If you are selling online, this episode is a must-listen. I see so many business owners struggle with this and it is literally critical to growth. This episode is all about the importance of social proof, particularly testimonials. Online businesses, course creators, membership owners, and coaches, listen up... In this episode I’m sharing how testimonials, case studies, and 'wins' can really boost buyer confidence and drive sales. I also share detailed strategies for how to collect and effectively use the testimonials you gather.

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Transcript

When buying online, how often do you go and look at the reviews? It's been proven that a product on Amazon with lots of reviews will sell better than the same product with less reviews. We need social proof. We need people to confirm that the thing we want to buy is going to be okay, that when we spend our money we're not taking a massive risk, and social proof and testimonials and case studies do that. They help us have the confidence to make that buying decision, which is why having testimonials, having case studies, and having wins in your marketing is so, so very important. But how do you collect testimonials? What do you ask them for? And where do you put them? That is what we're covering in today's episode of the podcast. And this episode should be one that every business owner should listen to.[00:01:00] An international bestselling author, award winning speaker, TEDx speaker, certified coach, and the host of this number one ranked podcast. I am so excited to guide you on the journey of creating a business and life that you not only love, but one that perfectly aligns with you and the season of life that you're in. In each episode, I'll share with you easy, actionable, and insightful strategies to grow your online business. Plus, we'll be diving into some mindset tools and strategies that keep you focused, motivated, and motivated. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Your Dream Business Podcast. I hope you are doing well. Okay, today we're jumping straight in and we're talking about something that is so important For every business out there, but even more important for online businesses. So course [00:02:00] creators, membership owners, and coaches, if you are selling things online, then this is probably one of the most important things you're going to need to listen to, and you're going to need to act upon. We're going to be talking testimonials. Now. I know that sounds like it's not very dramatic or not very big or not very important. Hopefully, you know, maybe you were sat there hoping that I was giving you some crazy hack that no one ever knew about, but this is something that I see so many business owners struggle with. Whenever I am going through someone's sales page, whenever I'm looking at someone's webinar slides, whenever I'm doing any of those things and helping them to curate them better, the one thing I will say without doubt is you need more testimonials. You need more people saying good things about you and what you do. And it's not just a case of just a straight testimonial. We're going to get into that, but you need to prove that you can do the thing that you're saying you can do. And [00:03:00] we just don't put enough in and I'm going to say we because I include myself in this because this is something that I have also been a little bit rubbish at and I need to improve on this. So this episode is for me as much as it might be for you. There is so much to cover that I'm going to try and break it into sort of areas that make sense, but let's talk about, first off, a testimonial and what is it, because I'm actually going to use three different terms and they are different. So you can have wins that you share, testimonials and case studies. So the main difference between these three, And some are better in different places and some of them you'll use in different places but wins are things like when someone in a Facebook group on social media or messages you and says hey I just did your so and so and I've got this or I've had wins that come in of someone saying, Oh my goodness, I just did my webinar and eight people have bought straight off the bat. Those [00:04:00] are wins. So those are kind of really short snippet things of someone telling you that they've just had a win based on what the, what you've done with them or the work that you're doing with them. And they can be really helpful, especially If you don't have a full test, test, testimonial, gosh, that's going to be hard if I can't say that as this whole episode's about it. If you don't have a full testimonial or if you don't have a case study, so at the very least, those wins are great and ideally those wins are screenshotted and they're still really useful to have even when you've got full testimonial and case studies. It's still great to have some screenshots of wins of little, you know, yay, I did this thing and I got this win. Then testimonials. So testimonials tend to be a quote from a client, someone you've worked with, someone who's bought your course, someone who's in your membership, that is talking about what impact you have had on them. And it could be talking about, I did this thing and I got this result, or I just love being part of this community, or [00:05:00] they're great to work with, but it tends to be a kind of quote. And a case study tends to be a bit more in detail. So a case study will probably go into who they are, what they do, what they did previously, what they did with your help and how they changed their business, their life, their whatever it is. And it gives you more details. And I would use case studies on things like a webinar or part of a launch or something like that, where you can get into the weeds a little bit. You can also have case studies on your website. You can have case studies on sales pages, but it tends to be the kind of real detail. You're going into real detail. So when I talk about testimonials, we could be talking wins. We could be talking case studies. And if I'm specifically talking about one of them, I will mention it. But I just wanted to say straight off the bat that