Introduction

Want to put your testimonial collection on auto-pilot? If you're a founder, course owner, creator, or freelancer you will know that collecting social proof is critical. But how can you automate the process to ensure you have a constant flow of new social proof.

Here's 22 ideas for automating your testimonial collection.

Two types of automated collection

There are two key types of automated testimonial collection:

• Trigger-based collection with an email or other message. This is when you automatically request a testimonial based on your customer's behaviour or actions.

• Automatic import. This is when you setup an automation to pull in testimonials left by your customers across other sites like G2, Capterra, LinkedIn, TripAdvisor, Slack or Twitter, so you can keep them all in a shared document.

"Before creating an email sequence, we used to send one-time emails to our customer base. It was far less effective than the current approach. So, I recommend automating the process as soon as possible. All that you need is an email sequence, Senja form, and a product to give. Now, after a purchase, we have an email sequence where we collect feedback for a small gift in exchange using ConvertKit." — Sveta, MakerBox. Read the full case study.

Trigger-based collection

The key to automating your testimonial collection is to send the request at the right time. This is known as the trigger. Triggering at the right time will lead to more, better quality testimonials. Read on to see sample triggers for various business types.

When should I ask?

For SaaS

• After your customer upgrades their account to Pro

• After your customer hits a product milestone

• After your customer has used your product for X months

• When someone leaves you positive feedback in a chat bot

• Trigger in your chatbot. If you're using a chatbot, make sure you send a link to your collection form if someone leaves you a positive comment or feedback. This is similar to any other feedback.

For community

• After your customer upgrades their account to Pro

• After your customer hits a product milestone

• After your customer has used your product for X months

• When someone leaves you positive feedback in a chat bot

For courses

• After you student completes the final module of the course

• After someone has beta tested your course

• 6 weeks after someone completes the course when they can share their outcomes and successes

For freelancers

• After the customer finishes their engagement with you

• After you complete the first set of work for the customer if it's a longer engagement

For ecommerce

• After the customer finishes their engagement with you

• After you complete the first set of work for the customer if it's a longer engagement

For newsletters

• After the customer finishes their engagement with you

• After you complete the first set of work for the customer if it's a longer engagement

For employee

• 6 months after the employee first joins

• 2 days after a positive employee review

• 5 days after the employee receives a pay rise

What should I send?

Compose a testimonial request with a link to a testimonial collection form (more details on forms coming up).

For example, on Roast My Landing Page, when returning a customer's landing page roast over email I use a template that contains a testimonial collection link.

How do I automate this?

You can use a tool like Zapier or Make to setup these automations. They allow you to pair one tool with another.

All business types: after positive feedback

Whatever your business type, it's likely that at some point you ask for feedback. Consider feedback a more objective review, rather than a positive testimonial.

However if someone leaves a positive review in a feedback form, automate a follow up email with a request to also share a video or text testimonial.

Add a collection form to your automation

Wherever you automate your testimonial collection, you should send your customers to a testimonial collection form.

This form can capture their video or text testimonial in away that is hassle-free, and good looking, for your customer. Video testimonials especially can be complex to record and upload without using a testimonial form.

Using a free Senja collection form makes it easy for you and your customer.

Import-based collection

Customers will leave testimonials for you across your social channels like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, or review platforms like Tripadvisor and Google Reviews.

You can use tools like Zapier or Make to setup automations that pull your latest reviews into a shared Document. This will allow you to identify positive reviews and mark them as testimonials.

Here's an example Zapier workflow (sometimes known as a Zap) for importing testimonials from G2 (You will need to set up a workflow for each platform). In this workflow, when a new review is added to G2, we create a 'record' in Airtable containing the testimonial's text.

Alternatively, using a dedicated testimonial tool like Senja, you can automatically pull these into your account with one-click integrations. You can then manage them, and turn them into images, widgets and Walls of Love.

In fact, many testimonial tools will constantly monitor other platforms and pull in the latest reviews and testimonials for you. That way you have them all, in one place, when you need them.