How to Get (and Leverage) Glowing Testimonials
Word of mouth works! A potential client hears rave reviews about your products and services from someone they trust. The advertising is believable and motivating. And it doesn’t cost you anything – other than consistently delivering a service that keeps your clients happy and coming back for more.
It’s surprisingly effective. One of my freelancing spheres is computer support to small businesses and home users. Over two years ago I reached the limits of my availability, and stopped advertising. Since then I have continued to receive hours of work most weeks purely from word of mouth. Two friends will be chatting over coffee. One will mention computer problems, the other will mention me, and another job is in the bag.
But word-of-mouth advertising reaches a very limited set of people. It only reaches as far as the friends of your clients, and only when there is a knowledge of their need for your services. That’s where testimonials come in. They take word-of-mouth advertising, and make it more accessible.
Why Testimonials Work
There is no doubt that testimonials – when done properly – work:
- JupiterResearch ranks customer reviews as the second most important website feature.
- Andrew Angus recently tested two versions of a web page. One page had a list of testimonials below the video, the other one did not have any testimonials. The testimonials led to a 158% increase in conversion.
- Intelliseek’s “2005 Consumer-Generated Media (CGM) and Engagement Study” survey found that consumers trust other consumers (including those they don’t know personally) 50% more than any other form of advertising media.
- Forrester’s 2008 study reports that over 70% of shoppers actively seek reviews and testimonials when planning a purchase.
Testimonials work because they nurture trust. Potential clients know that you’re only going to say positive things about your products and services. They want to be convinced by hearing from someone who has actually tried them. Potential clients have no reason to trust you. But they do trust their peers. This is “social proof” at work.
They also work because they overcome fear. Your potential clients have had negative experiences in the past and are fearful of getting stung again. Effective testimonials address these fears, and reassure potential clients that you are different.
What Makes a Good Testimonial
A good testimonial is believable.
Word of mouth works because it is coming from a disinterested party. But people hear testimonials directly from you, and then make a snap judgment about whether they are real or fake. A testimonial that sounds fake will erode trust, not build it.
Testimonials should be real. If you can, include the full name, location and a photo of the person giving the testimonial. Include their business or organization if it is relevant. Never make up a testimonial. It is better not to have one at all than to use false testimonials.
A good testimonial is specific.
Word of mouth works because the potential client can keep asking questions until they are satisfied. A good testimonial must contain answers to the questions readers are asking. They must contain specific details.
Testimonials like “I am very satisfied with the service I received,” “I will definitely use them again next time,” and “Great job!” sound reassuring, but offer no value in answering people’s questions. Make sure specific details are included, like “The new website increased sales by 120% in the first month,” “I was treated courteously, and everything was explained to me in advance,” or “I needed the new brochures urgently, and they didn’t let me down.”
Some questions potential clients ask include: “Can you do what I need?” “Are you reliable?” “How are you different to the competition?” Use testimonials that answer these questions. And keep in mind that testimonials with specific details are definitely more credible.
A good testimonial removes obstacles.
A good testimonial should address the doubts, concerns and hesitations that prospective clients may be experiencing. Your current clients may have experienced these same obstacles, but overcame them. Their testimonial can put the concerns of others at rest. Testimonials by clients who may have been skeptical to begin with can be very effective in this regard.
How to Get Testimonials
Catch them as they fly past.
Testimonials come naturally, in compliments, fleeting comments, quick conversations, and thank you letters. Keep your ears and eyes open, and keep careful track of them. Write down the stray comments as soon as possible after hearing them. Snip “quotable quotes” from emails your clients send you, and file them along with the person’s name and date you received it.
Build some containers.
Add a guestbook to your website. Create survey forms or feedback forms, either on your website, or paper versions that you can hand to your clients at the end of a job. Keep the communication lines open on your end, and give people ample opportunity to comment on your products and services.
Ask for them.
If a customer ever tells you how much they value your service or asks what they can do for you, ask them for a testimonial. Many people respond better if you ask for feedback rather than a testimonial. Asking for feedback sounds like you want honest comments rather than sugary praise.
You can also request feedback via email, either on a one-by-one basis, or as bulk mail to all of your clients. Include a specific list of issues for your clients to comment on, including price, turnaround, quality, and overall satisfaction.
Ask open questions.
