A
good testimonial invitation message should not sound canned, cookie cutter
version that is something you are providing to everyone; a generic invitation
message that should be working for everyone.
However
the generic one is not very effective. Think from the provider’s point of view.
Surely the potential testimonial provider wants you help you out for the
services you provided by giving a testimonial. But the general notion is that
providing a testimonial is time consuming and will have to tap into the
creative portion of the respondent’s brain. So the initial reaction; “I am busy
right now. Let me do this little later when I am free and relaxed. However,
that “later” period never comes and the invitation goes buried into the volume
of incoming mails. Well, then you will have to resend the invitation and hope
that this time is a good time for the respondent.
A
good invitation message that inspires and connects with the respondent would
give the motivation for overcoming the common mental blocks of “time consuming”
and “creativity needs”.
Some
of the suggestions for a good testimonial invitation message are given below.
However, please try different things and come up with something that works.
Also let us know what works for you.
1. Invitation subject
is not scary:
Having
a subject line that connects the responder with you and makes him/her want to
open the email, but staying within your limits of professionalism should be
used.
For
example, having a subject line, “Need a favor from you” would be much more
effective than “Testimonial Invitation from you”. It’s an area where you can
improvise and find the right subject without making the prospective testimonial
provider cheated.
2. Initial Content
should be personal
It
is very important that the provider should feel the invitation mail as a
personal mail and not a canned cookie cutter mail. This can happen only when
you invest few seconds in writing the introduction part of the email.
The
first few lines of the testimonial invitation email should be the introduction
part and it should be something very personal in the relationship and
activities between you and the provider. Checking the status of the provider or
the quality of the service or product provided would be a nice way to
accomplish the personal touch needed for the testimonial invitation.
For
example, the following introduction part highlights some of the key aspects of
the specific relationship shared between the provider and the requester, which
gives the personal touch that is needed.
“Hi John
How are you? It’s been
almost 2 months since we have delivered the solution to you. Hopefully
everything is working the way it should. As you know, we have put so much
effort in making sure that everything works, as you had wanted. Always keep in
mind that we are there to help if there is any issue or modification needed.
Also, I need a favor
to ask. We are trying to enhance our marketing and sales effort to gather more
business and provide the same good service as we have provided you. We have
decided to use a business tool called invouch to gather testimonials from our
happy customers and profile them on the web. Can you please provide us with a
testimonial about our services on invouch.”
Simple
and short generally works.
3. Assurance to avoid
the time and creativity blocks
You
have got the attention of the prospective provider. You have made him want to
leave a testimonial. However you will have to overcome the provider’s mental
apprehension towards the time and effort required for putting a testimonial.
This is where you will have to tell him about the hint-text.
As
mentioned before, hint-texts are guides as to what you are expecting from them
regarding the testimonial. The hard work of creative thought and time consuming
effort of putting those into words are already done by you. All they need to do
is edit and tweak the content. Informing this in detail to them would motivate
them to write the testimonial then and there itself.
Adding
this pointer on to your invitation will help you in getting the testimonial
faster. For your reference a sample snippet of this request is added below:
“I know, it will take time to write a
testimonial; need to think and write. However, to make it easier for you I have
provided some hints about me in the providing page itself. Click on the hints
and the testimonial box will be filled with the testimonial content I have
written to help you. Please edit and tweak it the way you want it. I am sure it
won’t take much time.”
4. Benefits for the
responder
As
an add-on to the request, it would be good to give some information about the
added exposure for the provider on Internet by giving testimonials. When they
submit the testimonial through a system like invouch.com, the system will
automatically reserve a user profile for the responder. When the provider finishes
a quick activation, their profiles would be automatically profiled on search
engines and would be coming on search results for the key words provided. This
means much more exposure for them.
5. Token of
appreciation
Finally,
ensure that you thank the prospective provider in advance for taking the time
to post the testimonial. A thanks note for a future action works most of the
time.
Article by Invouch
Invouch is a business social network for collecting, storing, managing and broadcasting testimonials and referrals.
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