How to ask clients for a testimonial in 7 steps and build your social proof [+ testimonial templates]

Customer testimonials are a powerful tool for creators because they let the quality of your work and customer experience speak for themselves.

But asking for a testimonial? Talk about awkward.

If this holds you back from winning much-deserved social proof for your business, we’ve got you covered.

In this article, we’ll discuss how to ask for a testimonial and share a few examples to help you get started.

3 most common ways to request client testimonials

You’re losing potential buyers without reviews to back up the value you deliver through your products and services.

And with 77% of consumers reading online reviews before purchasing, not including customer testimonials means a missed opportunity.

Here are three ways to ask for a client testimonial:

1. Directly (in person or online)

There’s no substitute for asking customers when you’re already chatting with them. This approach works well with your best clients.

Either ask for an interview at an in-person event they’re already participating in, permission to use a DM or support chat transcript, or schedule a separate interview for your biggest fans.

2. Via social media

Anything your customers post on a social media channel is for public consumption and can be used in your marketing efforts.

Ask them:

• To comment or share what they love most about your work
• Direct questions for feedback and post the anonymous results
• To post their own video testimonial to enter to win a giveaway

3. By email

While you can (and should) ask for a client testimonial on all of your channels, there’s only one channel you truly own the interaction: Email.

Because the inbox is a more personal channel than social media, you’re much more likely to get a response.

But there’s an art to crafting an email that feels like it’s personal, especially with a testimonial request. Here’s what you need to know:

How to ask for testimonials via email: 7 steps for success

The first step (and the most challenging one) to getting a great customer testimonial is building a product or service that customers can’t stop talking about.

(If you’re doing that, the rest is just marketing—you got this.)

Now, summon up some courage and follow these tips:

• Design a branded testimonial email
• Write a click-worthy subject line and preview text
• Make your testimonial request personal
• Make giving you a testimonial a no-brainer
• Don’t forget to ask for permission
• Decide on the right timing
• Set up an automated testimonial email workflow

We’ll talk more about each one below. Here’s how to ask for a testimonial by email:

Step #1: Design a branded testimonial email

Your testimonial emails should look and feel like your business to deliver a consistent brand experience to your clients.

Set up your email branding with these handy tips:

• Add brand colors: Use your color palette for the email’s theme. You can add these colors in the background, text or headers, visuals, CTA buttons, or other media.
• Put your logo up front: Adding the logo on the top immediately clarifies who this email is from. Add your business logo to the header to add instant recognizability and avoid friction when a client opens your email.
• Choose an easy typeface: Research confirms that your font choice determines whether your clients will read the entire email and take action. Do your research and pick a combination of fonts that users prefer reading in.

Make your emails on-brand to create an official look—whether you create an email from scratch or use one from Kit’s free and paid email template marketplace. Your clients would be more inclined to share a review if your email reflects your brand identity.

Step #2: Write a click-worthy subject line and preview text

When asking for a testimonial, keep your subject line short and pair it with a clever preview text that hints at the email’s content and piques your customers’ curiosity. This will help your open rates and get more testimonials for your business.

Take some inspiration from Katelyn Bourgoin’s newsletter. She limits her subject line to 1-3 words and creates curiosity with the preview text to maximize the open rate.

Templates of testimonial request subject lines you can copy

If you’re not sure how to get started, you can try a few formulas like this:

• Have a moment?
• How did we do?
• Tell us about your recent purchase
• Tell us how we did
• We hope you loved it 💗
• Spill the tea 🍵

Step #3: Make your testimonial request personal

The best way to turn off a potential testimonial? Asking the wrong customer.

When crafting your testimonial requests, consider what segmentation strategy you want to use so that your requests feel personal to your subscribers.

That means whittling down your list not just to those who have already purchased from you but folks who love what you do. Think repeat purchases or high email or website engagement—they’re the ones more likely to give you a testimonial.

Here are a few ideas to personalize emails. And bonus: All of these can be automated in Kit.

Personalize the introduction

Instead of making the testimonial request email all about you, make it about them.

Here’s how:

• Address your clients with their first name
• Express your appreciation for every client
• Let them know exactly how much testimonials mean to your business
• Bonus points if it includes the exact product or service they purchased

This example from sweatpant brand Vuori includes first-name personalization, but it goes one step further by including an image of the specific product the brand is hoping to hear more about. Even if you’re not selling physical products, segmenting your review email based on purchase can go a long way toward making your email feel more personal.

