How to Use Testimonials and Case Studies to Boost High-Ticket Sales

Do you feel awkward asking your clients for testimonials? 

Do you ever get in your head around using old testimonials, or feel like your testimonials aren’t good enough? 

Or do you feel weird using the same testimonials over and over again in your marketing….?

If you have ever done any of these things, listen up!

While it’s SO important to share client testimonials and results… no success story holds more power that YOUR story of transformation in your marketing. 

HOWEVER, social proof is becoming increasingly important in the wild wild west of online business, so it’s super important to intentionally and regularly show examples of how your work has been helping your clients. 

If you’re launching a new offer doing a slightly different kind of work, there are easy ways to social proof that you can deliver on your promises.

I share how to do this and dive into all things testimonials on the Creative Magic Club podcast episode this week.

Tune in to learn:

> How you can build more awareness and clarity around your offer using client stories in your online marketing. 

> How to ask for testimonials and build this process into your client offboarding. 

> My process for updating my offer sales pages with new testimonials, and how I use them in social media and emails to lead to high ticket sales. 

> How to use them as a way to stay confident and centered in the value of your work throughout your launch!

Decide which of the ideas I s

Write a sales post to attract your soul mate client using you astrology chart with my FREE 5-part training series! 

The Cosmic Copy Mastermind is THE place to get the support that will bring your dream of becoming a 6-figure creative to life in 2025 by selling your high-ticket offers with sales copy driven by stories and guided by astrology.

Message me the word MASTERMIND on instagram @sarahmacmagic for the full details.

When you book my Cosmic Sales Intensive, You’ll walk away with a full, clear, compelling, sales page for your high ticket offer that will attract ready to buy clients and that you can continue to make sales with for years to come.

 Clients who have been through this offer have sold out a high ticket relationship coaching mastermind & had 20 applications within 48 hours of publishing.

https://withsarahmac.com/cosmic-private-intensive/

Chapters

• 1:43 Introduction to Creative Magic Club
• 1:59 The Importance of Authentic Storytelling
• 2:41 Why Your Story is a Powerful Testimonial
• 3:11 Crafting Compelling Testimonials
• 4:21 Strategies for Building Trust with Prospective Clients
• 5:11 Using Testimonials to Boost Confidence and Sales

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:43

What's up? This is Sarah Mack, and welcome to Creative Magic Club. Together, we'll discover inspirational stories of creative entrepreneurs living out their dreams, doing the work they are most passionate about, and building wealth in magical and fun ways, while building a six-figure income. As a writer and coach, helping other women to launch their dream businesses, I've connected with so many incredible people and seen it proven again and again that you can thrive financially doing whatever it is you are passionate about. I am here to share life-changing strategies for mindset, making money and reaching more people with your work in a business and life filled with creativity, freedom and fun. Hi, sarah Mack here.

Speaker 1: 2:31

Welcome back to the Creative Magic Club podcast, the place to become a six-figure creative using authentic storytelling for high-ticket sales guided by astrology. So today I wanted to share some insights around testimonials and how you can use them to boost your high-ticket sales. But first of all, I want to address how important is it actually to have testimonials? So, especially when you are pivoting or you have a new offer, number one I just want to say don't let it hold you back if you don't have any testimonials, because, guess what? Your story is by far the most important testimonial for your work, because you are the living embodiment of your work. So you can absolutely sell a high ticket offer based off your story alone, without having had any testimonials for the offer that you're selling, because that's the real reason why people choose to work with you is because of you. It's because of what you embody, what you've walked through, what you're living, your unique skills, gifts and talents. So do not get in your head about testimonials. However, they are really really powerful assets that can just help to build trust even more quickly and with even more people, because there are so many different types of buyers and you're always going to have those people who really trust their intuition when they feel the energetic pull, when you show up in the right moment, when your story really lands and connects with them and resonates with them. There's always going to be people in your audience for whom that is enough for them to hop into a high ticket offer.

