Once you start selling your digital product, the real nail-biting starts. Will your audience like it? Are they getting the amazing results you hoped for? Is there something that could be tweaked?

Unfortunately, you’re probably not a mind reader, so it’s time for plan B: going right to the source. You need customer feedback in order to improve your digital product, but it can be a struggle to get reviews and testimonials, especially when you’re just starting out. 

You can get this feedback while building a stronger connection with your customers in the process–it’s not as painful as it looks! Let’s talk about the 5 steps I’ve taken to consistently get reviews.

Plan for feedback that helps you grow

If the thought of asking for feedback scares you at first, I totally get it! Your digital product is your baby. You’ve put in tons of hard work, long nights, and several rounds of tweaking to make it perfect. 

Gathering feedback is as much about finding out what you did right as it is finding out what went wrong. This helps you confirm what parts of your digital product resonated with your customer. Did it provide a solution for their pain point? What effect did it have on their business overall? 

Of course, there’s always room for improvement. This is the scary part, but trust me, it’s worth it. Sometimes it’s as simple as correcting a typo (something that’s TOTALLY never happened to me…)

It helps to set goals for yourself before asking for reviews. What info are you trying to collect, and how can you apply that knowledge to revising your product? You can consider things like:

• Was the product easy to use?
• Was this product in the best possible format for the user’s needs?
• Did the product address the pain point entirely?
• Would the customer use this product again in the future?

Perfect your timing

When do you reach out to clients for a review? Well, for starters, you don’t want to send an email to your entire list. Not everyone has even purchased your product and they may not appreciate an additional message in their inbox that doesn’t apply to them. 

You really want to wait until you’ve given your customer value (like a sale). Give your customer some time to really try out the product. 

In about a week, you can send a follow-up email to ask them how they are liking their product and if they have any questions, This opens the door for them to provide their honest feedback, whether they want to rave or offer any critiques. 

Know what questions to ask

If your customer responds to your request for a testimonial, don’t be afraid to give them a structure to follow! The questions you ask may prompt them to think about something regarding your product that they hadn’t realized on your own. Your prompts can include:

• What benefits did you hope to gain by using this product?
• What challenges did you anticipate when trying this challenge? Were these accurate to your experience?
• How easy was this product to use? What changes would you implement if you were in charge of creating version 2.0?

You can customize your testimonial request to your customer base as well. If they are detail-oriented and data-driven, long-form surveys may be a good tool to use. For those with a lot on their plate, short transactional short surveys can help encourage feedback without a huge investment of time and energy. And of course, when possible, customer interviews are an indispensable tool to really dive in deep to your customer’s user experience! Get on a Zoom call and ask them questions. You can even give them special incentives for spending time with you, like a discount on future products or even a 1:1 session.

Know where to look for unsolicited reviews

Turns out, people on the internet tend to have strong opinions. They also love to share these opinions, often with impunity and without tact. Now, your audience is probably awesome, so I wouldn’t anticipate too many of these, ahem, emphatic reviews. However, it’s good to know that your customers may offer reviews without you even requesting it! Be sure to turn on Google Alerts and social mentions to see when people are talking about your product on their own. It helps to have a bit of a tougher skin with these unsolicited reviews, by the way.

Create an additional incentive 

When in doubt, you can always count on one simple fact: people love free things. 

If you’re having a hard time convincing customers to spend the time to submit feedback on your product, sometimes an extra incentive can help them get over that hurdle. 

It can be something small, like an exclusive discount on their next purchase. For more in-depth reviews, you can create a drawing for a free product or a fun giveaway. (Or you can always offer incentives like your affiliate program!)

And that’s how it’s done!

How are you encouraging customers to leave a review? I would love to know in the comments and if you are looking for even more ways to build brand loyalty and then check out this playlist where I walk you through setting up an affiliate program so you can always have a team of people raving about your product.