Reviewed & Fact-checkedInstilling trust in new clients is the best way to achieve consistent growth as a freelancer. The start is the most challenging, but it shows your expertise as the client list keeps growing. It’s important to leverage your successful history by requesting testimonials from your previous clients, but do you know how to ask for testimonials?
Over 88% of consumers read online reviews, and 72% of them find that positive reviews help them build trust from the start of buying or working with someone. That means that getting those testimonials can help you stay on the freelancing success road.
The good news is that you can establish a testimonial acquisition strategy. It’ll help you get to more customer testimonials to build trust with your new potential clients. After all, that’s why businesses incorporate video testimonials in their marketing strategies. As freelancing is close to running a small business, deploying the same tactics can be beneficial.
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Before answering the question of how to ask for testimonials and strategy details, let’s start with why client testimonials are so powerful.
Why are client testimonials important?
Several reasons make customer testimonials an integral part of your freelancing business growth. Analyzing them allows you to pause and look back at your business performance. At the same time, it helps you get new clients. Here’s how.
- Builds better relationships — Every client will appreciate you asking if they’re satisfied. It shows that you want to provide the best services. That kind of effort indicates your professionalism, which will likely keep the client coming back for more of your services.
- Creates trust with new clients — As soon as someone lands on your freelancing site, they can learn all the details about your services. Why not include how happy your previous clients are? It will help make an even better first impression and build trust from the start.
- Helps improve product and services — Once you request feedback from your clients, you’ll discover which areas you can improve. Some clients will surely say what could have been better, even though a project was successful.
All these benefits result in the most important one: growing your client numbers. With more people willing to work with you, your options as a freelancer will quickly skyrocket. You’ll be able to pick the best clients, and work on projects you’re truly passionate about.
Begin by creating a strategy
Creating a strategy is the only way to get client testimonials efficiently. There won’t be any proof of your experience if you don’t set testimonial acquisition goals, even though you’ve participated in many projects. Therefore, you need to answer a couple of questions while you’re creating it.
How will you ask for testimonials?
The first question is the important one: how to ask for testimonials. You can use several ways to gather feedback from your clients. These are:
- Forms
- Social media
- Video
Each of these options has its advantages and disadvantages, as you’ll see in the next sections of the article. The key point is to have multiple options at your disposal. No matter which one you opt for, you’ll still be able to get a testimonial in one way or another.
What will you ask?
After deciding on the format, it’s time to think of the questions that you’ll ask. The goal is to figure out questions that will provide answers you can use in testimonials. Here are some ideas:
- What’s the best thing you liked while working together?
- Would you pick me for a similar project again?
- How would you describe my services to your friends and business partners? Would you recommend me to others?
- May I use these answers in a testimonial and mention your name?
- Is there anything else that you’d like to add?
These are only examples of how to ask for testimonials. Use them for your creative process when you’re creating your own. Every client is different, meaning that you should adjust questions for each individual.
That doesn’t mean you can’t use template questions, but you should personalize your approach for better results.
When will you ask for feedback?
Throughout your freelancing journey, you’ll get to work with a broad range of clients. Their projects will greatly differ, meaning that the perfect time to ask for a testimonial will vary. The options to choose from are:
- The end of the project — When you’re working on smaller projects that take no longer than a couple of weeks to complete, you can ask for feedback once everything’s complete.
- In the middle of the project — Ongoing projects are different. You can ask for feedback after a couple of months of working together. By then, you would have shown your professionalism and given enough time for the client to judge your performance.
- After the project ends — Some projects can be very challenging, and clients can be under a lot of stress. Bothering them as the project nears its end might not be the best approach. Evaluate the situation and request feedback several weeks later.
Pick the right time to have more success with your testimonials. Each of these times works because the client has spent plenty of time working with you and can evaluate your efforts.
Where will you share testimonials?
Last but not least, where will you share the testimonials? A couple of ideas to consider are:
- Your website
- Social media
- PPC ad campaigns
- Freelance platforms
Place your client testimonials strategically, so it’s one of the first things they see. Many brands, including Shopify, share their testimonials and success stories on their home page. If big brands are doing it, that means it works. Follow the same principle and use your website to showcase testimonials.
Social media is the perfect place to share your freelance client testimonials. Many companies take social media into account while doing research on their next employees or collaborators. It’s the perfect opportunity to showcase your previous clients’ impressions.
Use the PPC ad campaigns to share your client’s testimonials. This approach is suitable for freelancers who want to turn their careers into a full-blown business. Advertising is necessary to reach more clients, and using testimonials in advertising campaigns is an effective method of building trust.
Last but not least, use the freelancing platforms you use to get and display testimonials. Many of them already have built-in features that help you quickly get a testimonial from your client. Also, you can use those that you’ve acquired and share them on the platform.
Once you go through these questions, you’ll have your strategy set in place. You can then capitalize on each of the contact method benefits. Here’s how to ask for testimonials in different ways in more detail.
