92% of consumers read reviews and testimonials before purchasing a product or service.
How your consumers feel about your products and services dictates future purchasing, both positively and negatively. If you have an overwhelming amount of great reviews and testimonials from people sharing their experiences, it could be exactly what your future prospect needs to see when making the decision to work with you. And vice versa. Should someone share their negative experience, a future consumer will be wary to work with you. Words are powerful.
If you find yourself in need of more reviews/testimonials (because let's face it, who doesn't need that?)...Don't stand on the sidelines WAITING for someone to say something nice about your business. Go get it for yourself! Stick with me here.
We're answering 3 Main Questions today:
1. What's the difference between a review & a testimonial?
2. What is the 'Social Proof' phenomenon?
3. What are 5 Techniques to score these reviews & testimonials?
What's the difference between a review and a testimonial?
(And yes, there's a difference!)
Reviews: The shorter of the two. These can be positive or negative. Reviews can be seen on sites outside of company-owned pages, like Google Reviews, Yelp, Facebook, etc.
Testimonials: Testimonials are typically longer than reviews. They speak on a person's experience with the organization, why they chose to work with this company, and how they helped them. Typically, more in-depth and mostly all positive, testimonials are usually given directly to the company where the business will ask their permission to use what they said online.
What is the 'Social Proof' phenomenon?
This phenomenon states that we assume if many people are purchasing an item, then they know what they are talking about and we, too, should purchase that same item. This works for service-based organizations as well. We can dig into this more in a separate newsletter, but for now, just realize that people typically tend to follow the masses. (This is why things "trend.")
What are 5 techniques to get these reviews and testimonials? Keep scrolling.
MAKE IT EASY: Everyone's busy, so if you want someone to write you a testimonial or review, you have to make it easy for them. When checking in with your client, simply ask "How are you getting along?" When they tell you, ask for their results briefly or any other information that applies. The key here is to keep it short and sweet. Then, summarize what they said, repeat it back to them, and ask if you can use it online.
ASK: Strike when the iron is hot! Simply, ask! Timing is key, here. Don't let months go by where the details of their experience fades into the background. You want their great experience to be fresh in their minds.
POST ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Take screenshots of your reviews and create an aesthetically pleasing Instagram Story. If you know the reviewer, tag them on IG. They just may share your story to their feed, increasing your brand awareness. When businesses share user reviews, the user is more apt to write them or tag the company because of the increased chance to be reposted.
On Instagram, we suggest creating a highlight of these reviews and testimonials, so when someone visits your page they can see all the good things people have been saying in one spot.
You can also screenshot a Facebook review, share it to your IG story and drive traffic to your other accounts. (This is a form of growth-hacking.)
P.S. If you don't have reviews enabled on Facebook yet, be sure to toggle that option on. Always be responsive to your reviews as well - both positive and negative. It shows you are serious about keeping your customers happy!
LEVERAGE YOUR NETWORK: You should always connect with other professionals or local businesses. Take the time to build up these relationships and see what they have to offer in terms of products and services. Perhaps you can help each other out. Once you have experienced their products or services, you can leave a nice review for them if you enjoyed your experience. Once they see your review, 9/10 they will reciprocate, but this is ONLY IF you built up your relationship enough. The most important key here is to be ethical. Don't start leaving reviews for random businesses and don't leave reviews if you truly haven't experienced what they have to offer. Honesty is always the best policy.
SURVEYS: By sending out a survey, you can get a great idea of where you stand. You can include a variety of questions, but at the very least include a Comments section at the bottom. Remember, you want to make this easy to answer. Prompt your user to talk about their experience and how it has affected them. If you like what you see in your responses, ask permission to use this as a testimonial. If you aren't happy with the response, use this to re-evaluate what you are doing and make changes. You can come back to this in a few months. It's a win-win either way!