When you check out a website, chances are, you’ll come across recommendations from customers on the homepage. That’s a great thing!
When people recommend your business to others, then more consumers will find you and, perhaps, buy from or interact with your business. These recommendations are known as testimonials.
Testimonials are a great way to put a spotlight on your business, so that everyone else can come to you. Plus, people are more likely to trust people they know, when it comes to recommendations. In other words, no one is going to believe a faceless entity saying “Hey! You should definitely try this smoothie!” or “This doctor is the best!” without knowing the purpose behind it. As you can see, you’ll need to build the trust of customers before they start recommending you.
That’s where the testimonial letter comes in!
Writing a testimonial letter to potential consumers is essentially inviting people to give testimonies about your business. When people take you up on your invite, you can post their testimonials. Just keep in mind: You’ll need permission from consumers to post their testimonials online; and, you’ll need to respect their wishes should they want to be anonymous in their testimonial.
(However, for the second, take the “testimonial” part with a grain of salt – the point of testimonials is to put a human face on your company.)
Nevertheless, you’re about to dive into this essential guide on how to write a testimonial letter with the best tips and examples. If you want your company to gain more recognition and become more human to your consumers, then writing a testimonial letter to your customers is the way to go!
Ready? Let’s go!
The benefits?
First, let’s look at the benefits of having people give testimonials about your business!
One notable benefit of effective testimonials is the ability to increase conversion rates. Conversions are what make your business stand out among your competitors because more and more people will be flocking to you if they like what they see.
Another benefit is the fact that testimonials act as a third-party endorsement. Being a third-party endorsement not only helps you and your business build consumer trust, but that will also lead to the bandwagon effect (meaning that more and more people will come to you).
Needless to say, utilizing testimonials can come with many benefits (besides these two). In fact, testimonials can serve as social proof for your business, especially when you post them to your social media. Aside from the data and the statistics, social proof is just as important!
What your testimonial letter needs
While the look and feel of your testimonial letter will depend on your business, niche, and product or service, there are certain things that you’ll need to put in it. You can check the assignment writing service review and find a reliable and high-quality assistant in writing a testimonial letter or completing another writing task.
You’ll need to request the following in your testimonial letter:
Permission is extremely important, because you can’t just take someone’s quote and falsely add it to your website’s homepage.
Best tips and tricks
So, now that you know the benefits and the essentials for writing a great testimonial letter, it’s time to put your letter to work! Now, how you write your letter depends on your business, and how you approach your consumers. What you’re about to see in this section are various examples of the power of testimonial letters at work, and how you can implement them in your writing strategy!
1. Make testimonials direct
All testimonials must be able to speak to the masses. That’s why it’s important to make your testimonials direct. People want things straightforward in plain language; so, your best bet is to be straightforward with your approach. In turn, consumers will give straightforward, or direct, testimonials for your business, as shown in this example below:
Source: Boast
2. Be formal
Next, formality should still be front and center in your testimonial letter. Check out this example from HubSpot:
Source: HubSpot
This example suggests that offering incentives can entice recipients to send in their testimonials. However, notice how this letter is formal in its speech. An informal approach would’ve caused readers to doubt that the company needs testimonials.
Now, when writing a formal testimonial letter, keep the following objectives in mind:
3. Be short and sweet
Ever heard of the old saying “a penny for your thoughts”? Something brief can make a huge difference in a situation or business. As mentioned earlier, people want information to be straightforward. So, why not consider inviting short testimonials from your loyal fanbase?
Check out these examples from AppSumo:
Source: AppSumo
Notices how these testimonials are short. Even as they’re short in length, they share big things about a company that they’ve interacted with (in this case, it was a weight-loss app). Suppose that these testimonials were long – people would grow bored just reading such long text.
So, how long is too long?
Well, it appears that around 30 to 50 words in a testimonial would suffice. So, when messaging consumers for testimonials, make clear the word count, so that people aren’t in having to write something long as testimony for interacting with your business.
4. Be authentic
According to Forbes, people are smarter than before when it comes to spotting "fake" testimonials. That’s why it’s important to educate consumers that if they want to submit a testimonial, that they should be as authentic as possible.
Remember: A consumer will trust their family, their peers, and others they know, before they trust you – the company. So, by asking consumers to keep their authenticity – saying to “be themselves” in testimonials, will do wonders!
But whatever you do: Do NOT alter people’s testimonies, unless it’s to correct a typo. The last thing you want is to twist someone’s words, and put them on the Internet. Remember: Testimonies have to be authentic – they have to come from real people, not personas you make up in your head.
However, if it helps, you can send customers a template – perhaps something like this – to get the ball rolling.
