Testimonials are an effective way for people to see that your personal training services are trustworthy and effective. You can use them to highlight the people who have used your personal training services and have been delighted with their results. This is a powerful way to show your competence for prospective clients and the visitors of your fitness website.
Statistics from Bright Local suggest 97% of potential customers will read reviews before committing to an investment, and even one good review can increase sales by 10%.
Furthermore, the average prospective client reads at least 10 reviews before trusting a business. You can check how age affects that number below, but the bottom line is that you need as many as you can get.
So, in this article we'll be digging into the ins and outs of collecting personal training testimonials and success stories so you can get started if you haven't done so yet.
Anatomy of a Great Testimonial
All great testimonials have the same things in common:
- Honesty: a good testimonial should be a truthful evaluation of your personal training service. The purpose of the testimonial is to show others how trustworthy your services are. Untrue testimonials, or those which are bought, make your personal training service seem less trustworthy.
- Endorsement: when someone writes or records a testimonial to endorse your personal training service, they should have actually experienced that service. If you’re just starting out as a personal trainer and you don’t have any clients yet, you might want to consider offering a small number of free or heavily discounted sessions in exchange for a testimonial.
- Qualities: rather than just mentioning they’ve experienced your personal training service, a good testimonial should explain specifically what they liked about the service you provided. Being specific and even including examples is a way to make that testimonial personal.
- Other critical elements: including a photo of the person that’s leaving the testimonial can be a great way to include some visual interest. Seeing the face of a happy client is a way for potential clients to connect to that person. It gives the testimonial some credence as a genuine review. Similarly, including their first name, and even their location can be a way to legitimise the testimonial.
The Best Testimonial Format
A video testimonial can be a hugely powerful tool if you have a personal training client that’s willing to record one. They need not be very long, a minute will be enough.
Most testimonials are written and short is better; 30-50 words is plenty and will ensure that the testimonial is actually read. Any longer, and you might want to consider bolding the main words so that someone scanning can pick them out easily. Alternatively, if the testimonial is longer, you might pick out an especially compelling sentence and use it as a sub-heading above the image for people who are skim reading.
Most testimonials are written and short is better; 30-50 words is plenty and will ensure that the testimonial is actually read. Any longer, and you might want to consider bolding the main words so that someone scanning can pick them out easily. Alternatively, if the testimonial is longer, you might pick out an especially compelling sentence and use it as a sub-heading above the image for people who are skim reading.
What to Include in a Testimonial
Now that you have an idea of the features and the formatting, often clients like a few pointers on what you’d like them to talk about. Don’t “over coach” the testimonial because the language the client uses should be direct and authentically theirs. The least they should include would be what you helped them to achieve, and the benefits of achieving it.
You can help them include everything you're looking to see in writing by asking them a few questions you would like them to answer:
- What goals did you want to achieve by hiring a personal trainer?
- Why did you choose my service?
- How did I help you with those fitness goals?
- What unique aspect of training with me did you find most useful?
- Would you recommend me to your friends and why?
When to Ask For a Testimonial?
Asking for a testimonial isn’t something that you can only do once. Testimonials should be collected regularly after your client has been with you for a while. It might be a good idea to add this to your calendar, 30, 60 or 90 days after they come on board with you.
It’s also a good idea to ask for a testimonial after a particular milestone. You don’t need to wait until the full goal has been achieved as you’ll be celebrating all the milestones along the way. If that client has sent a message where they’re excited to be making good progress towards their goals or has achieved the goal they came to you for help with, that’s a great time to ask.
It’s also a good idea to ask for a testimonial after a particular milestone. You don’t need to wait until the full goal has been achieved as you’ll be celebrating all the milestones along the way. If that client has sent a message where they’re excited to be making good progress towards their goals or has achieved the goal they came to you for help with, that’s a great time to ask.
Where to Ask For a Testimonial
Asking for a testimonial can happen any place your clients make contact with you. It can even happen in person. Common places that you might collect a testimonial could include:
- On your personal trainer website: You can embed a form or a link to complete a form on the page, and you can simply direct people to complete your form. You can even include a call to action to book a call, or to get in touch for more information here as people checking out this page on your website are likely considering hiring you themselves.
- Social media: This could include the reviews and testimonial section of your Facebook business page, or even saving messages or comments - with the permission of the client. This can be a good option because people write like themselves on social media and it reads authentically. Like one of our Managed Website client's Facebook page shows, people are happy to leave reviews there to express how happy they are with the results.
- Email: contacting your clients via email would allow them to simply reply to that email and provide the testimonial immediately. This can be a good option as it removes barriers for people - they simply respond with a few lines just as soon as you ask.
- In person: Sometimes the best way to get a testimonial is to hand your client a sheet of paper with some pre written testimonial questions and have them fill it in there and then. This can feel a bit awkward so pre warn your client that this is going to happen in the previous session.
Testimonial Questions to Ask
If you've ever been asked to write a testimonial for someone, you'll know first hand that it isn't easy without direction. You have to come up with something to say that reflects the experience you've had and this can be difficult.
Instead of leaving your clients in the dark about what to say, ask them these questions to get the perfect testimonial for your fitness website:
Instead of leaving your clients in the dark about what to say, ask them these questions to get the perfect testimonial for your fitness website:
- What was the problem you needed to solve?
- Why did you choose the business you did?
- How did they solve your problem?
- How was their solution unique?
- What did you particularly like about their approach or delivery?
- How would you summarise the experience as a whole?
- Would you recommend the business to others? If so, who?
How to Display A Testimonial
Having a testimonial page on your personal trainer website is one way to do this - but it only really speaks to people who are already considering investing in your services. Still, for those that are n the verge and are browsing your website to find out more about what you do, having amazing success stories displayed will build trust.
It can also be a good idea to put the testimonial in the context of what services you’re selling. If you have a service page on your website, adding testimonials to that page gives them context and feels less like marketing.
If you’re following the analytics of your website, you’ll know which are your most popular pages which get the most views. You might want to keep your best testimonials for those pages. Keeping testimonials that include keywords on the pages which are optimised for those keywords is a good way to use SEO to your advantage. Using text rather than screenshots or pictures can help keep loading times fast.
Instead, you could save the images for use on your social media accounts. You can even create pretty designs for your testimonials in Canva so they won't only be reassuring to your social media followers but also nice to look at, always a key aspect of social media marketing.
Instead, you could save the images for use on your social media accounts. You can even create pretty designs for your testimonials in Canva so they won't only be reassuring to your social media followers but also nice to look at, always a key aspect of social media marketing.
