How to get testimonials for a weight loss product

Well, testimonials have one thing in common: results over time
If the product works as advertised, they wil be willing to offer testimonials when asked. They want to share their success.
I have a personal training studio and I am upfront with clients asking them to grant me permission to use their photo's, testimonials for marketing purposes. After they are with me for 30 days, I just ask them for a testimonial. Building rapport is paramount to this though.

"Could you do me a favor and write down why you enjoy training here? I’d love to have your comments and share them with others that could benefit from what we offer."

Testimonial Questions:
1) What was your life like before service/product? What were the challenges? What were the specific situation?
2) Why did you decide on service/product or what prevented you from 'same'?
3) What specific results have you experience since using service/product?
4) Would you recommend service/product to your friends?
*I ask them to be brief but then I edit their testimonial and get their permission fo the final draft and give them a gift for their time and effort.

Both excellent suggestions.... thanks guys.

The only thing is this suggests that I have traffic. At the moment I'm afraid I have no list and no Google rankings.

Where do I find these people to offer the product to for free?

Approach someone with a list in the weight loss niche? Pay for a solo ad to a weight loss list? Write articles till I get enough sales and enough people willing to give me a testimonial?

What can anyone suggest?

It's just hard to get the ball rolling when you are starting out.

I've seen an ad posted on facebook before, "Lose Weight and Gain Money" They were giving the product free, the catch is to document their weight loss then the one that had the most significant improvement and facebook likes posted on your official fanpage will receive a prize. (supporters of candidates will not be able to like the pictures without liking the page so this is like hitting 2 birds with one stone) I think having selected people to try it out is the best way to have a testimonial.

Go to fiverr.com ;-)

Hi Mike

Go to a diet forum and give the product to those that have high post count, if they like the product then you could ask them to post their thoughts in the forum...you now have a testimonial and free traffic :-) I did this with a guitar product of mine and work very well.

Cheers
Phil

A solo ad would probably get you quicker results than articles marketing, but do both for the best result.

Fiverr.com

The Facebook competition idea sounds great.

I've never actually used Facebook (everybody gasp!). I've read that Facebook ads don't convert well. There are lots of threads on this forum and Trafficplanet about it.

If I had a brand new Facebook account with no friends then should I go for Facebook ads to get people interested in the competition or is there another more efficient and cheaper way to go about it?

While I know my stuff in weight loss I'm still fairly new to the online side of things so bear with me as I ask all these questions to actually make all the pieces fit into a workable plan

I agree Denden.

I just checked out Fiverr out of curiosity and I can't believe how many people are offering video testimonial services!

Surely people would spot them as fake testimonials as after a while people would think "isn't that the same guy giving a testimonial for a weight loss product, a relationship product, a vacuum cleaner....." etc.

I must admit I notice the same with stock photos. There are some images that seem to be used on lots of different things and it no longer looks professional when you have seen the same model on all different types of products.

I would much rather genuine testimonials but as mentioned above... getting genuine testimonials can be quite difficult when you are starting with nothing

I agree with what the rest of the guys are saying. Everyone's on Facebook these days. A little bit of traffic at first is all you need to spread the word. If you are considering Facebook, why not develop a page for your product.

From what I've seen, companies do contests and keep their page updated. Keep the page "alive". Post health questions and articles can help too.

What's great about FB Pages these days is it gives you Insights -- which is an analysis or statistic on exactly how much traffic you're getting on your page.

Again this still leaves me scratching my head a bit. It may be a topic for a whole separate thread but .....ok..... I create a new Facebook page with zero friends... nothing. I post info about the competition on my wall but who is going to see it?

If I tried to join the FB games groups I might get lots of friend requests but I doubt FB gamers are going to be interested in a weight loss product and genuinely try it and give me a testimonial.

So my question is ..... once I've created my Facebook page and posted the details on my wall what then? How do I get friends and followers?

SEO the Facebook page for "low hanging fruit" longtail keywords (at they would be more niche targeted) or is there something else Facebook has to offer like I've heard that if you follow others on Twitter they are more likely to follow in return?

Maybe a Twitter approach like this could also be a go?

Some added thoughts on actually getting testimonials:

1) You can recruit people to give a copy to who are truly interested in making change. Make them jump through some kind of hoop to get the free copy and include a bit of personal email coaching (or phone coaching) to help them along. Then, after they've achieved success from you and your product, they'll be thrilled to give you a testimonial.

2) Approach bloggers in the fitness market. Have them run a giveaway contest for your product. Give the prize to the winner (your product) and contact them later to ask if you can help them achieve their goals (as in suggestion #1) and get testimonials after.

Why not actually have people use it and lose weight and actually get real opinons?

I would personally call them and see how much they have lost. Some people well be willing to give some feedback about the product.

I really like that idea OutsourceFactor. Thanks heaps.

I think that one has a real chance for success.

The other one I had thought of is to hang out in some weight loss forums for a while then once I have identified some newbies or struggling people ask them to try the product and give a testimonial. I have seen alot of forums where people seem happy to post their before and after pics.

Although as you say with my idea people don't actually have to do anything to get the product so they wouldn't value it as much as if it was a prize that they had won.

I guess I could have a competition and promote it through forums and contacting bloggers as you say and give out 10 free copies (ie. 10 winners) and if I don't get enough testimonials out of that then run the competition again with some different bloggers until I get enough but surely out of that number I should get at least 5 good testimonials and hopefully that will be enough to launch the product then I can always add more later.

Thanks for all the wonderful ideas. You've got me excited again