Speaker 1: 4:26

Then, of course, there are other people who tend to be more analytical in their buying decision making process or who maybe just have a little more fear and hesitation about stepping into the transformation that you offer, and so assets like testimonials, case studies these are really really powerful stories that are going to add to your new client's belief that if it can happen for a ton of other people, then it can happen for me too. And that's really the purpose of all of our storytelling right is to empower our clients to know and to believe that the transformation they desire is possible for them. And that's the true value and power in these stories. Obviously the kind of person who's going to buy a high ticket offer they already have that level of belief that the result is possible, because if they didn't believe it they would not be investing in your offer. So you don't want to be speaking to people who don't already believe that what you offer is is truly possible for them. But in adding a diverse array of evidence and other stories to show that your work works, not only for you but for also other people too, it's just going to add to that belief and that trust that they can do it as well. So here's how I would approach it if it was a new offer Like absolutely you can go ahead and sell something you know, especially if you already have an established audience and you already have an established brand.

Speaker 1: 5:57

But you're slightly pivoting what it is that you're offering. That's fine. You've already built a lot of trust and credibility with your people if you've been showing up for a long time. So you can absolutely launch a new offer based off of a result or a transformation that you've created for yourself, without having any testimonials, however, that you've created for yourself without having any testimonials. However, if your confidence is a little shaky or if you're in any kind of doubt and I honestly feel like so many marketing strategies and tactics are truly like the highest level of value that they bring us is that they bring us more confidence and conviction in what we're doing, versus the confidence and conviction that they might give to our people, because guess what Our people like in any relationship, they're going to respond to us. So if you're not fully confident and in conviction about the value and the power of your offer, guess what? That's what people are going to reflect back to you and you're probably not going to get the buyers that you desire. So, whatever the path of least resistance is for you to get to that place of confidence and conviction that you likely had when you set out to sell this offer in the first place. But you know, being an entrepreneur, being a human being, a woman with hormone cycles like there are days where we just we need that extra help to feel confident. So having these assets that you can share, they can help, you know, to give you that reminder that, oh yeah, my work is really powerful and transformational.

Speaker 1: 7:29

So what I did in the beginning of my coaching business was I took on three clients, one of which was my brother, one of which was my sister and one of which was a peer from a coaching program that I was taking, and I just wanted to see if I was a good coach. I didn't have any coaching certifications, but I created massive transformation in my own life using these tools and that's what drove me to launch my coaching business, because I wanted to share them with others and I just gave away my coaching for free, and that gave me enough evidence to see that, number one, I was good at helping others and, number two, my tools worked for other people, and that was enough to give me the confidence to then go and start launching my own paid offers. And obviously I didn't have that much confidence because I'd never launched a coaching offer before. So I started out at a really low price, made it super no brainer for people and then, as I started getting paying clients and working with them and they started getting amazing results. Then I started raising my prices as I had more evidence. That made it easier for me to tap into that confidence and conviction consistently throughout my launch.

Speaker 1: 8:36

So, like there's no shame in the game of whatever it is you have to do to get to that confidence and conviction, if you need to, you know, take a do. Sometimes it could even be a couple calls, you know, or some research, interviews or some events or just some like low resistance ways to get your work into the hands of people. Because that's always gonna be the most powerful marketing is you being able to say here's how my work is changing people's lives, like this, right now, this week, today. So once you start getting your work into the hands of people, it doesn't matter if they paid you or not. Just start to pay attention with how your conversations even are landing with people, see every opportunity to gather evidence of how your work and your wisdom helps others. And you know, screen grab, compile, like, take note of these stories, even if it was in a conversation with someone that can then become marketing material for you to talk about on a live stream or in a story. So once you start to gather these testimonials and obviously asking for testimonials from clients that you've supported start to just scatter them throughout all of your content. Occasionally, post a testimonial on your feed, post testimonials on your stories most days, put them in a little image box in your emails that you send out, and this will really just serve to support your messages and your sales pitches and create that extra layer of social proof that the whole purpose of that is to build trust. And the more people trust you, the more they believe that your work will work for them, the easier it is and the more excited they are to buy your offer. So you may have seen a lot of people taking screen grabs. This is one really simple and really really powerful way to illustrate the value of your offer to others. So I do this all the time, and the reason why this is really powerful is because it shows people a direct look inside your containers. Because if people can imagine what it's like to be inside your offers and to be working with you, then they are gonna wanna be there or they're gonna have the information that they need to know if that's what they want or if that's what they don't want. So another really great hack if you're launching a new offer. So here's an example I just launched my new mastermind, the Cosmic Copy Mastermind, and I hadn't run a mastermind in a couple years and this mastermind is it's slightly different to what I was running before, which was very mindset focused.