You can personalize your emails with the Kit editor using the @ feature to include a personalization field like first name, last name, email address, or greeting.

Summarize your work with them

Whether you sold a product or worked on a service package, summarize what you actually did for your client and why it worked or achieved results.

You want that aha moment when they remember what they love about you before they start typing or filming their testimonial.

If your products are hosted on Kit, you can directly embed product pictures with a content block preset.

Step #4: Make giving you a testimonial a no-brainer

More customers will share a review if it’s an easy, 5-minute task for them with clear instructions.

So, if you’re going to ask for a testimonial, keep it super short. No lengthy questionnaires and no complicated instructions.

Here are a few tips to make it so easy for your customers to leave a review that they’ll sing your praises in no time:

Offer them different testimonial formats

You’ll need testimonials in multiple formats—third-party reviews, written customer stories, video for social media, and audio for podcasts.

Let your customers decide how they want to leave a testimonial by giving them multiple options like Eddie Shleyner’s request for a testimonial in one of his newsletters. It’s short, easy to follow, and shares an incentive.

Ask questions to get the creative juices flowing

It’s much easier to answer a question than come up with something on the fly.

Give your customers a prompt. A specific set of questions is much more likely to yield better answers (and prevent you from sending a survey with just yes or no responses).

Choose just one or two questions to ask:

• What do you love about xyz product?
• If you’ve purchased from me more than once, what made you come back again?
• Would you recommend my work to a friend, family member, or colleague? If so, why?
• What was the biggest takeaway you learned from working with me?
• If you could describe my business in one word or phrase, what would it be and why?

Add an unmissable call to action

The final CTA should catch the audience’s attention and encourage them to take action. In this case—write a testimonial.

Remember to add value to your copy, giving clients a reason to act on your request.

This value can be in the form of a discount code, a backlink, merch, or even an anecdotal compliment about your work relationship with them.

The goal is to give them an easy reason to write a review for you.

Step #5: Don’t forget to ask for permission

If there’s one thing you remember from this list, it’s this: Ask for permission before you use any testimonial in your marketing efforts. (And always, always remove contact info, addresses, or other personal info before you post anything publicly!)

A simple, “Hey, thank you so much for saying something so nice! Do you mind if I post this on my website?” can go a long way.

If you’re running a larger campaign, add an extra checkbox on a website form and/or a disclaimer in your email (and if you’ve got a lawyer, feel free to ask them for more info.)

Step #6: Decide on the right timing

Timing matters a lot for requesting testimonials. Ask too soon, and there are no results to show. Ask too late, and they don’t even remember who you are anymore.

When you ask largely depends on the services you offer.

For one-off projects, request a review in your final handoff email, followed by a reminder email.

For retainer clients, closely monitor your results and send a testimonial request when you’ve registered some great wins for a client.

Step #7: Set up an automated email testimonial workflow

Depending on your offer, you may want to automate your testimonial requests. This won’t be a fit for every type of business, but it can accelerate your marketing efforts when done right.

An automated email campaign allows you to trigger your request based on events, actions, or conditions as they move through the customer journey. For example, a trigger can be when ten days have passed since a customer received your product.

It’s easy to add an email automation in Kit to establish the sequence of emails and define when customers receive which email. With Visual Automations, you can create:

1. Actions, such as tagging them as someone who has left a testimonial, so you don’t ask more than once
2. Events, which pull subscribers through different flows, such as after a product is purchased to trigger an ask for a testimonial
3. Conditions, which ask yes or no questions to direct your subscribers down the right path for the most relevant emails, such as “yes” to repeat purchases as good candidates for a testimonial

You can create multiple entry points for any automation. For example, you can set up an automation to ask for a testimonial a certain time period after they purchase.

4 must-have testimonial email templates to consider

Every creator should have these emails in their back pocket to gather more reviews:

1. The professional testimonial request

The professional approach requires a formal and courteous tone when requesting a client’s review. Use this to send a testimonial request to a C-suite executive or senior management.

What to include in the email

A professional request email aims to break through the client’s busy day and encourage them to share a review. So, keep this as straightforward as possible with the following:

• Your logo and signature in the header and footer
• A text block to introduce yourself and make your pitch
• On-brand design with consistent colors, fonts, spacing, and logo
• Simple, no-fluff writing with short paragraphs for easy readability

Professional testimonial template

Here’s an example of body copy you can use:

Dear <firstname>,

Thank you so much for purchasing [product or service]. It’s been a pleasure working with you and your team and hope to continue to work together in the future.

