After you’ve added your location into Linda Local reputation management, you’ll want to click the link associated with it to create a campaign.

On the next page, you’ll see a list of links on the left. Click the link that says Campaigns.

If this is your first campaign, click the blue Create Campaign button in the center of the page.

Next, you’ll want to enter a name for your campaign. The name will be completely internal, so no customers will see it. Name the campaign anything you like. After that, click the drop-down menu to select your location. If you only have a single location, that will be the only choice. If you have multiple locations, be sure to choose the correct one. After that, you’ll want to decide if your messages can be sent at any hour or during business hours. We suggest choosing the M-F, 10 AM - 5 PM option, but it’s up to you. Finally, pick the correct time zone. You can see these steps below.

When you’re finished, click the blue Next button at the bottom of the page.

When the next page loads, the first thing you’ll want to do is set your positive feedback threshold. Positive and negative feedback gets handled differently. In the example recording below, we set the threshold to four stars, meaning four- and five-star reviews are considered positive feedback, and one-, two-, and three-star reviews are considered negative feedback. You can see a preview of what your customers will see when they are going to leave feedback. You can change the wording to anything you’d like. You can see these steps in the recording below.

Next, click the Positive tab towards the top of the page.

Following the choices we’ve already made in this example, the positive tab is what people leaving you four- and five-star reviews will see. You can change the wording to say anything you like. The copy feedback body button allows people to copy the feedback they already gave you when they chose a star rating. That way they can just paste it into Google or Yelp! (or any platforms you may have chosen instead).

Next, click the Negative tab towards the top of the page.

You can now change the message that people leaving you negative feedback will see. You’ll notice a link in small text underneath your message. That link will take people on to Google (or whatever review platform you’ve chosen) to leave a review. You can change the text associated with that link if you like, or you can remove it. That link makes you compliant with Google’s terms of service. You can leave it in or take it out. The ball is in your court.

Once you’ve finished all three tabs (Form, the first one, Positive, and Negative–the most recent step–click the blue Next button at the bottom of the page.

This is the page where you’ll create the messages that will be asking your customers for reviews.

You’ll notice that the first option says Wait. The default setting is zero hours, which means your customers will receive your first message right away. In practice, it takes 2-5 minutes after entering a contact into the system before they’ll receive your message. For this example, we’ll change the timing of the first message to one hour.

After that, next to the Send option, you can see SMS is the default option. You can click on SMS to see a drop-down menu where you have the option to choose an email instead. For this example, we’ll leave that setting on SMS.

In the bottom-right corner of the message box, you see two brackets. You can bring up a number of placeholders by clicking those brackets. We will type a message in the recording below that show you all of the steps since the last screenshot and give you a feel for how to use the placeholders.

Make sure to end every message, whether it’s email or SMS, with the Feedback Page URL placeholder. That will be the link your customers click on to leave you feedback/reviews.

You always have the option to change the text of your messages. You can make edits before or after the campaign begins running.

To add another message, click the blue Add message link underneath your first message. In this example, we set the timing of our first message to send an hour after the contact gets added. Make sure that your next message sends after your first one.

We’ll use an email for our next example and set it to send after 4 hours. This is a subjective suggestion, but it’s always a good idea to being emails with the business logo.

Take a look at us adding a new email message to our campaign below.

You can make your campaign as long as you like. The one we’ve given you an example of is about as simple as a campaign can get– one text message and one email. You can send messages every day for two weeks if you like.

When you’re done with your campaign, you’ll notice another option before you get to the bottom of the page. After-receive-feedback message chain means messages that you send people after they leave you a review. You do not need to set this up if you don’t want to. These messages work the same way as the other messages in your campaign. You can add an after-review message if you like.

When you’re done composing all of your messages, click the blue Next button on the bottom of the page.

You’ll see a summary on the next page. This is a chance for you to review your messages. If you see something you’d like to fix, click the Back button at the bottom. If everything looks good, click Next.

You can enter contacts on the next page. These are the customers who will be receiving the text messages and emails you just composed. There are three ways to do this.

The first option is to use a .csv file. You’ll need to format your contacts in an extremely simple spreadsheet that has four columns: first name, last name, phone number, and email address. You can click file example under the blue Select file button to see how we’d like you to format your contacts.

The next option is to use Zapier. You will see the API key you need in the Zapier box. Click on the Go to Zapier button to set up a webhook.

The third option allows you to manually enter contacts. After filling in the first name, last name, phone number, and email address, click the blue Add contact button. Phone numbers in the United States will need to begin with 1, which is the country code.

You do not need to add contacts right away. You can do that later. If you’re finished adding contacts or plan to do it later, click the blue Launch campaign button you can see at the bottom of the previous screenshot.

After clicking Launch campaign, you’ll be taken to your campaign dashboard. You now have a QR code in the bottom-left corner. This can be useful if you have a restaurant and wish to print it on your receipts or put it up on a wall somewhere. It’s up to you.

Congratulations. Your campaign is up and running.