Episode Transcription

Josh 0:16
Hey, everybody, welcome into the podcast. This is Episode 89. In this one, we’re going to talk about testimonials. And I’m going to share with you some tips and tricks that I’ve learned. And over a decade of working with clients on how to get testimonials and how to get good testimonials, because there is a difference between somebody just saying great to work with versus an actual testimonial that has some meat and has some heart to it. So that’s what we’re going to cover in this episode. And the reason I wanted to do this now was a couple episodes ago, my last solo Episode Episode 87. I shared with you some tips on how to stand out as a web designer this year in 2021. So if you haven’t listened to the episode, I definitely recommend going back to that one. But one part of that was talking about testimonials. But I mentioned in that one that really deserves its own episode. So I wanted to follow up with that, to talk about testimonials to help you guys do this because it’s easier said than done. And I’m really excited to hear how the tips and things that I’ve learned in my experience will help you with getting some good reviews and testimonials. So before we dive in, I do want to do a quick featured shout out to a recent review that comes from CarolineC95 from the Netherlands, and she says “The best podcast for any entrepreneurial web designer. Josh’s podcast is my favorite podcast about web design. The self made web designer comes in second place.” Yes, side note that is a great podcast as well. I’ve had the host Chris Misterek on my show as well definitely check out The Self Made Web Designer. If you haven’t already, that podcast is great. But Caroline continues by saying “It’s a great podcast, which has pushed me over the edge to shift my focus from social media to graphic design and web design.” Awesome. Carolyn, good for you. “My business Tremento Services, hospitality brands around the world has been doing so or serves,” excuse me “hospitality brands around the world, and has been doing so for the last two years. But focusing more on graphic design and web design and less on social media has given me a lot of my time back. I’ve always been afraid to offer hosting and maintenance. But after Josh has podcasts on these topics and his recommendation for Siteground I decided to take the leap no regrets so far.” Oh, it’s awesome to hear. “I have my first eight hosting and maintenance clients I can’t ask the same number per month is that Josh advises do to my niche but I am a to get a lot more hosting and maintenance clients and use my team of contractors to keep the business going. Can’t wait to see what 2021 has in store for us. We’re aiming for over 50 clients in the span of this year. Let’s roll.”

Josh 2:47
Caroline, Awesome. Thank you so much for this review. This, this review had a lot of really good things in it. I think first of all, I just want to mention, I’m super glad to hear and proud of you for going from social media to graphic design and web design. For one, there’s a lot more stability in web design, particularly as we saw, like I have a social media contact colleague and his business, I think they lost over 80% of their business when COVID hit because a lot of companies drop their social media campaigns. So you’re in a great position was switching to web design. And as as she says, guys, everyone listening, if you’re afraid of doing hosting and maintenance, I understand it’s okay. It’s it’s a little scary to do that. But I’m telling you, it’s the the best way as a web designer to build recurring income. And to be honest, you’re gonna be doing that stuff anyway, if you just design a website and let your client go, they’re going to be coming back to you with hosting questions and maintenance questions. So you might as well do it, you might as well get paid for it instead of having to answer a bunch of questions later. So that’s so awesome to hear and glad that you’re using Siteground for anyone else is interested in checking out the hosting that I recommen just go to JoshHall.co/siteground and you’ll be taken to a special page with a discount for you if interested. So thanks so much Carolyn. For this review, I’ll make sure I link your website in the show notes.

Josh 4:06
Alright guys, Episode 89. Now we’re going to talk about testimonials. And I’d probably don’t need to get into the benefits too much. But it may be if you’re new to business and it hasn’t been on your radar. I really want to encourage you to be intentional about getting testimonials because of many reasons. But some of the main reasons are social proof. Clients want to see and they want to hear from other clients. It’s very risky particularly with think about the last time you paid $3,000 for something which is probably a good app or average website investment. You probably want to know what are other people saying like do you look at the reviews when my wife and I are searching for stuff for our girl like when we got a car seat awhile back. We looked at reviews that was the first thing we looked at. So social proof is absolutely crucial and it’s even more important, with bigger high risk type of investments which a website is there a company’s investing in It’s it’s a big decision. So social proof is absolutely key, it also helps build that trust. So once they see that you do good work and you have some happy clients, it builds that trust automatically. So it can be an incredible converter for you. Because it kind of sells you automatically from your website, or wherever you’re posting these testimonials.

