How to Generate Tons of Reviews and Testimonials

how to generate tons of testimonialsWhen you’re looking to buy something, do you read customer testimonials? Do you look at star ratings to help you decide whether or not to hit that buy button? Sure you do! I think we can all agree that we use customer reviews of products and services on a regular basis. Recommendations on sites like Yelp and Amazon play a huge role in how we perceive a product, don’t they? These testimonials, good or bad, factor into our daily purchasing decisions. So with that being said…

Are you collecting testimonials as a part of your follow-up process?

Testimonials are an important part of any sales and marketing process. Testimonials are a type of social proof which may help buyers to trust a product (or service provider) more.  Although some people have become suspicious of testimonials, they can still be extremely important in convincing other people to buy.

These reviews will support your existing marketing efforts because they will prove why your features and benefits work. In other words, why your product or service rocks!

But getting testimonials can be difficult.

Ask for what you want and make it worthwhile.

In general, people are lazy.  They don’t usually provide feedback unless it’s negative or unless you ask for it.

You can provide an incentive for people to give you feedback. However, you shouldn’t offer money as an incentive for people to offer testimonials because then they become “paid testimonials.”  People tend to distrust testimonials that people are paid for because some people are perfectly willing to lie about a product if they’re paid to do it.

Instead, you can offer some small token of your appreciation, just as a “thank you” to those who take the time to write a testimonial for you.  It might be a free report, a link from your site to theirs within the testimonial box or a coupon for 10% off their next order with you.

As long as you’re not offering cash, most people won’t feel that you’re being dishonest to get testimonials. It’s not that people don’t really want to offer a testimonial if they like the product, it’s just that they don’t think about it.  Those that do think about testimonials will often put it off “until later” and then forget about it.

So make sure you specifically ask your customers for their endorsement.  You could ask them on your “thank you” page.  You could ask them again on the last page of your product or at the end of each audio or video file.

You could also ask them in a follow-up email. Feel free to swipe this simple copy to get started:

“Hi, I just wanted to find out how you’re enjoying XYZ Product.  Is it working out for you?  If you haven’t done so already, I’d really appreciate it if you could send me your thoughts on the product – I may even use it as a testimonial with a link back to your website!  It’ll only take five minutes of your time, and I’ll send you a free bonus report as my thanks for taking the time to do this for me.”

Add credibility to your testimonials.

Permission matters. Be sure to ask people if you can include their real name in the testimonial, or if you should use their initials.  Some people don’t want to have their real name anywhere on the Internet and try to be very secretive about using it.

Some people have a tendency to trust testimonials more if they include a picture because it seems more like a real person wrote the testimonial.  So go ahead and ask for a picture, if appropriate.

Audio and video testimonials are a great enhancement to your sales copy if you can convince your customers to call in an audio testimonial or email you a video file. These used to be harder to obtain since many people weren’t as versed in more advanced technology. But creating simple audio and video files has become easier, so it never hurts to ask!

If you don’t have testimonials, go back to your clients and get some. There are tons of other ways you can use reviews and testimonials, so get creative! Testimonials offer a treasure trove of promotional sales verbiage and they always boost your confidence, so why not start using them today?

Ciao,
Kemya

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