that's the three different things that I see. I see wins, testimonials, and case studies. Okay. The other thing I need to get straight away or that I need to say straight away [00:06:00] is it is 100 percent your responsibility as the business owner to get your own testimonials. I don't mean that as in someone else on your team can't get them. Absolutely. But as the business, we have to get the testimonials. What we can't do is hope and expect that our clients and our customers are just going to want to give you a testimonial. It's so important that we get them and we need to be very considerate. We need to be very kind of, you know, actually make the moves of getting those testimonials, but it's our responsibility. The way I want you to think about it is I want you to think about adding it in as a kind of regular thing that you do. So for instance, if you are sending an email once a week, maybe once a week, you reach out to a client and ask for a testimonial. If you are posting on social media. Like a couple of times a week, maybe as part of that, you, every time you do your social media batching, maybe you do it once a month, you reach out to two or three social [00:07:00] people to ask them for testimonials. Every time you see someone say something nice about you, you screenshot it and put it in a folder, which I always do anyway, because I've talked about this before, but in case you haven't heard me talk about it, I have what's called a love folder. So anybody who says anything nice about me, I screenshot it, put it into a folder on my desktop, and I also have a physical love folder and I have a noteboard where the people send me things, which is lovely. And then when I feel rubbish about myself, or if I have a day when I'm thinking, am I really cut out for this? Am I really any good? Which we all have as business owners. Then that's the day I go and read my love folder. And I remind myself that. I'm good at what I do and people genuinely love working with me and get results. So that's good practice anyway, but also getting into the habit of having them screenshotted so that you can then use them is awesome. So how do you get testimonials, case studies, how'd you get the wins, and what do you do with them, where do you post [00:08:00] them, and where do they come in handy to be used? So we're going to cover all of that. One of the first things that you can do, let's talk about how we get testimonials. And like I said, I want you to treat it as a regular thing that you do in your business, so that you are constantly doing it. Look out for all of those good comments. So right at the beginning, in terms of wins, when you see someone share a win, I want you to almost have it that you then follow up with that person and ask them if you can take that win a bit deeper. So you could use it as a win, as a screenshot, Or you could use it as a testimonial or a case study and you could email them or you could contact them and say, Hey, I saw that you did this post about me or you shared in the group XYZ. Would you mind if we elaborated on that a bit? And if I could then do a testimonial from you or if we could do a bit of a case study. Now you can get all the information for a case study. It doesn't mean you have to use it as a case study, but the [00:09:00] aim would be to get that information from them. So that's one place that you could go and ask for testimonials. Another place is you could just email your list and email anybody that's been a client of yours and ask them, have you done XYZ, whatever it is that you are trying to get from your audience in terms of the transformation. So for instance, for me, it might be, have you had a successful webinar through what I've helped you with? Could you tell me about it? So you could email your list, but like I said, I want you to set up a regular time to reach out and ask these testimonials. If someone is offboarding, maybe that's part of the offboarding. If someone is moving from one product to another, maybe when they move, that's another point to say, Can I have a testimonial? Maybe if you have a course or something that people go through, maybe as they move from one section to another, you can automate something that says, when they finish this lesson, we send out an email saying, can you [00:10:00] have a, you know, can you tell me how you're getting on? And can we have a testimonial and that sort of thing? Okay. So lots of different places that you can ask testimonials that you can think about getting testimonials, but what about the actual testimonial? How do you get it? And What is it that you need to ask them to do? A good thing to bring in here, or this is a good place to talk about it. The whole point of the testimonials and case studies and wins isn't just necessarily about, I liked working with Teresa, she was lovely. The point of them is to show that you can deliver the transformation that you're saying you can deliver. That's the whole point. And I think with the online space, the way it is, and. our customers and prospects being much more discerning, which I actually think is a really good thing. You need to be a bit more direct in terms of what you're actually saying in your testimonials or what is being said in your testimonials. So for instance, [00:11:00] let's say you're doing a webinar or a launch or something, or you're teaching to your prospective audience, and you are teaching them that if they do X, Y, Z, they get the result. XYZ. So for me, let's use the example, I teach webinars or launching. So what if I say, one of the ways in which you can get people to join your webinar live is by sending these emails, by writing these points and by doing things like a workbook and an author and all this other stuff, when I would share that as a key learning point in a webinar or in a bootcamp or in any launch method that I'm doing, or even in an email or on social media. What would be great is if I had some kind of testimonial or case study or win that said I did this and this was the result I got. So if I'm saying, let's just say, I'll just use one point, let's say creating a workbook really helps [00:12:00] people turn up live to a webinar. What I