This post provides tips on how to increase review counts using MagicRating.com

Tip #1 – Subject Line

This is the critical first step in the funnel. If your email doesn’t get opened then you can’t get your clients into a review funnel. A great subject will be compelling. A complete Tutorial on customizing the Email Templates can be found here.

Tip #2 – A/B Testing Your Subject Line

A/B testing of your subject line is a worthwhile activity to see which creates more responses. To do so, switch the Communications Method: from Automatic to Manual to send out a group of emails with a unique headline and see which results in increased feedback. The larger your test group is, the more accurate your results will be. A complete Tutorial on customizing the Email Templates can be found here.

Tip #3 – Email Text

Let your clients know exactly what to expect about what you are asking them to do. It is against FCC guidelines to incent them with coupons or offers but often just asking them to do it as a favor to help you improve can be motivating. A complete Tutorial on customizing the Email Templates can be found here.

Tip #4 – Removing Friction

Sometimes giving the client less to do will increase their willingness to leave you a review. Try the ratings only setting. A complete Tutorial on asking for rating only can be found here.

Tip #5 – Selection of Review Sites.

Both Yelp and Google have high barriers to leaving a review. Selecting a site that is more accessible might increase the number of folks that will leave a review. A review at Facebook or Citysearch is infinitely more valuable than no review and everybody has a Facebook login that will work at either site. Our research shows that Facebook has become the world’s second most popular review site behind Google and ahead of Yelp. It is particularly popular with women. A complete tutorial on setting up online review links can be found here.

Tip #6 – Follow up Email.

Be sure that if you are using the automatic communication method that the box is checked for an automatic follow up email to be sent after three days. A complete tutorial on how to set and change the communication method can be found here.

Tip #6 – Targeting Specific Subsets of Users.

It is possible using the search function to identify GMail users. It might make sense to manually push a targeted email to those users and limit their review site choices to just Google to help increase your reviews at Google.

Tip #7 – Manual Feedback Pushes. MagicRating is designed to automate every step of the process. However you might want to consider if and when doing a manual override of the system might make sense. Currently the system can be set to send an email and a follow up email 3 days later. If that has not elicited a response try rewriting your email and do a manual push 20-30 days after the initial automated send. A complete tutorial on how to set and change the communication method can be found here.

Tip #8 – Reducing the Positive Feedback Page Threshold for Reviews.

If you ask more of your customers for reviews you increase the chances of getting a review A complete tutorial on how to change the Feedback Threshold can be found here.

Tip #9 – Set the Positive Feedback Page Threshold to Zero.

This seems risky but recent tests have shown that when combined with a compelling email explaining exactly what the user would expect in terms of feedback and reviews led to a significant increase in the number of reviews. Our stats show that roughly 95% of all feedback is overwhelmingly positive and another 2.5% is neutral. That means the chance of someone leaving you bad feedback AND a bad review is less than 2.5%. A risk well worth taking. A complete tutorial on how to change the Feedback Threshold can be found here.

Tip #10 – Upload a High Quality Company Logo and Feedback Page Banner.

Adding a high quality logo and banner will drastically improve the look and feel of your feedback request email as well as feedback page. Do not skip this step. Good looking pages and emails will convert better.