Building trust and reputation with your audience can take a long time. It’s hard earned and easily lost.
No matter how good a product or service you offer, or how much you stand out from your competitors, if people aren’t confident in your brand or its reputation, your business will be limited in its growth.
Receiving and publishing testimonials from your clients is an easy and authentic way to build trust in your ability and reputation. But how do you go about getting and using testimonials, and what impact can they have on your business?
Getting the perfect testimonial...
Testimonials are an endorsement of your business and brand in the words of your client.
Perhaps it’s a repeat client who you’ve provided countless examples of great service to, or a customer that your business went above and beyond to help.
On the back of a good client relationship, it can be tricky to know exactly how to ask for a testimonial. But it’s important to be brave – the potential rewards are great.
You can either ask your client for their thoughts and draft a testimonial for their approval, or you can ask the client to prepare something themselves. The former yields more results, but the latter can give more authentic feedback.
Here are some questions you could ask to get the perfect testimonial:
- What problem were you looking to solve?
- How did we help you to achieve your goals?
- What results have you seen since working with us?
- What has made our service stand out from others you’ve worked with before?
In our ever-expanding digital world, there are so many different platforms or places you can ask you customers to leave a testimonial or review, including:
- Google review – these have to be posted by your clients and will sit on your Google My Business account whenever anyone searches for your brand in Google. You can then share these through your website or social media to expand their reach.
- Social media review – if your customers are particularly concentrated on a particular social media platform, such as Facebook for consumer brands, you could ask your client to post a review testimonial there, where it will be most visible to prospects.
Why are testimonials valuable?
- Reputation and credibility:
Testimonials act as a ‘stamp of approval’ – demonstrating the quality of your business’ products or services. In saturated markets, testimonials can differentiate your brand from your competitors. Additionally, with Nielsen finding that 70% of consumers trust and take action after reading recommendations from strangers, testimonials can increase your chance of conversion online.
- Proof and visibility:
Much like influencers market products to spread awareness of a brand, testimonials can act in the same way. They provide third-party evidence that your business is active and thriving.
3. Personable and human:
Testimonials follow the story of how you helped a client, narrated by the client themselves.
Rather than an anonymous five-star rating, or a simple list of who you have helped, a testimonial promotes the human side of your services. It demonstrates how you have considered and overcome the personal and unique challenges or goals of a client.
How can you use testimonials?
Once you have received a testimonial, working out what to do with it is the next step. You want to get it ‘far and wide’ to maximise its potential using:
- Your website: your website is the central ‘hub’ for your business. You can set up a specific tab or landing page to make your testimonials as prominent and easy to find as possible.
- External business feedback websites: you can also ask for clients to leave a testimonial on an external feedback and review website, such as Feefo or Trust Pilot. These sites act as a third-party verification of your business.
- Sharing on social media: sharing your testimonials on social media can be a great way to expand their reach. It also offers the opportunity for your followers and other companies to engage with the testimonial, which can add further credibility to your brand.
- In a case study: a case study is a more detailed endorsement of your work with a particular client. These can follow a narrative format, an interview or a blog style piece, and they often share more details and stories as to how you helped a client. When combined with a testimonial, case studies can become much more credible, as you have the perfect mix of facts, content and statistics, alongside a personal recommendation from your client.
What else should i consider when designing and sharing testimonials?
- Visuals and graphics: consider designing a background template on a software like Photoshop or Canva to break the text up and make the post more eye-catching. This template could also include images, the client logo and picture of your client, or the brand’s colour scheme.
- Video and audio: if your client is happy to do so, an audio or video testimonial can be incredibly engaging and highly authentic. They can increase the emotional impact of your testimonial by putting a voice or face to the name of a client. With video and audio testimonials, you also have more creative freedom to interview your client for a more dynamic and informative testimonial.
While testimonials may seem simple, they add a lot of value to your business. Even just starting with one or two can improve the visibility, credibility and approachability of your brand.
Do you need help building reputation and trust in your business with PR and communications?
Get in touch to see how Kinetic can help you, call 0121 212 6250.
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