Speaker 1: 11:24

This is a lot more copywriting and sales strategy focused. So what I did was I launched a three-part free training series here on my podcast called Soul Clients Rising, which was all about using astrology to write copy that attracts soulmate clients. Go listen to it if you haven't already. And I launched a free week-long group Voxer chat to support people with questions and give them feedback on content and questions they had about their astrology. So in launching my mastermind, I had a group Voxer chat going that was focused on the conversations that I was going to be having inside my mastermind, so I could take screen grabs of the breakthroughs people were having, of the questions, of the insights, and I could take screen grabs of the things that I was answering and the ways that I was supporting people, because that was a really great illustration of what it's going to be like inside my mastermind container, where we're going to be talking about astrology and content and sales strategy, so you can create little pop-up free experiences that are similar to the container that you're selling and you can show people. This is what it's going to be like. These are the types of conversations, these are the types of interactions. These are the ways that you are going to be supported by me. If that looks and feels like something that's exciting and supportive to you, buy my offer, because that's exactly what we're going to be doing.

Speaker 1: 12:57

So you can obviously also take testimonials. You can ask people. You know, this is like the most obvious, classic way of getting a testimonial is when someone has worked with you. You can say hey, you know, can you write a couple of sentences around what you found most valuable from our work together and you know the results that you created or why you would recommend other people to hire me, and people will send me the text Very often. I will screenshot that text and I will share it as soon as they send it to me, because whenever you see a screen grab of a message that you've received, it just adds that extra layer of social proof, by which I mean it's real. You know and obviously no one is out here, I'm sure none of you are out here trying to trick people or trying to lie about how good your work is, but the internet is the wild wild west, let's be honest.

Speaker 1: 13:51

And so the more trust we can build with people by showing people the truth of the behind the scenes of our work, you know, the easier it is for brand new strangers on the internet who have just discovered us to be like okay, obviously this chick's for real, because people need to feel very, very, very confident in their trust for you when they're gonna be dropping thousands of dollars. So I always love to share those screen grabs, to be like this is real, my work is really benefiting people who are real humans who are messaging me. But then I will go and give that text to my graphic designer. Obviously, when someone's given me their words and I've asked for permission to publish it with a photo and with I'll ask what title they want published with it, then we will throw that up and I think, showing the photo of your clients, it does add another layer of connection and believability and just evidence.

Speaker 1: 16:44

You know we pick up so much information from visual representations online beyond just words and text, so that is really powerful to be like oh, look at all of these other people that she's working with. Because when the more people can identify with your community and see that you represent them and you stand for their values and for people like you, the more they feel that sense of belonging. Wow, I honestly didn't know I had so much to say about testimonials. This is really just flowing, so yeah, so I love to have those testimonial graphics with photos of my clients, with words that they've shared with me that I have their permission to share, with their title and tagline, and obviously it's in a lot of the time it's in our clients' interest. I mean, depending on what kind of work you do, but for me especially, I help clients with their visibility, so it makes sense that they you know, I've had so many people who have got to know me through testimonials that I've left my own mentors and they're like I see you on all of her sales pages and I'm like I can't wait till I get results like that. So it's really powerful to be seen and to be published in more places on the internet, because that's only gonna elevate you and your brand and your work.

Speaker 1: 17:56

So people love to do it, you know, and even if visibility isn't something that's important to the types of clients that you work with, people love to do it anyway, although sometimes you will have to follow up with people, so don't be awkward about it. Keep. Sometimes you will have to follow up with people, so don't be awkward about it. Keep asking, keep reminding, because if people have said yes, they genuinely do want to support you and your business. So don't be, don't feel embarrassed to like, keep following up, just be like hey, giving you a nudge, just wondering when you think you're going to be able to get that testimonial to me. You know people are busy. It is an act of generosity, but an act of generosity. But if they said they said yes, then believe them and keep following up with them until they give it to you.

