Between figuring out how to enhance your brand image and keep all your oranges in the air, it can be easy to forget to enlist the help of your most ardent fans. Customer testimonials help new people see what your current customers think of you and if you’re following through on your promises.
According to Trustpilot, 89% of consumers read reviews before they buy a product. Although reviews are slightly different from testimonials, the stats show most people want feedback from their peers before they purchase.
You spend a lot of time, effort and possibly money to drive traffic to your page. You want to ensure once people land there, they never consider a competitor. One way to win them over is through your testimonials. Here are some ways you can use testimonials to win over new clients and convince them to become raving fans.
1. Enlist Celebrities
Although not all celebrities have the same pull as others, if you find one your customers relate to, you might be able to enlist their help with a testimonial. Even if you offer your product or service to them for free, you will still come out ahead with the recommendation from a name people recognize.
Marucci Sports enlists the help of baseball shortstop Franisco Lindor to help push their bats. He shares a short quote and they use his picture holding one of their bats. The idea is if the shop helps a top-level player figure out what he needs, they can help anyone.
2. Gain Trust
When people land on your page, they may have never heard of you before. They don’t know if you truly stand behind your products. In fact, they may have been burned multiple times by various companies over the years and are very reluctant to believe anything you say.
Adding testimonials and reviews proves you can be trusted. You aren’t the only one saying you are great. Suddenly, others think so, too. Adding testimonials ramps up the trust indicators on your page.
3. Highlight Benefits
Another way you can use testimonials is to pick and choose to highlight the benefits you most want your users to know about. For example, if you offer a special feature none of your competitors offer, use a testimonial to point it out to your potential customers.
ParetoHealth uses testimonials from a variety of clients to show why you want to choose them over other options. One testimonial reads “The big benefit of partnering with ParetoHealth? I know exactly where every healthcare penny is going.” There is no question about what the benefits are.
The other testimonials also focus on cost and keeping budgets under control. It’s clear what the biggest benefit is of using the service.
4. Check Facebook Reviews
Those who love social media are more likely to comment on it. These reviews can become a rich source of client testimonials for your website or to share in posts. Look for reviews that say what you want to say to the customer but via someone else’s words.
You have two options. One, you can directly contact the reviewer and ask if they’d share a quote you can use in promotions. Perhaps you could even give them a credit or discount for doing so. Two, you could simply use a sentence or two from the review and credit it to them, adding something along the lines of, “Via Facebook Reviews.”
5. Find Power in Numbers
Consumers are often very leery of new brands. You can blame click-bait advertising and outright promotional lies for their distrust. Whatever the reason, your job is to gain their trust and show you are believable.
One or two testimonials might be from your close circle of friends. However, there is power in numbers. If you have dozens of testimonials from real people, your potential clients will start to believe you are everything you say you are.
They may even contact some of those people, and that’s a good thing if you’re proving the best CX possible. You’ll get glowing reviews from anyone they reach out to and ask.
ConvertKit states they have more than 428,152 creators on their platform. They then list some of the better known ones, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Clear, Leon Bridges and Maggie Rogers.
The line scrolls, showing new people constantly> you’ll also see names such as Tim McGraw, Shannon Wild, Fantasia, Gillian Perkins. What the person does for a living is listed, so you might see roles such as wildlife photographer, YouTuber or Author.
6. Look for Tangible Impact
Do you have a client who used your service and saw major improvements? Approach them and ask if they’ll share what your service did for them. Anytime you can demonstrate a before and after scenario of how you helped a client, you snag the interest of potential leads.
Put yourself in the shoes of the client trying to decide between you and one of your competitors. They want to know how you’ll solve their pain point. What will you do for them to improve their business or life?
Start With One and Add
If you don’t yet have any client testimonials, ask your first customers to share one with you. Add one at a time and focus on quality while the quantity grows. Seek them out on a regular basis. Before you know it you’ll have as many testimonials as you can handle and your potential clients will see how skilled you are at what you do.
Eleanor Hecks is editor-in-chief at Designerly Magazine. She was the creative director at a digital marketing agency before becoming a full-time freelance designer. Eleanor lives in Philly with her husband and pup, Bear.
