Getting Started with Customer Testimonials: A Beginner's Guide

Today, investing in any product takes more than just learning about the product.

Your prospects want a complete picture of what it means to get involved with your company. They want to know things like what do you value as a business? What is your buying process like? What does your customer service, support, and success experience look like? 

Even though they can get all these answers from your sales reps, they want to get authentic answers from people who have used your product before. No wonder this research by Demand Gen Report reveals that 97% of B2B buyers cite user-generated content as more credible than other types of content when making purchase decisions.

Micheal Buzinski from Buzzworthy Integrated Marketing said this during an episode of the Actionable Marketing Podcast, 

“What strangers have to say about you and your company has more weight than what your mom says about you and your company.

Two-thirds of all people will look for reviews, which are your main part of reputation management before making a decision to do business with a new company. It usually takes anywhere between two and seven reviews before they make up their mind.”

His statements prove that peer insights are more valuable than anything your sales reps would tell your prospects. 

And customer testimonials are one of the peer insights you can use to make your prospects perceive you as the right company to work with. Using customer testimonials in your content provides social proof that your product works, increases conversion rates, and gets prospects to talk about your brand in dark social channels with their peers.

In this post, you’re going to learn:

- How to get quality customer testimonials, and

- How to use them in different types of content to get qualified leads.

How to get customer testimonials for your product

Getting testimonials is hard. If it were easy, then testimonials would no longer be valuable to prospects when they are making purchase decisions.

Here are the ways to collect testimonials that you can use to acquire and retain customers:

#1 Ask for testimonials 

Even though some customers can love your product so much that they decide to give a testimonial without you asking, most of your happy customers will never do that, no matter how impressed they are with your product. So, you have to ask these customers to give a testimonial without sounding pushy. 

Some of the best ways to request customer testimonials include:

Email outreach

Email outreach is one of the fastest and most effective ways to get testimonials from your customers. Identify customers who have actively used your product in the last month and ask them to share their experience with your product in a survey you send through email. 

Ask on social media

Instead of waiting for people to say something about your business on social media, ask them! Create a post on social media asking for testimonials. 

Include a screenshot of a testimonial someone has already left about your product when creating that social media post. When users see that your other customers are giving testimonials, they will be more likely to share their opinions. The screenshot also shows them what a good customer testimonial looks like if they weren’t sure what to write.  

Text message 

While your customers receive dozens or even hundreds of emails per day, you may get their attention by requesting a testimonial through SMS. Since most customers nowadays use smartphones, include a link that directly sends them to the testimonial landing page. 

#2 Search on social media

One of the ways to get customer testimonials is to find and use what other people are already saying about you. Social media is where people vent about things happening in their lives. So, if your product is making a positive impact in their lives, it’s only natural that they will praise it and talk about your company with their online friends. 

Search your blog or business name on social platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram to find what people are talking about you on social media. Type your blog or business name on the search bar of those platforms to see what your customers are saying about you. You may be surprised to learn the beautiful things said about your brand. 

#3 Create product profiles on various review sites

If you sell a B2B product, your prospects’ top review sites when making purchase decisions include Trustradius, Capterra, G2 and other review sites listed here.  

Product profiles are the pages on review websites where prospects and users learn more about your product, read and leave reviews. When you fill out your product profiles on review sites, your existing customers may leave a review of your product there. 

You can use information from these reviews to write quality testimonials and put them on your website to acquire new users. You may also reach out to people who left reviews to interview them and create case studies or identify ways to improve your product experience. 

#4 Run an NPS Survey and use the data

NPS survey stands for Net Promoter Score, a metric used to measure customer loyalty to a company. It measures customers’ perception of your product by asking this simple question: 

How likely is it that you will recommend (product X) to a friend or colleague?

Respondents give a rating between 0 (not likely at all) and 10 (extremely likely). And depending on their response, they will fall within three categories: 

Promoters - These people respond with a score of 9 or 10. They are likely to recommend your product to their friends. 

Passives - These people respond with a score of 7 or 8. They are satisfied with your product but are not yet happy enough to recommend it to their friends.  

Detractors respond with a score of 0 to 6. They are unhappy customers who are unlikely to buy from you again. They may even discourage other people from buying your product. 

The Net Promoter Score is the difference between promoters and detractors. 

Running an NPS survey is one of the best ways to get quality customer testimonials. Identify promoters and ask them to fill out a customer testimonial survey. Promoters are customers who say they are likely to recommend your product to their friends. So, they are likely to give a testimonial when asked. 

Here are the steps to use the NPS survey to get customer testimonials: 

- Send the NPS survey to your customers. 

- Identify the promoters.

- Ask the promoters for a customer testimonial.

- Follow up with promoters who didn’t provide a testimonial. 

- Offer a reward for promoters who submit a testimonial.

#5 Offer a free product in exchange for a testimonial

Many businesses offer a free product in exchange for an honest testimonial. This is common with authors who send a free copy of their book to their biggest fans or other authors in exchange for a testimonial. 

In the B2B world, you can invite an influencer in your niche to try your product for free and share their experience with their followers. Your prospects will perceive your product as valuable when they read the influencer’s testimonial. 

#6 Automate requests for testimonials 

While testimonials play a crucial role in helping you acquire customers, you may not always have the time to devote to setting up and running a testimonial collection campaign. So, what if your customers could give authentic testimonials around the clock with minimal effort on your side? 

To automate the collection of testimonials, you’ll need to ensure the essential steps work without supervision. 

These steps include: 

- Having a place where customers can submit testimonials ( a form or landing page.)

- And asking the customer to give the testimonial (An email, SMS, etc.)

For your customers to write, and submit the testimonial without your help in an automated testimonial collection process, have a dedicated landing page or form on your website.

