I have a confession to make. This is going to be one of those blog posts where I dispense brilliant advice that I haven’t taken myself.
Getting testimonials from happy clients is absolutely essential if you want to grow your business. Yet I don’t have any on my website or anywhere on social media. Why? Well, read on and you’ll discover where my strategy failed.
Why do I need testimonials?
We all know how important marketing is. If you don’t do it, your customers won’t find you. OK, networking will help, but it’ll only take you so far. People like to look at your website and check you out on social media to see what you’re about.
That’s where testimonials come in. People can read my blog to see if they like my writing style or whether my values resonate with theirs. But it doesn’t tell you anything about the experience of working with me.
I can tell you that I pride myself on delivering on time. I can tell you that I like to get to know a business so I deliver copy that fits their brand or personality. But do you trust me? Let’s face it, you’re much more likely to believe someone who’s worked with me before and got good results.
How to get testimonials
There are various ways you can get testimonials. If you have a Facebook page you can ask people to leave you reviews. If they’ve given you a good review or left a nice comment without you asking there’s nothing to stop you quoting it somewhere else. Equally, if someone emails you to say thank you, ask them if you can use it somewhere else. Emails are a bit different to social media posts as the person writing it might not expect it to be made public. I don’t have many of these which is why I haven’t put them on my website. I just thought they’d look a bit lonely on their own.
Of course you could just ask. When you’ve completed a piece of work or if you have an ongoing relationship with someone, ask them for a testimonial. The trouble with this, and the reason I don’t have many, is that people forget. They say they will and then have hundreds of more urgent things to do.
Don’t be afraid to chase
I’m really bad at this. I’ll ask someone for a testimonial and then I don’t remind them. I’m not suggesting you badger people, that’s just rude. No-one is going to write anything nice about you after you’ve bombarded them with emails asking why they haven’t told everyone how fabulous you are.
Sometimes it’s quicker to ring. You could send a message asking if they’ve got five minutes free and just call for a quote over the phone. Testimonials don’t have to be pages long. A few sentences or even a one liner is all you need.
So, go on. Start collecting and leave me a comment to let me know how you get on. I might even start following my own advice…
