Codie Sanchez is an investor, businesswoman, influencer, and founder of Contrarian Thinking, a newsletter about free thinking and finance advice. She is referred to as the “Boring Biz” lady because of her business philosophy of buying “boring” businesses and making money from them. 

With over 1 million YouTube subscribers and over a million TikTok followers, she’s among the most popular finance influencers. She has some very interesting tips on growing your business using testimonials and reviews with zero budget. But before getting into her tips, let’s answer an important question. 

Why should you listen to Codie Sanchez?

You may have come across a TikTok or a YouTube video of Sanchez while scrolling through these social media. But did you know that she is also an active board member at Entourage Effect Capital (EEC), a growth equity firm specializing in investments within the legalized cannabis industry?

Prior to EEC, she led a $1 billion+ AUM business in Latin America Investments for First Trust, making waves in the industry.

Starting as a journalist, Codie earned the JFK award and the Howard Buffett Foundation grant for her human trafficking coverage. 

Now a recognized pundit, her insights grace major platforms like CNBC, Fox, Forbes, and The Today Show. She's been named among the "25 Most Innovative Leaders in Cannabis" and dubbed "The Cannabis Disruptor" by MG Retailer.

Academically, Codie holds an M.B.A. from Georgetown University, a master’s from ESADE and Fundação Getúlio Vargas, and a B.A. from Arizona State University.

Now that we have proven the “credibility” of Codie beyond a social media influencer let’s dive right into the tips. 

14 Tips from Codie Sanchez To Grow Your Business from 0 to $1,000,000

Prioritize Reviews

In the words of Codie Sanchez, “Have other people say good things about you.” Yes, it’s as simple as that. It’s important to recognize the importance of customer reviews in growing a business and focus on building a positive reputation through reviews.

Now, some statistics shared by Codie. A staggering 93% of customers take the time to read reviews. What's more, a whopping 90% are hesitant to engage with your product or service if it has less than a three-and-a-half-star rating. Here's the kicker – 58% of clients are willing to pay more and go the extra mile to choose a company with better reviews.

And here's the twist: unhappy customers are not only ten times more likely to leave a review, but it takes 10 to 20 times the number of positive reviews to counteract the impact of a single negative review.

Utilize the 12% Rule

Understand that only around 12% of customers leave reviews when asked. Make it a goal to first find your 12% and then encourage that 12% to leave positive reviews. 

Apply the Law of Reciprocity 

Codie Sanchez emphasizes the power of the Law of Reciprocity in obtaining reviews. This psychological principle suggests that when you give something to someone, they feel a natural obligation to reciprocate. Codie shares a strategy she implemented in one of her service companies. After completing a job, an automated text is sent to the customer, thanking them for their business and praising their cooperation. 

That compels the customer to respond nicely back to the text, and that’s when you can ask for a review. By acknowledging the customer's contribution and expressing gratitude, businesses can significantly boost their review count.

Create a Positive Review Loop

When a member or customer shares a positive outcome or success story about your business, seize the opportunity to encourage them to leave a review. This ongoing loop of positivity creates a culture where satisfied customers willingly share their experiences. Businesses can cultivate a continuous stream of positive reviews by responding promptly and appreciatively to these moments.

Leverage Community Events

Hosting events can be a powerful way to connect with your audience and encourage reviews. Codie narrates an example of a coffee shop that successfully implemented this strategy. During monthly community events, the owner personally thanked customers and asked for reviews, even providing a QR code for easy access. The real-time engagement and personal touch led to an influx of reviews. 

Codie suggests that businesses can replicate this approach, adapting it to their unique circumstances and encouraging customers to share their positive experiences at events.

Connect with Members

You must have a dedicated channel for customer reviews and testimonials. In Sanchez’s case, a Slack channel is exclusively reserved for managing and responding to customer feedback. Testimonial Donut is another great channel with solid resources like interfaces, recording tools, templates, etc. for collecting testimonials. We also offer additional services to ease your process.  Our centralized approach would allow you and your business to maintain a consistent and appreciative dialogue with your customers. 

Also, by responding to each positive or negative review with authenticity and personality, businesses can showcase their commitment to customer satisfaction and build a strong rapport with their audience.

