How to Get Great Testimonials for Your Business

Social proof is a great way to bring credibility to your business, and to encourage people to buy from you.

But all too often, either clients are too busy to give you a testimonial, or they don’t know how to write a testimonial that will increase your credibility instead of simply being white noise on your website.

If you’ve encountered these obstacles in getting testimonials for your business, here’s a three-step method you can use to start getting testimonials THIS WEEK:

Step one: Ask your clients if they’d be willing to answer a few quick questions.

First, send your clients an email to thank them for working with you, and to see if they’d be willing to help you reach more people. It could say something like,

“Hi, (name),

I wanted to thank you for choosing to work with me. You’ve been a joy to work with, and I’ve enjoyed watching your transformation during our time together.

“If you have a couple minutes available, I was hoping you could help me to reach more people. All you’d need to do right now is answer these 10 quick questions.”

If your client is looking to get more traffic to their website, you could also add, “If you choose to help me, you’ll have an opportunity to get your website featured on my site for free, so there’s a benefit in this for you, too.”

At the bottom of the email, include these questions:

1. What were the biggest challenges you were facing before you contacted me?

2. How were these problems affecting you in your day-to-day life?

3. How much time were you spending each week on taking care of this issue?

4. What other difficulties were you having as a result of this problem?

5. What made you decide to seek help, and to work with me/my company in particular?

6. What aspect of my service stood out to you the most?

7. What is the best result you got from hiring me?

8. How is this result affecting your day-to-day life?

9. What problems do you no longer have as a result of hiring me?

10. May I share your answers as a testimonial on my website?

Step two: Create a pre-written testimonial.

Once you’ve received the answers to your questions, and confirmation that you can use them as a testimonial on your site, turn them into a testimonial that explains:

– What problems they had before contacting you

– How you helped them to solve those problems in a special way (the aspect of your service that stood out to them the most)

– How their life is better because they worked with you

The more you can use specific numbers or events, like dollar amounts that you helped them save or earn, timeframes in which they got their results, the number of hours or days you saved them, or the experiences they have or used to have in their daily lives, the more credible and compelling the testimonial will be.

You want to paint a clear and vivid picture in your reader’s mind of the benefits you’ve created for other people, and can create for them.

Step three: Ask them to approve and complete the testimonial

Once you’ve written the testimonial, send it to them. The email could say something like,

“Thank you for answering the questions I sent you. It means a lot to me. I’ve turned your answers into a testimonial, and I want to make sure it’s accurate before I publish it on my site. Would you mind briefly looking it over, and letting me know if anything needs to be changed?

“If the testimonial looks good, I’d appreciate it if you would send me a picture of your face that I can include with it, as well as a link to your site. If I can include a picture, a link and your full name, that will make your testimonial seem more credible, and it’s also a potential source of traffic for you.”

The picture, link and their full name aren’t completely mandatory, so if they’re only willing to give you part of what you asked for, don’t let that be a reason not to publish the testimonial at all. But if you can get all of these elements, it will make the testimonial more effective.

Once you’ve received their reply, make any changes they asked you to make, then place the testimonial on your home page, your product pages, and anywhere else where you want to show that you CAN bring your clients real results.