Prompt · Review request
Testimonial request from a client
Get three usable sentences without making the client write an essay.
- Email type
- Review request
- Business
- Agency
- Tone
- Professional
- Length
- 100-140 words
The review request email prompt
Write a plain-text testimonial request from [SENDER] to [CLIENT], whose project is finished. Words only — no HTML, no layout notes. Rules: - 100 to 140 words. - Do not ask for a testimonial. Ask three specific questions and say you will assemble their answers into something they can approve. A blank-page request is why most of these go unanswered — the client wants to help and does not want to write copy. - The three questions should cover the situation before, what changed, and what they would say to someone considering it. Adapt the wording to [THE RESULT], and keep each answerable in a sentence or two. - Say [WHERE IT GOES] plainly, and ask explicitly whether their name and company can appear. Consent asked afterwards is consent asked too late. - Offer to draft it from their answers and send it back for approval or editing. That single offer is what moves the response rate. - Do not suggest what the answers should be, and do not attach an example testimonial for them to copy. What comes back will be your own words in their mouth, and it will read that way. - Never invent a number, statistic, result or quote. If [THE RESULT] needs a figure I have not supplied, leave a bracketed placeholder. - No exclamation marks. No emoji. Sentence case. Write a subject line under 45 characters. Return subject, body, sign-off.
What to fill in first
[CLIENT]- Their name, and the work you did.
[THE RESULT]- What actually changed for them. If you cannot name it, this is the wrong client to ask.
[WHERE IT GOES]- Where you will use it, and whether their name and company appear. Ask permission in the same email.
[SENDER]- Your name.
When to send it
Within two weeks of a project ending, while the before is still vivid. Ask later and the client remembers the outcome but not the problem, which produces a testimonial about how nice you were to work with rather than what changed.
What to change first
Nothing about the questions — change who you send it to. A testimonial request only works when
you can already name the result. If [THE RESULT] is hard to fill in, the honest read is that this
client’s project did not produce a story, and asking anyway produces the vague praise that makes a
website’s testimonial section skippable.
What good output looks like
Subject: Three questions, if you have five minutes
Now that the rebuild has been live a month, I would like to write something about it for the site.
Rather than ask you to write a testimonial, three questions:
- What was the situation before, and what had you already tried?
- What changed once it was live?
- What would you say to someone deciding whether to do this?
A sentence each is plenty. I will assemble it into a short paragraph and send it back for you to change or reject before anything goes anywhere.
It would sit on the case studies page. Happy to use just your first name and industry if you would rather not have the company named.
— [SENDER]
The prompt writes the words. Bring them here and the studio builds the campaign — branded, dark-mode safe, and ready to import.
Generate your ownIn the studio
A model writes copy. It does not write email.
Production HTML that survives Outlook, dark mode and a Gmail clip is a different job from writing the words. Describe the send once and export it to Mailchimp, Klaviyo, ActiveCampaign or MailerLite.