Let’s talk about some ways to start collecting testimonials and how to use them in your marketing strategy.
Decide what questions you want to ask
Think about the kind of information you want to get from your current clients and keep your questions succinct. A good rule of thumb is to keep your list to under ten questions. Any more than that might result in less responses than you’d like. Make sure the questions are relevant to your business. Broad, open-ended questions might be left blank so make it as easy as possible for your clients to respond.
For example, if you’re a yoga teacher, here are some questions and information you might ask for:
- What was your biggest concern or issue before starting yoga with me? Did I help address it?
- What is your favorite part about my yoga classes?
- If you were to tell a friend about my classes, how would you describe them?
- Do I have your permission to share your feedback in my marketing materials?
Distribute your questions and collect responses
Once you have your questions, you’ll want to think about the easiest way for your clients to respond. There are a few ways you can go about this depending on how many of your current students you want to reach out to. Let’s look at a few different methods for distributing your questions and collecting responses:
Create a link to a form: Using a tool like Google Forms or SurveyMonkey, you can easily create a form that will come with a shareable link that you can distribute in a newsletter, on social media, via text, or in personal emails.
Send questions by email: If you only have 1-2 questions or plan to ask specific clients for their feedback, consider sending an email directly to clients so they can easily reply to your message. This approach also feels more personal so you may find that you get a higher response rate.
Ask clients to leave a review: If part of your marketing plan is to increase online reviews from clients, then you instead ask clients to leave you a review directly on any platform that people use to search for services like yours.
Whichever method you decide to use, be sure you are concrete and clear in what you are asking clients to do. Let them know that you are looking for some direct testimonials to help impact and grow your business. Make your Call To Action (CTA) abundantly clear in your message so there’s no confusion or mistake as to what you are asking clients to do. Your clients will likely appreciate that you have requested their insights as loyal practitioners!
Another popular tactic for increasing survey responses is to offer some kind of incentive for sharing a testimonial. Depending on your budget and overall business model, you could offer a free class, a discount on an upcoming workshop, or a chance to win an excellent prize!
Sharing testimonials in your marketing
Once you’ve collected some responses you can start to include these in your various marketing channels including but not limited to:
- Website
- Newsletter and emails
- Social media posts
- Flyers
- Client proposals
When preparing testimonials, here are a few tips and best practices:
- Edit for any typos or grammatical errors
- Use only the most compelling or relevant part of the review (but make sure the spirit of the testimonial stays intact)
- Use your client’s first name and last initial only
- Share the formatted/edited testimonial with your client as a heads up, and let them know where and when you plan to share it
Ready to start collecting and leveraging testimonials from your clients? Watch a demo of how OfferingTree works and can help grow your business!
