I tend to be a skeptical consumer. I see so much marketing hype these days that it is becoming increasingly difficult to discern what is real and what makes it, and I have found that to be especially true when it comes to buying products and services online. However, reading the testimonials of other satisfied customers helps me many times in my purchase decision.
As a service business owner, requesting testimonials from satisfied customers is one of the fastest ways you can start building trust with your online visitors. Why? Because not only are you promoting how wonderful you are, other people are claiming how happy they were with your product or service and how its use changed their lives for the better. Testimonials create credibility, credibility, and a sense of security for potential customers when they visit your site, as they then know that others have successfully used your product or service.
As a bonus, requesting testimonials from satisfied customers creates greater loyalty to you from your existing customers. This happens because the act of providing a testimonial also puts their credibility at stake in terms of endorsing a product or service that they are willing to endorse. Furthermore, they feel that they are making a vital contribution to helping their business grow and prosper.
How can you get effective testimonials for your website? Here are 10 strategies for creating testimonials that will make your visitors say, “Wow, I gotta get it!”:
1. Ask when is the right time. When should you request testimonials? It depends on the nature of the work you are providing someone with. If you tend to work with your clients for a longer period of time, ask for the testimonial within the first few weeks or so, or the moment they experience their first “ah-ha” or significant breakthrough or change with you. If you offer a short-term service, please request it when you receive payment. For example, they recently installed gutters around our house. The man who did the work was fast, efficient, thorough, easy to work with, had a great product, and did a wonderful job. If you had asked, I would have provided you with a written testimonial on the spot!
2. Request specific results. Effective testimonials go beyond “Working with you was great!”, Which actually tells the reader very little, to a longer statement with specific information about the specific results the customer received as a result of working with you or using your product. . They could use a “before and after” scenario to paint a more dramatic picture of how effective they found your product or service. However, simply incorporating the five questions (who, what, where, when, and why) that describe their dealings with you is also an incredibly effective way to write a testimonial.
3. Be brief but powerful. No one has time to read a testimonial that lasts forever. Three or four sentences are optimal for an effective testimonial. It should be one that quickly grabs your reader and packs a powerful punch. Your customers will appreciate knowing that you value a short testimonial – it takes them much less time and doesn’t seem like such a major hassle to complete.
4. Request to use your contact information. Make your testimonial provider a “real person” in the eyes of your visitors. When requesting a testimonial, it is most helpful if you ask to use the name, website, and photo of the person providing the testimonial. There is technology where you can ask them for an audio testimonial, or if you are in a conference, you can also create a video testimonial. Testimonials with initials and a city or just a job title don’t seem authentic to me; to me they appear to have been manufactured by the owner of the company.
5. Get multiple testimonials. I get quite skeptical of testimonials from well-known internet marketers, for example, when all I see on their sites are testimonials from other well-known internet marketers. They seem to have established a testimonial club. I am also skeptical if all I see are testimonials from people in the same industry as the person requesting the testimonial. Remember, the whole point of providing testimonials is that your visitor can see a visual representation of someone like him / her who has used your product or service successfully and gotten real results doing so. Make sure the testimonials you use represent a representative sample of your target market.
6. Ask for their permission to use the testimonial in all of your marketing efforts. You can decide to incorporate testimonials in your brochures, direct mail, special reports, print advertisements, etc. Make sure you can use the testimonial in any of your marketing strategies.
7. Write the testimonial for them. This may seem contrary to all the strategies listed above, but reality dictates this step if you have busy clients or clients who just hate writing. In many cases, you may have heard your customer sing your compliments so often that all you need to do is write down what you’ve been hearing and send it to that customer for review and approval. Or, you can request a 10-minute interview with the client and create a testimonial based on the answers given in the interview and send it to your client for approval as well.
8. Use case studies if you are new to the business. If you just opened your business, you probably have few, if any, clients at the moment, which means you have no one to ask for a testimonial from. In that case, I tell my new business owner clients to use testimonials from their past lives as employees, which is an acceptable but not the best strategy, or better yet, to create and use case studies on their site.
Some case studies anonymously document a customer situation and problem and then how the business owner helped the customer solve that problem. However, novice business owners will need to research their potential customers’ problems and then come up with a solution for those problems. Troubleshooting case studies can be used in place of testimonials to help the new business owner build credibility with website visitors.
9. Create a system for requesting testimonials. If you sell information products online, incorporate a testimonial request and testimonial writing guide into your follow-up autoresponder system. If you work with clients on an ongoing basis, incorporate your testimonial request into the sequence of your regular correspondence and follow up with your clients. If you work with short-term clients only, incorporate their request into your billing process and provide an email address or online form to make the process as easy and automated as possible for them.
10. Thank your testimonial provider. Everyone likes to hear a “thank you” when you do a favor for others, so take the time and send a note or postcard in the mail to show your appreciation. Because we are so overwhelmed with emails these days, a handwritten thank you attracts more attention and is more memorable than ever.
Getting testimonials from satisfied customers helps you to be more trustworthy in the eyes of your visitors. By implementing a testimonial request system and incorporating testimonials into your online and offline marketing efforts, you will create the double effect of establishing credibility with new customers and inspiring loyalty in current ones.
Copyright (c) 2006 Donna Gunter
