A one-off campaign to your whole customer list
Ask Customers for Testimonials in Bulk
You have years of happy customers and almost no testimonials, because nobody ever asked. Rather than writing a hundred personal emails, run one campaign: split the list into a few groups, write a message for each, and send in waves. Draft each group’s email below.
- One email per customer group, not one for all
- Merge fields that keep it personal at scale
- A send plan in waves, not one blast
The problem, solved
What goes wrong when you email the whole list
Situation 1 of 5
Our list lives in five different places
Invoices, the CRM, a newsletter tool and an old spreadsheet all hold some of your customers, and none of them is complete.
How StoryProof solves it
Contacts and smart lists are on every StoryProof plan, so you can gather the people you want to ask in one place and send requests to them.
Situation 2 of 5
One email to everyone reads like spam
A ten year customer and someone who bought last month should not get the same message. Generic wording gets generic silence.
How StoryProof solves it
Group contacts into smart lists by how long they have been with you and send each list its own email request.
Situation 3 of 5
Most people ignore a single email
A campaign lives or dies on the reminder, and nobody has time to chase three hundred people by hand.
How StoryProof solves it
From Pro, reminders go three days and then seven days after the request, stop for anyone who answers, and skip anyone who unsubscribed.
Situation 4 of 5
Two hundred replies land in one week
A good campaign produces more replies than a small team can read before the moment passes.
How StoryProof solves it
From Pro, an automation can approve 4 and 5 star testimonials with text and leave the rest in your queue for a person to read.
Situation 5 of 5
Some of the list are not happy
Ask everyone and you will hear from customers with a grievance you never knew about.
How StoryProof solves it
From Pro, a rating of 2 stars or fewer alerts your team urgently and sends the customer a personal apology email.
Campaign builder
Write one email for each group
Fill in your details, then switch between customer groups. Each email uses merge fields so it can go to a whole list and still read like it was written for one person.
- Long standing customers
Subject: You have been with [Harbour Print Co] a long time
Hi [first name], You have trusted [Harbour Print Co] with [printing for events] for years, and we have never once asked you this: would you tell other people what working with us is like? It takes two minutes. Write a few lines, leave an audio note or record a short video: [your StoryProof link] If you would rather not, no problem at all, and thank you for sticking with us. [Ruth]
Filled in on this page. Nothing is stored or emailed by this builder.
Plan your waves
Send to one group at a time. You learn from the first wave, and you stay inside your plan’s monthly request emails.
In StoryProof
Run the campaign in StoryProof
- 1
Add your customers to contacts
Add the people you want to ask and group them into smart lists, one per wave.
- 2
Check the monthly allowance
Request emails per month depend on your plan. Size each wave so it fits, reminders included.
- 3
Send wave one
Send the request email to the first smart list. Customers answer by text, audio note or video from the link.
- 4
Let automations handle reminders and triage
On a plan with automations, reminders chase quiet contacts, high ratings with text can be approved for you, and low ratings alert the team.
- 5
Review, adjust, send the next wave
Read what came in, fix the wording that confused people, and send the next group a week or two later.
What happens next: Once the campaign is over, switch to asking new customers one by one at a good moment, so you never need another catch-up campaign.
Before you start
Before you press send
Only email people who agreed to hear from you
A testimonial request is still an email. Follow the same consent and unsubscribe rules you use for any customer email.
The allowance counts every request
A large list can use a month of request emails quickly. Spread waves across months rather than cutting the reminders.
Expect a minority to answer
Most of any list will not reply to a single campaign. That is normal, and no reason to send a third reminder.
Do not offer a reward for positive replies
If you thank people with something, offer it for any honest answer, not for a good rating.
FAQ
Questions people ask
Short answers to what usually comes up next.
Should a bulk request come from the company or a person?
A person. Use the name of the owner or the account manager customers know. Bulk emails from a no-reply address get the lowest response.
Is it better to send in waves or all at once?
Waves. You can fix a confusing question after the first group, and the replies arrive at a pace your team can read.
Should I include customers who stopped buying?
Leave them out of this campaign. Ask former customers separately and only if the relationship ended on good terms.
What do I do with a reply that is negative?
Answer it personally and quickly. It was not going to be published anyway, and it may be the most useful thing the campaign tells you.
How often can I run a campaign like this?
Rarely. Treat it as a one-off catch-up, then ask new customers individually at a good moment so the list never needs a second blast.
Still have a question? Ask the StoryProof team or book a demo.
Turn your customer list into a testimonial library
Add your first wave to contacts and send the campaign this week.
Last updated 2026-11-05.