Dear SaaS Founder, This Is How To Ask For Testimonials From Your Power Customers

Today, you need word-of-mouth marketing and testimonials to convince prospects to buy from your brand.

Buyers are more skeptical than ever before—55% of consumers no longer feel they can trust companies. So, if you don't have testimonials on your site, then it'll be more challenging to make prospects trust your brand.

But how do you get testimonials? By simply asking your best customers.

In this article, we'll share some of the best ways you can ask customers to give testimonials highlighting their overall experience using your product.

Then you can use the insight to create a solid base of testimonials to showcase to prospective customers.

Here's what we'll consider:

1. Why ask for customer testimonials?
2. How to ask for testimonials from your best customers
3. Wrapping up

Why ask for customer testimonials?

A customer testimonial is a powerful marketing material that can significantly increase the trust and credibility of your brand.

Most buyers will have doubts when purchasing from a brand for the first time. If you have well-prepared customer testimonials then you have a great chance of winning the hearts of prospective customers.

However, everything worth having doesn't come easy. This is why you need to ask for testimonials from your clients.

In the next section, we'll explain the best ways that you can use to ask customers for powerful testimonials that can improve your marketing and sales efforts.

How to ask for customer testimonials from your best customers

Here are eight ways that you can ask for testimonials from your best customers.

1. Define your reasons for testimonial requests

First things first. You need to be clear on what you're looking for in a customer testimonial.

Do you want your customers to leave a review on popular review sites like Trustpilot, Yelp, Capterra, G2 Crowd, etc.?

Do you want to go further and create a customer success story out of customer feedback?

Or do you just need a couple of written testimonials to add to your website testimonial page?

It's important to set the right goals and expectations before you begin the testimonial collection process. This way, you don't end up going mid-way only to end up stuck.

Once you have this sorted out, you can move on to the next step.

2. Set up testimonial collection medium

There are different ways that you can collect testimonials from clients. Here are some of them. You can choose the one that suits you or make your combination.

Ask via SMS—you may think that SMS is an unusual medium for collecting testimonials but you can actually make work for you. SMS requests have more advantages over other forms of communication. Whenever you send SMS, your customers will receive instant messages from your brand. This means that they are more likely to provide feedback regarding your brand and products.

Ask via email—the great thing about email is that it is one of the most popular forms of communication. All you need is a solid contact base, and an email template and you're good to go. When using email, you also need to decide whether you're using automation or if you'll send the requests manually. Email automation is ideal if you're sending requests to customers who don't interact much with the support team. When sending testimonial requests, include a link to the review page and a direct link to the feedback form.

Interviewing your client—customer interviews are another great way to obtain customer testimonials. By asking open-ended questions, you can gain insight into your customer's experience with your brand. To get the best testimonial, you need to ask the right questions. Here are some pointers on how to accomplish this:

• Find out what made them choose your brand
• Request a picture of your customers while they use your product or service.
• Ask customers to highlight how your product helped them and the problem they had before they chose your brand.

3. Decide on the right time to send requests

Sending testimonial requests at the right time can make a big difference in the entire process. If you get the customer at the wrong time, you won't get anything. That's why you need to monitor your customer's behavior. Here are some instances to ask for testimonials from clients:

• After product purchase—you can send requests when your customers are at their best—after enjoying your product or service. This increases the chances of getting valuable feedback.
• Satisfied follow-up—customers that have used your product or service repeatedly are ideal for giving testimonials. You can ask them for a testimonial request to know how likely they'll recommend your brand to others.

4. Define incentivization

An incentive can go an extra way to make customers drop an unbiased review of your brand. There are many types of incentives that you can use to make your customers feel appreciated.

For example, you can offer a loyalty program to make your customers feel appreciated. The loyalty program can award points to customers that have made a particular purchase.

Or you can offer coupons or gift cards to customers for future purchases. So, try these examples to incentivize customers to give a testimonial. Here's an example of how G2 offers an incentive in its email:

5. Provide multiple options to make it easier for them

You need to give your customers the option to write or create a video of their testimonials for your website.

When you give your customers the opportunity to choose how they will prepare a testimonial, it makes the process easier.

You can give customers the opportunity to

• Participate in a live interview
• Write 1-2 paragraphs highlighting how your product or service helped them solve a problem
• Create a short video summarizing their successes
• Share their reviews on your company's social media pages like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram profile page.
• Drop a review on a popular customer review site, just like Algolia did in its email:

6. Ask simple questions to yield client quotes

What customers include in their testimonials is important to create a positive impact on prospects.

So, you need to pose effective testimonial questions to make your customers search deeper within themselves to uncover key details about their experience with your brand.

For instance, you can ask open-ended questions to avoid one-word responses. To begin, phrase your questions in a way that will make them highlight key moments in the buying journey—the problem they were trying to solve and what made them choose you as a provider.

You can ask some questions like:

• What problem were you trying to solve before you started using X product or service?
• How has X product or service helped you to overcome a major challenge?

7. Let them know you'll link back to their website

When you request testimonials from clients, you need to let them know that you'll provide a backlink.

Informing customers that you will link back to their website can act as an incentive to get them to submit testimonials. Here are other reasons to link back to your customer's website:

• It acts as a backlink that can improve your customer's Google rankings
• Other customers that are interested in gaining backlinks might reach out to you so that they can leave a testimonial

You can also share customer testimonials on your social media pages for more publicity. This increases the chances of getting a "yes" when asking for testimonials.

8. Make the best use of your customer testimonials

Once you have received great testimonials from your customers, it's time to show them off!

How you use your customer testimonials can make a big difference in your overall marketing efforts.

So, where is the best place to showcase your testimonials?

Here are some suggestions:

• Create a dedicated testimonial page on your site
• Display the best testimonial as a header on your homepage

You can also include the best testimonials in your email marketing campaigns to convince prospects to buy from your brand.

Wrapping up

If you're not requesting testimonials from your clients, then you're missing out on a great opportunity.

Asking customers for feedback will not only build your brand credibility but also turn your existing customers into evangelists.

Ensure you make requests for testimonials a crucial part of your marketing strategy. It is a powerful form of social proof that is invaluable to your business's success.

Remember to establish what you need from a testimonial and set the right medium for receiving testimonials from customers.

The best way to build a solid base of testimonials is by building a strategy. Use the tips mentioned above to guide you as you build a great strategy for receiving testimonials.

With Engage, you can use multiple messaging channels to ask for a testimonial from your power customers. We support email, SMS, push notifications, and in-app messages.