would love, if I'm teaching that, is to then give you proof that that is right. Therefore, a testimonial or a case study of someone that says, I didn't do it and now I do, and this is the difference in my results. Now the results don't have to be absolutely brain blowing, They can be, I had a 10 percent increase on people who turned up, but they need to show a result. And I think that's where people are maybe not going deep enough with their testimonials and their case studies and their wins. They're doing them that says, Hey, it was so cool to work with them, but what I really need to see as a customer is show me that the transformation you're offering can be done. Show me that when you say, if you do this thing, it makes a difference. Show me that it has made a difference. Okay, that's why we need to go a bit deeper on testimonials rather than just the kind of, you know, this is nice, she's lovely to work with. So how do we get those testimonials and what are we looking for? When [00:13:00] you spot someone saying this thing was awesome or however the many ways in which we're going to bring in the testimonials, I would ideally like you to do one of a couple of things. Either get them on a call, a call's really good because you get to hear it in their own voice and sometimes I much prefer to If someone said to me would I get on a video for like 10 minutes and give them a testimonial and they ask me questions, great. That is the quickest and easiest thing for me to do with my time. I don't particularly love writing so therefore I wouldn't want to write them a testimonial because It would take me way too long. I'd rather they just ask me questions. However, some people are going to much prefer answering questions written than actually recording a video. So make sure you have some options. But what you need to do is have some questions laid out that gives you a structure that helps you answer the key things that needs to be included in a testimonial. And those three key things are what the problem was, So you want them to share the problem that they [00:14:00] had. Let's go back to my webinar example. The problem that they had was people weren't turning up to the webinar live, which meant they weren't getting as good conversion rate because there wasn't as many people turning up live. So you want to ask them questions that helps them explain the problem and where they were at. And if it was a bigger problem, like if it was a really massive transformation, then you might want to do a bit of work around. What was it like for them and how did they feel? And some questions around that. The next thing is you want to have them share the solution. Now the solution is in this example, I keep giving you to do a workbook. It's a very simple example. Like this isn't necessarily a testimonial I would do. I'm just trying to give you an example. On the solution bit, it would be, I created a workbook, and basically whatever it is, the thing that you're telling them to do or that you're helping them with. And the last thing we want to make sure we include is the results. And as much as possible, we want some real evidence and some real [00:15:00] factual, factual, get the word right stuff. We want them to be able to say in an ideal world, and not everyone's going to be able to say this, but I flipping love numbers. So I always ask about the numbers. We want them to say, this was what they did before. Then they did this and this was the result they got afterwards. Now it's not always going to be as easy as that. If you're a coach, then it's not numbers. It's, this is how I felt. This is what life was like. This is how I showed up. This was how. I behaved and then I did X, Y, Z, and then this was the result. As you start to gather your testimonials, I want you to make sure that you have somewhere to put them. And I know that sounds ridiculous, but honestly, if you don't have somewhere to put them and organize them, then you're going to lose them because I have done over the years. We use Asana, and I have a kind of board for each type of thing that we sell, and then all the testimonials go in there. The other thing you're going to get when you're gathering your testimonials is you're [00:16:00] going to ask them for an image. Because at the very least, if it's a written testimonial, if it's a written case study, the very least you want is an image of the person. Because we need to make sure that these testimonials look as real as they are. And obviously we're only going to ever use real testimonials. Once you've got them and you are saving them and you're collecting them and it's part of your process, where are you going to put them? Well, the truth is I want them everywhere. I want them on your website. I want them on your social media. You could put them on the bottom of your email signatures. You could put them in your emails. But the place where I see them lacking the most and not just lacking, but also a very tailored testimonial to the point is in launches and on sales pages. I have been guilty of this in the past where I have done a whole sales page and completely forgot to put a testimonial in. Honestly, we're like cobbler's shoes. Like I can tell someone else and I could spot it in a heartbeat with someone else. I'm not [00:17:00] able to spot it on my own. I want to see on those sales pages and in your webinars, on your boot camps, on your trainings, on anything that you're doing to launch, I want to see testimonial, case study, case study, testimonial after like every single point. In a webinar, what I teach is that every point that you share as a point of knowledge, I want you to back that up with a testimonial. I want you to use testimonials where there are objections. If someone has said, or if a common objection for your staff is that it won't work for me, show me a testimonial of someone who thought it wouldn't work for them, but it would, but it did. If someone is saying, I don't have time, show me a testimonial of someone who took half the time that it normally takes to get the results and it still worked for them. Okay, what you might be thinking at this point is what if I don't have all those examples and...