The ultimate guide to boost your Google reviews through direct email PLUS templates, best practices, tips and tricks!
Google reviews can do magic things for your company! They can increase your business credibility, reputation, and prove that you are worth investing in. Who doesn’t want that?
Another very important thing to remember is that positive customer feedback on Google My Business can really improve your SEO ranking, something essential if you have a website and want to appear in the first results on Google Search and on Maps.
But how can these reviews help you with your SEO ranking?
You might think that feedback saying, “I really liked their (specific) product/service, it is amazing,” isn’t all that helpful – but let’s have a think with “Google’s mind”:
In link-building, you work to get backlinks from other companies/websites. When a search engine comes to a website and discovers your backlinks, it tells Google that the content shown on that linked web page on your site is reliable and valuable – and that’s because another website is referring to you.
Now, when comparing this to ratings, it pretty much works exactly the same way. A positive rating tells Google that your company is authentic and trustworthy, adding a good extra point to your SEO score.
For even more evidence of the weight of Google reviews (and ratings combined), see these factors listed here, which support the weight of local rankings.
Source: Moz
Also, the more positive feedback you get, the more stars you’ll achieve on Google’s quality score. And as a result of this, you’re probably going to get more traffic to your website (and conversions) just because people like products/services that other people trust!
Reviews affect user experience, click-through rate, and how other people see your company.
Here are some statistics that show the power of online reviews:
- 63.6% of consumers tend to check the Google reviews of a company before visiting its website.
- 94% of people say that an online review has convinced them to avoid a business altogether.
- 90% of consumers read 10 or fewer online reviews until they think they can trust a company.
- Positive customer reviews can increase conversions by 270%.
Today, buyers and consumers turn to reviews for validation of your product or service. Reviews also help your company stand out among competitors and provide insights into what your business is doing well and also what you can improve on.
But unfortunately, you can’t just take a few reviews for granted and think it’s all done; 85% of consumers don’t take into consideration reviews that were written over three months ago and 40% will only seek reviews from the last two weeks.
That’s why it’s important to regularly ask your customers for Google reviews – and always maintain excellent customer service to ensure the feedback is great. The social proof is in the numbers – now you just have to get those reviews posted online!
How to ask customers to leave a review
If you’re wondering how to get more Google reviews, the answer is quite easy:
Honestly, all you need to do is just ask!
Don’t beat around the bush when it comes to asking for a review – and my experience shows that sending a direct email with your request is the best way to get a response.
However, there are a few points to consider before sending a message asking a customer for a Google review. Let’s see the best practices to get as many responses as we can!
Which customers should I ask?
While you think it might be a good idea at first, don’t send a review request to every single customer you’ve had.
You want the reviews to come from your satisfied customers – they are the ones who are the happiest with your business because their reviews can turn people into advocates for your company’s brand.
A good tip I can give you on how to find advocates for your brand is to monitor who is talking about your products (or service) on social media. If they are already saying kind words to all their friends and followers about you, they’ll be more likely to leave a great review on Google My Business as well!
When should you ask for a review?
The key to getting your customers to write good reviews is to ask them at the right time. You will have a better chance of getting a review when you have proven your value to them in some way — and when they feel leaving a review will be valuable to you as well.
Here are some great times to ask for feedback from your customers:
After a specific goal:
Customer goals may seem small, but they are the perfect time for you to request a review. Such goals could include situations like:
- When a customer returns to your store and makes a purchase.
- When they’ve already used your service for a specific period of time.
- When they receive a discount from a loyalty program because they have purchased your items a certain number of times.
These milestones are probably a good indicator that customers like the products or services you offer, and there’s no better time to ask for feedback than when your customers show they enjoy doing business with you.
After launching new features:
When your business releases new features or products that make your customers’ lives easier, it is a good idea to ask for a review a few weeks after the release.
Your existing customers may be happy with the updates you’ve made, and will probably make an effort to submit an excellent review while the new features are still fresh in their minds.
When you are reaching out to your customers:
Your customer support representatives should touch base with customers from time to time to see if they are enjoying your products or services.
This invites verbal feedback from your clients and allows your customer support representative to help them with any other problems or doubts they may have.
If there are no issues or if the support is able to solve any client problems, it’s a great time to ask for a review, so customers can share their amazing experience of how you care about their satisfaction.