Speaker 1: 18:30

I've had clients who have taken months and months and months and months and months to get me a testimonial. But when they do, it's amazing and it adds value to my business. I appreciate it. You know it's another piece of evidence that my work can work for another person, which adds to the to the value and the experience of my new clients. So definitely persist and, you know, use that as use asking for testimonials as a step in your client on off-boarding process.

Speaker 1: 19:01

And let's talk about ethical sharing for a moment. So this is the way I operate when I ask someone for a testimonial, obviously it's kind of implied that I'm gonna be sharing it, but I will ask what name and tagline do you want me to share with it? Usually I'll just ask my VA to pull a photo from them. I used to ask people to submit photos, but for me, as I said, all my clients are interested in growing their visibility, so I know that they have plenty of photos online. It's just one less step for them when I can get my assistant to go, you know, grab a photo. But I used to ask for photos. So if your ID, you know the types of client you work with aren't super visible online, then ask them for a photo. Obviously they can say no. People can ask you to share it anonymously, like sometimes I've seen people just list like an initial or maybe even like a title. But if someone wants to be anonymous, then that's totally fine. Their testimonial is still, you know, valid and valuable and it doesn't matter that you're not sharing their identity.

Speaker 1: 20:02

And then my best practice with using screen grabs is to just like, hide people's identity. So I'll crop out or I'll like scribble out people's names unless I've asked them for permission to share that, and I just don't usually do that because it's too many extra steps and, you know, if someone were to get upset or somebody were to ask me to not share, I would absolutely honor that. But I think if I'm showing things without any indication of their identity or if there's any text within the clip that I'm sharing that would reveal aspects of their identity, then I'll scribble that out as well. Like if there's any program names or you know, names of people in their life that they're referring to, I make sure to protect any, any information that would reveal their identity so that people feel safe to share with me, because obviously that's the most important thing in my relationship with clients. However, if people have shared something in a in a public space like they've shared a social media comment or something that is already public then I think it's okay for me to screen grab and share that.

Speaker 1: 21:10

If it's, you know, specifically relating to me or my work and my clients are so amazing they very often do shout me out in public and comments and, like when I host events I have past clients come and they'll write really nice things about me in the chat because my clients are the best people in the whole world and I love them so much and we love each other and you know they we like reciprocate, we support each other. So sometimes if I've done like a, like a Zoom training and they've done like a shout out, I'll screen grab that, although if it's a training, where it's it's a public but it's a private space within my business, then yeah, I would usually obscure their identity unless I you know they're my client and I know that they've shouted me out many times publicly and they they don't mind being associated with me as their mentor and they've already kind of like set that precedent. So obviously there's like so many gray areas in this conversation. Everybody's different, everyone's tolerance for like what feels ethical and safe. It's going to be so different and so personal.

Speaker 1: 22:06

So I would just say trust your gut with your relationships with your own clients. Nobody knows your clients better than you. Your gut with your relationships with your own clients, nobody knows your clients better than you and just set some like best practices that you follow that feel ethical and good for you and, if in doubt, always ask for permission. Always have a conversation with your clients and always be respectful, you know, and always do whatever feels like it's honoring their safety in your containers, which is obviously the most important thing, because if your clients don't feel safe in working with you, then they don't have a good relationship with you and that's not going to lead to longevity in your business. So, but don't get too much in your head about it, and if someone gets upset, you know, do what you can to make it up for them and move on.

Speaker 1: 22:45

So let's talk about sales pages. So I periodically will update my sales pages with new testimonials, but you'd be surprised, sometimes I don't do that for years and years and years and years, and I have resold the same offer with the same sales page, with the same results and testimonials from people who have already been through it, because results never expire. If your work has helped somebody create a result, even if it happened years and years and years ago, it doesn't fucking matter. That value still stands, unless, of course, the work that you do or the industry that you support clients in has actually evolved and you know the techniques and the approaches that you support people with have actually changed, in which case you would want to update your offers, but results never expire. So you know, even if you've been through like a lull in your business or your confidence has taken a knock or you've slightly pivoted, you can find creative ways to use the value that you've created for others as proof that you are able to offer value today.