Josh 5:19
And the last big thing, as far as a big benefit for that I’ve seen is just that it is a sales tool, you can literally use a testimonial. And we’ll talk about the different common types of testimonials here. But you can use that on your website, social media, if it’s a video, you can have it on a YouTube channel, you can publish it and promote it in all different ways you can put it in an email campaign, so many different ways, and benefits that you can use testimonials. So those are some of the main benefits. Again, there’s there’s a ton, but those are the biggest ones that I’ve seen.

Josh 5:49
But there’s also a big problem. There’s a big struggle, there’s a big struggle, excuse me, for one, clients are busy. And that’s the biggest thing to remember. So if you ask for a testimonial, don’t be surprised. Number one, if a client doesn’t get to you right away, or doesn’t get to you at all, because they’re busy. And don’t be surprised if you come up to any other sort of objections to giving a testimonial, it doesn’t mean that they don’t like you. They just some will forget, I found that honestly, like I have great clients. And I remember, sometimes I would ask for a testimonial and they would just forget, they’d be like, Oh yeah, I’ll do that, you know, here pretty soon. And then a month later, they completely forgot. So you need to, we’re going to talk about some tips that I’m going to give you to, to kind of combat that. Let’s just remember clients are busy, some of them are going to forget, don’t take it personally. And don’t be surprised if it’s a struggle. And just remember this to a lot of clients just don’t feel comfortable writing. And then if you’re asking for a video review, most clients aren’t going to feel comfortable on camera. So you really need we’re gonna get to the tips here again, but you really need to be prepared that even if you’re really good at writing, and you would do a review, like for me, I love doing reviews. It’s not a problem for me. But I have realized because I for a while I took it a little personally I was like Why don’t they freakin give me a testimonial. Why don’t they just send a quick one minute video? Well, not everybody is me. So they’re not on camera like I am frequently they’re not doing podcasts like I am. So it’s it’s, they’re not writing blogs like I am. So they’re not, you know, it’s just not an area of comfort for them. Particularly if they’re in like a blue collar field or something where that’s just not something they do. So you really need to empower them. But again, those are some of the main struggles.

Josh 7:26
Now, what I’m gonna do next here, as we dive into the meat and potatoes of this episode, we’re gonna cover some of the most common types of testimonials. And I’m going to give you some tips that are going to apply to all of these different main types. And then I’m also going to give you just a handful of tools that really helped me. So those are kind of the three main segments. So let’s start out here number one with the there’s actually three common types of testimonials and reviews. But there’s also a not so common approach that I’m going to throw in here too. And this is one that I’m doing right now. And it’s working awesome.

1) Written Testimonials

Josh 8:02
So number one, the first main type of approach is just a written, written email, a written testimonial. And usually that does come from an email. So that would be like if you ask a client for a testimonial, they might email you back and say, Oh, my gosh, you know, Sally and her web design team, they were just amazing. Really enjoyed working with them. Thanks so much can’t wait to work with you. Again, that would be an example of a typical type of, you know, testimonial email that you would then put on your website, or social media, or whatever. And that’s fine. That’s totally cool. It’s not the most ideal testimonial, but it’s cool. Now, let me give you a pro tip though, if you are getting a testimonial like that. One thing I highly recommend doing to help it convert is to add a real image of the person who wrote it. Because if you just put a little two sentence blurb on your website, shocker, that’s not going to do anything for anybody. It just doesn’t look very convincing. It doesn’t look very appealing. And to be honest, there’s always that skeptical person who’s gonna be like, Well, how do I know for sure that this person wrote this and it wasn’t Josh who wrote it or tweaked it. So that’s the only issue with the the main type of way to get a review when it comes to email because it can be manipulated. So hopefully, you know you don’t do that. Hopefully you don’t write your own testimonials. But it’s also just not very engaging. So add a real image. I would also say one thing that I’ve found that has been really helpful, I’m actually going through some pages in my site and doing this right now. And that is to add five stars, like you can literally just right click, do a little emoji five star and just copy and paste, copy and paste, copy and paste. So you get five stars there and add it above the testimonial or something just to make it kind of pop off the screen and some of you from a design perspective, you might feel that that is against best practices or as against your design, but what can I say it’s worked for me I highly recommend doing that. So pro tip with those reviews. Add a real image of the person, generally you’ll, if you don’t have access to a real image of them, you can just ask for one and just make sure it’s cool. Just say, Hey, can I use your image for my testimonial, no one’s gonna say no generally to that, and then add some five stars on there. So that’s number one, the written review.

