Simply put, testimonials instill confidence in your product or service. Now more than ever, buyers conduct extensive research about a company or product before even considering a purchase. Most of all, they like to see how a product has helped or benefited someone in their shoes.
So what’s the best way to get a testimonial….or two or three? Waiting around for a customer to incidentally send you one certainly won’t speed up the process.
Here’s a list of our favorite, easy tips for collecting authentic customer testimonials so you can get more customers, pronto:
1) Reach out to Your Loyal Customer Base
You’ve heard the adage, “It takes money to make money.” Likewise, it takes testimonials to get testimonials. Consider reaching out to your loyal fanbase or any customers with whom you have a close relationship. A friendly email is a great, non-invasive way to reach out to customers without pestering them.
Many satisfied customers are willing to offer you a testimonial based solely on the fact that they believe in your product. Once you’ve built and shared a base of testimonials, others will be more willing to do so.
2) Offer a Discount
Exchanging discounts for reviews is a win-win. You get a valuable testimonial and the customer gets a token of gratitude that’ll incentivize them to continue doing business with you. If that customer then decides to cash in on his or her discount, you’ll also have a little more money to put in your company’s war chest.
One easy way to go about this is offering a one-time-use coupon code for customers to apply to their next purchase or membership subscription fee.
3) Repurpose Your Comments
Did a customer compliment your quick response time in the comments section of your blog? Did someone leave a killer review on your Facebook page about your restaurant’s signature dish? These are testimonials. Use them!
You might already have a treasure trove of testimonials available on your company’s social media channels. Reach out to the users who have left positive feedback and ask for their permission to publish their comments on your site. If there are grammatical errors, or the comment isn’t quite up to snuff for your homepage, consider kindly asking them to rephrase their comments (or do it yourself). Don’t be too worried about making their testimonials sound professional; authenticity speaks volumes.
4) Harvest Outside Channels
We’ve talked about repurposing comments from your social channels, but what about the things people are saying about your company that are not being posted to your pages? Collecting this information is not only important for gathering sentiment; it can also be a great resource for testimonials.
When it comes to staying on top of the chatter, there are a variety of tools to help keep you more informed than a 00 Agent. Many SMMS (Social Media Management Software) platforms like Sprout Social have built-in tools to capture the things others are saying about your company on their personal social media channels. Tools like Google Alerts or Mention will help you stay apprised of what people are saying on the web in general. Consider using these tools to harvest reviews and testimonials. Then reach out to the customers who speak positively about your product.
About the Author
Austin Miller is the Content Marketing Manager at Bookly where he ideates and produces content for their various social channels and outlets. Bookly is a cloud-based bookkeeping service geared towards helping small businesses thrive in an ever competitive world.
