5 Reasons to Connect your Reviews Program with SMS

Businesses that know how to utilize the power of reviews in their marketing strategy enjoy high credibility, increased engagement and better overall performance.  

We have already gone through the leading benefits in our guide on why eCommerce brands need customer reviews. But what is the right channel to use in order to optimize the review requests and make sure they reach the right audience?

With the power of a single text message you can now reach out to your audience to request a product or site reviews, collect user-generated content (including photos and videos) and build long-lasting relationships with your customers.

Let us walk you through the 5 reasons why you should connect your Reviews program and Text marketing and how to capitalize on the high engagement and conversion rates of SMS as a channel.

Send Review Requests That Get Seen

SMS has proven to be the most powerful and highly engaging channel, with mind-blowing effectiveness. Text messages get delivered right away, without the need for internet connection. There is no spam folder and it’s not overcrowded like emails - where it is much more difficult to cut through the noise, especially around big retail events. After all, SMS enjoys a 98% open rate and 90% of the messages get read within 3 minutes.  

Brands that use text messages to send review requests see a 66% higher conversion rate than any other marketing channel! With such high open and conversion rates, SMS has become an undisputed leader, making it hard for other, more “traditional”, channels to compete.

Furthermore, SMS is personal and direct - you get to turn to your customers as dear old friends. Just think what appeals to you more: a generic “Your feedback is important to us” message, or the more personal and specific “Hey Jared, how did you like your new sneakers? Leave us a review at … and get 15% OFF your next purchase with us”.  Yeah, we thought so…

All this makes SMS the perfect channel for brands to collect reviews and photos - you’ll be sending requests that get seen, making sure you’ll extend purchases into valuable feedback.

Reach The Right Audience with the Right Message

As we already established, with its sky-high open rates SMS is the right channel if you want your message to be seen. But how can you make sure you will reach the right target audience and are not wasting time, resources and money by sending everyone the same message on various channels?

We all know where everyone is these days… That’s right - on their phones. Since the outbreak of the global pandemic in March 2020, mobile usage has increased by 30% and over 65% of customers claim they prefer to shop from their phones. According to Forbes, text messaging is the #1 preferred communication channel for Millennials. By deciding to leverage SMS to collect reviews, you are already one step closer to the right online audience, because they prefer to be contacted via this channel. 

SMS is a great way of reaching out to your customers with a personalized review request. Our advanced segmentation filters help merchants send tailored messages based on specific information about customers such as their geographic location, interests etc, or based on their previous shopping behavior: purchase frequency, AOV and more. This can help you increase the effectiveness of your campaigns, and collect A TON of reviews and photos.

Collect Reviews and Photos With a Single Click

Do you think you would collect more reviews if you could only simplify the process? 

The powerful synergy between Yotpo Reviews platform and SMSBump helps merchants collect reviews and photos from customers easier than ever before - through their phones. All shoppers need to do is follow the link in the text message. It.Is.That.Simple. Such a quick, one-step process will make your review collection rates hit the roof. 

And to give your customers an additional nudge, you can easily add a small incentive if they leave a review  - such as free shipping, or a small discount for their next purchase.

This is a great way to merge your text marketing and reviews program into one powerful system and amplify the many benefits to your business and customers.  

Get the Bigger Picture with Integrated Data

They say nowadays the most valuable commodity is information. And by integrating SMSBump with Yotpo Reviews you’ll have access to valuable data, such as your top purchased products, your products star rating, your top paying customers, most successful campaigns and much, much more. 

Use it to send ultra-personalized and actionable text messages. Combine it with the power of social proof and you’ll soon enjoy a boost in engagement and sky high conversion rates. 

Abandoned cart flows serve as a great example on how to use integrated data to maximize sales. Stats show that 9 out of 10 shoppers will leave your store without making a purchase. Sending automated messages is a great way to engage with them and recover churned sales. 

Let’s say a customer has left one or more products in their carts on your store. Wait 30 minutes and send them a short and sweet reminder in the form of a text message. Let people know that they have some best-selling items left in their cart. Social proof brings online shoppers reassurance that the product they are looking to purchase will meet their expectations. And last but not least - add a small incentive to seal the deal. Voilà!

To make things easier for you, we have prepared a sample Best-Rated Products in Abandoned Cart flow in our SMSBump library. All you need to do is adjust it to your liking and activate it in your store. 

Using a solid combination of connected platforms to manage your text marketing, loyalty & reviews programs will surely help you achieve an integrated approach, make the right decisions and multiply the effectiveness and overall performance of all your campaigns.

Boost CLV by Sending Offers to Engaged Customers

And last, but not least - having full integration between your Reviews and SMS programs will help you boost conversion rates and increase sales. Why? Sending an automated review request to someone who has just made a purchase from your store is much more likely to result in a valuable review. Combining it with a small incentive with their next purchase will nudge them to make another purchase, leading to an increase in customer lifetime value. 

You can play with the value of discount as well: you can ask your loyal customers to leave a review, but you can incentivize not-so-frequent buyers with something extra: a small discount can go a long way. Our advanced segmentation will help you set the optimal bonus depending on different customer characteristics or behavior that will allow you to get those reviews going while further boosting sales. 

Extending tailored offers to customers who have already shown interest in your brand and made an effort to leave a review will have a much greater impact, because these customers are emotionally engaged and will be more prone to making another purchase. Furthermore, you show them that you care about their opinion and value their feedback which will strengthen the bond between them and your brand even more.

And the best part? By using SMSBump’s powerful flows you’ll be able to fully automate the entire process - collecting photos, reviews and boosting sales, even when you are not looking. 

Sending a text message with a review request soon after someone has ordered from you and adding a small incentive for their next purchase will not only increase conversion rates, but will also help you turn seasonal shoppers into year-round loyal customers.

Get started with Reviews 

Before You Go (Texting)

This was our quick guide on the top 5 benefits why brands need to connect their reviews programs with SMS. The strong synergy between SMSBump and Yotpo Reviews makes it possible for brands to have a 24/7 review collection machine on their online stores and take customer engagement to a whole new level.

And if you are still on the fence, check out how using both Yotpo Reviews and SMSBump helped Alkaline Herb Shop achieve a 66% higher conversion rate than with email and over 160X ROI.