When building your Black Friday sales strategy, there might be one thing you’ve left out: student testimonials. You likely use testimonials as part of your sales page or marketing materials year-round, but you should also use them during Black Friday.
These student testimonials are some of the best advertising you can get. Few things are more persuasive than happy students promoting your course to others like the walking success stories that they are. Potential students are far more likely to take the plunge and sign up for a course that someone else has recommended to them. Testimonials help verify that your course is worth the investment, and they show potential students the results your products bring, all in one neat package.
Using these testimonials during your sales or promotional period can help make your course or coaching products even more appealing. So let’s take a look at what makes a strong student testimonial and how you can best use them to help boost those sales.
What is a student testimonial?
Student testimonials are simply endorsements or recommendations from former students who have taken your course or coaching and are happy with what they got out of it. They’re raving reviews from your happy customers that act as social proof of how valuable your products really are. They come in a few forms, like quotes, written reviews, success stories, images, or interviews to name a few.
What makes for a good testimonial?
The best testimonials have a few things in common.
- They highlight results.
- They have an emotional aspect.
- They’re true!
- They come from your students personally.
- They’re short and get the point across in just a few sentences.
Every testimonial you get might not have all of these aspects to it, and that’s okay! Because you’ll be able to use these testimonials in various ways. To increase your chances of getting some really high-quality testimonials though, try and give your students a good idea of what you’re asking of them. To do this, consider offering them examples when you ask for a testimonial. This will give them something solid to model their own testimonial off of. Another tip? Keep your ask timely. Make sure the students you’re asking have recently completed a course or coaching and have the results fresh in their minds.
When asking for testimonials, always be upfront about it. Make sure your students know exactly why you’re asking for one and how you intend to use it. If you’ll also use their name to attribute their testimonial to them, be clear about that as well. They need to agree in order for you to use their words to promote your products.
5 steps to leveraging student testimonials for Black Friday
Now we know what a good testimonial has and how to get one, let’s cover the steps to actually using them to boost your sales this Black Friday.
Step 1: Gather testimonials if you haven’t already
The first step it to take stock of your existing student testimonials. First, see if they make sense to use for promotional content. If they aren’t a good fit, or if you don’t have any, reach out to a few students. And use the template in the guide above to ask for a testimonial. Remember to let them know how you’ll use their words and name when you ask, and to provide an example.
Step 2: Be sure you have permission to use your student’s words
We’ve said it a few times already. But be really clear that your students know how you plan to use these testimonials and that they completely agree to that use. You can even get their permission in writing to cover all of your bases.
Step 3: Plan out your Black Friday promotions
If you haven’t already, plan out your Black Friday promotions. Will you be mainly offering promotions via email, on social media, on your website, or on your school’s sales page directly? Maybe you’ll utilize a few different channels to offer up a promotion. Wherever you plan to communicate your promotions or sales to students or potential students, think about that specific audience. Consider what is appealing to them. What tactics have been successful and convincing in the past? What are their pain points? How you can uniquely offer them help? Then choose the testimonial you have that best fits that need.
For example, if you teach a course or offer coaching about time management, you might target those people on social media. If they’re scrolling along (possibly procrastinating) you can grab their attention. You could use a snappy short video testimonial or a powerful quote. Or if your newsletter has a particularly high open rate, maybe you dedicate a newsletter to a student success story. That way you show your whole audience what your products can offer them. No matter where you want to offer your deals this Black Friday you can find the right place to feature the right testimonial.
Step 4: Prep your promotions with testimonials.
Prepare the content you plan to use and schedule it. Just because you’re offering these sales around Black Friday doesn’t mean you need to be working overtime during Thanksgiving or the days around it. It’s a time for relaxing and recharging before the end of the year, so make sure to set aside some time for yourself.
Prepping and scheduling can be great tactics for emails, social posts, newsletters, and more. Plus, you can even share your promotions a little early if you want to get a jump start on things. Or if you want to be top of mind for students who might end up flooded with emails come the day after Thanksgiving.
Step 5: Sit back and let the sales roll in.
Once you’ve done all the hard work of getting testimonials or curating those that you have, and using them for your Black Friday promotions, you can just enjoy the reward of more sales. And that’s the beauty of getting a head start and making sure everything is ready for the big day, you can relax once it arrives. Then once you’re ready you can gear up to run your next cohort-based course, coaching, or updating your course before the year’s end.
Using student testimonials for success this Black Friday
When it comes down to it, your student testimonials are powerful. They’re a reflection of just how valuable your courses or coaching products are. So use them to help others understand that too this holiday season. And then you can see the success they bring you. These student testimonials can be used in so many ways. Remember you can always use them when promoting a product you have. As long as you have the student’s permission. You don’t need to use them specifically for Black Friday, or specifically for a sales page. Broaden the horizons of what you use student testimonials for, and boost your sales all around.
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