Are you using testimonials in your marketing? If not, you’re missing out on a powerful tool that could boost your sales. That’s why it’s vital to learn how to ask for a testimonial from your customers and clients.
Consumers look to their peers to decide whether they should purchase a product or service. They want to know that existing customers are happy with your product. That’s called social proof, and that proof includes testimonials.
Use client testimonials in your sales pages, landing pages, social media channels, and email marketing campaigns. For many visitors, a glowing testimonial will be the final deciding factor in clicking that “Buy Now” button.
Sounds easy, right? But there’s a tricky part:
How can you collect quality testimonials that will really help you convert leads into loyal customers?
That’s why I’m sharing OptinMonster’s 7 top tips for getting great testimonials.
When you apply these strategies, you’ll get more responses from your testimonial requests. Plus, your quotes will be full of persuasive selling points that will improve conversion rates.
Best Ways to Get Testimonials from Clients & Customers
Before we dig into our list, I want to answer an important question:
Why should you listen to us?
Testimonials are a vital part of our marketing strategy here at OptinMonster. As you browse our website, you’ll see customer testimonials featured everywhere. We even have a dedicated testimonial page that lists over 70 positive testimonials, which can be filtered by category:
You’ll also see a testimonial at the top of our pricing page:
Further down the same page, we feature a carousel of testimonials from industry experts and leaders, including this one from Neil Patel:
As you can see, we’ve spent a lot of time and resources learning how to get great testimonials. And now I’m going to share what we’ve learned with you.
Let’s get started with OptinMonster’s first tip for collecting testimonials.
1. Use Both Email Automation & Direct Asks
Email is the most common way to ask for a testimonial, and there are 2 ways to go about it:
- Use automated emails to ask for feedback from every customer.
- Send personal emails to specific clients and customers that you want to get testimonials from.
If you want to get the widest variety of testimonials to choose from, we suggest using both tactics.
Asking for feedback, customer reviews, or testimonials should be part of your email automation workflow for all new customers and clients. Here’s an example of a workflow where satisfied customers are placed on a VIP list. You can then email that segmented list to ask for more detailed testimonials.
You can apply most of the tips in this article to your automated workflow.
You should also look for opportunities to connect directly with your most enthusiastic customers. Here are a few ways to find them:
- Make the most of client and customer relationships: Do you work in an agency setting where you have one-on-one relationships with clients? This is perhaps the easiest way to get great testimonials. After all, people are more likely to do favors for people they know personally. Have a sample testimonial letter handy and customize it for each client. You could also conduct a phone interview.
- Train your customer support team: Your customer service team is your front line for finding customers who love your product. Train that staff to discover opportunities to ask for testimonials, and provide them with multiple customer testimonial templates to use.
- Identify high-profile clients and customers: Consumers value expert opinions. You don’t need, or even want, every testimonial on your site to be from a big shot. But it’s great to have a few testimonials from impressive names. For B2B companies, look for prominent business owners in your industry.
- Leverage your on-site reviews: Not only can you pull quotes from your positive reviews, but you can reach out to those customers for more details. If they loved your product enough to write a glowing review, they’ll probably be happy to write a testimonial.
- Keep an eye on 3rd party sites and social media: Monitor other websites to find users who are talking positively about your product or service. Watch review sites for your industry and search social media platforms for the name of your company and product. Just like on-site reviewers, these customers will likely respond well to a testimonial request.
2. Ask When the Customer Is Most Excited
This tip is basically the old adage “Strike while the iron’s hot.” The best time to ask for a customer testimonial is when both of these statements are true:
- The customer has had enough time to see that you’ve delivered on your value proposition. In other words, when they’re confident that they’ve received a value that is greater than your price.
- The customer’s excitement for your product/service’s quality is still fresh. They remember the surprise or excitement of discovering that they made a great decision.
When is the best time to balance these 2 factors? That will vary depending on your industry and type of product.
For instance, let’s say you’re an eCommerce business that sells physical products. You may send out an automated email asking for customer feedback within days of the customer receiving their item.
However, if you’re an agency or a software company, you’ll likely need to give customers and clients more time.
You’ll get more enthusiastic testimonials from clients after they’ve seen real results. But if you wait too long, customers may not remember just how much of a game-changer your product was for them.
Takeaway: Ask for testimonials when your clients and customers are freshly impressed. Do some testing to figure out how long your customers need to fully understand the benefits of your product. If you offer a highly personalized service, regular communication can help you determine when the time is right.
3. Make It Easy on the Customer
Once you’ve perfected the timing of your testimonial request letters, you want to focus on making it as easy as possible to respond.
Think about how many emails you get every day. Think about how many products and services you buy online. Your customers are just as overwhelmed with feedback requests as you are.
That’s why you want your customers to be able to provide a testimonial quickly and with as little work as possible.
Here are a few tips to lower the barrier for customers:
- Make the first step as simple as one click. Send out an automated email that asks for a thumbs-up or thumbs-down rating. Or it could be a rating on a scale from a frowny face to a smiley face. If the customer rates negatively, redirect them to a customer service resource. If they rate positively, redirect them to a testimonial form.
- Ask specific questions. Have you ever gone blank when asked to write a short blurb? Avoid that problem by asking specific questions.
- Give permission to keep it short: If you’re directly contacting clients, let them know that you only need 1-2 sentences from them. Some people will assume you want several paragraphs.
- Offer to edit or work together: Tell your clients that it’s ok if what they send you is very rough. You can clean it up and send it to them for approval before publishing. This will overcome a big barrier for folks who are very busy or aren’t confident writers.
