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Need social proof (13)

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Hey guys!

I have a catch-22 situation going on. So I recently created a product that I want to sell but have no testimonials since I never officially launched the product. But because I have no testimonials no one will buy (or very, very few). At least this is my hypothesis.

I don't want to launch the product without testimonials because I don't want to waste my traffic.

Is there a way to get testimonials before I launch my product?

I tried DMing people on FB, lol, and asking them If they want to review my product in exchange for a $25 gift card, but everyone left me on read

What advice do you guys have?

Thanks a lot!

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Can you tell us a bit about your product? I find strange that people don't want to test / review it.

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The product is white hat, educational course. I haven't even divulged any information about the product and people leave me on read.

Anyway, this is what I ask them:


"Hi FirstName,

I have a quick favor to ask.

I work for an educational platform and I was wondering if you would like to review one of our products in exchange for a $30 Amazon gift card. Please DM me if you’re interested and I’ll give you more details."

I asked around 40 people and no one freaking responds. It's like an episode of the Twilight zone, lol.

You guys are pros, can one make sales without social proof? From my experience, everytime I make a purchase I go directly to social proof and see what others are saying.

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It will be helpful to have some additional details about your product.

Anyways, have you tried getting in touch with FB Group admins that promote similar products?

They usually tend to launch some type of giveaways for new products, or have a network of people they usually send samples and get reviews on the product.

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Yeah, if I didn't have a connection to you, I'd probably ghost you too with that intro.

And the idea you can't get purchases without social proof is completely false. It helps, but by no means is it required. You'll just need to focus on the benefits versus the fact there are other happy customers.

Try something more like,

"Hey Lisabon11, I'm helping to promote a new educational product/service that helps with X. It is brand new and we would love to get some feedback on the product/service. I see that you are very experienced in [person's field]. Could I ask a huge favor? If I give you free access to the product/service and a $30 Amazon gift card, would you please give me an honest review? Also, please include permission to share the review as well. You are very experience and your feedback would mean the world, particularly if you agree that it really helps with X and would be of benefit to people in [person's field]."

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Wow. Thanks a lot. That's a very compelling intro.

Another thing, would you recommend me DMing random people on FB? That process is tedious because I have to perform a small background check on each individual.

Thanks for the reply!

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Thanks, it is completely off the top of my head, so there is certainly room for improvement.

I wouldn't DM random people, regardless of whether you had to do a background check or not. You don't want people marking you as spam/scam or even just routinely ignoring you. It will have a negative impact upon your profile and your ability to message new people.

Join groups where good candidates will be. Find industry or even niche specific groups and join them. Participate, ask questions, but don't promote. Then you can slowly start DMing people and asking. Make sure to follow the rules of the group as well, many groups do have rules about random, promotional DMs. That said, if you add value, you can start mentioning your product/service in context and will attract people that way. Again, just make sure to follow the rules of the group.

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Just so you know, most people fake the testimonials when starting out If you decide to do that, make sure those sound real though, a blatantly fake testimonial can do more harm than good.

Then there are platforms like fiverr or upwork... people will do all kinds of things when you pay them for it. And since you're willing to give amazon gift cards, you can aswell pay them. Try to search for some people who do copywriting or review services, there is a ton of them.

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Hi matuloo, thanks for the reply.

I was recommended by many to have a couple of fake testimonials, but have read that those can get you in trouble with the law. And are also not ethical, imo xD.

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Few years back I bought cheap reviews for my ebook on Amazon to give it an initial boost. Worked out quite well and it truly way an eye opener.

Now that I know what such reviews look like I see them all over. My personal guess is that 80% of reviews on Amazon are bought.

Ethics:

In some sports (basically in most) you cannot compete without doping. As with every poison I guess it is the dose that matters...

I often read testimonials / reviews just to get a better idea what the product is about and what people do and don't like. Couldn't care less about how many stars a product actually has. However if there are no reviews it looks like nobody is interested in it. Sometimes there is a reason for it. And if you find other products that have reviews I guess most people play it safe.

Last but not least:

If you give away your product for free just to get a review you kind of pay the reviewer, too. So where do you want to draw your ethics line?

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Hi larsometer, thanks for the review.

Regarding ethics, I see your point. Especially in business and advertising where the terrain is already muddy.

I want to pay reviewers to be honest. I do not incentivize them to leave a 5-star review or put words in their mouth. Of course, I won't use bad reviews on my landing page, but If I get 3 good reviews out of 20, even if it costs me 600 bucks, that's good for me.

I'm new to advertising and business in general and maybe I'm too soft, but I would feel like crap having gained money from lying or manipulating information. Having 10.000 of honest money in my bank account would make me feel much better than 100.000 gained from dishonesty.

Does anyone know any websites where I could submit my product and have it reviewed by others?

Thank you!

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None of us said you have to lie

You know your product, you know what it's strong parts are so you can definitely write a honest review of your product... keep it real and don't lie, I really don't see much problems with this approach in terms of kickstarting this. Such review(s) would be somewhat subjective, but then again, so are all reviews.

I would really hire a few people on fiverr or some similar place, there are writers/bloggers who do reviewing for a living, just tell them to keep it real and share their real opinion and that's it, problem solved. This way you're not manipulating anything, you're paying them for their time to spend on your project and share their honest opinion.

There are many review sites out there, also youtube channels, influencers who do reviews and whatnot. You can also send your product to some of them... what niche is your product in, maybe I can try to search for some relevant channels/sites for you.

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FB groups are AWESOME! That's where I would start if I was in your shoes @lisabon11.

The hardest part is really to identify suitable groups where your ideal target audience hangs out, and get group admins' permission to post. Some may ask for payment.

I wouldn't offer the amazon gift card to reviewers. By doing so you're essentially sending the message "I'm asking you to do something hard and therefore I'm reimbursing you for the work".

Instead, I would offer it as something very valuable that I'm only "forced" to reluctantly share with a few people in exchange for reviews. For example a message like this:

"[Free Share] I have a very limited number of free review copies on a comprehensive course on [whatever] that can help [your ideal audience] to [up their game; describe the best benefits]. This course will be priced at around [price - feel free to list a higher price than what you're planning to sell it at]. First x people to comment below will get this for free. The only condition is I want your honest feedback on this course."

Do this for 5-10+ groups and you should have more testimonials than you need.

If you don't get any bites, it either means 1)your selling angle / benefits are not attractive enough, and/or 2)you're not reaching the right audience.

Either/both of these would be very good reasons to reconsider your selling angle and/or audience targeting.

Point is, if you can't even give away your product for free, you'll have a hard time SELLING it. In which case some troubleshooting would likely be required.

An alternative to posting in FB groups would be to actually launch a test ad campaign with a similar message as above. That way you can gauge interest and start testing your audience targeting at the same time as collect product reviews.

Direct them to an opt-in form where they can 1)apply to be a reviewer, and 2)be notified when the launch happens so they can be the first ones to buy the product when it comes out.

That way you can start building a list before the launch.

Hope that helps!



Amy

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