What is a testimonial collection form?

Testimonial collection forms are used to easily collect testimonials from your happy customers.

These forms allow your customers to submit their testimonial as text, video or images.

They also collect information about the customer which can be used when managing and sharing their testimonials.

Here's an example testimonial collection form - the visitor can choose to share a written or video testimonial.

Forms also allow for collecting testimonials for different use cases - which I'll cover later in this blog.

Why use a testimonial collection form?

Testimonial collection forms make it easier for your customers to share what they like about you.

For written text testimonials you can provide prompts to help you receive a well-written and persuasive testimonial. Like this:

For video testimonials, the form allows the person to record a video in their browser, rather than going through the hassle of using their phone, uploading the video and sending it to you.

Here's an example video collection form:

Forms also allow you to collect extra information in an easy and structured way: for example their full name, job title, their picture, their website, and their product or service.

This means when you are searching or managing your testimonials, the information is available in a way that is easy to search and explore.

Finally, a form guarantees there is a clear opt-in from the customer to have their testimonial shared.

Questions to ask in a testimonial collection form?

There are lots of questions you can ask in your testimonial collection form.

A common mistake people make when asking for testimonials is to just ask one simple question, "what do you like about my product or service?"

Instead ask different audiences different questions to help create high-performing testimonials for different use cases. Here's some questions to ask in your testimonial collection forms:

SaaS testimonial questions

SaaS businesses can use testimonials in many ways. They can be used on landing pages to increase conversions, they can be used on demo and pricing pages to generate more enquiries. And they can be sent over email as a Wall of Love to open and close more sales conversations. Remember to collect testimonials from both your buyer and product end user. Here's example SaaS testimonial questions.

• What problem was your business facing?

• Why did you decide to use a SaaS platform?

• What ultimately triggered you to sign up?

• What was your biggest doubt when signing up?

• What tool or product did you switch from?

• Describe life before and after using our product?

• What do you think about [a certain aspect of our product]?

• What outcomes have you had vs goals?

• Can you share numbers or results?

• Anything else you'd like to share?

• See more SaaS testimonial questions

Freelancer or consultant testimonial questions

Freelancers can win more client work with testimonials. For example, after someone books a call with you, redirect them to your Wall of Love. And include testimonials on your website and email signature to win more work.

• What challenge was your business facing?

• Why did you decide to work with a freelancer?

• What were your doubts when hiring me?

• What do you like most about my work?

• What results has my work delivered?

• What tip would you give someone working with me?

• Would you recommend me to a colleague?

• Anything else you'd like to share?

• See more freelancer testimonial questions

Creator: course testimonial questions

Want to book more students onto your course? Use social proof like testimonials. For example, add social proof onto your course landing page to drive more sales. And add tips and ideas from previous course members into your course onboarding, to drive more completions.

• How did you hear about my course?

• What challenge were you facing before starting?

• Why did you decide to sign up?

• How did my course help you?

• What did you think of the course format?

• Do you have a clear path for next steps?

• What results have you had since the course?

• What's one idea you have to improve my course?

• Anything else you'd like to share?

• See more course creator testimonial questions

Community testimonial questions

Running a community? Testimonials can be used to help you get more people to sign up and also onboard new members into your community. Here's some questions you should ask to collect testimonials from your community members.

• Where did you hear about our community?

• What triggered you to join the community?

• How has being part of the community helped you?

• What do you have access to now that you didn't before?

• What are your favourite rituals in the community?

• What's your top tip for getting started in our community?

• What should someone do in their first week?

• Anything else you'd like to share?

• See more community testimonial questions

Ecommerce testimonial questions

Testimonials are proven to increase ecommerce checkout rates. Use them on your landing page, product pages and checkout for a life in conversion. Share them in your email marketing. Note: some of these questions are will generate reviews and feedback, rather than testimonials.

• What was your biggest doubt when shopping with us?

• How would you rate your checkout experience?

• How would you rate your delivery experience?

• What do you rate your product out of 5?

• What one feature do you like best about the product?

• What benefits have you had from the product?

• Does the product meet your expectations?

• Attach an image or video of the product in action

• Anything else you'd like to share?

