You might wanna file this blog post under “well duh, that’s obvious” – but it’s one of those things that’s good to remember. And I wanted to blog about it because I’d just experienced it first-hand, too.
In the book, I talk about getting testimonials from happy clients, along with my process in doing so.
And then, since publishing the book, I’ve been asking people to review the book as well. It’s had over 50 ratings/reviews on Amazon and around 15 on Audible, most of which have been because I’ve asked people to leave a review for it.
The process has been pretty simple: if I know someone who likes the book (e.g. if they tweet saying nice things about it, or message me to tell me as much, etc.) but they haven’t previously left a review, I ask them to do so – usually via Twitter DM, LinkedIn message or email. Not all of them end up doing it, but a lot of them have done. I also don’t ask/chase them more than twice (something Chandler Bolt suggests in his book Published – a great book for anyone considering self-publishing by the way).
It works well because I’m asking people directly – talking to them one-on-one.
I was reminded first-hand the hard way recently that asking broadly just doesn’t work as well – even though (ironically) you’re reaching more people in one go.
Here’s two instances where the broad approach failed miserably…
Up until recently, I had a deal with Welsh ICE where they’d buy copies of the book in bulk and give them to their 5-9 Club members as a gift (the 5-9 Club being a sort of weeks-long once-a-week-in-the-evenings business course). After they’d had about 100 members obtain a copy, I asked one of the facilitators if they could post on their private Facebook group asking their members if they wouldn’t mind giving it a review. Once they told me that they’d done that, I kept an eye on review numbers over the following days and weeks, but… crickets. I don’t think it resulted in a single new review.
Ok… well… that’s just one example. Maybe the post (which I couldn’t see for myself, as I’m not a member of the private group) didn’t convey things properly, or maybe it got buried by newer posts, or maybe something else.
…But then it happened a second time…
Since launching Anti-Sell.com just over a year ago, I also started a mailing list (feel free to subscribe, by the way). It’s small but it’s growing. In the latest one I sent out, I put a little request near the bottom, asking the reader to leave a review if they haven’t done so already.
It’s been about a week since it went out, aaand… Yep, you’ve guessed it. No new reviews.
But I bet that if I’d asked 5 people individually, at least 2-3 of them would’ve probably done it.
So that’s it, really. If you’ve scrolled to the bottom of this post looking for the juicy TL;DR bit, then here it is: when asking for reviews and testimonials, ask people directly (one-on-one), not broadly (as a group). The former will likely take longer and require more work on your part, but it’s also more likely to result in much more success than the latter. That’s my experience at least.