Website Forms
Forms are a great way to ask for a testimonial from your clients. Their primary benefit is that you only need a little bit of time to create multiple templates. After you finish, you can send personalized messages to different clients and request them to fill out the form.
If any adjustments are necessary for the project’s specifics, you can easily make them. Then you can use the client’s answers and craft a testimonial draft. Send the draft to the client and ask for approval to use the testimonial on your website, social media and marketing campaigns.
Once you get the approval, you can start using the testimonials on your website. One of the most popular (and free) solutions is Google Forms. Use them to create forms and share them with your clients easily.
One of the easiest ways to ask for testimonials is via email. It’s a professional way to reach out to your clients and ask for feedback. This approach, however, requires providing as many details to your clients as possible. That means including the questions you’d like them to answer. Additionally, it means including testimonial examples.
Time is a precious asset, and your testimonial request email should navigate your client, so they lose as little time as possible. You can also suggest providing a draft of a testimonial they could edit, approve and send back.
Don’t forget to ask for permission to use their testimonial.
Social Media
Social media is another place where you can build up your testimonials. LinkedIn supports recommendations, which is a great way to keep testimonials in a single place. As a freelancer, it’s a good idea to make your LinkedIn profile an online CV.
If you’re on platforms such as Upwork and Fiverr, they also support requesting and sharing testimonials. Use these features to make a powerful first impression with new potential clients.
Simply reach out to your client and send a link to your profile on one of these platforms. Just like with emails, include examples in your message to make it easier for your client to write a recommendation quickly.
Video
Getting video testimonials can be challenging, but it brings more benefits to the table. First, they are short pieces of content that the new client can see in a minute. They can see the person making the recommendation, which builds more trust. It’s not just a fabricated piece of text on someone’s site.
The fact that someone made an effort to film a video testimonial shows that the freelancer’s services were utterly professional. While getting a client in front of a camera is a challenge, some will agree, especially if you’ve been working with them for a long time.
Every testimonial request should propose a video testimonial option. So the client can opt for it if they desire. That way, you’re not forcing anyone to go that route, creating unnecessary pressure.
If the client chooses this option, create a script and share it with them. Organize a filming session and go through the questions with clients. The result will be a short video you can use to bring more clients to your freelancing adventures.
3 Sample Scripts to Ask for Testimonials
If you’re wondering what an email message should look like, here are a couple of examples that you can use as inspiration. Each of them is appropriate for different circumstances.
Testimonial request in the middle of the project
If you’re in the middle of an ongoing project, here’s what you can do:
Dear [Client’s name],
I am reaching out regarding our ongoing collaboration. I believe that our work together so far has been impeccable, so I wanted to see your opinion. I would really appreciate it if you could answer the following questions and add more thoughts about our work.
- Are you happy with my work so far?
- Would you work again with me in the future?
- Would you recommend me to your friends?
Please let me know whether I could add your answers to my [website/freelance platform] as a testimonial.
Thank you for taking the time to read my email, I am looking forward to your answers.
With regards,
[your name]
SOURCE: TheFreelanceFiles.com
Video testimonial request
If you want a video testimonial from your client, you could opt for a message like this one.
Dear [Client’s name],
I am reaching out to propose an interesting offer that would benefit both of us. As we’ve been working together for over a [amount of time], I assume that you’re happy with my services. It would greatly benefit my freelancing career if you’d be willing to get in front of a camera to share a few thoughts about my professional skills.
If you agree, I would drop my current rates with you by [percent] for the next [time period]. To help simplify the process, I can send you the list of questions that I’d like to film your answer. With your permission, I would use the video materials as a testimonial on my website.
I hope that you’ll say yes. Please let me know what you think so I can send you the questions for the video script. Once we prepare the script, I’d gladly visit your office where I’d film our interview. Please let me know if you’re interested in my offer.
Thank you for taking the time to read my email. I look forward to hearing from you.
With regards,
[your name]
SOURCE: TheFreelanceFiles.com
Form fill out request
If you’re planning to send a form to the client, here’s how it could look like:
Dear [Client’s name],
I am reaching out to you with a short form that would take a couple of minutes for you to fill out. It includes all the relevant questions about your experience of working with me. It would really mean a lot if you could dedicate a little bit of your time to share your feedback.
To show how much I appreciate it, I’ll [insert incentive here].
With your approval, I’d like to share it on my website, social media channels and [freelance site profile]. Please let me know what you think.
I look forward to reading your feedback!
With regards,
[your name]
SOURCE: TheFreelanceFiles.com
Conclusion
As you can see, figuring out how to ask for testimonials is not that challenging. It requires thoughtful planning and creating a step-by-step strategy. After you start following the strategy, you can expect the number of your testimonials to grow over time.
Remember that it’s one of the steps towards being a successful freelancer. So make sure that you make a plan from the moment you start working with your first client. It will help you steadily grow and get more opportunities in the future.
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