5 Simple Ways To Get Testimonials & Using Them In Your Sales Funnel

Testimonials can be transformative when it comes to building trust for your brand and getting new traffic excited about your funnel.

Instead of scrambling for customer feedback, consider our five foolproof strategies to incentivize users to sing your praises.

Conventional wisdom tells us that if you want something done right, you’ve got to do it yourself.

The go-getter, DIY attitude is perfect for funnel hackers looking to blaze their own paths, sell products and build a flawless funnel.

That being said, what about the aspects of our sales funnels which seem to go beyond our control?

In other words, how do we make sure that our customers take the actions that we want them to take?

Think about it.

You can do everything in your power to drive traffic to your site, from running PPC campaigns to aggressive email marketing and beyond; however, sales are not guaranteed unless you incentivize your traffic to click and convert.

The same rules apply when it comes to building social proof for your funnel.

As noted in the past, social proof represents one of the most powerful psychological tools in marketing.

But building social proof is something our customers do for us and is therefore out of our control, right?

Wrong.

Dead wrong.

The need to encourage customer feedback falls on your shoulders, not theirs.

After all, nobody can force your base to do anything: it all boils down to the incentives you provide and the psychological triggers you pull to seal the deal.

Regardless, acquiring testimonials is often an “after the fact” aspect of Internet marketing.

That is, many funnel-hackers get so laser-focused on sales and pricing that they fail to leverage their satisfied customers.

Big mistake.

You can’t afford to ignore the need to grab testimonials for your business.

For starters, consider the following in regard to the power of social proof and testimonials, such as:

• The fact that testimonials have an 89% effectiveness rating for content marketers, representing one of the absolutely most effective forms of organic advertising
• 90% of your customers online are influenced by what others are saying about their potential purchases: in other words, word of mouth is perhaps more powerful than ever for digital marketers
• Customer feedback and testimonials are proven to boost conversion rates, especially when featured on product pages

Although you may already be seeing positive returns from your funnel, why not supercharge your results and ensure more conversions by securing some testimonials for yourself?

The question remains: how do you get testimonials for your products and services?

It may be easier than you think.

Consider any of the following tips as fair game for generating feedback and using it to the fullest extent when it comes to sealing the deal for skeptical buyers and returning customers alike.

Some of these strategies may lend themselves to certain industries versus others, so feel free to pick and choose accordingly.

Start With Your Satisfied Customers

Perhaps the most obvious place to start with testimonials is by reaching out to your previously satisfied customers.

You should strive to pick out any combination of the following based on metrics and data (think: if you have a CRM solution on deck) as well as customers you know personally, focusing on:

• Those who you know are satisfied customers: for example, someone who organically emailed you saying “thanks” or was so excited about your product they just had to tell you about their experience
• Your most dedicated buyers and brand evangelists (think: those who’ve been buying from you the most consistently, your biggest spenders, etc.)
• Any potential influencers in your space: if you have a colleague or personal relationship within your industry you can leverage to your advantage, do so in exchange for a favor or shout-out

Bear in mind that testimonials can take many shapes and forms: from detailed feedback via email to simple tweets and beyond, there is not the particular way that testimonials are meant to look or be presented.

Likewise, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to acquiring them.

Outreach emails are probably ideal as you can get both short-form and long-term testimonials; however, that’s not the only way to go about it.

Regardless of how and where you contact customers (as noted below), bear in mind that you can take just about any good feedback and make it your own.

Allow your customers to leave you an email by adding forms to your funnel! The example below was done through Click Funnels where I added two different Form elements – Survey and Text Area elements.

As an alternative to the example above, another idea is to add the phone number field in your optin forms and make it an optional field. Make sure that field stands out and ask permission from your customers to be allowed to give them a ring for reviews and testimonials.

This is a great way to let your customers know that you’re concern extends beyond the sale as a post-sale service.