2) Google or Other Platform Reviews

Josh 10:15
Number two, which is even more ideal is an actual Google review, or a review from our review platform, which these are a dime a dozen. We’re gonna talk about tools here in a little bit that you can use, but I love a good old Google review. And side note, if you didn’t already know Google reviews are go rate for organic SEO, if your business or your clients business is getting ongoing, that’s a trick ongoing Google reviews, that will help with the search engine algorithm. And it will show that this is a trusted brand or a trusted company that’s worth sending people to and then people can see real reviews. And there’s a ton of tools out there, we’ll cover a couple where you can actually display those on your website. So you can do it that way as well. And then the beauty about that is if you did want to use a Google review, and make it a written review somewhere else on the website or put it in an email campaign, you can do that, you can just copy and paste it and use it however you want. So I actually always told clients leave a Google review, even sometimes they would send me a written review. And I would copy and paste it for him and say, Hey, would you actually mind posting a Google review because this will show up on Google and then I can use it elsewhere. And I would just say, just copy and paste this. And then here’s the link. Here’s the link, and we’ll talk about that as well. But Google reviews, or any reviews from review platform, like I know, Trustpilot is a big one now. I mean, they’re a dime a dozen these review platforms where it’s an actual review that gets syndicated to different review platforms. That is great. So that’s ideal. Number one is like, okay, cool, thanks for the review. But ideally, get a Google review. Now what’s even better.

3) Video Reviews

Josh 11:53
The third main way to get a common type of review is a video review. This is even better, if you’ve been following me for a while that should come to know as no surprise, because I’m a big proponent of video reviews, because as you can imagine, not only is it a written type of review, because you can make it a written review, you can take the transcription. And then you can use that. But it just adds a whole nother element of trust, because you’re seeing an actual person, and you’re hearing their voice, you’re getting their mannerisms, you see them. That is the absolute best converting review, a video review. So I highly recommend if you’re not taking an intentional route of getting viewed video reviews, do that. And the next steps, we’re going to help you do that more practically here. But video reviews are great. And one thing I will say too, you can also you can make the Google review, like if you get a Google review or a written review. And if they’re willing to give you a video review, just have them use that as a script, like say, you know what your written review was so good, can you just use that, and then you can base that off a video review. And that’s gonna, it’s so great, because you can use the video reviews, even more so as a sales and marketing tool on your website, in social media posts, email campaigns, whatever. So definitely do that. So those are the top three.

Josh 13:14
But like I mentioned, there is kind of an extra here. And it’s a not so common approach to getting testimonials. And that is and this we’re borderline getting a little sly here. But I’ve been using it and it’s been working great. And that is to take a snippet from a real message that was sent to you or even a recording from a call. And here’s what I mean by this that sounded a little weird and vague. So for my web design club, for example. What I’ve been doing is in the web design club, all my members, we have a private message to get like a message message thread together, me and every member. And one thing I’ve been doing is after a couple weeks, I’ll just ask the member in the messenger, hey, what do you think of the club so far, and I have been getting the most amazing responses that way, because there’s no pressure, there’s no overthinking, they just spit out exactly how they’re feeling. And those often will make the best testimonials.

Josh 14:13
That’s another pro tip. If you just get somebody to share how they actually feel without overthinking it and putting too many filters in place, then you’re gonna get a really genuine response. And here’s the exciting news. You can use that as a testimonial. Now, that’s method number one. That’s the written so it’s not a Google review, although you could take that and have them copy and paste that as a Google review. And then ideally turn around and do a video review. But that has been huge because it’s given me really good, just quick thoughts that are so genuine and so real. Whereas sometimes if you ask a client or a customer, or my case any of my students to do a review, sometimes it’ll come back a couple days later, and I can tell like man they really like I appreciate that. They went real really ham on this to organize it, and put everything in place. But sometimes it can be a little too much. It’s like a small book. And then sometimes it’s just it comes out a little can like you can tell, they just, you know, it wasn’t as real. They don’t maybe talk like they would normally talk. Whereas if you just ask somebody, hey, what do you think of so far, you’ll get amazing responses. And you can do that in a number of different ways. Like I mentioned, for my web design club, I do it in the messenger. But you can also do it just an email or your project management system. If you’re in a project, maybe you just finished up a project. And you can even do it in an unexpected, unanticipated way. I guess you could just say like, what are your you know, how do you think it’s gone? Did you enjoy working with us so far? Or do you did you enjoy working with us now that the leadsites live, they’ll often give you some of the most amazing responses. And again, take that, but the real image, get their permission, of course, and just let them know, like, Hey, you know, what you said was awesome. Can I use that as a testimonial? And they’ll always say, Yes, because that’s what I’ve done. I never put somebody private message to me on a landing page of mine, unless I ask them unless I get their permission. So number of time here a number of time, excuse me a number of times recently, I just asked them like, hey, what you just said back to me was awesome. Do you mind if I use that as a testimonial for the landing page? And they’re always like, sure. And then I just say, you know, can I borrow your image? Or can you send me a headshot, and we’re good to go.

