How to Get Powerful Customer Reviews & Testimonials (Even Before You Launch Your Offer)
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Every high-converting effective website and sales page has powerful customer reviews and testimonials. Why? Because 91% of shoppers read one review before making a purchase decision. (Kavanagh)
Instead of listening and trusting what a business says about how great their products or services are, people are more likely to trust other shoppers and customers they can relate to. When done well, social proof, like customer reviews and testimonials, has a huge impact on converting leads and generating sales.
See this post to learn the 6 simple ways to use social proof to instantly power up your marketing!
And if you’re launching a new product or service, how do you get powerful and persuasive social proof when you have zero or very few customers?
It can seem like a chicken and egg problem. Customer reviews and testimonials are key to getting sales, but how do you get social proof without having had many customers at the beginning?
Here’s a 3-step method to get powerful social proof – even before you launch a new product or service:
STEP 1. Connect With Your Target Customers
Knowing your target customers, go meet them where they are. Show up at places, online or offline, where they gather and where they go for information, including social media, forums, and communities. Consider the people in your network who are your target customers as well and connect with them.
STEP 2. Invite To Becoming Beta Users or Founding Members
Create an exclusive offer to incentivize the target customers you connected with, and invite them to become the beta users of your product or founding members of your service. In exchange, you want their honest feedback on the product, service, and overall experience.
STEP 3. Get Your First Customer Reviews & Testimonials
After the beta users or the “founding members” have used your product or experienced your service, ask them for their honest feedback and experience, which you can turn into your first sets of customer testimonials and reviews and use them to power up your marketing for the official launch of your product or service!
Besides turning any of the positive feedback into customer testimonials, also take in any constructive feedback from these target customers and make improvements on your product, service, or customer experience to tailor to your specific target audience.
If you’re still feeling confused about what content to share when you launch a new product or service, here's a list of content you need during a launch to increase conversion and sales.
If you’ve been selling your products or services, and you’re looking for more customer reviews and testimonials to make your sales page more persuasive and boost sales, here are 4 ways to get them right away:
1. Ask for testimonials after every sale
After product delivery or the completion of your service, send follow-up emails to ask for testimonials and also any other feedback for best practices. If you send out a physical thank you card, you can also make a note or an additional card to remind customers to leave a review or submit a testimonial. Include asking for testimonials in your post-sale process and set a workflow to make sure you ask for them.
2. Ask past customers for testimonials
Offer a bonus that your past customers want. This can be a product or service that complements what they bought from you. For example, a how-to training on how to maximize the usage of the product or service or an add-on that makes the product or the result of the service even better. Use this bonus as an incentive for past customers to provide reviews and testimonials.
3. Ask your audience for reviews on social media
Encourage your audience to share their experience and photos and videos of your products or results from your services on social media. In return, give them a shout-out by resharing their content and featuring their results. Make them feel appreciated and seen!
4. Find testimonials from what customers sent you in the past
Go to your email inbox, social media messages and comments, and any posts that you were tagged in, and take screenshots of these positive feedbacks from customers, share them on social media, and turn them into testimonials.
As you look through some of the feedback and reviews you already received, you might see that some of what people said aren’t useful because they are something like, “This product is great!” or “So-and-so is great to work with!”
Even though these are positive feedback, they don’t add much value to marketing or selling your products or services. Without more information, they don’t help a potential customer remove any doubt that is holding them back from buying, nor help them picture the results they can get through your products or services.
To create a powerful and effective testimonial that helps your prospects or potential customers see what is possible for them and how your products or services are the solutions they need, follow this template for all your future customer reviews.
The 4-part template to get persuasive customer testimonials:
The problem(s) that the customer was having before discovering what you sell
The frustration that the customer felt when trying to solve that problem and find the solution
How your products or services are different from other available options
How the customer feels now that they have the solution or results from buying from you or having worked with you
You can see that most of the testimonials from the amazing alumni from our programs follow this structure. This template helps the prospects or potential customers who are reading the testimonials relate to your past customers, and also helps them see the transformation and benefits they can get through what you sell.
To guide your customers to provide testimonials that address all these four parts, you can create a form with four questions that ask about each of the above, or you could send them these four question prompts before sending them to any review site where you want them to leave their review. Not getting replies or email responses? Here’s how to follow up with someone who's not getting back to you.
Besides customer testimonials, check out this post to learn more about another must-have on your website that instantly builds massive trust with your prospects: your FAQ page
Are you starting your business? Make sure you don't make this huge mistake that most people make.
And if you’re in the process of creating your offer, here’s how to create an incredible, jaw-dropping offer that people love.
If you’re ready for your launch, click here to learn how to guarantee a massively successful launch and exceed your goals.
Looking to use your social proof more effectively & take your marketing to the next level to magnetically attract more target customers online? Click here to get 40+ pro marketing tips and supercharge marketing in just 14 days!
Work Cited
Kavanagh, Meredith. “Report: The Impact of Reviews on Consumer Purchase Decisions.” Bizrate Insights, 8 Apr. 2021, bizrateinsights.com/resources/the-impact-of-customer-reviews-on-purchase-decisions/ Accessed 1 Feb. 2022.