To that end, I would like to ask you a quick favor—would you mind sharing your thoughts on our most recent [product/service] for our website? It just takes a few minutes to leave a [written/video/review] testimonial, which you can do so here: LINK.

Thank you,

NAME

2. The casual request for a testimonial

A casual testimonial request works best with retainer clients you regularly connect with.

Creators often use this format to request reviews from their newsletter subscribers, people who bought their products, and their clients.

What to include in the email

The casual request email template can be quirky, funny, or visual—like you. Experiment with different ideas and A/B test your designs before rolling them out to your clients.

This can include:

• A personalized introduction paragraph
• A text block and a GIF to pitch your request
• Visual content like GIFs and images about your work
• A layout block featuring other testimonials and ratings
• A snappy CTA button with your custom signature to sign off

Casual testimonial template

Here’s an example of body copy you can use:

Hi <firstname>,

Just dropping by your inbox to ask you a quick favor…

At [business name], you know word-of-mouth means everything. And since you’re one of my all-time favorite clients, I just HAD to reach out and ask you if you could share your thoughts on [program/service/product]. It’s super easy to do—you can leave your [written/video/review] testimonial here: LINK.

Bonus points if you tell the world how awesome we are! 🥰

Thanks,

NAME

3. The automated post-sale testimonial request

Whether you’re selling physical merchandise or digital products, a post-sale testimonial request can increase your chances of getting a good review and building more trust among potential buyers.

What to include in the email

You can create a trigger-based workflow for a post-sale email template. So, your buyers would receive a review request exactly X days after making a purchase. It should include:

• A personalized greeting up top
• Your logo and signature with an on-brand theme
• A product block with embedded photos of your product
• A layout block linking out to your product page and other reviews
• A persuasive and custom-designed CTA banner in the form of a content snippet

Post-sale testimonial template

Hi <firstname>,

How are you enjoying [product/service]?

We’d love to hear how we’re doing. It only takes a moment to leave a quick review: LINK

IMAGE OF PRODUCT

Here’s what [name] said about it if you need a little inspiration: “[snippet of previous review]”

Leave a review: LINK

NAME

4. The “get a gift for a testimonial” email

Sometimes, your subscribers need a little incentive to help you out. You can offer discounts on special merchandise, loyalty points, free consultations, or extra gifts with their next purchase in exchange for completing your testimonial form.

Take note, though: Most third-party review sites penalize businesses who exchange incentives for reviews. If you do offer a gift of some kind, make sure you’re using those testimonials on your own platforms and using your own website form to collect these instead of a less formal method, like through email replies.

What to include in the email

For an incentive email, make sure you’re emphasizing the value they receive in exchange for their testimonial. Your email should include:

• A personal introduction
• A text block and image to show off what they receive in exchange for a testimonial
• A layout block featuring more details about the giveaway, such as eligibility to win, whether points or discount codes expire, or how to redeem their free offer
• A CTA that links them to your proprietary testimonial form

Incentive testimonial template

Hi <firstname>,

We want to hear from you! Did you love [product]? Tell the world for [a chance to win/XX% off your next order/a free gift on your next purchase]!

IMAGE

It only takes a few minutes to get started. [Include instructions here]: LINK

NAME

Where to showcase your testimonials

Testimonials are all about adding trust and credibility to your marketing efforts so new customers know that when they purchase from you, they’re getting the real deal. You can add testimonials anywhere you’re doing bottom-of-the-funnel sales pitches, like:

• Product pages
• Your checkout flow
• A testimonial-specific page on your website
• As social media posts
• On your FAQs page
• The last email in your welcome email sequence
• Product launch email sequences
• The final slide of a webinar as you transition to a sales pitch

Social proof is a powerful sales tool but use it wisely.

Customer testimonials start a conversation with your community about how you can help them. Rather than telling them how you can solve their problems or make them the best version of themselves, let happy customers do the talking.

Build social proof with easy testimonial templates from Kit

Collect reviews from every client minus the awkward. Let Kit do all the heavy lifting with a powerful editor to templatize and automate your testimonial emails.

Sign up for free and try it yourself.