Josh 16:25
And the last idea with this is that you can also do this by rec from recording a call. So if you’re on a screen call, or like a, you know, zoom call with a client, and they’re on the screen, and you just ask them like, so what do you you know, how maybe it’s a client you’ve been working with for a long time, and you just did a consult call with them, or a catch up call? Just ask them, record it? And ask them, you know, like, how things been going on, you know, what’s it been like, you know, I’d love to hear what it’s been like working with us for the past couple years, they will often give you again, the most genuine, real feedback, and it can be an amazing testimonial. And if you just take that same approach and say, Hey, that was really good, I actually recorded this call just to have it Do you mind if I use that as a little snippet on the landing page, you will always get permission for that. Unless they’re, you know, not dressed accordingly or something, but more than likely, it’ll be fine. And it’s a great way to get some unexpected reviews like that. So that’s the other way that I’m implementing right now it’s gone really well.

Josh 17:25
And if you want to see some examples of the Video Example, you don’t have to join my web design club, but go to Josh Hall, co slash membership, and you’ll be redirected to my landing page. And on the landing page, you’ll see some of the snippets I’m talking about from messages. And at the bottom, you’ll also see some videos that I took from a call with members early on, when we launched the club, I just asked them what they thought about things so far. And I did exactly what I just told you, I just took snippets out of those and made them their own little video testimonials. So that’s just an example if you want to see it. Again, no rush, no pressure on the club. But if you want to just see what I’m talking about, there you go. So those are the main common types of testimonials and reviews, along with my little new sideway to to get reviews.

Josh 18:11
But now let’s talk about some practical tip tips. And I’ve actually got, let’s see, it’s gonna say, nine, but I’m actually a, I’m actually going to give you nine, I’m just going to write one out right now, because I just thought of it. So I’m gonna give you nine tips for getting reviews. And then we’ll end this off with a few tools.

Tip 1) Ask!

Josh 18:28
So number one, for my tips for getting review, ask, you have to ask. It’s just like when it comes to sales and getting referrals. Sometimes your clients would love to help you in your business, but they just don’t think about it, you need to ask just like I always recommend, ask for referrals from your best clients. Ask for reviews from your clients. So there’s a number of different ways to go about this, I would definitely put this as a part of your process in your project workflow, meaning you should have a business process some sort of SRP a standard operating procedure where once a project is done, what happens next, my recommendation and for all of you who have been through my business course, you know what’s coming, we send the moving forward page with details and tips on what to do now that the site is done. And as you guessed it, there’s a link to leave a review. So that’s the good, that’s the best place to start is to have it on there. But this doesn’t mean that every client is going to do that. So for the ones that don’t do that, I usually recommend waiting about a week, and then following up with a personal request for testimonial. And this is where all the all the things we’ve talked about so far will come into play. It just kind of depends on the client. If you know somebody is just not going to leave a video review. I wouldn’t even worry about that. Just stick with the review. And if you feel like somebody is going to be terrified if they see Google review link, just ask them to send an email or reply back and then you can just have them copy and paste that as a Google review. But just ask put it in your process. And then follow up with them and ask, my rule of thumb is that I generally try to ask a week later if they didn’t leave a review right away. And then I’ll do another one about a week or two after that. But I don’t want to be too needy sounding. So I’ll generally let it go after that. However, I do have kind of a backup plan for asking for reviews. And that is to come in two to three months later, to kind of follow up. And the cool thing about our review two to three months later, is they’ll often have some numbers and some analytics on how things are going. So generally, right when a website is done, if you ask for a review, it’s usually going to be like, we love the new design, Josh, and his team was great had a great experience. Whereas a few months later, there’s actually benefit and getting a review that’s a little more data driven, because they can be like, you know, three months after our website launch, we’re getting more leads coming in, people love to design, our business has gone up 25%, or whatever it is. So there’s actually, there’s two different ways to go about the timing of getting reviews. However, you can do both, you can have them leave a review early on, and then leave an updated review later on if they’re willing. So that’s a big one.