Speaker 1: 23:50

So definitely, I think more and more especially now, people's trust has definitely been eroded in online education. People are tending to lean more towards live support rather than passive courses, although absolutely people are still buying passive courses and getting so much value from them. But definitely when you can share testimonials that specifically relate to the offer you're selling, that's just like a bonus point. However, like I said before, results never expire and if your work that you've done with clients previously relates to the offer that you're currently selling, even if it's a new offer, you can absolutely use past testimonials from past results that clients have created to market and sell and show proof that you are capable of helping people in the topics and conversations and areas that your offer is centered around. So don't get in your head about it. But as and when you can try to keep up with collecting up to date testimonials from current clients and from specific offers.

Speaker 1: 25:01

And you know I've been quite lazy with this, but I have. I just had a little push to like, you know what, just reach out to some of your, some of your more recent clients and get some updated testimonials, because I want to update some of my sales pages. And something else you can do is like when you're in trainings or you're delivering trainings or people are leaving comments on trainings, you can screen grab those too, because I think people really like that and it just shows people that people are getting value. And I would always think, oh, if it's not like a big shiny income result, then what's the point? But no people love to see like, oh, I just had a big shift, or oh, I feel so supported, or I just this feels so much more simple for me now. These types of comments are super valuable because they really give so much insight around the way you work that might be very different to how they've experienced support and mentorship in the past and just show people that you're the kind of mentor that they actually want to work with. So never underestimate, you know, those small wins and sharing those comments. There's no comment too small. There's no win too small. So even just gathering a few of those it's going to create the vibe. It's going to give so much information about what it's like to actually be inside your containers. So get into the habit of just doing this regularly.

Speaker 1: 26:21

And then my final favourite way to use testimonials is when you need a confidence boost. I have a testimonials page on my website. It's super old testimonials and I can't remember the last time I looked at it. But sometimes, like we get so in our heads about our offer, like if it's been a couple of weeks and you haven't signed a client in your launch and you're like, oh God, I'm not good enough. Everybody hates me. Why would they buy from me when they could buy from everyone else on the internet? Who's so much better than me? And all of those thoughts that everybody has when you're in a launch.

Speaker 1: 26:52

Just go and look at your testimonials and read them and be like, oh my God, like this work has changed people's lives. I'm so honoured and privileged and grateful to be able to do this work, to be able to impact others. It holds so much meaning to me. Look at all these lives that have been impacted positively in big ways and small ways and use them as a way to reconnect to the power of your work, which we can disconnect from that when we're lost in the nitty-gritty of sales and marketing. So you know, even if you are going through one of those wobbly phases in your launch, go back and read your sales page, do one of your modules, look at the comments and really connect back into the incredible value of your work, because I promise you you'll show up differently in your sales and marketing and your content after doing that.

Speaker 1: 27:39

So this is by far my favorite way to use testimonials and, yeah, use them. Use them often. I'm usually posting whenever I pitch on my stories, which is most days. I'll use screen grabs, I'll use testimonials, I'll mix it up to show the diversity of the clients that I've worked with. But you know what, sometimes, like in the beginning and I only had a couple testimonials, I would just use those over and over and over and over again. And I still have some that I still use from years and years and years ago that are just really great testimonials because it still applies to the work that I'm doing today. So keep using them. You know I'll get emails from clients even after they finish working with me and they're like I'm traveling Europe, I'm having five figure months. Thank you so much for your work, and I'll like blot out their identity and I'll include them in my emails after my pitches for my work, just to show people of what's really possible when you work with me.

Speaker 1: 28:37

So I hope this is helpful. I would identify one action step that you are going to take this week to start to use more testimonials as social proof to fill your high ticket offer. Let me know what landed, let me know if you like this, let me know what came up for you, and please share this with anyone who you know would benefit. Share it with your biz bestie. Have a conversation about testimonials, what you're gonna do to get more of them and to be showing them more in your content. And stay tuned for more content on high ticket sales, authentic storytelling and astrology coming soon on the Creative Magic Club podcast. Sending you so much love, have a great day Bye. For more inspirational content, head over to my website, withsarahmackcom, and please support the show by liking, commenting and subscribing.