Using testimonials on your site is a great way to boost buyer confidence and let your customers do the selling for you. But not all testimonials are good testimonials…in order to be effective, they have to address specific issues that your products/services solved or benefits they provided to the customer.

Bad testimonial

“Jim’s great! I loved working with him!”

Jane Doe
ABC Company
www.abccompanywebsite.com

This testimonial is too vague to convince anyone to buy from you.

Good testimonial

“Tammi,

You must think, ‘How easy was that?!’ I love all the changes you made on both web pages and could never have done it at all, no matter how simple it may have been for you. I don’t even know how to describe what you did, You made it more active, more engaging, and more personal, while omitting the boring. How can you do that?

I’m happy.”

Marilyn Miller, MS, LPC
www.marilynmillerlpc.com

The testimonial above, on the other hand, spells out exactly how the services at hand (Write Associate website copywriting services) made this client’s website more attractive and engaging, which will lead to better sales.

So…how do you get good testimonials?

The best way to get great testimonials is to ask for what you want. Your clients are busy people, so you have to guide them into testimonials that will be useful for you (without putting words in their mouth, of course). The best way to do this is to create a short questionnaire (your clients are busy, remember!) with pointed questions that will hopefully elicit helpful responses.

I send out the following questionnaire on occasion to current and former clients:

1)  What benefits do you receive from using my services (e.g. save time, get better responses from potential clients, etc.)?

2)  What do you like best about my services (e.g. quality, turnaround time, etc.)? 
 
3)  What was your primary reason for seeking copywriting/editing services? 
 
4)  Why did you decide to use my services over other copywriters? Please be specific.

5)  Are you happy with that decision?

6)  Would you refer my services to a friend or colleague? Why or why not?

Then, with their permission, I turn their answers into a testimonial that outlines the specific benefits they received from my services.

If you’re trying to hone in on a particular benefit of your products or service, such as an affordable price, try to word your questions accordingly. For instance, one of your questions could be, “How would you describe my prices compared to other {copywriters, coaches, whatever it is you’re comparing yourself to}?” or maybe, “Did you find my rates to be affordable based on your expectations? Please explain.”

The key is to try and avoid questions that allow strictly “yes” or “no” answers. You want your clients to describe, in their own words, what makes your products and services so great.

If they’re happy with your products and services, they’ll be happy to comply, but you can also provide an incentive to give them an extra push. For example, offer them 15% or 20% off their next order (if you have a service they might need again in the near future) or promise to give them access to a special report or restricted area of your website for a certain period of time. What you offer is up to you, but if you make it worth their while, they’ll take a few moments to give you a glowing review.

Action of the day: Jot down 5 or 6 questions for your own testimonials questionnaire. Look them over, maybe sleep on them to make sure they’ll provide in-depth, useful responses, and then send your questionnaire out to a client or two. It may take a little time to put together good testimonials, but the results are well worth the effort.

What are you doing to get good testimonials from your clients? I’d love to hear your ideas and thoughts. Please share them here or email them to me at tammim @ writeassociate.com.