Customer testimonials can be a game-changer for small business! They provide social proof, showing potential customers that others have had a positive experience with your product or services.
It builds trust and credibility, which is so important, especially when you are trying to establish yourself.
The truth is that the words of a happy customer can be far mor convincing than any marketing pitch you could come up with!
What makes a good testimonial?
A good testimonial is like a well-crafted story.
Here are some things to consider:
- It should be specific. Include details about the problem they were facing, and how your business solved it. Include the positive outcomes.
- It should be authentic. Encourage your customer to be genuine.
- Include their name, photo and any relevant detail to add credibility.
- Don’t forget to ask for permission before featuring their testimonial.
How to get powerful customer testimonials
Making it easy for your customers to provide a testimonial is key. You might start by asking specific questions about their experience. This could guide them in sharing more details and helpful insights.
Some businesses have offered a template or questionnaire to streamline the process. This makes it convenient for them, but you want to make sure it allows them to be genuine in their comments.
You want to make sure they know you value honesty and authenticity. If they share both positive and constructive feedback this will help others see that your testimonials are genuine.
Where to feature your testimonials
Once you have them, you want to put them to use to help you grow your business.
Different platforms cater to different demographics so you want to choose based on your business type, target audience and industry.
If you are running a small business you might not have lots of time to place them on dozens of sites, so it is important to choose the ones that are the most effective for you.
Here are some that tend to provide the best return:
- Your website. This is often the first place someone goes to check out your business. The beauty of having an active website is that this is your real estate! You have control over the content you provide, who sees that content and when they see it. You can have a testimonial page where you continually add fresh testimonials to. You can also sprinkle testimonials out throughout your website. This is especially beneficial if the testimonial speaks to a specific service you provided or a product they purchased from you.
- Your social media. Social media platforms generally have a huge user base and many use it for recommendations and reviews. Your business page will generally have a place for your customers to add their review of your business. You can also include testimonials as post content in our regular news feed. There are tons of social media platforms out there so the important thing is to utilize the ones where your customers, or potential customers, hang out.
- Google My Business. This can be a powerful magnet for your business if you leverage it right. It is a dominant search engine, and reviews here often appear prominently in local search results. You want to monitor it regularly to make sure the information is correct and that you respond to any reviews or comments. The same can be said of similar platforms like Bing Business Profile, Yelp and other customer review sites.
- Industry-Specific Platforms and Directories. Depending on your industry, you might find these platforms and directories to be very helpful. Yelp is significant for restaurants and local services and TripAdvisor is critical for the travel and hospitality industry. If you are in the healthcare industry, reviews on health-related directories could be very helpful.
Each site might have slightly different formatting or content guidelines so get familiar with what those are. Most have character limits and most of them look for concise reviews.
A few final tips:
- If possible, encourage customers not to copy and paste their testimonial on several platforms. If they are kind enough to provide the testimonial on different platforms, encourage them to tailor to each platform’s requirements. Sometimes search engines will penalize or filter out duplicate content, so adding some variation can be beneficial.
- It is perfectly fine to ask returning clients to post new reviews. When doing so:
- Encourage them to talk about how your business consistently meets their needs over time.
- If you have introduced new features, services, or products since their last review they can speak to that.
I hope this article has shed some light on the power of customer testimonials and helped you see that you can boost trust, credibility, and sales when you do. All you have to do usually is just ask for them!
If you are ready to turn satisfied customers into powerful advocates but want to know where to start, download our “Testimonial Toolkit” for actionable tips and templates to help you get started.
Testimonials are just one tool in your marketing toolbox. Check out this article on other ways to market your business that cost you nothing!
10 Smart Online Marketing Strategies That Cost Zero Dollars | Connecting Local Business
If you’re ready to turn satisfied customers into powerful advocates and would like some help, we are here! Download our Testimonial Toolkit to help you and help your customers create great testimonials.
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