How to: Create a Successful SMS Campaign for Reviews

Everyone wants their business reviewed in a positive light. But sometimes getting great reviews can be like pulling teeth. People keep buying your product, but they don’t want to write […]

Everyone wants their business reviewed in a positive light. But sometimes getting great reviews can be like pulling teeth. People keep buying your product, but they don’t want to write about it. That’s where an SMS marketing campaign can help you. 90% of SMS are reviewed within 3 minutes of being received. There are a few great campaign styles you can use to effectively get reviews.

Before we get into the campaign styles, remember that every SMS campaign should follow SMS campaign best practices. If you’re feeling like that might be a TLDR moment, remember these things:

* Message during work hours

* Personalize your message

* Give people a way to opt out

* Make sure you have permission to contact by SMS

* Have a clear message

* Give people a way to respond

Try a Poll

You can do a fun, simple survey using emojis. Send people a text message asking them to text back one emoji if they like something, and another emoji if they don’t. If you want a review, ask them to text back on a scale of 1-5 for whatever emoji you’ve selected. You’ll send an opening message stating what you want them to do, and a follow up thanking them for their response. Because these aren’t very labor intensive, you don’t have to include an incentive. However, an incentive always helps! So consider adding in your opening message what they will get if they choose to participate.

Use Keywords

Send users a message asking them to text back a keyword if they want to provide a review or answer questions about something. What’s great about this, is they respond if they want to participate. You’re not forcing a survey on them or insisting on a review. Because they’ll have to type something out in response to a question, or provide a review, your opening message should include an incentive. For example: “Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Text back SHAMROCK and we’ll ask you for a review. After you provide a review, you’ll receive -add incentive here-.” If you want their name on the review, make sure you get permission from them to add a first name plus initial to the review.

Use a Link

If you use a link, you’re often asking someone to log in somewhere to provide a review. Make sure you tell people where the link is taking them. “Click here to log in and give us a review! In exchange we’ll give you 50% off your next purchase!” This is a great way to get people interested in doing a review. Be aware that because you’re asking for a bit more work – clicking a link, logging in, then writing a review – you need to offer a bigger incentive to do so.

Handling the Response

Your responses will range from nothing to active engagement. Nothing is what it sounds like – you send a message and you get nada. Inactive is when the customer receives the message, reads it and doesn’t take action. Active customers are those who engage with your offer and either complete it, or get through it partially – maybe for example they click the review link, then decide it’s too much effort and wander away.

Nothing and Inactive Customers

If you get nothing from a customer, you can try a follow up, or you can decide not to further waste your time and just wait until your next campaign when they might be more interested. If you can see a message has been read, you might follow up with a note that includes an incentive to encourage them to take action. For both these groups, if you used a high effort approach like clicking a link to write a review, you can also try a different, easier to complete campaign with them to see if they respond better.

Active Customers

For active customers, you can thank them and provide the incentive. Make note of who was active so that customers who respond the most can be included in special programs that offer them deals no one else has access to. This is a good way to grow customer loyalty and increase dollars spent on your products and services. For active customers who have something negative to say, you can ask them for feedback about what you can do better. This will make your business stronger in the long run, even if it’s not fun hearing what they have to say.

Tracking Customer Engagement

To track customers across multiple messaging platforms, a tool like Mitto Conversations will really help you. You can communicate back and forth over SMS, Viber, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and more. This allows you to create campaigns that reach more customers. You can also avoid overlap so customers don’t receive the same message across multiple channels. This tool helps you maintain all SMS campaign best practices and get the most out of any campaign you create.

To schedule messages, personalize them, track delivery, and see whether your SMS messages were opened, Mitto’s Campaign Manager is the answer. You can use this information to correct any delivery issues and determine what campaigns were most successful.

Contact Mitto today to start getting more out of your SMS campaigns!