Takeaway: Just be easy to work with! In my marketing work, I’ve had the most success when I assume most of the burden. Take on as much of the effort as possible by asking specific questions and offering to help. When customers feel confident that you’ll make them look good, they’ll be happy to write a testimonial to make you look good.
4. Ask The Right Questions
As mentioned above, it’s a good idea to ask specific questions in your testimonial request.
It’s equally important to ask the right questions.
Your questions should accomplish 2 things:
- They should be easy to answer.
- They should lead to answers that will help you sell your product or service.
For instance, are there specific features that are your best selling points? Then ask questions that highlight those features.
Here at OptinMonster, we’re specifically well-known for our Exit-Intent® Technology. This feature lets you display pop-up messages to website users who are trying to leave your site. You may have noticed that our testimonial example from Neil Patel focused on our exit popups.
By asking questions about your best features, such as our Exit-Intent® Technology, you can ensure that you get enticing testimonials.
You can also ask questions about specific results and benefits. For instance, many of our testimonials for OptinMonster include statistics on:
- Higher conversion rates
- Email list growth
- Increased revenue and sales
- Improved lead generation
Of course, not all products lend themselves to gathering hard statistics like these.
But every product does have specific benefits that you can ask about.
Takeaway: Think about your customers’ pain points and how your product solves them. Doing so will help you ask the right questions in your testimonial requests. Also, be sure to include some open-ended questions. You might hear about benefits you haven’t even considered!
5. Follow Up Politely
Even when you’ve nailed how to ask for a testimonial, sometimes you’ll just hear crickets in return.
People are busy, emails get overlooked, and folks forget about your request.
Don’t be afraid to follow up with a reminder email. As long as you’re polite, most people won’t mind.
Your follow-up email can also remind customers of any testimonial incentives:
- For B2B clients, assure them that their testimonial will include a link to their website. Make sure they understand where the testimonial will be featured on your site and whether you plan to include it in your email marketing.
- For B2C customers, offer a special coupon or discount in exchange for the testimonial. Other incentive options include gift cards, branded swag, or a contest entry for a large prize.
Takeaway: If at first you don’t succeed, try again! However, if you get no engagement on your second attempt, you should probably leave it at that. You don’t want to appear pushy, as that will hurt your brand image. You can always try again after more time has passed.
6. Go 1 Step Further: Conduct a Case Study
If you’ve browsed our testimonials page, you’ve likely noticed a link that says “View Case Study” below many of our customer quotes:
That’s because we collect a lot of our best testimonials by partnering with clients to create case studies.
In a case study, you work with a customer to tell the story of how your product contributed to their success. You gather data such as conversions and revenue that can be directly attributed to your product.
You can see an example of one of our case studies here: How MedStar Media Increased Their Client’s Conversions by 500%
Because we work so closely with our case study partners, we’re able to get very detailed testimonials. These are often the strongest, most persuasive customer quotes we have:
Takeaway: Case studies are the ultimate testimonial for a B2B company. They involve close collaboration and analysis, so your client has a lot of buy-in. They’ll be happy to really boast about your product because they’re boasting about their own success story in the process.
7. Ask for Testimonials Directly on Your Website
Email, client relationships, customer support, and case studies are just a few smart ways to build a strong library of excellent testimonials.
You can also use your most powerful marketing asset: your website.
With OptinMonster, you can create a Lightbox Popup on your site to ask visitors your testimonial questions.
In fact, we have several pre-designed templates to ask for feedback, including our Share Feedback and Win template.
This template is a 2-step optin that first asks whether the visitor wants to give feedback:
If visitors click yes, they’ll see a short questionnaire:
With our simple drag-and-drop editor, you can easily change the questions and information you ask for. That way, you can use those perfectly-honed testimonial questions you’ve developed.
Then, you can use OptinMonster’s robust targeting and triggering features to show this popup to your most engaged customers.
With emailed requests, you have to compete for attention in the user’s inbox. OptinMonster lets you ask for testimonials when customers are already interacting with your website and thinking about your company.
Bonus Tips
Here are just a few more tactics to keep in mind as you develop your testimonial strategy:
- Consider asking for video testimonials. Some happy customers may feel more comfortable recording a short video than writing out a paragraph. This is another way to highlight positive experiences on your website and social media channels.
- Do you have an SMS marketing strategy? Text messages are another way to ask for feedback.
- Create email templates designed specifically to request different types of testimonials.
- Don’t forget your offline marketing! Ask for feedback in person when possible, and include your testimonials in your physical marketing materials.
Put Those Testimonials to Good Use!
Now that you know some of the best ways to get testimonials, it’s time to put these strategies into action! It won’t be long before you have some really great quotes to use in your marketing.
Want to learn even more? Here are some more resources on testimonials, online reviews, and social proof:
- 10 Creative Examples of Testimonials to Win Customers + Tips and Best Practices
- 9 Ways to Get More Product Reviews and Increase Social Proof
- 18 Best Social Proof Software Tools to Boost Sales
Once you have a few glowing testimonials, you’ll want to get them in front of as many eyes as possible. But how do you reach all those potential customers?
OptinMonster can help!
Our premium lead generation software helps you grow your email marketing list with highly-interested leads. You’ll then have a list of subscribers who are primed to respond to the testimonials in your email campaigns.
You can also add testimonials to your OptinMonster popups, floating bars, inline forms, and other campaign types, like in this popup testimonial example:
Are you ready to collect more testimonials and use them to win more sales? Get started with OptinMonster today!
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