If you're in B2B marketing, you already know testimonials are gold—real proof that your product actually solves problems. But chasing down happy customers and getting their words in a usable format? That's less fun. Enter Senja, a tool built for collecting and displaying testimonials. The good news: you can automate a lot of this process. The bad news: most teams overcomplicate it, drown in tech stacks, or never actually publish anything.
This guide is for marketing teams who want to spend less time nagging customers and more time showing off results. I’ll walk you through the nuts and bolts of automating testimonial collection in Senja, with honest advice on what’s worth your time (and what’s not).
Why Automate Testimonial Collection?
Before we get into the how, let’s get real about the why:
- Manual follow-up stinks: Nobody wants to chase people for weeks.
- Consistency matters: Automated workflows keep testimonials coming in, instead of a one-time rush during a launch.
- Saves time: Free up your team for actual marketing, not administrative babysitting.
- Reduces awkwardness: Customers can give feedback on their own time, with less pressure.
Of course, automation won’t magically make customers rave about you. But it will make it easier for your best advocates to share their stories, and for you to actually use them.
Step 1: Set Up Your Senja Workspace
First, get your Senja account up and running. Most of the core features are available on the entry-level plans, so don’t feel pressured to upgrade right away.
Key setup tips:
- Create a dedicated workspace for your brand or product—don’t mix in testimonials for different products or teams.
- Customize your branding so your collection forms look like you, not a random SaaS.
- Set up user roles if you have multiple people collecting or managing testimonials.
Pro tip: Skip the urge to add every team member “just in case.” Only invite people who actually need to edit or review testimonials. Less chaos.
Step 2: Build Your Testimonial Collection Form
Senja’s form builder is straightforward, but a few tweaks go a long way.
What to include:
- Simple, focused questions: Don’t ask for a novel. Stick to 2-3 questions that prompt useful stories. For example:
- What problem did our product solve?
- What changed for you after using it?
- Permission checkbox: Make it clear you’ll use their testimonial in your marketing.
- Optional headshot upload: People are more likely to add a photo if it’s not required.
What to skip:
- Long, mandatory fields: If your form looks like a tax return, you’ll get fewer (or zero) responses.
- Cutesy questions (“Describe us in three emojis!”): Fun for B2C, but most B2B users just want to share their experience and move on.
Form customization tips:
- Keep the form visually clean.
- Pre-fill name/email if you’re sending to known customers.
- Test the form yourself. If it feels tedious, your customers will think so too.
Step 3: Automate Outreach to Request Testimonials
This is where you can save a ton of hassle. The goal: set up a workflow so testimonial requests go out automatically after key moments (like a successful onboarding, renewal, or project completion).
Option A: Use Senja’s Built-In Features
Senja lets you send testimonial requests directly from the platform. You can:
- Bulk upload a customer list and send requests from Senja.
- Schedule requests to go out at specific times.
Works well if: - You have a simple customer list. - You only need basic automation.
Downsides: - Not as powerful as a dedicated email tool. - Harder to personalize at scale.
Option B: Connect With Your CRM or Email Platform
For most B2B teams, real automation happens when you connect Senja to your CRM (like HubSpot, Salesforce) or email platform (like Mailchimp, Customer.io).
How to do it:
- Use Zapier or Make.com: Senja integrates with both. Set up a trigger (like “deal closed” or “project finished” in your CRM) that automatically sends a Senja testimonial request.
- Personalize the email: Use customer names, reference their recent win, and include a direct link to your Senja form.
- Tag responses in your CRM: When a testimonial comes in, push it back to your CRM so you can track who’s submitted.
Works well if: - You already have post-sale or onboarding workflows. - You want to send highly personalized, timely requests.
What to watch out for: - Don’t blast everyone at once. It’s better to automate after a specific event, not just “X days after purchase.” - Keep your Zapier/Make.com usage in check. Too many triggers can get expensive fast.
Step 4: Make It Easy for Customers to Respond
Automation gets people to your form, but you still need them to actually fill it out.
Tips to improve response rates:
- Short, clear subject lines: “Can you share your experience with [Your Brand]?”
- One-click form access: No logins, no friction.
- Set expectations: Tell them it’ll take less than 2 minutes, and mean it.
- Follow up once, not five times: A gentle reminder a week later is fine. Anything more and you’re a pest.
What doesn’t help:
- Bribes and gimmicks: Gift cards or swag sometimes work, but often attract generic or insincere responses.
- Overly formal copy: Keep your ask friendly, not stiff.
Step 5: Approve, Edit, and Publish Testimonials Automatically
Senja lets you review submissions before they go live, but you can speed this up.
Workflow options:
- Manual review: Good for B2B, where you need to check for typos or sensitive info.
- Auto-approval: If you trust your audience and have a tight form, you can publish straight to your site or testimonial wall.
Cleaning up testimonials:
- Edit for clarity, not content: Fix grammar and formatting, but don’t change what people say.
- Ask for a quick tweak: If something’s unclear, it’s fine to follow up once for clarification.
Publishing:
- Embed on your website: Senja gives you widgets and carousels that are easy to drop into most CMSs.
- Share on social: Senja can generate image cards for LinkedIn or Twitter (now X), but only bother if you already get engagement there.
Step 6: Set Up Ongoing Automation and Reporting
It’s tempting to “set it and forget it,” but you’re better off checking in periodically.
What to automate:
- Monthly testimonial requests: For long-term customers or power users.
- Internal alerts: Notify your team when a new testimonial comes in.
- Auto-tagging: Use Senja’s tagging to group testimonials by use case, industry, or persona.
What to ignore:
- Obsessive A/B testing of testimonial forms: You’re not selling a product here. Focus on making it easy, not perfect.
- Complex reporting dashboards: A simple spreadsheet export every month is usually enough.
Honest Takes: What Works, What Doesn’t
Works:
- Triggering requests around real customer milestones, not just time-based drips.
- Making the form as quick and painless as possible.
- Publishing testimonials where real prospects will see them (website, sales decks, case studies).
Doesn’t work:
- Trying to automate everything. Some human review is always needed to make sure testimonials are usable.
- Sending generic requests to your whole customer list.
- Over-designing the process. If it takes you a week to set up, you’re overthinking it.
Keep It Simple, Iterate, and Actually Use Your Testimonials
The best automation setup is the one you actually use. Start with the basics: a solid Senja form, one or two automated triggers, and a simple review process. Don’t wait for “perfect”—publish a few testimonials, see what works, and tweak as you go.
Every testimonial sitting in your inbox is one you’re not using to win new business. So automate the boring parts, keep it human where it counts, and get those customer stories out into the world.