9 Ways To Get and Use Testimonials

As a small business, you know how important testimonials are to your business. As a matter of fact, a 2018 study found that 54% of social media users read reviews on their preferred platform when researching new products or services. Social proof is important.  So what’s your marketing strategy for getting testimonials and how are you using them on social media? In this post we’re sharing some great tips on how to do both!

Ways To Get & Share Testimonials

1) Social sites

Facebook has its own review system built right into the platform itself. If you have a Facebook Business page, then you’ve probably already started collecting reviews organically from people who are visiting your Facebook page and have worked with you previously. But why leave it to chance?  

Be proactive and ask people you have done business with to leave you a Facebook review.  Make it easy for them and send them the link so they just need to click a message to get to the right spot to leave their review.

2) Google My Business

When customers search for a business in Google, a listing is displayed alongside the search results. If you haven’t set up your Google My Business profile yet, you won’t regret it. Once you’ve got it set up, ask your past customers to provide you a review. Anyone can write a Google My Business review and it doesn’t require the person to have an existing account like Facebook or Yelp.

3) Yelp

Yelp is a review site where customers rate businesses on a 5-star scale. Customers can create a free profile to rate businesses. Yelp gets millions of users searching for legitimate reviews each month. In the third quarter of 2018, it had a monthly average of 34 million unique visitors via the Yelp app and 75 million unique visitors via mobile web. People are definitely searching for businesses and reviews on Yelp.

4) LinkedIn Recommendations

Your LinkedIn profile recommendations can be a huge selling point for those who might be looking to use your services. Again reach out and ask your connections. LinkedIn makes it super easy.  Just  go to “Ask to be recommended”—click that and follow the prompts. Be courteous and professional, make it super easy for them to say yes, and pay it forward.

5) Ask Your List

Send an email out to your client base and ask them for their help by replying with a testimonial. Again, make it easy for them. People generally want to help others, and you may be surprised at the response you get! If you know you provide a top notch level of service, you’ve got nothing to lose.

6) Don’t forget your website

Optimize your website, blog posts and emails to provide quick and easy avenues through which to write reviews by setting up website badges to quickly and easily direct visitors to your pages to read and leave reviews.

3 Ways to Use Testimonials

1) Facebook Ad Remarketing

If you are using Facebook ads to target your audience, using video testimonials as part of your remarketing funnel is an awesome way to garner impressions and engagement from new people exposed to your brand.

2) Share them in Stories

Why not share the great news with your followers and highlight customer reviews by creating stories on Instagram and Facebook? Include testimonials you have captured and post a review or testimonial story once a week or twice a month.

3) Thank your reviewer

Create a post that highlights a testimonial for your social media pages.  You can use a snippet of the review in an image and the text of your post is where you’ll comment and thank the person (and tag them if you can!) for their beautiful words.

Timing is Important

When asking for testimonials, leverage moments of customer happiness. If you’ve just made a major breakthrough for a client, or if you’ve received praise or positive feedback from them, you’ve just come up to a point of customer happiness. At these moments, they may not only be more inclined to give you a review as a way of providing reciprocity for good work, but they are also more likely to give you a good review.

Want to build upon your momentum? The best way is to thank customers for taking the time to share their feedback. This will encourage them to get involved when you ask. A simple ‘thank you’ demonstrates that you read and appreciate all the feedback you receive.

If you don’t think testimonials or peer reviews are important…

The data speaks for itself. In 2019, 97% of people read reviews for local businesses and 93% said they influence their buying decisions. Not only that, 68% of consumers said they would be happy to leave a review if asked. 

If you are not incorporating customer reviews and testimonials into your marketing strategy, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to attract new customers and build authority for your brand.

If you want us to manage a Facebook remarketing campaign that incorporates your testimonials, go ahead schedule a time for a no obligation chat below.