Source: Printwand
But still, let your customers take care of the authentic part.
5. Ask how things are doing post-sale
Want to get customers’ thoughts after the sale? You can!
Chances are, your customers will have a lot to say about your product or service, whether it’s good or bad. However, you want to get in touch with people that actually love your product or service. Reviews from your fans can give your business the spark that it needs to thrive and create authenticity in what you have to offer.
Here’s a great example letter from Boast:
Source: Boast
This email template is a great starting copy for your email marketers. From there, you can customize the email by personalizing where there are brackets. In other words, when sending this letter to recipients, make sure you replace the bracketed names with people’s names.
Make sure to use a professional email signature to personalize your email marketing campaigns. Having standardized email signatures can be extremely useful in staying memorable and keeping prospects engaged.
Plus, the copy should be relevant to the product or service that you’re selling or providing. So, if you’re a company that sells computers, and you have someone named Julie who’s interested in giving her testimonial, the letter above would look something like this:
“Hi, Julie!
Thanks for your time on Saturday, June 5, 2021 at our computer store! It was great doing business with you, and I’m glad we could help you find the computer that you need. If you have a few minutes today, we would love to get your feedback on your shopping experience…”
Here, you can add a hyperlink to your site, where the customer can leave their testimonial. Then, wish them a good day or week, and then sign your name while adding your occupation and company.
Just keep in mind: Don’t send this letter right away to your customers after they’ve visited your store, business, or website. Typically, companies wait until a day or two before sending consumers these letters.
7. Ask your super fans
Remember how we’ve talked about getting your fans to give testimonials? But how about your super fans?
When you look on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. you’ll see a broader view of your fanbase. If fanatics to influencers, there is much to behold in testimonial gold!
Take, for example, these Tweets:
Source: Social Media Examiner
As you can see, people are more open on social media than when you ask at bare minimum. So, why not take advantage of this by messaging them for their testimonials? Who knows? You might gain an influencer from your endeavors!
But then again, be sure to research testimonials that you find on social media. Like many users, you can’t trust ALL social media postings. Chances are, the postings may come from dummy accounts aimed at spamming other accounts. So, research the social media accounts and, if they’re real, then message them and ask if they can leave a testimonial for you.
8. Don’t ignore the sub-headline
Believe it or not, sub-headlines are more important than you think. Sub-headlines are compelling summaries that go above consumer testimonials. You can use sub-headlines to demonstrate to potential testimonial givers how their testimonials will be valuable to your business. Plus, sub-headlines are what people will notice before the main thing.
Calcworkshop demonstrates this in their example:
Source: Calcworkshop
This example was taken from a consumer’s Facebook post. Above it, is a sub-headline highlighting a key statement from the overall post.
The secret?
The consumer has a say in it.
Since they’re trusting you with their words, make sure that they’re satisfied with your sub-headline as well.
9. Take advantage of LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a social media platform that’s more tailored to employers, job seekers, companies and organizations get together to post job opportunities, volunteering, etc. In that case, the platform would list recommendations on companies, employers, etc. Whether it’s in the form of a happy message, or helpful feedback, your business needs to look at these recommendations.
So, make sure that you look at LinkedIn, and then invite your consumers to recommend your business on the platform. By having people recommend you on LinkedIn, you’ll get people recommending you on one of the most popular business social media platforms to date!
Check out this example from Force of Nature!
Source: Force of Nature
In this example, the person writing the recommendation is allowed to explain how they’ve interacted with a business, the benefits, and why other people should interact with said business.
10. Spot the positives
Finally, as mentioned earlier, social media is a hotbed of testimonials – real and fake. However, the social proof doesn’t stop there. In fact, testimonials can happen every day. Think of this overflow of testimonials as seeds sprouting out from the ground.
Let’s look at some of these “seeds”:
The list goes on!
If something sounds positive about your business, get in touch with those people, and ask for their input!
How you hear these positives will affect how you write your testimonial letter. For example, you might have your letter look like this:
“Hi, Bob!
I enjoyed your visual display at the company showcase, expressing how much of a big fan you are to us! We would like to invite you to leave a testimonial about our company!”
And always, no matter if recipients say yes or no to your request, remember to tell them “thank you.”
How to write a testimonial letter: Conclusion
Ultimately, writing a successful testimonial letter involves the following factors:
While getting your customers to leave an honest review about your company isn’t always sunshine and rainbows, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to reach out to people. That’s why you need to make your testimonial request count in your letter to your customers.
As you saw by these examples, you’ll get a good idea on how you should structure your letter, more or less. By using these examples as templates, they will be great stepping stones for your next attempt on requesting testimonials from your loyal fanbase!
Good luck!