When a client is giving you feedback and seems to have more to say, draw it out of them by asking open questions. Ask them to expand further on what they have said. Ask them to give an example of what they are talking about. Or ask them to comment on other issues that they did not mention. Leave room for them to tell you ways the process or experience could have been improved. Besides gathering useful testimonials, you are also fostering a better relationship with your client.
Be strategic.
A useful testimonial needs to be believable, specific, and address obstacles. You won’t find testimonials like that by accident. The structure of how and when you ask for testimonials is critical.
In comments on several blog posts about testimonials, Sean D’Souza suggests you start with one specific question: “Was price a big objection when you considered using our service?” He goes on to explain why:
“Now I’ve not just got the client to think about a testimonial, but specifically about price. So the customer may say: ‘No, it wasn’t a big objection.’ Well that sets up the next question. So what was the big objection; what would have caused the hesitation to using our service? Now the customer will tell you what the hesitation was. But if the objection was indeed ‘price’, then the customer would go down the road of price.”
By questioning your client in this way, you start to identify objections potential clients may have, and also gather testimonials of how real clients overcame those obstacles. Aim to find at least one believable, effective testimonial to counter each objection you discover.
Where To Use Testimonials
Everywhere! Rather than using just your own words to describe what you do and why it is important, use your clients’ words as much as possible.
Here are some suggested places to use testimonials:
- on your website
- on your resume
- in your portfolio
- on your quotes, order confirmations and invoices
- in your print ads, sales letters, direct mail
- when you encounter a barrier while talking to a client about a job
- on Twitter – in bite-sized pieces
- on your blog – tell a success story about a client
- in comments to other people’s blogs – briefly and only when relevant
- in Facebook and Myspace.
Don’t clump all of your testimonials together on a single testimonials page. Spread them out. Include brief testimonials for each product or service you describe. Convince potential clients of the value of each service you offer by testimonials of how others have benefited.
Shape your testimonial feedback into brief but powerful statements. Limit their length to one or two brief sentences. But don’t over-edit them – they will sound more credible if left in their original language. Even grammar and language quirks can demonstrate to the reader that they are genuine.
Testimonials are a powerful tool for marketing yourself. How have you used them?
Leave a Comment
Adrian, I’m about to redesign / restructure my website and portfolio these days, so your article came just in time. I have a few good testimonials already, but your article provides a lot of useful info on how to get more.
Thanks!
Thanks for the post, Adrien! I’m great at obtaining testimonials, but not so hot at knowing what to do with them once I have them. I especially like you idea about including one on an invoice or in a success story on your blog. I’m going to go through my testimonials page today (yes, I have them all clumped together in one spot), and see if I can’t make them a little more dynamic. Lots of food for thought here.
Very good point…I don’t use testimonials on my site, but all of my clients come from word-of-mouth, so it stands to reason that I could make use of that happy-customer-karma and get word-of-mouth benefits, even from those who don’t KNOW my clients. Thanks for the idea!
It’s interesting – I guess I never thought to pick up on comments in my blogs or emails. The testimonials I use are just from the feedback form I have on my site that I ask my clients to fill out. I’ll have to keep my eyes open for other compliments! Great tips – thanks for sharing!
Testimonials are definitely important part of getting more clients. It is hard to believe most testimonials though. It is better to get about eight sentences from someone because it is more believable than just one sentence.
We use testimonials a fair bit in marketing our clients and we’ve been fortunate enough to have access to people who are absolutely glowing and can’t say enough good things about our clients – they’re eager to give a testimonial and really have a strong desire to help our clients.
However, in a lot of media we use there just isn’t room for a long, rambling, unfocused testimonial, regardless of how positive they may be, and it can be a real challenge to get happy customers to state their praise succinctly.
In cases like these, where people really want to contribute a testimonial and help our client, we’ve often talked to them to get a understanding of what they would like to say. Then we’ll write a brief, targeted testimonial in their voice, send it back to them to make any changes, to make sure it sounds authentically them. We don’t tell them *what* to say, we just help them with how to say it with the most clarity and impact. (It also makes it easier on the person giving the testimonial – they already know what their message is and they don’t have to spend a lot of time getting the wording just right.)
It’s definitely important to keep the authenticity and make sure their voice and style comes through, because you’re absolutely right – fake sounding testimonials will do more damage than not having any testimonials at all.
And of course, this only works for people who are really enthusiastic about giving a testimonial – it would be presumptuous to try this with someone who wasn’t quite eager to participate, and would probably come across feeling like you were trying to put words into their mouth, which is absolutely not the intention, nor should it be.
