What are customer testimonials?
When someone interacts with a business, they can tell others about their experience as a way of validating a business or steering people away from it. This is something that the digital age has made increasingly possible, as anyone can now leave a review about a business somewhere.
They might submit it to your website, post it on social media or enter it into one of the many trade specific review websites. As this is such a common thing to do, it is now one of the first things that new customers turn to when they consider working with a business or buying from them for the first time.
The power of testimonials
A testimonial allows people to see what kind of experience they can expect from your business, and a positive review can hold a lot of weight. Most of us are now attuned to marketing jargon and can see past shiny adverts and over-inflated claims. Instead, people want to see real life experiences that they can compare to their own in order to find out whether a particular business or product is what they say they are.
Whilst a bad review can certainly put a customer off, having reams of good testimonials can act as a form of social proof. It can show that hundreds, thousands or even millions of people have had positive experiences with you and can therefore provide evidence that their experience will also be a good one.
Brand confidence
Receiving one or two negative reviews is only natural, as it is almost impossible to please all of the people all of the time, but when these are outweighed by many more positive and authentic testimonials, it can create a huge sense of brand confidence. People are able to see a wide range of different experiences and are much happier to spend their money with a brand when they can see how satisfied others have been.
Testimonials in marketing
Having a long list of good reviews is great, but it is important to make the most of them. Your marketing can reflect all of the positive feedback that you have received by shouting about your star rating on a particular review website, using quotes from your favourite testimonials, or pointing people in the direction of more recommendations.
It is also important that you keep gathering these reviews, so you also need to encourage people to submit testimonials on a regular basis. This is often thought of as part of an after-sales strategy but should also become a key part of your marketing plans too.
At Koobr, we know exactly how to harness the power of customer testimonials, so get in touch to find out more. Call us on 01332 419803 and let our marketing experts show you how we can make the most of all the great work you have done with your customers to help bring new ones to your door.