Tip 2) Don’t Wait

Josh 21:11
Now with the idea of getting it right away, that’s point number two here, which is to strike when the iron is hot. So you don’t want to ask for review when the client site has already been live for a while. And they kind of forget what the experience is like, just remember, just like we talked about in the beginning, clients are busy, they’re gonna forget, they’ll often forget about what the experience was like, everyone’s busy, they got their own stuff going on. So they might have to think back and remember, like, Okay, I know it was a good time, but like, what did we remember what we did. So strike while the iron is hot, get those reviews right away. And again, you can follow up later with a data driven review. Or if they just don’t get back to you, for whatever reason, follow up to get an initial review a few months later, that’s fine, too.

Tip 3) Guide Your Clients

Josh 21:55
Number three, give them a guide to follow. So one of the best examples of this came into my inbox last year and 2020. It came from Pat Flynn, Pat Flynn is an entrepreneur. And as a big mentor of mine, I was actually just recently on his podcast on the Smart Passive Income podcast. So if you didn’t know you didn’t happen to see that. Go to Smart Passive income, it’s session 460, or 456. That’s my episode with him. But long story short, the way I got connected with Pat, and the way I got the opportunity to be on this amazing A list podcast was by leaving a video testimonial. That’s what started the whole thing for me because I left a video testimonial. The team really liked it. They featured my story that got me in with Pat’s team. And then eventually, Pat’s assistant reached out to me to be on the podcast. That’s how it all started. But I say that to say what actually be even before that, he sent an email to people who had been through his podcasting course, which is the course that I went through. And he gave a guide to follow for the testimonial. And I don’t have it up here. But it said, it was it was like a three step or four step guide. It was like, tell us who you are and what your podcast is, tell us the challenge that you had starting your podcast, and why you wanted to join the course. And then tell us the result. Like tell us how the course has helped you in your podcast. And that was it. And it was a great guide for me to follow. And this is something that I’m implementing as well. Because again, remember, a lot of people, people are different. Everyone writes differently. Everyone, you know, you might say, give me a testimonial. And I remember one of my clients, a barbershop client. I said, Can you give me a testimonial, and he replied back and said website looks great. Whereas I’ve had some test testimonials come in as again, like a little ebook, basically. So give them a guide it they don’t have to be a certain length unless you want to limit it to a certain length. Because Yeah, you don’t want to go too big, but you want something more than website looks great. So give them a guide, give them ideally a three step process and just label it like that, who you are, what the business is, what challenges you had, and maybe why you chose us, and then what results you’re getting or what you know what your thoughts are on the new site. So give them a guide to follow. That’s huge. That’s actually something I’m working on implementing right now. Because I really don’t have that in place for when I ask for testimonials from students. So I’m, I’m right there with you. I’m doing this stuff from from me as well.

Tip 4) Simplify The Process

Josh 24:21
Now number four, make it super easy on them. So tell them exactly how you want to get your testimonial. If it’s a written review, you can just reply to this email. If it is a Google review, send them a link that they can click on and we’ll talk about how you can create that here. send them a link. If it is a video review, same thing, send a link ideally because if you just tell somebody to send a Google review or excuse me a video review, good luck you they’re not probably not going to know how to do that. I do have some students using loom now which makes it really easy but I’m dealing you know my customer base now are mostly savvy people so they’re fine with with using loom whereas A home inspector is probably going to have no idea how to send a video over. So use a tool, we’ll talk about a tool that I use for this, but make it super easy on them create a link that they can just click on and leave the review. Some follow up options, if they’re still struggling, or you think they might need a little more direction, here are a couple tips. And then we’ll wrap up with some of the main tips that you need to use for everyone. But these are just like kind of if you think they need them.

Tip 5) Give Examples

Josh 25:25
Number five is to give them examples. So just let them know like, if you’re curious about what some decent reviews look like, or what some of our favorite reviews look like, check out these three. And that will give them a good framework to follow.

