How to get great customer testimonials
Introduction
It's important to understand your customers and what they need, but it's also important to make sure that you're providing them with the best possible experience. One way to prove that you're doing a great job is by having positive customer testimonials. These are often written by customers who've had good experiences with your company or service. They can be used in marketing materials and serve as evidence of how awesome your business is. Here are some tips on how to get these valuable pieces of content:
Identify audience personas
Personas are fictional characters that represent your target audience, and can help you define your product or service, marketing message and more. They're also a great way to get inside the mind of your potential customers.
Identifying personas is one of the most important steps when starting any content marketing campaign. In this post, I'll show you how to create personas based on your existing customers' behavior patterns by using data from email marketing campaigns and surveys.
Define your key skills
When you're defining your key skills, it's important to identify the skills that are relevant to your business and what you want to emphasize. If you're looking for a job in finance, for example, then having a solid understanding of financial reporting is essential—but if all you want is an entry-level position as a receptionist at an accounting firm, then this might not be the best detail to include in your resume or LinkedIn profile.
Also make sure that any skills listed are things that are actually useful in dealing with customers. For example: "Organizational Skills" isn't really something anyone can brag about; it's more like something they would talk about how much they hate doing (like cleaning). On the other hand: "I keep track of all our customer data using Salesforce" is something people might actually want to hear about—because if I'm hiring someone who knows how my CRM works well enough that they can use it without me showing them every step along the way...well...that sounds like someone worth bringing on board!
Reach out to past clients
When you reach out to past clients, be sure to ask them for testimonials. You should also ask that they refer you by name on social media and other places where they have influence.
Provide example testimonials
Providing actual customer testimonials is a great way to show off your work, and it's also a good way to create additional trust with potential customers. The more specific you can be, the better.
For example, if you're selling services like social media management or search engine optimization (SEO), provide examples of how you've helped clients gain more followers on Twitter, more traffic to their website, and improve Google rankings:
"I worked with [Client name] who was struggling with only receiving 5 new leads per month from their website. Within three months of working together we increased their lead volume by 400%."
"We increased [Company name]'s revenue from $10k/mo to $60k/mo in five months by increasing keywords targeted in their PPC ads."
Refine
Now that you've collected a good number of testimonials and are ready to use them in your marketing, it's time to refine them.
Refine your testimonials to make them more consistent: If you have several different types of words used by different customers in their testimonials (e.g., "amazing," "awesome," "incredible"), pick one or two that stand out and use those consistently.
Refine your testimonials to make them more compelling: Use one or two words that describe what makes the customer feel so strongly about your product, service or brand—then use those words whenever possible in future testimonial copy.
Refine your testimonials to make them more relevant: Look at each piece of copy as a whole and ask yourself if this person is from the same industry as you, has similar products/services as yours, etc., so that they can be used as an example for other potential clients who might fit into this same category (or even better yet—a larger demographic).
Refine your testimonials to make them more specific: Pick up on key points made by each individual customer about what impressed her most about working with YOU, then highlight those exact reasons when presenting YOUR company's value proposition in future prospects' eyes!
Collect images and other content
Create a page on your website dedicated to testimonials and include images of your work. You can also ask for permission from clients to include their photos or video testimonials on this page.
Use these tips and you'll get great customer testimonials!
You'll get more client testimonials.
You'll be a better marketer.
You'll be able to attract more clients.
You'll be able to get more clients to refer you to their friends.
Conclusion
Getting customer testimonials is a great way to build trust with your audience. It also helps you stand out from the crowd, because not all businesses have this type of content available on their websites. If you're looking for ways to improve your business and reach new customers, then take a look at these tips!
