How to easily send emails requesting Google reviews
Subject, structure, link, follow-up: what separates an email that earns reviews from one that gets ignored.
Email remains the most profitable channel for collecting Google reviews, because it is the only one combining zero cost, a clickable link and full tracking. It still has to be read.
What the email must contain
An effective review request email holds five elements, and nothing more.
- A short subject line, five to seven words, focused on the customer.
- A personalised opening with their first name.
- One sentence of context recalling the visit.
- A reason to reply, expressed from the business's point of view: your review helps us.
- A single button, leading straight to the review form.
Everything you add, an oversized logo, a paragraph about your history, a second call to action, lowers the click rate.
The direct link, your starting point
Before writing anything, get the link that opens your profile's review window directly. You can obtain it in seconds, and it will also serve your SMS, your QR codes and your signature.
When to send
The best email sent three weeks after the visit performs worse than a mediocre one sent the next day. Timing beats copywriting.
That argues against batched end-of-month campaigns and in favour of a send triggered as visits happen. It is a change of habit more than a change of tool.
The follow-up
A single follow-up, at three or four days, sent only to those who did not click, recovers a meaningful share of non-responses. A second follow-up recovers almost nothing and irritates.
Measure to fix the right thing
Four indicators are enough, and each points at a different problem.
- Low open rate means the subject line or the sender.
- Good opens, weak clicks means the body or the button.
- Good clicks, weak completion means the landing, or the customer not knowing what to write.
- Everything good but low volume means you are not sending enough.
The third case is the most common and the least suspected. A motivated customer who lands on an empty form gives up. That is precisely what a writing assistant offered as a second call to action in the email solves.
Automating without depersonalising
Leadmia sends these requests in your branding, logo, intro message, main text and signature, tracks the four states for every send, and offers the writing assistant inside the email. The rest of the work is replying to the reviews you get, which is another subject.