Short Testimonials Via Social Sites

The social network is the prime place to get in touch with your customers without bugging them.

If you already have followers and fans ready to sing your praises, you’re a few steps ahead of the game already.

Thankfully, you don’t need a five-paragraph essay of feedback for your testimonial to be effective: something short and sweet may work just as well.

For example, consider the simplified, straightforward testimonials you can acquire from the following social channels:

Facebook – Beyond running killer ads, Facebook is a great platform for curating customer feedback. Representing a hotbed for potential discussion, you can scour your brand’s Facebook page in search of positive comments and later use them on-site. For example, if someone tells a story or makes a comment about how your product saved them money, why not leverage that in your marketing language?

Twitter – The beauty of Twitter comes in the power of tagging: you can easily find those who’ve given your brand a shout-out or boost and screenshot their tweets as a form of social proof. If you can show off the fact that people are going out of their way to praise your brand, the more of an influencer you become.

LinkedIn – Many marketers have trouble with LinkedIn as it’s still a relatively young social network in the grand scheme of B2C marketing. That being said, LinkedIn’s “recommendations” feature to spot fellow customers in your space who have positive comments to make about you and your colleagues alike.

Remember: there’s absolutely no harm in asking for testimonials via social, granted you’re not pushy or aggressive about it.

Allow your customers to post FB Comments as feedbacks and reviews in your pages by adding the FB Comments element through the ClickFunnels Editor.

Ratings and Review Sites

Although many specialty ratings and review sites (think: independent review sites, blogs, and platforms such as Yelp) aren’t as popular as they used to be in the face of rising social sites, you should still strive to have a presence on such platforms as means of boosting your online reputation on all fronts.

After all, the more positive feedback, the better.

Make sure your profile is appropriately up-to-date and keep track of any potential testimonials that may be right under your nose.

Business Directories

Similarly, you need to ensure that your directory presence isn’t full of holes. Considering that business directory such as Google reward the sites and businesses with the most reviews, you should claim a listing and essentially drive your buyers to leave feedback accordingly.

Sweeten the Deal

But that’s the tricky part, isn’t it?

How do you incentivize your customers to leave provide a testimonial?

In short, you’re going to need to sweeten the deal.

Testimonials don’t take much work on the part of your customers; however, you should be willing to offer them something in return for their cooperation and dedication.

While you may think that your product stands on its own merits regarding generating positive feedback, it never hurts to offer incentives.

Incentives for testimonials may include any combination of the following:

• Discounts in exchange for feedback, perhaps the most straightforward option
• Exclusive offers or limited-time access for reviewers (think: advance access to webinars or promo codes)
• Giveaways or contests in exchange for reviews (the power of free goes a long way, although you should make sure that your discounts and freebies don’t’ leave you in the red)

Providing incentives is especially important if you have few customers or are just starting out.

Consistently offering rewards to your base often represents a snowball effect: by aggressively pursuing testimonials early on, you may very well build up a reputation that encourages plenty of organic testimonials in the future.

Bringing It All Together

Once you’ve acquired your testimonials, it may be overwhelming to figure out what exactly to do with all of your feedback.

Consider how you can integrate your positive testimonials into your funnel such as:

• Factoids and statistics to use throughout your marketing language (“1000 satisfied customers and counting”)
• Imagery for your VSL or landing page (such as a screenshot of a positive testimonial)
• Marketing language for future content (for example, you could use a testimonial as inspiration for a blog post or email blast)

First things first, though: you need to get testimonials before you can leverage them.

How Are You Getting Testimonials?

Given the increasingly social nature of today’s buyers, grabbing testimonials for your funnel shouldn’t be a matter of “if,” but rather “when.”

Rather than sleeping on the power of social proof, get ahead of the curve by using your satisfied customers as fuel for your funnel.

What do you do to encourage testimonials from your users?

Does the direct approach work for you, or do you try to push for feedback behind the scenes?

Let us know in the comments below.