Create a review campaign
How do I send review requests to a list of customers?
Open Reviews → Invite for a location, select Acquire New Reviews, then choose Via Email/SMS. Before the builder opens, choose where the feedback should go:
- Publish to directory asks customers to leave a review on the directories you select.
- Collect internally stores first-party feedback in Synup instead of requesting a public review.
Choose carefully. You cannot change the collection method after the campaign is created.
The builder has four steps (three if you send SMS only). Nothing reaches a customer until the last button, Publish campaign or Schedule campaign.
Key facts
| Where it lives | Reviews → Invite, then Acquire New Reviews → Via Email/SMS |
| What you need | A plan that includes review campaigns, a verified sending domain for email, and a carrier-verified number for SMS |
| Steps | Campaign Details, Content, Follow-ups (email only), Recipients & Scheduling |
| Draft | Next saves your progress as a draft. A draft has not contacted anyone |
| Launch | Publish campaign (now) or Schedule campaign (later) |
| Auto-send once published | Ticked by default. It is what lets the campaign send. Clear it and publishing sends nothing |
| Cannot change later | Directory or internal collection, and the SMS sending number |
Steps
Open Reviews in the left navigation, then Invite. Pick one location in the scope bar. At the all-locations Invite Overview the same menu exists, and you choose the location in the first step of the builder instead.
Select Acquire New Reviews, then Via Email/SMS. The other two entries build a link or QR code (Via Static URL) and add people to a campaign that is already running (Add More Customers).
Choose where the feedback goes. The dialog says You can't change this once the campaign is created, so decide before you continue.
In Campaign Details, confirm the locked location, name the campaign, and choose Email campaign, SMS campaign, or both. Email also needs a From email on a verified domain. If the location has run a campaign before, a banner offers to carry over its sending address, review links, landing page and follow-ups. Select Start blank if you would rather begin from nothing.
In Content, set the rating mechanism (1–5 stars or Two options), then write the email subject and design the email, and the text message if you chose SMS. Choose the review sites customers are sent to. A site with no listing at this location shows no listing — generic link. For an SMS campaign, pick the one site the text links to.
In Follow-ups, decide whether email recipients get reminders. This is covered in Set up automated follow-ups. SMS-only campaigns skip this step.
In Recipients & Scheduling, review the contacts, add people or upload a CSV, and choose Send immediately or Schedule for later.
Check everything once more, then select Publish campaign (or Schedule campaign when you chose a later time).
What the four steps ask for
Campaign Details
Confirm the locked location, name the campaign (2 to 50 characters), and choose Email, SMS, or both. Email also requires a verified sending address; SMS-only campaigns do not show the email fields.
Content
Review the email subject and design, SMS message, landing-page copy, and directory destination when the campaign requests public reviews. Screening is a separate switch here; it starts off.
Follow-ups
Choose whether and when email recipients receive reminders, whether a link click stops them, and whether respondents receive a thank-you message. This step appears only when Email is selected.
Recipients & Scheduling
Review contacts already associated with the location, add or remove rows, or import a CSV. Then choose immediate delivery or a future date and time.
Your choice in Campaign Details controls both validation and the remaining steps:
- An email campaign cannot advance without a valid sending address on a verified domain.
- An SMS-only campaign skips Follow-ups because follow-ups are email-only.
- A campaign that includes SMS requires the in-person consent attestation before launch.
Selecting Next validates the current step and saves your progress as a draft. From step 2 on there is also a Save draft button. A draft has not launched or contacted recipients.
Check the launch boundary
Everything through Recipients & Scheduling is configuration inside Synup. Before the final action, verify the message, recipient rows, channel requirements, delivery timing, and the credit estimate if the builder shows one.
The final action changes that:
- Schedule campaign launches it for the future date and time you selected. If you pick 6 PM or later, the builder reminds you that 9 AM to 5 PM is the recommended send window.
- Publish campaign launches it for immediate delivery.
Both can lead to real email or SMS. Synup also checks the required sending setup at launch: email needs a verified sending domain, and SMS needs a carrier-verified number for the location. If a requirement is missing, the campaign remains unlaunched and the builder reports the problem.
Auto-send
Auto-send once published is the switch that lets a launched campaign send. It starts ticked.
- Ticked: Publish campaign starts sending to the recipients on the list, and people you add later through Add More Customers are sent to as well.
- Cleared: Publish campaign marks the campaign Launched and sends nothing.
Treat it as a delivery control rather than a draft preference. If you want a campaign to go out, leave it ticked.
How delivery is paced
A published campaign does not always go out in one burst.
- Email is sent from the location's sending addresses within daily limits per address and per domain, so a large list can take more than one day. What does not fit stays queued and continues automatically.
- SMS only goes out during daytime hours that are valid on both US coasts, 11 AM to 8 PM Eastern. A campaign that includes SMS waits for that window before it sends, including its email.
- A recipient still queued after 30 days is skipped as too late to invite.
Prepare your recipient list first
Use the builder's downloadable CSV template instead of inventing column names. The available columns follow the channels you selected: email campaigns require email addresses, SMS campaigns require phone numbers, and a campaign using both can show both. Every recipient needs a name of 2 to 50 characters.
Remove any prefilled location contact who should not receive the campaign. For SMS, select the consent checkbox only when those customers gave their mobile numbers in person and agreed aloud to receive one text about their visit. Without it, those contacts are saved without consent and receive email only. The SMS text must include the business name, and Synup adds the "Reply STOP to opt out" line back when it sends.
What you'll see when it's done
- The campaign appears in the Acquisitions list with its status (Draft, Scheduled or Launched). Its Emails, SMS and Replies columns fill in as messages go out and customers respond. See Read your review campaign results for what each number means.
Watch out for
- Collection method and the SMS number are permanent. Directory or internal is fixed once the campaign exists, and a location's text messages come from one pinned number that cannot be changed later.
- Review campaigns are a paid-plan feature. On a free trial the Invite pages show Review campaigns aren't in your trial with a Choose a plan button instead of the builder.
- Screening is off by default for a reason. Turning it on routes low ratings to private feedback and can get reviews removed. The builder shows a warning; read Collect and use private feedback before enabling it.
- Scheduled is not sent. A scheduled campaign sends at the time you chose, in the time zone shown beside the date.
Questions people ask
I published and nothing arrived. Why?
Check Auto-send once published first: with it cleared, publishing launches the campaign without sending. Then check pacing (a large list is spread over days, and texts wait for the daytime window) and the Recipients tab for rows that failed, bounced or were skipped.
Can I change a campaign after it launches?
A draft can be edited from its row menu. Once a campaign has launched, its row menu offers Copy link, Show QR code, Clone and Stop, so make changes by cloning it. Anything already sent stays sent.
Can I reuse an earlier campaign?
Yes. A new campaign for the same location opens with the earlier sending address, review links, landing page and follow-ups filled in. Use Clone in the row menu to copy one campaign directly.
Can Sydekick create the campaign for me?
Use the builder. Sydekick can read back which campaigns exist and how they are doing, but creating or launching a campaign can message real customers, so this article does not recommend an untested instruction for it.