Set Up a Drip Campaign

Codie discusses the effectiveness of drip campaigns in systematically encouraging reviews. She references Johnny Robinson, who integrated a cleaning company's CRM with a review platform. After completing a service, customers received an automated text leading them to a Facebook group for reviews. If unanswered, follow-up emails were sent, creating a structured approach to soliciting reviews. This method, when adapted to other businesses, ensures continuous engagement with customers and a steady flow of reviews over time.

Build a Wall of Winning - Social Proofing

"Wall of Winning" is a visual compilation of testimonials and reviews that you can display on your website or other channels. This strategy involves showcasing all positive feedback in one place to build an “undeniable proof” of the business's credibility.

By presenting a comprehensive list of satisfied customers, businesses can establish trust with potential clients who seek assurance before making a purchase. This technique aligns with the idea that customers are more likely to trust a business with a substantial history of positive reviews.

Optimize Review Locations

Sometimes, you would have seen that some websites have testimonials and reviews that appear after a few scrolls and are kind of hidden. You don’t want that. You want to flash your testimonials to whoever comes on your website so they can easily see them. 

Also, you want to keep the images real, keep the reviews easy to navigate, and optimize them to be easily visible.  For example, consider Gift A Melody’s testimonials that are placed on the home page itself, which are visible after just one scroll. 

Make it Memorable

Codie advocates for making the review process memorable to increase customer participation. Using an example from a pool company, she shares how transforming review request cards into memorable, meme-like formats significantly increased response rates.

Injecting humor or creativity into review requests can make them stand out and potentially go viral on social media. By creating a positive and memorable experience, businesses increase the likelihood of customers willingly contributing reviews.

Run a Giveaway

Doing giveaways is a good strategy to incentivize customers to write reviews or refer others. By turning the review process into a rewarding experience, businesses can motivate their audience to actively engage. 

Codie's example of a giveaway resulting in over a thousand reviews and newsletter subscriptions demonstrates the effectiveness of this approach. Implementing creative and appealing giveaways tailored to your audience can significantly boost participation and contribute to a robust review strategy.

Create Wow Moments

To encourage positive reviews, social media posts, and testimonials, it is important to create unexpected and delightful moments for customers. 

For instance, when someone joins Codie’s community, they receive a surprise box in the mail containing free gifts and fun items. This unexpected gesture makes customers feel appreciated and leads to social media posts and reviews.

The box includes a postcard inviting customers to reveal a surprise, fostering anticipation and excitement. By surprising and delighting customers, businesses can generate positive word-of-mouth, social media buzz, and, ultimately, more reviews.

Butter Them Up for Reviews

Similar to the last pointer, Codie introduces the concept of celebrating customer milestones, whether they are related to time or success metrics. For example, if a customer closes a deal or achieves a specific success, they receive a "Deal Tombstone" as a congratulatory gesture. That could be a physical item or a symbolic representation of their achievement.

Once customers are "buttered up" with positive experiences and acknowledgments, take advantage of their positive feelings. For example, The Wedding Filmer highlights their customer success stories, which is happy wedding stories, in the following way. 

Express appreciation for their incredible loyalty and achievements, and seamlessly transition into asking for reviews. This approach capitalizes on the reciprocity principle, where customers who have been treated exceptionally well are more likely to reciprocate with positive reviews.

Incentivize Reviews Over Money

This is a crucial strategy for new businesses: instead of initially asking for money, ask for reviews. She emphasizes the effectiveness of this approach, drawing on her experience in various businesses. When starting a new business or launching a product, create a test group and encourage them to provide feedback without any payment. This not only helps in refining the product but also sets the stage for gathering valuable testimonials.

Businesses can turn these satisfied individuals into advocates by treating early customers as if they will be the only clients. These initial customers become enthusiastic promoters who spread positive word-of-mouth about the product or service.

If you want to hear it directly from Codie, watch her video on the importance of testimonials here:

Conclusion

It’s very rare that advice coming from YouTube proves to be so helpful. But you can tell that these tips come from rich business experience and expertise. I hope you find these tips helpful.  If you also want to take your testimonials and reviews game up to the next level, we at Testimonial Donut have some exciting services to offer. We have plenty of tools, templates, interfaces, and strategies to make this process butter-smooth. We take all the headaches of collecting testimonials from your customers on your behalf so you can concentrate on your business.