Customer testimonials are a great way to get the word out about your products and services, especially if you’re just getting used to self-promotion. They give you an indirect way to share the good points about your offers, without you having to “toot your own horn.”

Testimonials – statements about your products and how they can help your community – from customers and/or people to whom you’ve given a review copy of your can be used in several different ways. You can place them on your sales pages, about pages, and in your social feeds as a way to provide proof that others have used and benefitted from your products. This in turn provides you with another element to build the know, like, and trust factor with your community.

Here are 4 things you should know about customer testimonials:

1. The main benefits of testimonials

When you add testimonials to your marketing materials, it’s a great way to let other people do the bragging for you. They offer many benefits, such as helping you to build credibility in an unbiased manner from someone who has exposure to your products and or services. The right testimonials not only help bring in new prospects, but they also help build some measure of trust to your visitors.

2. How to get a testimonial

The easiest way to get a customer testimonial is to ask for it. You can easily add an email to your follow-up sequence that asks your customers to complete a survey about the product they’ve purchased.

If you have a WordPress site, you can also use a plug-in such as Thrive Ovation*, that makes collecting testimonials easy without having to ask for them. You can put the form on your access page, and direct customers back there to fill it out.

By making it a habit to include asking for a testimonial as part of your after-sale process and making it easy for your customers to share their thoughts, you’ll find you get better results that if you just ask them to email you something.

But what if you’re just starting out, or you have a brand-new product that hasn’t been sold before?

It’s a known fact that sales pages convert better when there are customer testimonials on them. This is why you’ll often see product creators asking their top customers and affiliates to review their products. You can provide a review copy of your new offer in exchange for a testimonial you can include on your sales pages.

3. What do you do with customer testimonials once you have them?

Once you collect your customer testimonials, you’ll want it to display them on your website. You can add a separate page called “Testimonials” or “Customer Feedback” for this. And, as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, you’ll also want to use them in your marketing content, on your sales pages, and in your social feeds.  

The idea is to share them as widely as possible in order to build your credibility with both your current community and the people you’re hoping to attract to your products and services.

4. A word of advice – don’t publish everything you receive

When you’re collecting customer testimonials, be very selective in the ones that you use.

We’ve all seen the one-line “testimonials” that just say something like “Nice product, I really liked it.” Those are not the type of comments that are going to help you build credibility within your niche.

Instead, make sure that what you’re getting is a true customer testimonial or review comment from someone who really knows your product, and has a reputation that others trust when it comes to giving good advice.

And don’t be afraid to ask them for further clarification if there’s something you’re not sure about in their comments.

Final Thoughts

Collecting customer testimonials is an important part of your sales and after-sales process, and one that often gets neglected by product creators. If you take the time to ask for them, and add the collection process to your follow-up sequences, you’ll be further ahead than most. You will be able to share good and useful feedback about your products and services without having to do all the talking yourself.

*Note: This post includes affiliate links, for which I will receive a small commission should you make a purchase.