The Most Effective Free Marketing Tool: Testimonials

As most people who run a small business know, getting glowing, positive and useful testimonials from your best clients & customers is vital.

People like social proof, so if someone is considering using your services or product, the more good reports you have from other satisfied clients & customers, the less of a ‘risk’ it is to purchase from you. It’s that recurring challenge of “building trust” again.

But what makes a ‘good’ versus ‘bad’ testimonial?

• It mentions real specifics about how the product/service has helped or made a difference (specific numbers are always great) not just vague, waffly praise. Something like “after working with Lea for just a month, my monthly income increased by £800 per month”.
• It shows how that buyer also felt hesitant & indecisive before purchasing from you. Something like “I was a bit hesitant to start my coaching program because I wasn’t sure if it would be worth it or I’d get a good return on my investment. Well, how wrong could I be…”
• Ideally, it includes the name, profession, age (or whatever details may be relevant for your target market) of the person who gave the testimonial and if possible, a photo for all those visual people out there.

Getting good testimonials from your clients isn’t always easy. You can ask them outright (which is effective but somehow not as satisfying as unsolicited); you can hint at it (which isn’t as effective but somewhat more satsifying if they take the bait): or you can ‘educate’ them about how important testimonials are to your business and then sit back and wait for that glowing, perfect unsolicited testimonial.