the Campaign to. We recommend not sending to customers who have made a purchase more than 6 months ago, as they're often less likely to leave a review.

Tip: It’s important to only solicit reviews from verified customers. Third-party review sites like Junip verify this for you!

The next step is deciding how to send your Campaign - email or SMS? Both are great channels for reaching customers but the decision ultimately depends on what channels you see the best engagement with already.

Email is a tried and true way to send Campaigns and yields excellent results. Many brands use SMS as the cherry on top of their marketing communications, keeping the number of messages to a minimum to ensure an enjoyable customer experience.

For example: send an initial review request email to kick off your Campaign, and send a reminder SMS to customers who didn’t take action on the previous email.

Leveraging integrations in your Campaigns

If you want to take your Campaigns to the next level, Junip offers integrations with your favorite ESPs like Klaviyo, Postscript, Drip, Omnisend, etc., so you can fully customize email templates and send Campaigns via SMS.

For example, if you’re using Klaviyo, you can build a Campaign flow that is triggered when you create a Campaign in Junip (more here on how to do this).

This also means that you can create additional segments of customers who receive the Campaign, such as customers who made 1+ purchases. For some brands, additional segmentation comes in handy when they want more reviews for a certain product. Junip's event variables can help you do this.

Overall, leveraging integrations can help you double down on the success of your Campaign and put your reviews into action

Running Your First Campaign - FAQ

When it comes to running your first Campaign, there are a few things you want to keep in mind.

Q: How do I send a Campaign on Junip?

First, you have to be signed up with Junip and have the app installed on your Shopify store. Then all you need to do is go to your Campaigns section in your Junip admin and select the date range you want to send to (see this help doc for more detailed instructions).

Q: How far back should I send the Campaign?

We recommend not going back any further than 6 months when soliciting reviews from previous customers. While sending the Campaign all the way back to your first few customers may boost the number of reviews you could get, it’s not always effective. Some customers might feel like you're spamming them and in turn, leave a negative review.

Tip: send Campaigns in batches - start by going back 1-2 months at a time and monitor engagement. If engagement drops at the 6-month mark, that's usually a good indicator to not go back any further.

Q: What should the email say?

It’s important to keep in mind that these are existing customers you’re talking to and you’re essentially asking them for a favor. It’s always a good idea to express your appreciation for their purchase and use language with a friendly and personable tone. The email should make the customer feel special and valued. A good way to do this is by customizing the email with their first name or even using the name of your company as the sender and sign off.

For example, Stacey Keller, the founder of Ponyback, does an amazing job with the copy of her review requests. Stacey makes it a point to treat her customers as a friend and communicate how much she appreciates their feedback. Take a look!

Q: What should the email look like?

Like any marketing email, you want to make sure it’s consistent with the branding of your other emails - meaning the same font, colors, logos, and verbiage. Too much text should be avoided, usually, 3-4 lines of text are enough. Graphics and large CTA buttons that grab the reader’s attention are also effective ways to get customers to take action.

Here’s an example of the email that Huron, a men’s skincare company, sends to their customers. They use consistent branding, have a clear CTA, and added that special touch having a real team member as the signoff.

You can see more templates and example emails from brands using Junip here!

Q: Should I offer a discount for customer reviews?

Even if a customer is obsessed with their purchase it still might not incentivize them enough to leave a good review. Sometimes offering an incentive like a discount or coupon code is that extra push they need. Offering a bigger discount than normal can make this a win-back Campaign to drive sales and get more reviews. When a customer uses the discount at checkout that means they’re a returning customer who left a review, therefore you can track how much revenue the Campaign brought in.

Q: How do I get more photo reviews from my customers?

Junip uses tiered incentives that reward customers with a bigger incentive when they leave a review with media content. This is a great way to collect more user-generated content (UGC) and your customers will appreciate all the photo + video reviews.

Tip: Photo reviews are a great form of content to share on your social media (ex. Facebook page, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.) that build trust and act as social proof for potential customers.

Q: What makes a review verified?

A review is verified only when the person who left the review is a confirmed customer. Junip's email review requests that use email confirmation will automate this verification process for you. Whereas sites like Amazon and other large retailers, don't enforce this standard and it can be hard to build trust with customers with unverified reviews.

When it comes to customer reviews, the bottom line is that you simply need more. The key is to create a Campaign that will give you the best chance of getting them. Junip gives you the tools to do exactly this. With fully customized emails, integrations with your favorite ESPs, and automated segmentation - Campaigns are a guaranteed way to get you more reviews.