Tip 6) Script Suggestion

Josh 25:37
Number six is to again, if you, if you’re wanting a video review, in particular, take a written review and make it a script, just let them know like I mentioned, you can use this written review as a script, you could this can be like your outline, your written review is great. Here’s just use that as an outline to do a video review. So if you do a video review, give them some sort of script, particularly if they’ve already well, you have to do it, if they’ve already given it you, you don’t want to give them a script to read if it’s not from them. So take their written review, use that as kind of a script or an outline. And then the last few here as far as my main tips to help you get reviews.

Tip 7) Add Urgency

Josh 26:15
Number seven, this is the biggie this is actually like, maybe I should put maybe this should have been the last one the best for last. But number seven, add urgency. If you just tell them, give me a review, or ask for review. Who knows when you’re going to get that. And that’s a problem. It’s a problem, because like we just talked about clients are busy, they’re gonna forget, you ideally want to feature a review, particularly if you’re promoting your website, if you just launched a project. And you’re showing it off on social media, how nice would it be to post that on like a Tuesday or a Wednesday, and then a follow up on Thursday or Friday with a review from that same client or attach that review. In the initial post, you ideally want to get those very quickly that way, it’s a part of your marketing once you’re done with the site. So add some urgency tell them or ask them if they can send a review to you by a certain date. So this was the big key for me, when I started getting reviews consistently, it was all about the fact that I kind of put a fire under the client and gave them a deadline, I would say hey, can you give us a review? I’d really appreciate it. And I’d say we’re actually promoting your website this Wednesday. So can you send it to us by then so we can put it on the page and feature review along with their website. And that always worked for me guys, I’m telling you, if you add some urgency like that, and let them know when you need it by that will help them get going on it. And it’ll really help you with your marketing moving forward. So add some urgency, there’s a number of different ways to to do that. But the example I showed you is what worked for me. And I would just tell them, like, why you don’t want to just say can you give me a review, by the end of the week, tell them why I want to review by the end of the week, because I’m promoting your site. And I would love to have you review along with it. So add some urgency.

Tip 8) Put Some Heart Into It

Josh 28:04
Number eight, put some heart into it as well. On that note, if if you really want to kind of take a whole nother direction and give some reason like it, especially if you’re working with a client that is is more heartfelt. And they’re a little more prone to like feeling, then add some heart into it, let them know like, Hey, you know, testimonials just go such a long way with helping me grow my business. And if you’d be willing to leave a testimonial, it would really make a big impact. And it’s going to help us get more clients. So you can really just as simply as that, add a little heart to it. Because a lot of clients that may make that may push them over the edge, they might be like okay, this, you know, it’s standard to get a project done, you want to review but if you say like it’s these really truly helped me grow my business, they will be more apt to do that for you. So put some heart into it.

Bonus Tip – Give a Gift or Benefit

Josh 28:51
And then finally, number nine, as a final tip for getting reviews, you can also add a benefit. And there’s a number of different types of benefits a lot of people will do. Like if you leave us a review, you’ll get a $25 gift card, or there’s some sort of bonus or something like that. Or maybe it’s a percent like if you leave a review, you’ll get a percentage off another service. Those are all great ways to go. You don’t want to be too salesy. With that that can be a little tricky. I know like my dentist, I need to go to the dentist. It’s been a couple years. But they had if you left a Google review, you were automatically entered in a raffle for 500 bucks or something like that. Now, the problem with that is correct me if I’m wrong, anybody who are Google review experts, but I believe that is not technically legal or best practices for Google reviews in particular, I think if you if you add some sort of incentive like that for Google reviews, I don’t think that is cool. I don’t know what the legal ramification are with that. But when I saw that I kind of got me wondering, I remember I looked it up. And sure enough, I found out that that’s actually not something you’re supposed to do. So if you add a benefit, just do it organically, just do it real. And the other thing that I would recommend doing, if you’re going to add a benefit is offer like a free consultation with you, or maybe like a month free of a certain service or something to where it would make a client feel like, Yeah, actually, I’d like to do that, particularly when it comes to a console call that that’s what I would recommend doing for anything if you’re going to do a benefit. Because I did that for a while for a little bit. I said, if anyone leaves me a video testimonial, you’ll get a 45 minute one on one with me, we’ll talk about your business. And you can do that with your clients, particularly if they’re interested in more stuff after a website’s live. If they’re on your maintenance plan, and maybe they are interested in SEO, but they didn’t know they wanted to do it in this phase. And you could say, you know, we leave your review, we can schedule a console call and then we can talk about that. Or I can give you some strategies to you know, to take your site to the next level or whatever it is, but add some sort of benefit. That’s another that’s another tip.