When the product delivery is complete:
Most people get excited when they receive a package in the mail – and a great time to ask for customer feedback is right after they open the package.
You can include a friendly note on your packages asking clients to complete an evaluation. A nice handwritten note, an aesthetically appealing card, or anything that catches the customer’s attention can increase your chances of getting a review from them.
After you have provided a service or sold a product
When helping customers over the phone or in person, it’s good practice to ask for a review as soon as you have finished the call or transaction. If your customers’ needs are well met and you provide great service, they’ll probably agree to write a review, especially if it is fresh in their minds.
Directly sending an email:
What to include when requesting customer’s feedback:
After you’ve decided to whom and when your review request strategy may apply, it’s time to draft! When you ask customers to evaluate your company, use these best practices.
1. Personalise your message:
Make your client feel special – you won’t get a review with a boring, desperate email saying, “Evaluate us, please!” – it’s definitely not going to work.
Personalise your email to customers by including their first name, company name and even mentioning the specific product or service they bought.
If you’re using HubSpot personalisation tokens* when writing your email it will take no more time than usual and will make a big impression on your customer.
Remember to keep a casual tone when asking for a review – if you sound desperate or needy, it will just turn customers away and that’s exactly the opposite of what you want!
*HubSpot personalisation token: With personalisation tokens, you can show personalised content to your contacts based on their property values in your CRM. Personalisation can increase engagement with your website and email campaigns. You can personalise content in your HubSpot emails, website pages, and landing pages with any default contact property or custom contact property.
2. Keep it short:
The most important thing about asking a customer for a Google review is to keep it short, simple, and get straight to the point. You are already asking them to take the time to leave a review, so don’t waste any more time getting them to read a novel.
Your email should thank them for their trust in your business, mention why you are asking for a review, explain how to leave a review, and let them know approximately how long it should take.
3. Include a review link:
This is the “cherry on top” of your strategy: make it as easy as possible for your customer to leave a review by providing a direct link to it!
If you’re asking for a review and you don’t provide a link they can easily click on, they’ll probably get lost and then not want to waste their time looking for your Google My Business account to leave their feedback.
But the good news is that you can easily generate a Google review link that will take your customer to the specific page where the review form will automatically appear.
This is how you can generate your personal review link:
Computer
- On your computer, sign in to Google My Business.
- If you have multiple locations, open the location you want to manage.
- In the left menu, click Home.
- In the “Get more reviews” card, you can copy your short URL to share with customers.
Mobile
- On your mobile device, open the Google My Business app .
- If you have multiple locations, open the location you want to manage.
- Tap Customers Reviews.
- In the top right, tap Share .
- Copy your short URL to share with customers.
When customers click your link, they can rate your business and leave a review. It’s that easy!
4. Test different messages and find your sweet spot:
You don’t know what kind of message will work until you actually try a few different ones. Test different emails to different customers and then track and compare the results of each one.
But remember to modify each email for every individual customer – not all customers are the same, and you really don’t want to treat them as if they are.
Use your top-performing messages as a general guide for sending feedback request emails later. This testing (also called as A/B test) can help you identify and improve your best-performing email template and hopefully you’ll get new customer reviews every time you send an email asking.
Templates to help you get started!
Now that you know some of the best practices, you’re ready to draft your own email and start bringing home some Google reviews for your business.
Here are some generic templates you can use to help you get started:
1. Product review – email template
Hi [CUSTOMER FIRST NAME] ,
Thank you for your recent purchase of [PRODUCT TYPE] with [YOUR COMPANY NAME] ! We really appreciate your decision to shop with us and we truly value you as a client.
Customer satisfaction is extremely important to us, and we would love to hear your comments about how you felt about purchasing from us and about your product!
If you could take a few minutes to leave us a review on Google [INCLUDE LINK], we would be very happy and thankful!
To submit your review, just click below and give us your feedback!
[INSERT CTA / BUTTON WITH GOOGLE REVIEW LINK]
Thank you in advance for leaving a review!
If you have questions or want to talk directly about your [PRODUCT TYPE], feel free to contact us [INCLUDE LINK] at any time.
Sincerely,
[NAME OF YOUR SALES REPRESENTATIVE].
