Would you believe me if I told you that I created the best software in the world and that if you become a customer, you’ll make a lot more money than what you spend to use it?
Some might, some might not…
Now if you see that my software is used by tens of thousands of companies around the globe and that all these companies are making a lot of money thanks to it and you start seeing testimonials like this
Would you believe it now?
Probably a lot more…
No matter who you are or what you’ve built, testimonials are the best way to build trust and overall convert more users.
To create testimonials, you need to choose from the existing customers those who will be perceived as trusted and reputable so you can build more trust and close more deals.
The more testimonials you have, the stronger your social proof is.
Meaning that more people will be willing to purchase your product or service.
Why does it work like this?
Psychology behind social proof
This principle of social proof is based on the fact that when we are uncertain about a decision, we tend to look at what other people are doing to guide our behavior.
There was an experiment in which a trusted expert told a group of spectators that a certain horse, let's call it Speedy, was expected to win the race based on insider information.
Even if Speedy didn't have the best track record or odds, the spectators started betting on Speedy because they trusted the expert's judgment and wanted to be consistent with their beliefs in the horse's potential to win.
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So, your goal here is to choose customers who will be perceived as trusted and reputable so you can build more trust and close more deals.
This leads me to my first point: how do you select who to interview from your existing clients?
The 4 main criteria when selecting customers for testimonials
- Your customer’s reputation in the industry
- The result you’ve delivered
- The longevity of the relationship
- Relevance to your target audience
I know that in the beginning, we’re usually not very picky about who to work with because we need to generate revenue quickly.
And that’s okay.
But with time, you should focus on the customers who get the most value from your product or service and who also have the budget to pay for it.
That’s when your niche needs to be even more focused.
As your customer base grows, you must become more selective and work only with the right customers.
You must focus on the 100 true-fan strategy.
And one of the best ways to attract the right customers is to publish testimonials from your most representative customers.
If you’re a copywriter whose primary audience is SaaS founders but you happen to have positive reviews from your mum’s cousin Toni who’s a butcher - it doesn’t make sense for you to interview them because it’s not who you want to work with in the future.
But how exactly do you have them agree to give a testimonial?
Make it about them, not you
Instead of making it about you and just asking them to say something nice about your product or service, you are gonna make it about them.
Ask them if they’d like to be interviewed for a testimonial that will be read by hundreds of people and give them and their business a huge exposure.
They will be more willing to share who they are, what they do, and how you’ve helped them so that more people can discover them and eventually check out their product or service.
It’s a win-win.
Now I’m gonna show you my lemlist campaign that I use to reach out to the customers I wanna interview.
Even if people are already your customers, it’s always hard to get video testimonials from them.
Everyone’s busy and sometimes people have just better stuff to do.
So, when you write your email, you must answer the question, “What’s in it for them?”
That’s why leveraging your existing audience and the fact that they will get some exposure is a great win-win situation.
On top of that, I also added some scarcity by adding a selection process that said there were only 5 spots left.
That usually pushes people to answer faster.
Another great way to encourage people to share their testimonials is to include a video invitation.
I talked about the power of video messages in the video “Why you don’t need a website and what to do instead”
Here’s the link if you want to check it out.
When sending an invitation to your customers, you can insert a custom video that you created just for them in your lemcal booking page.
In the video, you can say:
“Thanks for considering joining my invitation to the testimonial. I’ve been super happy to have been helping you and look forward to other people seeing the results we’ve achieved together!
Feel free to choose whatever time works for you in the planning and I hope to see you soon!
No fancy equipment is required. Just, please, make sure your camera and mic are working.
Have a good day!”
With a video like this and your personalized lemcal page where you can put any media you want, your customers will not forget about your invitation which will reduce the no-show rate and won’t let all your effort go to waste.
It will look something like this 👇
While you are waiting for the response, you can use this time to prepare the questions you will ask.
Questions to ask your customers for a 🔥 testimonial
- Can you introduce yourself and explain what you do?
- What problem did you want to solve with my product or service?
- What were you doing before using my product or service?
- What results did you get? If possible, could you please share the numbers?
- What’s unique about my product/service that you can’t find anywhere else?
Now with this list of questions, we can move on to the technical setup that will help you get a high-quality recording of the interview.
Your technical setup
There are a few things to consider before the interview so both, you and your client feel comfortable during the meeting.
- Decide if you’re gonna use Google Meet or Zoom
- If you use Google Meet, before the meeting starts, join the call and click on three dots at the bottom of the screen
- Choose Settings
- Click on Video
- Change the resolution to the highest one
- If your built-in camera doesn’t work well, consider buying a USB camera that you can attach to your screen
- Your camera should be positioned at your eye level so it doesn't look like you’re looking down at your customer
- The best light is natural light (ie sitting in front of a window), but if it’s not possible, consider getting a ring light
- The same applies to a mic: for a good sound, I’d recommend getting an external one.
- Choose a quiet place with a neutral background (no coffee shops and hotel lobbies)
- Turn off all the notifications and close all the tabs. Make sure that the only open tab you have is the one with the meeting
- Make sure to record the interview, so you don’t waste time taking notes and lose focus
- Make sure that your internet connection is stable. Do the test before the call
- At the end of the call, don’t forget to thank your customer for the interview and let them know when the testimonial will be live
Now let’s get to the final step where I will explain what you are gonna do with the recording to turn it into a powerful asset showing the value you bring.
Turning a testimonial into an asset
You need to think of your potential customers who will check out the testimonial.
When deciding if they want to work with you or not, the testimonial you share should answer these main questions fast:
- Who do you help?
- How do you help?
- What results do you bring?
So one of the best ways to create a powerful asset is to turn the interview you took into a one-pager.
The title should include the name of your customer and the main achievement they’ve reached thanks to your product or service
It should work like a hook: make customers read more.
It’s worth it to highlight the KPIs at the beginning of the page in larger font and different colors so they are the first thing people notice when reading it.
Particular insights that you want readers to pay attention to can be put as quotes. They are instant attention-grabbers as people tend to scan the text.
Keep the sentences straight to the point.
Use bullet points and lists to make them more structured.
If applicable to your case, show screenshots of the features of your product that helped your customer achieve the KPIs they mentioned.
This will give your potential customers an idea of your product and what it looks like.
Include CTAs encouraging users to get the same features if they want to achieve the same results.
In this example, we put “automate multi-channel outreach” CTA that will take the reader to a signup page.
Remember: the whole point of the testimonial is to subtly tell your potential customers “Do you see these results? You can have the same with my help”
Then, you can use the video recording of the interview as a video testimonial that you can publish on LinkedIn or feature on your website.
This immensely boosts credibility as people can see the real customer sharing their experience.
If you have a newsletter, you can dedicate one of the topics to the testimonial, so even more people will read it.
That’s it! Just like that, you have a powerful testimonial that gives you credibility and increases your chances of acquiring new customers and it costs you zero dollars to make it!
Make sure to check out this free Notion document so you can copy-paste all the necessary templates to reach your customers when asking for a testimonial 👇
Chapter 12: Create testimonials to boost your credibility
And if you want more explanations and examples, you can watch this video I've made 👇
Every week I’ll publish new articles on how to build and grow a B2B business that generates millions of dollars.
Without any BS and giving you practical templates that you can steal.
Peace, love, and profit 💰
G. ✌️
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