How to Ask for Testimonials

Imagine how your life would be different if you had

Dozens Or Even Hundreds of Amazing Testimonials You Could Use To Market Your Business?

If you don’t, this article will solve your problem because…

You Need a System to Ask For, Gather, and Catalog Customer Testimonials, Reviews, and Case Studies!

Customer testimonials, also known in other industries as reviews or case studies, are a powerful way to build trust and increase sales.

Testimonials and Reviews Increase Sales

In just a moment, I’m going to show you how to ask for testimonials (and get them,) but first, I want to show you just two pieces of data among hundreds I’ve collected about testimonials:

So we can agree that testimonials are a good thing, but…

Asking For Reviews and Testimonials

The problem with asking for testimonials and reviews is that most people, myself included, are reluctant to ask for them. It’s part of our cultural upbringing - even if well deserved, asking someone for a compliment is looked down upon in most societies.

So, even though most of us consistently delight our customers, most of us don’t have testimonials available to use in our marketing.

Ironically, our reluctance to ask for testimonials is different from the willingness of a happy customer to give one. 71% of customers will leave a review for a business if asked. (Search Engine Land)

So, since most customers are willing to provide a testimonial or a review, the only challenge we have is to find a way to get past our natural reluctance to ask for them in a way that consistently, automatically, generates testimonials for our business. 

How To Get More Testimonials

What if there was an easy way to solve this problem once and for all?

The solution to this problem is for you to have a system to request, gather, and catalog testimonials so they are always available when needed.

That kind of system is called a testimonial generator.

What is a Testimonial Generator?

A testimonial generator is a system designed to ask for testimonials in a non-embarrassing way. Then to gather, store, categorize, and catalog the resulting testimonials, so they are always available when needed.

Here is a simple, step-by-step process I recommend you create so you will have your own testimonial generator to permanently eliminate the problem of needing more or high-quality enough testimonials to market your business.

And, by the way, even if you’re just getting started and haven’t offered your course, product, or service yet, I suggest you create your testimonial generator right now, so you can begin gathering testimonials with your very first customer.

The entire process takes about a day to complete. I suggest you create yours this weekend.

How to Create a Testimonial Generator

1. Write a series of three to five testimonial/review request emails.

These emails can be short and straightforward. They can be as easy as “Did you like [product name?]  Click here to share your feedback.

The first email specifically asks for a testimonial.

A second one asks for a testimonial or feedback.

And a third one just asks for feedback.

That way, even those who had a frustration will feel open to sharing it with you (and negative feedback can be just as valuable for your business as positive, giving you a chance to fix your problems and improve your product/company.)

2. Create a page that teaches people how to give a good testimonial

And that provides a customer testimonial template

We do this because most people, though they may have loved your product and want to tell the world about how great it is, could be better at creating testimonials that you can use to increase sales.

The easy solution is to create a short set of instructions that trains them on how to give a compelling testimonial.

Note, this is a customer testimonial template showing them what type of information would be best - not instructions on what to say. That would be unethical.

Here’s a sample of a customer testimonial template:

You’ll want to customize that message to your specific product or situation.

It also helps to provide a couple of examples on that page that people can use as models for their testimonials.

3. Put this series of email messages into an email autoresponder

And schedule them to go out at the “right time” for your product

What’s the right time? It all depends on your product and your customer’s experiences with it. 

If you’re selling a course, you may want to schedule these to go out close to the end of your program, so they will have consumed most of it and already started to see the transformations in their life.

If it’s a physical product, I suggest these start a few days after they have received your product and have had a chance to use it.

The key here is to build this as an automatic series of emails triggered by their purchase that automatically delivers these requests starting x days later.

That way, you never have to think about it. Once set up, you don’t have to do anything to trigger the process, so you won’t procrastinate or rationalize it because you’re uncomfortable asking for feedback.

4. Provide a simple video testimonial tool

That makes it easy for them to give you a video testimonial

There are many tools that are explicitly designed to make it easy for people to record and submit video testimonials. 

Since most everyone will be seeing your testimonial generator emails on their cellphone (allowing for easy video recording) or a computer with a built-in webcam, these tools work incredibly well. Using tools that simplify the process of recording a testimonial will significantly increase not only the number of testimonials you’ll get, but result in your receiving more video testimonials. (This is great because video testimonials are the most effective sales-generating format for testimonials.)

Simply google “automatically gather testimonials” to see a list of these tools. Many of them also offer the ability to store, categorize, and catalog the resulting testimonials.

5. Create a system for thanking and rewarding those who give you feedback or a testimonial

Always be sure to say thank you!

Not only is it polite to thank someone who goes to the effort to do a favor for you, but this is also just good business because a simple thank you will go a long way towards causing them to be repeat customers for you.

Some recommend creating yet another automated thank-you email. 

You need to do more than that. 

Personally, I recommend:

(“Hi Ashley, this is [your name]. I wanted to personally thank you for saying such nice things about _____. (or for providing feedback about _____ if their comments discussed improvements you needed to make.)

Then continue to talk to them for a few moments.

These services will then send your video to that person’s email, with a nice animated gif in that email and a link to click to watch the whole thing.

They will also give you tracking information, so you can see whether they watched your video or not. (If your results are like mine, don’t be surprised to see many people watching your video more than once!)

Whatever you do, and however you choose to do it, I recommend finding a way to say thank you. Gratitude is good, and it goes a long way in developing lasting relationships with people.

Now, you probably think you’re done - LOL.

6. Good testimonial generators need a system that stores, categorizes, and catalogs the testimonials you receive

So you can use them effectively

Having a cataloging system is also important because if you’re doing a good job, you will be getting testimonials in lots of other places outside of your testimonial generator system, like Facebook, comments in your course portal, emails, etc. 

You need a way to:

Depending on the number of testimonials you’re getting, this system can be as simple as creating a folder in a Google Drive to store them and a Google Doc or Sheet to catalog them. You could build a database if you’re getting hundreds of them.

Hint: I recommend you transcribe all video and audio testimonials you receive and any screenshots you capture and put those words into your cataloging system. Having everything in searchable text format makes it far more accessible and less time-consuming when you want to use them later.

Yes, this all takes work, but I strongly recommend you do it as you receive them rather than wait until when you need to use them. Time is always tighter as you prepare to launch or relaunch a product.

Another hint: once you’ve set up your cataloging system, the cataloging process can be 100% outsourced.

7. Go deeper with your best testimonials and reviews

Take the best testimonials to the next step by turning them into case study interviews

A case study can be as simple as a recorded zoom conversation or as fancy as putting a videographer on a plane to visit them at home and create a cinematic-style piece of art you can feature in many places in your marketing.

When you find potential stories like this, make sure you call them out in your cataloging process and take the next step with plenty of time to gather what you need before your next launch.

This entire process can be invaluable for your business, resulting in more sales, repeat customers, and positioning you as one of the best players in your market.

And the most significant advantage is that you can create it all in less than a day.

I strongly recommend you do!

“Just go do this stuff!”

More Training On Gathering And Using Testimonials