Three Ways To Get The Best (and Most Powerful) Testimonials From Your Clients

Great customer testimonials can boost your conversion rate and grow your business faster than any other content. 

The best testimonials will establish authority, demonstrate relevance, and build trust for your organization. We call this the A.R.T. of Engagement (Authority, Relevance, Trust). 

When you do the testimonial process right, you’ll get the story and help prospects see you as the authority on what they need now.

3 ways to gather the best client testimonials. 

• Personally Reach Out to Your Best Customers

One of the easiest ways to gather customer testimonials is to handpick a few stellar clients and ask them to write or record a testimonial. Don’t send out an email to your entire active list of customers. Instead, find a few to showcase how your organization has helped them grow, and send them a personal request. 

But don’t stop there. Nothing can stop a testimonial faster than “just write a few words about your experience with us.” Instead, get specific. Ask questions that tie back to your unique strategies that helped them find success. Focus on how they’ve changed or how the organization has changed because of your partnership.

Hi Amy, 

When we last spoke, you shared how we’ve helped you increase donations and grow your donor base, which has allowed you to serve more people in Sacramento. Will you write a few words about how working with us helped you achieve those results? 

I’ve created a survey for you to fill out. It should only take about three minutes. 

Once you’ve answered these questions, we will turn them into a testimonial.

Showcasing your experience will help other organizations like yours find us, work with us, and increase their impact. 

If you’re comfortable on camera, consider recording yourself asking the questions on your survey, or better yet, recording yourself making the ask in the request email. A recording will not only add a personal touch but will also likely increase the number of responses.

• Offer Incentives To Capture Multiple Reviews At Once

If you want to capture dozens of reviews at once, offering an incentive can encourage people to send a review. It can take a well-meaning reviewer from “I’ll respond as soon as I have some time” to “I am going to respond right now.”

One company that does this well is Capterra. If you’re like us, you’ve probably purchased a dozen pieces of software and digital products to help your organization run smoothly. Every so often, Capterra will offer buyers the chance to get an Amazon gift card if their review is published. 

Here’s an actual email I received from them a few days ago ⸺ 

Kendra, last chance to give us your insights!

Your last review was just what we were looking for (you know, aside from our blue ray glasses in the middle of the day or that message from our boss to log off early).

We just wanted to send you one last email to pick your brain — do you have any other software products you'd like to share your opinion on?

When you write additional software reviews, we'll send you a $15 Amazon gift card for each published review you write, for up to five reviews.*

I hit that button pretty fast. Who doesn’t want an extra $75 to help purchase everything in their Amazon cart? 

In the past, we’ve often put together giveaways and offered a “chance to win” for the simple act of sending a review. This has been especially fruitful for our book marketing campaigns. It’s a way to gather dozens of reviews with only a small investment. 

• Put Links on Your Website & Email

One surefire way to increase testimonials is to add a request link to your email signature. Just think of how many emails you send every day. Your request for testimonials will be seen by your audience whenever they communicate with you via email.

Need more Google reviews? YouTube comments? Straight testimonials? Coax clients to your testimonial survey or Google My Business listing by including a CTA in your email signature. 

Here’s one we recently created for Kenny, our CEO. 

_________________

KENNY JAHNG

Helping Nonprofits with the A.R.T. Of Engagement

BigClickSyndicate.com

(973) 500-8536

p.s. What is it like working with Big Click Syndicate? Let me know here. [Insert Qwary Form Link]

Obviously, if you’re working with a new client, this type of request wouldn’t be pertinent. So, have a few email signatures in the arsenal so you can choose the right one when sending an email.

BONUS: More Tips for Gathering Testimonials

Here are some bonus tips to help get great customer testimonials.

1. Ask specific questions.
   
   
2. Use video to ask questions (Qwary is an excellent tool for this).
   
   
3. Offer to write testimonials (or rewrite them) for those who want to share a testimonial, but balk at the writing of it.
   
   
4. Create an autoresponder email that automatically requests testimonials at specific points in the sales process.
   
   
5. Ask questions that point back to specific parts of your unique offering.
1. Problem ⇒ Solution ⇒ Transformation

Remember, the goal of testimonials isn’t to center your organization as a hero or savior for the problems your client faces. Rather, the goal is to help potential clients increase their confidence in your authority to solve their problem. They must see how you’ve helped clients and that you are the go-to source for making their pain points disappear.

Want to increase authority, relevance, and trust? Book a free strategy session here.

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