Testimonials: How to get (and use) them from your students

“You need testimonials from your students” — Amanda (and every other marketer on the planet)

You’ve heard it before and you will hear it again — you need to get testimonials from your students. But if you’re like most yoga teachers, this is a difficult task.

Why to Get Testimonials from your Yoga Students

Testimonials provide social proof and helps others take part in that action or product or service. Here are some examples of this outside of the yoga world:

• Amazon — we look at the reviews before we purchase, that’s social proof.
• Hotels or AirBnB — the places that have more positive reviews can actually charge more because they are usually sold out. It helps us feel more comfortable when we see that others have had a good experience.

Testimonials also help you with marketing. Words are hard but it gets so much easier when someone has told you what’s so great about your class, or your workshop. You can use testimonials to help your marketing messaging!

Testimonials also help build your confidence. Think about the last time a student came up to you after class and they told you that class helped them in some way. While it can be uncomfortable to hear compliments, it does help build our confidence.

**Take this action**

Start a folder on your computer or in your phone and keep all the kind words you’ve heard from students. Do this so on days when you need a boost of confidence, you have somewhere to go and read those words.

My Go-To Method of Asking for Testimonials from your Yoga Students

This is just one method of receiving testimonials but it’s one that works really well!

Step 1:
Imagine this situation: you’ve just taught class and you had a student come up to you and says “I loved class today”.

Step 2:
After that, I want you to say “thank you so much, what was your favorite part about class today?”

Your student will then share with you their reason for loving your class. Soak this information in! Accept the compliment and really take in what they’re saying.

Step 3:
Then once they have walked away and you have a minute, write their words down or capture them in some way. Write on a piece of paper. Say it into your phone as a voice memo. Use voice to text in Google Docs. Whatever you can do to capture their words in that moment, do it!

Step 4:
Reach out to that person however you’re connected to get permission to use a quote from them. If you have their email address, email them. If not, send them a message using social media. If you don’t have either of those, ask them the next time you see them in class.

Here’s an example of what you could write to that person:

Hi (name). Thank you so much for your kind words about class today/the other day. I wrote down what you said because I think it could help others see the benefit in this class. If you’re okay with it, I would love to use your words in my marketing. Feel free to make any edits to the quote and let me know if it’s okay if I use your first name along with it. Thank you again.

(insert the quote you have from them here and list their first name)

The reason this works is because you’re making it easy for them. Most students would love to provide you with a testimonial if you asked them but they aren’t sure what you’re looking for.

“99.9% of your students would love to support you and give you a testimonial but they don’t know what to say.” — Amanda

Some other questions that will help you gain testimonials

If you don’t have people coming up to you raving about class (which is unlikely because you’re an awesome teacher!) here are some questions to ask in conversation with your students:

• What was the problem you were having before you discovered yoga?
• What did the frustration feel like as you tried to solve that problem?
• What was different about your experience with my yoga class?
• What brought you to my yoga class and what has kept you coming back consistently?
• How have you experienced relief by practicing yoga?

Also note that some of these questions are about yoga in general which will help you if you’re not as comfortable asking about your class. But when your student starts to tell you specifics about your class, please note that! Remember, they are showing up to YOUR class for a reason.

What to do with the Testimonials Once You Have Them

Put them on your website

• On your services pages — if you have a testimonial about private sessions, put it on that page. If you have testimonials about your public classes, put it on that page.
• On your home page
• On your about page

Share them on social media

• You can use bits and pieces of testimonials or the entire thing as social media posts
• Connect a testimonial with a current offering so that you can use it to help you invite others to that offering
• Remember to only tag the person if they want to be tagged on social media. If you’re not sure, don’t tag them, they can comment if they’d like.

Put them in your emails

• Share a student/client story by using the testimonial
• Use a testimonial to invite someone to a specific offering

Using people’s names and photos with testimonials

People really like to know that the testimonial came from a real person so including a name, or better yet, a picture is really impactful. This helps your audience connect and trust the words they are reading.

If you work with people going through something sensitive, such as fertility yoga or yoga for trauma, they may not want their name connected to the words. But their words are powerful so you still want to capture them. In this situation let your student know that you would love to use their words but you will only use initials if they’re okay with that.

Your next step

Get 5 testimonials from students this week and then add them to your website or share them on social media.

Until next time, give yourself permission to get some testimonials and grace along the way. Talk to you soon!

For more stories like this, listen to the Marketing Yoga with Confidence Podcast.

About Amanda McKinney (Marketing Coach for Yoga Teachers)

Amanda McKinney is a Marketing Coach with a passion for empowering yoga teachers to earn more money doing what they love. She does this through her podcast: Marketing Yoga With Confidence and Online Offerings. All of which focuses on building confidence and community with an extra dose of encouragement every step of the way.