- DarkLight
Creating a Targeted Product Review Request
- DarkLight
Goals and Outcomes
Manual product review requests allow you to proactively engage your customers by asking for reviews on specific products. It’s as simple as uploading a CSV file that includes your customer names, emails, and relevant product IDs. We’ll then trigger product review requests for each entry, helping you generate more reviews and drive more sales.
In this article, you'll learn how to create a manual product review request email and send it to your customers.
Targeted Product Review Requests: Overview
How It Works
You can send a targeted product review request to a single email address or upload a CSV file containing multiple addresses along with their corresponding product IDs.
Review request emails are sent in accordance with Yotpo’s email policies. Submitted reviews appear in the Yotpo Reviews Moderation panel, where they can be reviewed and moderated. Approved reviews are displayed on your SEO Page and in the Reviews Tab on your product pages.
Additionally, reviews are syndicated to Google and may appear in Google Shopping. For more details, see our guide on Google Shopping Syndication.
Limitations
You can send up to 2,500 targeted product review emails in total.
Your CSV file must not contain more than 2,500 email addresses.
Once the limit is reached, you will not be able to send additional targeted product review requests.
Before You Start
Before sending targeted product review requests, make sure your product catalog is up to date.
To learn how to update your catalog, select your eCommerce platform:
Review Verification Process
When a customer submits a review, Yotpo checks whether their email address is associated with a previous purchase for that product. Based on this verification, the review will receive one of the following badges:
Verified Buyer: If the email address used in the targeted product review request matches a past purchase of the reviewed product, the review is marked as a Verified Buyer.
Verified Reviewer: If no matching purchase is found for that product, the review is marked as a Verified Reviewer.
Setting up the Targeted Product Review Email
To set up manual review request emails:
From the Yotpo Reviews main menu, go to Emails > Email Setup > Targeted Product Review Requests.
Choose whether you want to send the request to an individual customer or multiple customers.
If you choose the Multiple recipients option, you will be able to download a CSV template and fill in the customer names, email addresses, and products to review. Once the file is filled, click Upload CSV to upload the file.
Can’t find this in your Yotpo account?
If you can’t access the feature or see a different interface, please reach out to our support team.
Customizing the Email
Changing the Design
When choosing the design for your targeted product review emails, you can choose to apply the main email design you have chosen for your Review Request Email or change it by using the advanced email editor.

Editing the Text
You can edit the email subject line and email body. You can also add personalization tags.
Adding personalization tags to your email
Personalization tags are dynamic parameters for engagement and use data from your store to turn each email into a specific email rather than sending out a general email every time.
These are the tags you can use:
Shortcode | Description |
---|---|
Shopper name | Automatically add the customer’s name to your message. |
Store name | Automatically add your store’s name to your message, as written under your account settings. |
Product name | Automatically add the product’s name to your message, as listed in your product catalog. |
These tags can be used in the email subject and body fields. If you want to add the tags to the subject line, you need to manually add the relevant tag in the following format:
{{cusotmer.name}}
{{store.name}}
{{product.name}}
Note
The test email shows the content and design. Personalization tags and product photos are not substituted with real data.
Spam Filter
The Spam Filter helps you avoid sending your customers too many review request emails.
If the filter is turned off, we’ll send a manual product review request to customers who have not received any of the following emails over the past 14 days:
Automatic (product) review request (for the same product)
Reminder emails (product) (for the same product)
Resent review request (for the same product)
Manual product review request (for the same Product)
If the filter is turned on, we’ll send a manual product review request to customers who have not received any of the following emails over the past 14 days:
Any manual (site or product) review request
The shopper must also not be due to receive any review request emails within the next 2 days.
Uploading a CSV File of Your Target Customers
Tip
We recommend that you download the sample file and edit it
We recommend using LibreOffice or Google Sheets when working with the downloaded file.
Downloading the Example CSV File
To download the example CSV file:
Click Download example.
Save the file according to your browser.
CSV File Structure
The structure of the CSV file must be identical to the example you downloaded.
Name | Product ID | |
---|---|---|
randy@example.com | Randy Schultz | 123456 |
helen@example.com | Helen Harden | 987654 |
To learn how to find the correct product ID, see Finding Product IDs in Your E-Commerce Platform.
CSV File Encoding
The CSV file must be saved in UTF-8 format. If you are unable to do so through your Excel version, follow the steps given here.
Make sure you do that before proceeding to the next step of uploading the file.
Important
The CSV file you upload must have only three columns (ID, name, and email address) with up to 2,500 customers.
The file must include the header row and be in the UTF-8 encoding format.
Product specification values are case-sensitive.
Error Message
If there is a problem with the file that you uploaded, you will receive an error message. You cannot send the Manual Review Requests if you see this error message.
Message | Explanation | Solution |
---|---|---|
More than 2500 emails | The file contains more than 2,500 rows | Edit the file and re-upload it |
Sending the Emails
Note
Once a customer writes a review via the targeted product review request, a verified buyer badge will appear next to their name in the Reviews Widget.
Once you have uploaded the CSV file and are happy with the email content, click Send. The review request emails are sent out according to Yotpo email policies.
After the list is processed, you receive an email with a delivery summary and an attached CSV file that indicates specific errors.
"Hi Yotpo Reviews, 300 Emails were sent successfully. 5 Emails were invalid or failed to send.
Download the attached file to view the report."
The reviews that you receive from the Manual Review Request emails will appear on your product pages according to your Moderation settings.
Error Messages
Error messages are shown in the "Failures" column in the CSV file that is sent to your email after the targeted emails are processed and sent:
Message | Explanation | Solution |
---|---|---|
Product ID doesn't exist | The product ID in the row does not appear in the catalog. | Edit the product ID in the Manual Product Review Request CSV file or correct it in the product catalog. |
Product ID is required | The product ID is missing. | Add a product ID and re-upload. |
Invalid Product ID | The Product ID can only contain alphanumeric (a...z, A...Z, 0...9), '_' and '-' characters. | Check the Product ID and re-upload. |
Product ID should contain alphanumeric (a...z, A...Z, 0...9), '_' and '-' characters. | Invalid Product ID | Please make sure your product ID answers follow these rules:
|
Email is required | The row does not contain an email address. | Enter an email address. |
Insert valid email address | The email address does not use the format user@domain. | Check the email address. |
Name is required | The row does not contain a reviewer name. | Add a name and re-upload. |
Duplicate email | The email address is included more than once in the file. | Remove any duplicate email addresses. |
Exceeds review request limit | You have sent the maximum number of emails. | - |
User unsubscribed | The customer has requested not to receive product review requests. | - |
A review request was sent within the last 14 days | You sent a targeted product review to the customer within the past 14 days. | You must wait at least 30 days. |
Another review request is scheduled for this customer within one day | The customer is due to receive an Automatic Request within the next day. | - |
Failed to send email (General error) | The number of undelivered emails. Failure to deliver an email can occur if the recipient's mailbox is full (over quota), the recipient's email server is down or offline, the email message is too large, or if the email triggered a spam filter. | - |