2. Service Evaluation – email template
Hi [CUSTOMER FIRST NAME] ,
Thank you for choosing [THE NAME OF YOUR COMPANY] to help you with [TYPE OF SERVICE].
We truly value and appreciate your trust in our services.
Customer satisfaction is extremely important to us, so we’d love to hear how you feel about the recent service we did for you!
If you have a few minutes, we would really appreciate a quick Google review rating for [our / name of the employee who worked with them] performance.
To submit your feedback, click on the link below and tell us your thoughts!
[INSERT CTA / BUTTON WITH GOOGLE REVIEW LINK]
Thank you in advance for leaving a review! If you have questions or want to talk directly about your [SERVICE TYPE], please feel free to contact us [INCLUDE LINK] at any time.
Sincerely,
[NAME OF YOUR SALES REPRESENTATIVE].
3. Experience Feedback – email template
Hello [CUSTOMER FIRST NAME] ,
How was your [TYPE OF EXPERIENCE] at [NAME OF YOUR COMPANY] ?
We are always looking to improve our service and we love getting feedback from our visitors about what they liked best.
So please, could you leave us a Google Review on this link [INCLUDE LINK]?
It will take just two minutes and we would be very excited to read what you think of us!
To submit your review, just click below and give us your feedback!
[INSERT CTA / BUTTON WITH GOOGLE REVIEW LINK]
Thank you in advance for rating your experience with us!
If you have any questions or would like to come and enjoy [TYPE OF EXPERIENCE] again, feel free to contact us [INCLUDE LINK] at any time.
Sincerely,
[NAME OF YOUR SALES REPRESENTATIVE]
5 other proven techniques for asking for more Google reviews
While emails are the best way for connecting with customers and getting reviews there are a few other methods you can try if they apply to your business.
Ask directly:
If you meet with customers and clients in person regularly, you have the option of inviting them directly to write you a review. While it may seem easier to just send a link later, asking them face-to-face can have more impact and get immediate positive results.
But keep in mind that when you ask for a review directly, it’s essential to have a card or some other collateral material with the Google review link included to hand to your client. With this reminder, they will be much more likely to leave their feedback, knowing where to go if they forget.
Add review links in multiple places:
It’s not always feasible to have long conversations with all of your customers, so include requests for reviews on different business materials, such as on your website, on a shopping bag, on a communication board, on your menu or on other items used every day.
Request feedback in your newsletters:
Newsletters are a great place to include review requests. They allow you to update your current and potential customers on what is happening with your business – and adding the review link can be a way to find out who your brand ambassadors are and increase your number of reviews
Make the section where you request reviews small – but obvious – and include a Call To Action that says something like “Tell us what you like best about your most recent purchase with us.”
Mention it on social media:
A large number of people spend lots of their time browsing social media – and if your company engages with customers on social media, you can easily solicit candid reviews on these platforms.
Consider posting the review link in your bio or directly in one of your posts to make it accessible for customers to click through and rapidly leave a review – remember to make their life easier!
Include review requests in CTAs:
Adding feedback requests to the CTAs on your website is a great way to indirectly request a review. You can place touchpoints on different pages, such as your home page, your blog, or a product or menu page.
Make sure that the CTA is relevant to the touchpoints and attention-grabbing so that you can start to see an increase in Google reviews.
Conclusion:
It’s nice to hear positive feedback from customers. It makes you feel like you are doing things well in your business. For those customers who submit comments, respond to them directly, as this shows their opinion is important to you.
Importantly, did you know that responding to reviews can improve your SEO as well?
Actually, on the Google My Business support page, Google encourages businesses to respond to reviews because it shows that you value and appreciate your customers’ feedback.
” Positive, high-quality reviews from your customers will improve your company’s visibility and increase the likelihood that a potential customer will visit your location. “
So hint, if Google is telling you to do this, it means you probably should!
While other SEO efforts are designed to achieve first place in the search results, getting high-quality business reviews can also help you to establish much important credibility behind your brand.
Focus on your satisfied customers to get positive feedback about your business. Soon, you’ll have those five beautiful stars associated with your company’s search results – and potential consumers love to see that!
Contact us if you need help with any of this, that’s what we’re here for.
Now it’s time for you to get some reviews and skyrocket your business!