I fully agree. We use a rotating slideshow of testimonials (along with photos of the clients and work we’ve done for them) on our website. It seems to help give a friendly, personal touch to the very impersonal medium of the web. Clients tell us they really like them.
This is an excellent article. The point about “catch them as they fly past” is so true. It’s very easy to amass a bunch of favorable comments from clients and colleagues in a variety of contexts, and to not collect and organize them in some coherent way.
I’d add one more “container” for testimonials: LinkedIn recommendations from colleagues.
I know a guy who has collected testimonials for the past twenty years and showed me a 200-page Word document he keeps full of them (this was a few years ago, who knows how many pages he has now!). He keeps contact details alongside them and notes whether or not he’s asked for permission to publish the testimonial so he can make sure that legal base is covered before doing so.
I hadn’t realized the power of a client opinion in that way, so I wasn’t using it at all, but from now i’ll do it.
Thanks for this great post.
Testimonials are very important. This is a great informative article. When we put out proposals – be in the company asks for them or not, we place case studies and then a testimonial from the client. It really helps build credibility.
I’ve got a client who recently switched from using static testimonials to using video testimonials. His conversion rate has gone up significantly. I guess there is something about seeing someone give an unrehearsed testimonial on video. It is harder to get people to sit for them, but they come off as being more authentic than the written word.
Thanks for the article, which I found on twitter.
I have always loved receiving and sharing my testimonials, that I’ve gotten unsolicited and are simply emails received from customers once product is delivered. I have them on my site, sorted by year, since our first online sale in 2000.
I have also placed them in a section I call my Home Gallery where customers have sent us photos of our pieces in their homes. Have kept this all annonymous (although I know from whence they came) but have noted date of letter and location of sale and items purchased.
Am in process of creating a 3rd location for testimonials on my site in an extended version of my Home Gallery, called my Galleria. Am hoping for testimonials here that customers are willing to provide full name. Although I know I have people willing to do this, time seems to be an issue for them to sit down and scribe a note for me.
Also, am just on cusp of incorporarting my testimonials and gallery photos into my blog, so thanks for the further suggestion.
Many prospective customers tell me that they visited my testimonials and that they were indeed instrumental in decision to go forward and shop with me, so yes, great power there and proud that I have so much behind me to help move me forward.
Ruth
Testimonials are worthless. Why? just because said product or service worked for X (who I probably don’t know or never heard of) doesn’t mean it will work for me and certainly doesn’t make the product “real”. Testimonials play into the heard mentality and our fears…ever heard of Bernie Madoff?! well he solely relied on “private testimonials” to steal BILLIONS!…Btw, Fake book reviews i.e. testimonials are rife on the internet. In fact, It turns out all those fake-sounding reviews on Amazon.com are exactly just that: FAKE according to Bing-Liu an expert (yeah like who is he but he’s quoted as an expert so guess we must believe that!) some says that 1 in 3 online reviews are fake. The reason: there’s a lot of money in fake reviews, according to an excellent exposé by the New York Times’s David Streitfield.
One crafty gent was making $28,000/month writing fake book reviews online! Buying is an emotion. So what you’re really saying is that a consumer needs some “independent illusionary verification” to help us “feel” that what we are buying is what we think we are buying and it will perform like whomever said ot should!! The ONLY way to get a REAL sense of what YOUR experience will be like with ANY product or service is to BUY it and see! if it doesn’t work out then you’ve learned and you move on! A testimonial, Angies List or any other service is an illusion of security by the purchaser in their decision to buy! Human beings because they have been conditioned to NOT trust themselves resort to even riskier behavior by trusting strangers (testimonials) or worse even unqualified experts!
How do I know this? I’ve been in the business of evaluating experts for years and the number of experts that didn’t know what they where talking about but convinced someone else they did by conviction via tonality is embarrassing! So lets cut to the chase! do you know how to get business?! sit down and show the person you can do what you say you can do and if you don’t give them their money back! plain simple! stop asking your clients to do YOUR business development!
Now referrals that another issue! if a client recommends you then great they had a good experience and call them and say thank you for the referral! or better yet have a client/supplier appreciation get-togther monthly or periodically ask each client/supplier to bring someone! and invite prospects in your sales pipeline (oh you don’t have a pipeline report? are you in business!) even if its online! Now we have something tangible not “worthless” flat words on a page designed to make you “feel” secure!