Customer Testimonials When feeling happy or satisfied (customer satisfaction) after using a brand’s product or service, not a few customers decide to give positive honest comments or feedback. In the business world, these comments are known as customer testimonials. Even so, not all business owners and their marketers can maximize every customer testimonial as a support for the company’s business strategy, especially in the scope of marketing (marketing strategy).
This condition may occur in your business if marketers do not really understand the development of customer behavior (consumer behavior). That with more and more bustling business markets which offer similar products or services, prospective customers or prospects will make decisions about the buying process (buying cycle) based on how positive the reviews or testimonials from previous customers are. In addition, it will also consider brand identity factors, brand competitive advantages, product uniqueness or product differentiation, product prices (pricing), or even forms of advertising campaigns for promotion. It’s no wonder that some experts have begun to argue that a customer testimonial management strategy is one of the brand marketing or branding strategies and even a good product marketing or service marketing strategy in supporting business success.
Tips and Strategies for Creating Customer Testimonials
Customer testimonials will not be created without a clear cause. Generally, customers will leave reviews on the company’s brand website or social media if the brand is able to satisfy customers beyond customer expectations (customer delight). Where the testimonials that customers provide will explain the benefits and value of a product or service (product value) in meeting customer needs while overcoming customer pain points.
Later, positive feedback from these customers will used as social proof and customer insight that the company can provide to the next target market. In addition, customer testimonials are also useful in:
- Increase brand value, credibility and brand reputation in the business segment.
- Adding to the potential for a broader and positive word-of-mouth strategy.
- Build closer business relationships with old and new customer base (customer relations).
- Creating a better customer experience for new customers. So, in the end the customer will feel interested in using the product or service (customer engagement) and decide to become a loyal customer.
- Optimizing the benefits of storytelling in attracting sales leads to brands.
- Drive better lead generation and lead conversion rates in converting prospects into paying customers.
- Increase impressions based on the number of click-through rates (CTR) on web or social media content.
So that the above benefits can be achieved by your business easily. Follow the tips and strategies for getting to managing customer testimonials in the explanation below.
1. Create a Customer Satisfaction Survey or Net Promoter Score
The first way to get easy customer testimonials is to create a customer satisfaction survey which is distribut to social media, websites, email and other omnichannel media. In other words, you don’t need to depend on organic traffic related to customer comments or reviews on social media or websites.
Along with today’s sophisticated developments, you can provide surveys in digital form to customers. Starting from the Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), Customer Effort Score (CES), Milestone Survey, and others. So, you will have no trouble viewing and collecting testimonials from customers.
2. Choose Testimonials that are Most Relevant to Business
The next tip is to make sure the testimonials you want to display on your website, social media and other marketing channels are relevant to your target audience. For example, if your product or service targets teenagers, don’t add testimonials from female customers who are over 40 years old. In addition, organize the description of customer testimonials into a format that is visually appealing or follows current marketing trends. Adapting from the Shopify website, here are some types of customer testimonials that the audience sees most often.
- Quote testimonials refer to positive statements from customers who are happy or satisfied with the product, service, and brand as a whole.
- Customer testimonials in the form of audio and video which support content marketing trends that can attract the attention of the target audience better than written content
- Case studies in which customers share their full stories and experiences while or after using the solutions that the product or service offers.
- Customer testimonials from comments from social media users and website visitors where customers will leave reviews in the comments column or utilize user-generated content (UGC).
- Testimonials from influencer reviews or someone who has the ability to influence other people. Be it micro influencers or macro influencers on social media Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook or YouTube.
- Testimonials in media coverage which refers to content that displays, mentions, or discusses the brand. The form of content can be in the form of UGC, articles, RSS feeds, videos, and others which are distributed to communication media that are included in paid media, owned media, and earned media.
3. Include Identity and Photos of Customers Giving Testimonials
So that the testimonials you put on social media, websites or emails look more credible and personal. It is better to include the identity and photos of customers who give testimonials. This method indirectly reflects the buyer persona which will affect the customer journey of new customers. If you decide to use this method, it would be nice to use testimonials from customers who are trusted in their field.
4. Consider Paid Ads
Every business that wants to increase the scale of its market share often considers running an advertising campaign. Because this advertising strategy is the most effective way to reach the target audience (outreach marketing concept). As well as making it easier for customers to find products, services, or the brand as a whole. Based on these reasons, it is not uncommon for professional marketers to also plan (advertising plans) and create persuasive and targeted ads (targeted ads) that contain customer review extensions. This is because ads that have customer testimonials in the form of ratings will receive a higher CTR ratio.
5. Include Testimonials in Email Marketing
The email marketing strategy is not only limited to spreading marketing content or social advertising, but also being an omnichannel marketing option that has efficient value as social proof in the form of customer testimonials. You can put testimonial descriptions into several types of emails that are relevant to your branding needs, whether it’s in the form of newsletters, drip campaigns, and certain email blasts. By placing appropriate testimonials, you can highlight the product experience and convince potential customers about the benefits of using the product (product-led growth).
6. Make Testimonials As Part of Sales
Pitch and Marketing Assets Apart from social media, email and websites, consider making testimonials part of a sales promotion or sales pitch. This is because a collection of testimonials proves that customers like the product or service and proves the success of the sales team (sales force) in convincing potential customers to buy (product knowledge). This will indirectly affect the increase in product value when the product is used by customers (customer value). The same goes for other marketing assets that sales teams use when meeting with businesses and prospects. Therefore, add customer testimonials to physical letters, brochures, flyers, postcards, and other conventional advertising media so that prospects can immediately connect with the company’s brand (customer relationship management concept).