Josh 31:06
So let’s just recap those nine real quick. And then we’ll end off with some tools that might help you out. Number one, ask put it in your process in your workflow and just ask the problem with most problems with with getting reviews that people aren’t asking enough. So don’t be annoying, but just ask. Number to strike when the iron is hot, do it right away, while the client is pumped up and feeling good. Number three, give them a guide to follow give them a one to three process on what they can say and how to leave a good review. Make it super easy on them, tell them exactly how you want to review and ideally give them some sort of link. Number five, give them examples. If they just you know, you know, they’re going to need some sort of framework to follow. Number six, if you’re getting a video review, take the written review and make that a script that they can use. Number seven, add urgency tell them when you need it by and why. And then number eight, put some heart into it. Be genuine and real on how much has helped you out. And number nine, add a little benefit. Tell them you know there’s some there’s, there’s some something in it for you, if you leave us a testimonial.

Josh 32:07
So those are the main tips, guys a few tools that will help. As I mentioned, ideally, sending them a link is the way to go. And for a Google review there’s a ton of different tools out there, I’m not even going to talk about all the different tools because you can basically just, you know, Google, Google review tool or link. But I have a tutorial on exactly how to create a Google review link that you can put on your website and in your emails. So if you just Google a Google review, link, Josh Hall, you’ll find that video, you’ll find me on the interwebs check that out, I will have it linked in the show notes as well. But you can just google Josh Hall Google review link and that that’s how I always did it. But again, there’s a ton of different tools out there for displaying Google reviews on your website. While we’re talking about Google reviews, my agency we’re using a plugin called Google reviews pro WordPress plugin, I’ll link that below as well. It’s from rich plugins calm. That is a really cool plugin. There’s a lot of different ways you can style Google reviews. And we found it to be one of the most stable because some Google review plugins are are not very lightweight, and we’ve had issues with them. And they’re just like, sometimes they work. Sometimes they don’t work. This one’s been pretty freakin sweet. So that’s one I would back I would say check out if you want to display Google reviews on your site, so you don’t have to actually post them, they just feed in there. For video reviews. Like I mentioned, I have some students sending me loom video reviews, which is great. So if somebody is comfortable with loom, they can do that. But if you want a tool, where you can create a link, I use a tool called Magnify. They were an old client of mine from the past. But magnify is cool. This is what I use for all my students. Because you have two options, you can just create a link that they can click, and then somebody can leave a review on their phone or computer or wherever they are without fussing with any tech or anything, they can just boom click Record got 50 seconds or less to do that. That’s the only problem though, as of right now it’s they have to be under 50 seconds. So if you have somebody long winded like myself, there’s no way I’m leaving under a 50 secone review, I got to use loom. So magnify is great though, because you can do that. Or you can actually automate an email sequence, you can go in there, you can put your clients email, and it’s all structured for you. And you can actually, like they have the whole system that will follow up with them until they leave your review. So that’s always an option. And then, again, there’s a ton of platforms out there for reviews that will publish your clients review to different platforms. I mentioned trustpilot that’s one worth checking out. I don’t use it myself, but it seems like most all professional companies and platforms and SAS products that we’re using most all of them have some sort of trustpilot link in there or they’re having reviews filtered in there. So it looks like it’s becoming more and more popular. So you could check that out. But again, just look up, review platforms and see which one suits you. But I personally go the more organic route using everything I’ve told you. And then I use a Google review link that I manually create super easy. And then the magnify for video testimonials unless somebody is comfortable loom and just wants to send me a loom. That’s fine as well.

Josh 35:21
So there you go, guys, those are my tips for getting testimonials. And if you like this, if you like these methods, most all of these are covered in my web design business course I mentioned that earlier. So if you are in a place where you are like you’re ready to do this, you’re ready to take your business to six figures and beyond. These are the kind of things I cover in depth in my course but you actually get to see me and I walk you through all my templates and I give you like I have templates on all of my testimonial requests and stuff and you can get all that in my business course. I invite you to check that out. Let me know if you have any questions you can go I’ll have a link below in the show notes but you can go to Josh Hall co/business and that’ll take you to my business course to see if that’s a good fit for you. I would love to help you take your business to six figures and beyond this year and 2020 ones let’s do this together guys. So hope you enjoyed the episode and cheers to getting more awesome reviews and testimonials for your web design business. See on the next episode everybody.