Almost every discussion of testimonials treats them as a marketing asset — something on the landing page, the pricing table, the sales deck. But once a user signs up, the same persuasion problem doesn't disappear; it moves. A new user staring at an empty dashboard is asking a version of the same question a prospect asked: is this actually going to work for me? The empty state and the first-run experience are where that doubt is strongest and where a well-placed testimonial can do work no marketing page can, because now the reader has already committed and is deciding whether to keep going.
Why the empty state is high-intent, not just blank
An empty state feels like a design problem — "there's nothing here yet, fill the space." That framing undersells it. A user seeing a blank screen for the first time is at a specific, fragile moment: they've paid the cost of signing up but haven't yet gotten any value back. This is where activation is won or lost, and it's precisely when a little evidence that other people got to the payoff matters most.
That makes the empty state fundamentally different from a landing-page testimonial. On the landing page, social proof answers should I try this? In the empty state, it answers should I keep going — is the effort in front of me worth it? Those are different questions, and the testimonials that answer them are different too.
Choose effort-justifying testimonials, not decision-justifying ones
The single most common mistake is dropping a landing-page quote into an empty state. A generic "Best tool we've ever used!" is fine for convincing a stranger to sign up, but it's useless to someone who already signed up and now has to do work. What that person needs is proof that the specific effort ahead of them pays off.
The strongest empty-state testimonials do one of three things:
- Name the payoff on the other side of the setup. "Took me twenty minutes to import everything, and I've saved that back every single week since." This directly addresses the effort/reward math the user is doing right now.
- Come from someone recognizably like the user. A quote from the same role or company size makes the payoff feel reachable, not aspirational. Curating to the segment matters more here than almost anywhere else.
- Reduce a specific fear about starting. "I was worried I'd have to move all my data manually — the import just did it." If you know the objection that stalls first-run users, a testimonial that dissolves it is worth more than any feature copy.
Place it beside the action, not floating in the void
An empty state usually has a primary call to action — Create your first project, Connect your data, Invite your team. The testimonial belongs immediately next to that action, framed as encouragement to take it, not as decoration elsewhere on the screen. This is the in-app version of the placement principle that governs where testimonials go on a pricing page: the quote should sit at the exact point of hesitation, answering the doubt a user feels the instant before they click.
A pattern that works well:
- A clear, single primary action.
- One short testimonial — one or two sentences, never a paragraph — positioned right beside or beneath it.
- Attribution with a role and, if you can, a recognizable company. The name is what makes it proof rather than copy.
Resist the urge to stack three quotes here. An empty state is already a low-attention moment; a wall of testimonials competes with the very action you want the user to take. The discipline is the same as on a landing page — more testimonials is not more persuasive past a small number — and it's even stricter inside the product, where the goal is a single next step.
Keep it short and human, or it reads as an ad
There is a real risk here: a testimonial inside your product can feel like you've stuffed a marketing banner into the workspace someone is trying to use. The way to avoid that is length and tone. One sentence in a plain, conversational voice reads as reassurance; three polished marketing sentences read as an ad you can't close. Trim hard. If a quote needs its full length to land, the empty state is the wrong surface for it — put it on the marketing site and use a tighter fragment here.
Video is usually the wrong call in an empty state for the same reason: it's a heavier ask than the moment supports, and it competes with the action. Save richer formats for surfaces where the user has already stopped to evaluate, the way video testimonials earn their weight when someone has committed the attention.
Rotate by segment and by empty state
Not every empty state is the same, and not every user is the same. The "no projects yet" screen and the "no team members yet" screen face different doubts — the first is about whether the core value is real, the second is about whether it's safe to bring colleagues in. Where you can, map a different testimonial to each empty state so the proof answers that screen's specific fear. And if you know the user's segment at signup, prefer a testimonial from someone in it; a matched voice makes the payoff feel achievable in a way a marquee logo from a different industry never will.
What to avoid
- Recycling a generic landing-page quote. Decision-justifying proof doesn't answer the effort-justifying question a signed-up user is asking.
- Overloading the screen. One quote beside the action beats three quotes floating around it, especially in-product.
- Marketing tone. Long, polished quotes inside the app read as ads. Short and human reads as reassurance.
- Static across all empty states. Different blank screens face different doubts; a single quote everywhere answers none of them precisely.
The one-line version
Treat the empty state as a high-intent activation moment, not a blank to fill. Pick short, effort-justifying testimonials from users like the reader, place one right beside the primary action, keep the tone human enough that it doesn't read as an ad, and vary the quote by which doubt that specific screen creates.