Every landing page guide tells you to add testimonials. Then you sit down to build your page and realize you have none, because you have no customers yet. The temptation is to invent a few glowing quotes with stock-photo faces, or to leave a "Testimonials" heading above an awkward blank space. Both are worse than doing nothing: the first is a lie a careful visitor will smell, and the second signals that nobody has ever bought from you. The good news is that social proof is broader than customer testimonials. At the pre-launch stage you have several honest sources of credibility available — you just have to use the ones you actually have instead of faking the one you don't.
First rule: never fabricate
This is not only an ethics point, though it is that. Fake testimonials are a legal and reputational landmine — the FTC treats invented endorsements as deceptive advertising, and a single unmasked fake poisons trust in everything else on your page. Beyond the risk, fabrication solves the wrong problem. A skeptical visitor is not asking "does anyone say nice things about you"; they are asking "is this real, and will it work for me." A fake quote answers neither. Everything below is a way to answer those two questions truthfully before you have a customer base.
Substitute 1: beta and early-access feedback
If anyone has touched your product — beta testers, pilot users, friends who tried the prototype — you have quotable material. It is not a customer testimonial, so do not dress it up as one. Label it honestly: "From our private beta" or "Early access feedback." Honest framing actually raises credibility, because it explains why the person isn't a named paying logo yet.
Ask beta users the same specific questions you'd ask a customer — what changed, what they'd have done otherwise, a number if they have one — so the feedback is concrete rather than mush. The techniques in the B2B testimonial questions that get specific quotable answers work just as well on beta users. When these people convert to paying customers later, you upgrade the quote to a full testimonial with their permission.
Substitute 2: borrowed credibility from experts and advisors
You may not have customers, but you might have credible people associated with the project: advisors, investors, a technical co-founder with a known background, an industry expert who reviewed your approach. Their names and affiliations transfer trust. "Advised by [name], former head of X at [known company]" does real persuasive work, because a visitor reasons that a credible person wouldn't attach their name to vaporware.
The same goes for press, awards, accelerator badges, or a security certification in progress. Any third party who has vouched for you — even indirectly — is proof you didn't manufacture yourself. Just keep every claim strictly true: "backed by [accelerator]" only if you're actually in it.
Substitute 3: transparent traction numbers
Numbers are proof even without quotes, as long as they're real and you don't dress them up to look bigger than they are. A pre-launch page can honestly show:
- Waitlist size ("2,400 people are waiting for access") — if it's genuinely that many.
- Design partners or pilots signed ("Piloting with 6 teams").
- A meaningful usage stat if you have any early activity.
The rule is proportion: state the number plainly and let the visitor judge it. "Join 2,400 on the waitlist" is credible; "trusted by thousands" when you have 2,400 is the kind of inflation that reads as a lie. If your numbers are still tiny, skip this substitute rather than stretch it.
Substitute 4: founder proof and the problem story
Before anyone else vouches for you, you can. A specific, credible founder story — why you built this, what you saw that others missed, your relevant background — is a form of proof. It answers "why should I trust you specifically" in a way a generic quote never could. Show your face and your name; anonymity at the pre-launch stage reads as something to hide.
Pair the story with a crisp demonstration that the product does what you claim: a short demo video, an interactive sandbox, real screenshots. Showing the thing working is proof that a testimonial only points at. When you have neither customers nor a big waitlist, "here it is, watch it work" carries the page.
Substitute 5: the waitlist as its own proof
A signup counter that ticks up, or a simple "you're #1,847 in line," turns scarcity and momentum into social proof. It signals that other people found this worth waiting for. This works even at modest numbers because the behavior — people opting in — is itself evidence, distinct from anyone's opinion. Just make sure the mechanic is honest: a fake live counter is the same sin as a fake quote.
Plan the swap from day one
Every substitute above is a placeholder for the real thing. Build your page so that when your first genuine testimonials land, they slot in without a redesign — reserve the proof section, keep the layout ready, and have your collection process running from the day the first customer signs. The faster you replace "from our private beta" with a named, verifiable customer quote, the stronger the page gets. If you're already sitting on warm but unspecific early feedback, turning a glowing but vague testimonial into specific proof is the next move once real customers arrive.
The bottom line
An empty testimonial section says "nobody has bought this." A fake one says "we'll lie to you." Neither is necessary. At the pre-launch stage, lead with the honest proof you do have — beta feedback, borrowed credibility, real traction numbers, a founder who shows their face, and a waitlist that's genuinely growing — and treat all of it as scaffolding you'll replace with customer testimonials the moment you earn them. Credibility you can defend beats credibility you invented, every time.