• See more ecommerce testimonial questions

Employee testimonial questions

Want to recruit the best talent? You can drive more relevant job applicants using social proof like testimonials from your current employees. Use these questions to generate a great employee testimonial question.

• What is your job title and team?

• Describe your role in a sentence?

• How long have you worked here?

• Where were you working before?

• What is unique about our work place?

• What is unique about our work processes?

• What is your favourite memory or milestone since working here?

• What would you to say to someone unsure about working here?

• Anything else you'd like to share?

Creator: newsletter testimonial questions

If you're running a newsletter, you can use testimonials to help generate more sign ups, and book more ad campaigns. Collect testimonials from both subscribers and advertisers, and use them on your landing pages to drive conversion. Here's some questions you can ask.

• Collect testimonials from your advertisers

•  Why did you decide to advertise with me?

•  How did you find working with me when creating the advert?

•  Were you pleased with the advert creative?

•  What were your campaign results?

•  Were you pleased with the campaign results?

• Collect testimonials from your subscribers

•  Why did you join my newsletter?

•  Why do you look forward to reading my newsletter?

•  Anything else you'd like to share?

• See more newsletter testimonial questions

Other testimonial question ideas

• Running a marketplace? Collect testimonials from both sides

• Use your form to collect a full case study instead of a testimonial

• For constructive feedback, ask: what's one tip or idea you have to improve...

• Always end with "anything else you'd like to share?". Use answers to inspire new questions

Apart from the testimonial itself, what do I need to collect?

As well as the testimonial itself, you need to collect extra information - your testimonial meta information. This will help you when searching for a testimonial, or sharing the testimonial on your website, or as an image.

Here's an example of the extra information you can collect.

A testimonial collection form will help you collect this meta information in a structured way:

• The customer's name

• The customer's email

• The customer's picture / avatar

• The customer's job title

• The customer's company

• The customer's website

• Customer's consent to share, as noted below

Testimonial consent

Important: you need to ask consent to use the testimonial in your sales and marketing campaigns. This is critical if you want to avoid any confusion of how and where the testimonial is  going to be used.

Templates and examples for testimonial collection forms

I've created lots of different testimonial form templates and examples. You can use these to inspire your own forms.

Alternatively, you can sign up to my tool Senja free, where all of these forms are available to switch on and share in seconds.

Testimonial form template: addressing doubts

This is a form that asks your customers to discuss and address common doubts that your sales leads or prospects might have. For example, you could ask about pricing, customer support, responsiveness, migration.

Testimonial form template: reviews

This is a form that collects reviews over testimonials. A review is objective and summarises the pros and cons of a service or product. A testimonial normally focuses on the positives and benefits.

One tip is to direct people who leave a positive review immediately to a testimonial-collect form.

Testimonial form template: video only

This is a form to collect video testimonials. The best way to do this is to turn off text collection so the visitor can only leave video.

Testimonial form template: community tip

This is a form that can be used by a community lead. Collect ideas and tips to get the most out of your community from your current members, and share them with new members. This should drive higher adoption.

Testimonial form template: detailed testimonial collection

This is a form with LOTS of fields. See the examples above. This allows you to compose and display a powerful testimonial from the various answers.

Testimonial form template: advertiser testimonial

This is a form collecting testimonials from an advertiser. You use these testimonials to help win more work from advertisers.

Testimonial form template: switched from

This is a form that asks the customer what platform they switched from. This allows you to create a testimonial showcasing customers that switched.

What makes a great testimonial form?

A great testimonial form should:

• Load quickly, so your customer doesn't have to wait

• Have clear instructions, so your customer knows exactly what is expected of them

• Have clear and specific questions, so you get the best responses

• Be measurable, so you can see if visitors to your form are actually leaving a testimonial ie your testimonial form converts

• Allow video recording in the browser, so your customer can leave a video testimonial without spending time and effort recording and uploading a video

• Have your company branding, so your customer feels confident that they're in the right place, and their experience feels seamless

• Have a URL that you can post elsewhere, or add to your automations

• Has opt-in consent, so you can share your customer testimonials with permission