The Power of Testimonials.

Whenever I talk with someone about their organization’s marketing program, the topic of testimonials invariably comes up.

A testimonial from a genuine customer is the most credible form of marketing there is.

Because the message is directly from a customer to other customers. No filter. Nobody in the middle. Just true peer-to-peer communication.

Testimonials give prospects the opportunity to hear directly from people who are just like them.

Example: You could spend oodles of money to advertise how great your brand of diapers is, but a recommendation from one parent to another about your brand being more comfortable and leak-proof will be more convincing every single time, hands down.

If you aren’t already using customer testimonials in your marketing, here’s how to get started.

Getting started with customer testimonials.

Definitions.

• Your customer is any type of stakeholder you serve. A testimonial is from one member of a stakeholder type to another member of that same type — peer-to-peer.
• If you are a for-profit offering a product or service, your customer fits the classical definition — people or organizations willing to pay you for that product or service.
• If you are a nonprofit, your customers include the beneficiaries of your offering, your donors, grant-making entities, and volunteers.
• Other types of stakeholders include board members, investors, and partners.

Survey your customers.

• Find out how they are using your offering and their satisfaction with it.
• Gauge their net promoter score (NPS) — how likely they are to recommend your offering to someone else.
• Some of the ways you can collect this information: a formal survey instrument, focus groups, or just talk to your customers in real time to get their feedback.
• You can also reach out to those who leave positive reviews on popular review sites and social media to thank them and ask if they’d like to offer a formal testimonial.

Ask, collect, package, and publish.

• Sort your survey results by customer satisfaction level and NPS. Reach out to those who score high on those measures and ask if they’d be willing to provide a testimonial.
• Collect their testimonials in writing and/or on video.
• Package and publish their testimonials:
  • Blurbs (which link to longer-form content):
    • On various pages of your website
    • On social media
    • As part of email newsletters and promotional emails
    • As their own emails
  • Written case studies as blog posts and PDFs
  • Videos on your home page, YouTube, and social media
• Don’t embellish. Do as much of the storytelling in your customers’ own words as possible.

Before we go, a word about video.

Too often, I see testimonial videos that are simply talking head videos with little to no editing. The camera just starts rolling, and the customer talks for several minutes while soft, generic, “corporate-video-style” instrumental music plays in the background. This style of video is uninspiring and boring. 

With just a little additional effort, this raw video footage can be turned into a compelling package that tells an inspiring story.

How to accomplish that deserves its own blog post, so stay tuned.

The Takeaway:

Testimonials are a gold mine waiting to be tapped, more credible than pretty much any other form of marketing you can do. Today is a great day to start finding out who your satisfied customers are and publishing their stories of benefiting from your offering.

To your marketing success,

Note: No part of this blog post, or any post on this site, was written by A.I. You’re getting pure human writing based on years of professional experience.