Provide clear instructions on these pages or forms about what you’d like your buyers to do, including the questions they should answer and if at all there is a reward. 

There are many ways to put your testimonial requests on autopilot:

1. Use the after purchase email

Add a link to your testimonial page, asking your customers to share their experience if you usually send a follow-up email to people who buy your product. 

2. Apply drip campaigns

Use email automation softwares like MailChimp to make a series of three to six emails, asking your customers for testimonials.  

3. Social media monitoring tools 

Use social media monitoring tools to send an automated testimonial request in response to positive mentions. 

How to use customer testimonials to make your content more authoritative

Authoritative content is unique content that evokes trust in readers by showing them how to solve a problem. Simply put, it effectively answers the question that the reader has and establishes your company as an expert on the subject. 

When you create authoritative content, your prospects will likely perceive your brand as the category leader and prefer buying from you when they are finally ready. Customer testimonials can help make your content authoritative because they prove that your product provides the results you claim your prospects will get when they use it. 

They inspire trust and credibility in your brand. 

Here are some of the ways to use customer testimonials to make your content more authoritative: 

Create a testimonials page 

A testimonials page is a page on your website where you put customer testimonials so your prospects can browse endorsements without distractions. Your visitors will be more confident in doing business with you after going through this page because people like them had a good experience working with you. 

If you don’t have a testimonial page, you are missing out on many potential clients —85% of your prospects, to be exact. According to this report by Bright Local, 85% of consumers trust testimonials as much as personal recommendations from friends and family members. 

So, if you have a testimonials page that showcases the positive experiences your existing customers have with your product, you are more likely to convert prospects who visit your website. 

ChowNow, an online food ordering platform that connects customers with local restaurants, has a good testimonial page.

Source. 

The hero section of the page showcases their best video testimonial: Erin Wade, the co-owner of Homeroom, shares how Chownow helped them increase takeout by 5X. 

As you scroll down, there are more testimonials from other restaurants proving that Chownow is the real deal. 

Your testimonial page doesn’t have to contain video testimonials only; even written testimonials and case studies work like the Customer success page by Miro.

Put them on the home page 

Your homepage is important in your website because it is where your potential customers first go when researching your product. Therefore, it is necessary to include customer testimonials here to increase your chances of convincing visitors to sign up for a trial or request a demo. 

Testimonials on the home page should answer the question, “Has this product already helped other people in my situation?” Place the first set of testimonials right below the hero section after telling your visitor what your product is and how it can make their lives easier. 

Look at how Kajabi does it so well. 

Source.

It deliberately includes the occupations of its users to target potential customers who may be having similar problems. For example, Mel Abraham represents best-selling authors who want to have everything they need to grow their thought leadership business in one place. Visitors matching this ICP are more likely to try Kajabi. 

Add them to product pages

Your product page shows your prospects how they can benefit from your product. It describes the features of your product as benefits to your ICPs so that when they land on that page, they perceive your product as being highly valuable. 

Adding customer testimonials to product pages provides social proof to your prospects, and it also reinforces the features of your product you are already presenting as positive outcomes. 

Use them in blog posts

You can also strategically place testimonials in your blog posts to increase the chances of converting readers into product-qualified leads. It involves making your blog post take the form of a disguised sales page targeting a specific ICP, showing them how to use your product to solve a problem. 

Then you infuse it with testimonials of existing customers who achieved the outcome your reader is looking for at certain sections of the blog posts. And follow it with a CTA driving them to sign up as users to get similar results. You’re more likely to get more customers using this approach instead of just sprinkling CTAs throughout the article, hoping to get signups. 

Victor Eduoh, a content marketing consultant from Nigeria, created this approach of using testimonials in a blog post to convert readers into PQLs. According to the 9-step product-led storytelling formula he created, you should include a relevant testimonial (with outcomes) just after providing a CTA within the article to drive your reader to sign up for your product.

Source.

The testimonial provides social proof that your product works and can improve the life of your readers if they are willing to take their chances. 

Weave them into social media posts

According to SmartInsights, there are now more than 4.55 billion social media users, which is 400 million higher than they were at a time like this last year. You can’t afford to avoid using testimonials in social media posts if you want to acquire customers from this ever-growing marketing channel. 

Testimonials are generally short quotes, making them ideal for sharing on social media platforms where your prospects hang out. Similarly, when you receive positive feedback from customers on a social media platform, engage with them. You can retweet, feature them on your Instagram and Facebook stories, or even create a post highlighting them on LinkedIn. 

When other customers see such positive feedback, they also get driven to share their thoughts about your brand. Prospects in your network may start thinking of you as their preferred brand when they want to buy. 

Add them to your email marketing campaigns 

Testimonials show how your product has positively changed the lives of your customers. If you conduct email marketing campaigns urging prospects to buy your products, sharing testimonials may boost your conversion rates. 

See how Benjamin Hardy, an accomplished American author, used a customer testimonial in his email marketing campaign to encourage his subscribers to buy his audiobook.

Use them in case studies

Case studies are long-form stories of how you helped a customer solve a problem, showing their situation before and after working with you. A case study needs to show what your customer thinks about you more than what you say about your product. Weaving testimonials into your case studies can help make your prospects believe that your product may work for them too. 

See how BigCommerce used testimonials from different employees of SkullCandy in a case study showing they helped SkullCandy break ecommerce and audio boundaries.

Final Thoughts

Customer testimonials are unbiased opinions from satisfied buyers affirming the value of your product or service. They are essential for the growth of your business because they give your prospects trust and confidence in your product more than anything your sales vendors would tell them. 

Including testimonials in your content makes your company more authoritative because your readers will perceive your product as valuable. Testimonials lead your prospects to think that if people like them are using your product and getting positive outcomes, then it may be the best one to go for. Use customer testimonials in your content to increase conversions. 

Also published here.