Do you often get a lot of praise from customers as you work with them? Are they happy with your product but aren't leaving testimonials?
We all know that testimonials are a way of building a brand and telling prospective clients that you are trustworthy and that your clients generally enjoy working with you. So, why is it so difficult for companies, especially marketing agencies, to ask their clients for a review?
Asking for testimonials is something most people would rather not do. Many agency owners have reported feeling awkward when having to make this request for themselves, although they readily do it for their clients. Others simply don't make it a priority or often forget until it is requested by another prospect.
For a digital marketing agency to be successful today, testimonials or customer reviews are of utmost importance. Rarely does a company get contacted or hired without a client going through the testimonials section on their website or on a third party site.
While we're on the topic of third party websites, the HubSpot Agency Directory happens to be one of the leading online sources for agencies to be found by prospective clients. It is one of the few, if not the only places, that has such a wide array of businesses from all over the world accumulated in one place for the cherry picking of any client looking to outsource their services to an agency.
Recently we completed testimonial projects for two clients where we doubled one client's reviews and the other increased their reviews by 230%. This saw the latter company move from the second page to the top of the first page of HubSpot partners. This action saw them triple the number of their leads in the last two months, which goes to show the importance of testimonials for a business.
Here are a few tip to help you begin collecting more testimonials:
1. Know when to ask
You do not want to ask before your client has seen results. However, keep in mind not to ask too late -- this way you will avoid your clients having forgotten their experience which will lead them to giving you a generic testimonial. Take into consideration their emotional phase. Waiting about two weeks to a month has been found to be effective. If you decide to wait for a month, first check the progress of the project you did for them in order to make sure there are no sticky issues that may result in a negative review.
2. Don't ask everyone to give a testimonial
Let’s face it, there are projects, that once completed, you are happy to be done with. It's okay if you are not willing to revisit all your projects -- feel free to exclude such clients from your ask.
3. Ask
Make it simple for your clients - ASK. Get straight to the point in one email. Do not go back and forth. Ask them questions that are meant to guide them in writing the testimonial. When asked to give a testimonial, most clients wonder how to phrase it and what to talk about. This works as a guideline.
Be conscious of how you ask the questions, avoid the yes or no questions. Something like: ‘’Did you enjoy working with the team at X company’?’’ will give a very different answer than: ‘’How was your experience working with me/us? ‘’
Phrase the question in a way that leads them to an answer you want to hear. And if there is a star rating don't be afraid to ask them to leave the highest rating with their review.
4. Set up reminder emails
People are generally busy. It is very easy for emails to be lost in ones inbox. Like everything else, best practice suggests that you can send up to two reminder emails to your clients without seeming annoying. Setting them 5-7 days apart allows you to seem less pushy. Also, don't hesitate to extend this time to 2-3 weeks if you know that your client is on vacation or super swamped with a big project.
5. Let them know earlier
When beginning a project with a client, you can subtly let them know that you will be asking for a review or feedback at the end. It lets them know in advance, so by the time you ask them they are already prepared.
All these things are great, but how does one ask for the review?
1. Make a list of your clients, both past and present
From this list select the clients you would like to ask for a review from. Keep in mind the number of reviews you want to get from this project. Statistics have shown generally 25- 30% of the client’s approached leave a review.
2. Write this list in an Excel sheet outlining the projects done.
State the phase it is in. If completed, what was the result? This makes it easier to personalize the email sent to the client requesting them for the testimonial.
3. Create email templates
Get about 5 different samples that cater to the different categories of clients or projects you may have. For instance, you may have different emails for past clients, new clients and returning clients.
4. Send out emails and track the responses
Send the emails out and keep track of how many people responded and left reviews the first time around. After a period of about 5 days send a second email to remind those who did not respond. Wait a period of 7 - 10 days after the second email to send a third and final email to those that did not respond.
5. Show a little love ❤️
Send a personalized thank you message to each and every one of your clients who left a review. If you have the budget, include a nice gift card or something to show your appreciation for the time they took to write it.
Overall, this may sound like a lot of emails, but it is important to keep in mind how easy it is for your initial emails to get lost in your clients inbox. So, around three emails won't annoy them too much.
That’s it. It’s as simple that. Although asking for testimonials may not come naturally to you, these few tips should help make the process smoother and hopefully take away the awkwardness that may come with asking your clients for reviews.
If you are wondering what you should be writing in all those emails, or if need more assistance in the actual process of collecting reviews for your website or HubSpot Partner Page, schedule a call with our experts.
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