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You know that testimonials are important! And yet, often entrepreneurs don’t give them the priority they deserve. Sometimes, I think we put them to the bottom of our TO-DO list because we believe that they can be difficult to craft and ‘solicit’ from your customers.
Over the next couple of weeks, I want to ‘shift’ your mindset so that you understand how important testimonials are to your marketing; how easy they can be to craft; and how you can make it easy for your customers to write them!
But first, let’s examine WHY testimonials are so effective and important in your marketing! Don’t forget that testimonials can be used anywhere and everywhere!!! Not just your website and social media but also every other piece of marketing material you produce!
Here are my top 5 awesome reasons testimonials are a vital part of your marketing.
1. INCREASE TRUST
As you know, business is about building relationships and taking those relationships through the know-life-trust (KLT) process! If your prospects are deciding whether to spend their hard earn money with you, there is always some element of FEAR! Yup – in the back of their minds, they are wondering:
- Will this work for me?
- Will this work for me now?
However reading (or viewing) a few testimonials from customers in similar situations will certainly help alleviate those fears!
2. RELEVANT CONTENT
A testimonial page on your website or social media pages is EASY to update frequently! Updating these frequently helps increase search engine optimization, especially on your website, as it shows that your content is fresh and new!
3. DIFFERENT FROM YOUR COMPETITION
Having current and effective testimonials are rare in any industry! If you have great testimonials on your website, social media or in a pdf handout certainly differentiates you from your competition. Check out your competition – do they use testimonials effectively?
4. DEMONSTRATES SCOPE OF WORK
Most of you have more than one program (or service) and more than one result you can deliver! Providing your prospects with several different testimonials about different programs or different problems you solve gives them a wider view of what you can accomplish for them.
For instance, I might have testimonials about my Marketing Magic workshop, about my 6-month program Achiever’s Club; or about my SHIFT events! I might also have testimonials about increasing confidence in raising prices; clarifying marketing messages or crafting Premium Signature Programs!
5. PROVIDES SOCIAL PROOF
When trying to persuade a prospect to choose one business over another, effective testimonials always work. The plain truth is that people are influenced by other people’s opinions.
Testimonials provide something called ‘Social Proof’, made famous by psychologist Robert Cialdini in his book Influence and the Power of Persuasion. Simply put, we make decisions once we’ve seen someone else do it first. For example, if we hear “This book has sold 3 million copies!” we think it must be good.
Testimonials provide this social proof to your prospective customers. They give you credibility and show that:
- you are reputable
- people have had good experiences using your product or service
- people can be reassured you will provide them with exactly what they’re looking for.
Where could you use more testimonials? Your website? Your social media?
Next week, I’ll share with you 6 powerful questions that will help you get testimonials easily.
Diana
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