Hey this is Tyler with Thinkific and in this video I'm going to talk to you
about the power of having testimonials for your online course.
So whenever you're selling an online course it's really important that you
have testimonials because if somebody hits your course sales page, your
landing page and you know they're learning about your course and they're
trying to make that decision of if they should enroll in it or not they're going
to want to see some proof that other people have taken the course and had a
good experience, it's the same as when you're not looking for a product on
Amazon and if you're shopping for a car online you know whatever it is that
you're looking at you want to see that other people bought that and read what
they said. Read those reviews for those products so it's the same thing with
online courses, testimonials provide that social proof, that other people took your
course they liked it, they got a result from it and they're happy to recommend
the course to other people.
So the next question is how do you get some testimonials, now if you already
have an online course and you already have students for your online course,
then just ask them. Maybe even ask them throughout your course you know halfway
through at the end of one of your video lessons you say "Hey if you're enjoying
the course so far I would love for you to leave a review and if you're using
Thinkific to host online course, they can
there is that review feature where people can rate your course out of 5
stars and leave some comments.
Another way is you just ask them to send their feedback to you it could be
through social media, it could be through email you know, however you get the
testimonial is not important. The most important thing is that you actually get
one. So if you do have students already taking your course just ask them, ask
them for some feedback, ask them to share you know what their experience with
their course so that you can then take that testimonial and use it in your
marketing, use it on your sales page, use it in on webinars or anywhere where
you're mentioning your course or trying to sell your course to the next person
who is still on the fence or not quite sure if they want to enroll in and
having those testimonials will come in handy at that point. Now if you don't
have any students for your online course so maybe you just created it, maybe
you're getting ready to launch it but you haven't actually launched yet so no
one is taking your course so you don't have any testimonials.
What do you do, is really simple give some people free access to your course
in exchange for a testimonial. You might reach out to some colleagues of yours,
some friends but what you want to do is just messaged some people privately and
say hey I'm working on a course it's finished i'm about to launch it would
you mind having a look at it,
leaving me a review or testimonial so I can use that testimonial when I actually
launched the course. Another place that you can get testimonials is from any
clients that you've worked with. So if you've been working as a freelancer or
coach or a consultant and youve transition from offering a service to now creating
an online course, then you have some you have a track record with people that
you've already helped so even though they didn't take your course maybe you
still help them in some way or form with whatever it is, whatever area of
expertise or topic that ends up being
thought in your course so you can get some of those general testimonials from
somebody that has worked with you. So they're not giving a testimonial for
your online course but they're giving you a testimonial as an individual
so that's the next best type of testimonial you can have next to
somebody who's actually been through your course. So those are some ways that you
can get some testimonials before you've actually sold any copies of your course
and collected testimonials from students who have already been through it. Now
there are few types of testimonials that you can collect. Now the most common
one is that text. Text testimonial, it's usually a quote that you grabbed from
somebody who took your course and then you put that on your sales page or you
you put in slide on a webinar you know whatever chance you get to
show off that testimonial but it's a written testimonials and these are
effective, they're even more effective if you can get the image of the person who
gave you that testimonial just makes it look that much more real and that much
more authentic and if you can get permission to use their name, their title
or their company that they are part of, even the city that they live in, it just
helps add some context to the testimonial and people see that you
didn't just come up with this testimony out of nowhere, it's from a real person
that they can go, they can go and find that real person if they wanted to, they
could find their website, they could find them on social media. So you want to have
those things there just to show that it's a real person that gives context to
the testimonial way more effective than just having a quote without knowing who it
came from but the best type of testimonial is the video testimonial. So
if you can get your students or anyone who's taken your course and giving you a
testimonial, if you can get them to do it on video,
it can be just a quick you know 30 seconds, one minute but they get in front
of a camera and they share their experience with your online course, those
are the most powerful, so try to get video and if you can't get video, settle
for the text but if you do use a text testimonial make sure you get , your using
that person's image and their name and their title or the company wherever
they're from just to give it some context and some
some extra credibility and authenticity. Now what makes a testimonial really
effective as if it answers two questions. The first question is, does this work
so does your course work, does it teach what it says it's going to teach you and
will this work for me because these are the questions that somebody is asking
themselves when they're considering taking your course you know as they're
looking at your sales page, as they're reading up on your course, they're
wondering is this course actually work, do the concept in this course are
they actually want to teach me how to get the result that I want to get and
number two, will it work for me. So maybe it work for somebody else you know they've
seen testimonials of other people who took your course and it worked for them
but they're gonna, they are going to wonder will it work for me.So the best
way to answer those questions is to get testimonials from different people.
If you've got you know, different types of people who your courses meant for, try
to get a testimonial from every one of those people.
So for example, if you say that your course is good for authors, speakers,
coaches, consultants, maybe it's like a business or marketing course, you should
go and find an author, a speaker, a coach, and a consultant and get a testimonial
from each one of those people because that's, what that's going to do is
whenever an author, or speaker or a coach or consultant is checking out your
course, they're going to look for another person just like them that took your
course so if there's a testimonial from a person just like them in the same
situation that they're in and who says I took this course, it worked, here's the result
I got,
that's what's gonna make those testimonials very powerful. So really
quick just to recap on the power of using testimonials, these are social
proof for your online course. Nobody wants to be the first person to buy your
product or service. If you go to Amazon and you're searching for a book and
nobody has reviewed that book it makes it look like nobody's, nobody's bought
the book. So you don't know if it's good or bad, you want to see some reviews so
it's the same thing with your course, people who are considering taking your
course are going to want to see some proof that other people have taken it,
it does teach them what it says it's going to teach them, they got a result
from the course and they're happy with the overall experience.
So thanks for watching this video your homework is to go and collect some
testimonials from your students. If you already have students taking your course
send them an email, ask them to give you some feedback, ask for permission to use
their testimonial and put it in your marketing materials and if you don't
have any students yet remember you can go out and give people free access to
your course in exchange for testimonial. You could even just get some generic
testimonials from clients that you've worked with in the past who have great
things to say about you as an individual.
That's the next best thing to getting a testimonial from someone who's already
taken your course. So thanks so much for watching and don't forget to check out
our blog for more great articles and tips to help you succeed with your
online course.