You’re great at what you do, and your clients are constantly telling you as much. They gush to you when they see you in person about how wonderful you are, and you feel valued and appreciated. Niiiiice! But is it really enough to have your clients tell you how much they love and enjoy your work? Wouldn’t it be better if they typed it out for the whole world to see? I’m giving you the inside scoop on why client testimonials are important.
Then again, how valuable are testimonials, anyway?
You may already know you’re crushing your calling, but trust me — testimonials are REALLY crucial. A client testimonial is a valuable tool you can use to grow your business, establish more clientele, increase revenue, and develop better brand awareness.
Why Client Testimonials Are Important
What is the purpose of testimonials? Well, they’re not just there to stroke your ego. While client testimonials can serve as a nice little confidence booster, they also give you incredible opportunities, especially when you know how to unlock the power behind the written review.
Whether the review comes from Yelp, Facebook, Google, or even your own website, a solid (and of course, positive) testimonial can and should be used to your advantage.
So, why are testimonials so powerful, and do testimonials increase sales? You bet! Here’s how.
How Important Are Reviews To Consumers? The Benefits Of Testimonials
How valuable are testimonials, anyway? Client testimonials are not only first-hand reviews of your business but also of YOU. Even if you have a great budget for advertising, almost nothing holds as much weight with prospective clients as a real client review left by someone after they have had a real experience with you and your business.
But do testimonials build trust? Absolutely! A sponsored ad can help you build brand awareness or get more phone calls, but it’s the reviews of past clients that are really going to give your future clients faith that you will deliver what you promise.
What Is The Value of Personal Testimonials and How To Maximise That Value
So, you’ve just obtained a killer client testimonial. Now what?
Testimonials have a great shelf life, and you can use this to your advantage, especially when it comes to where and how you place these testimonials.
You can use testimonials as content for social media, or you can place them on your website contact page, on business cards, on your website home page, and you can even use short quotes about your incredible services on your e-signature!
If nothing else, make sure you at least get client testimonials up on your website. Trust me, you don’t want to sleep on the importance of testimonials on a website for multiple reasons.
But why do we need testimonials on websites other than just for building trust?
Believe it or not, updating your website with client testimonials can help the ranking of your site on search engines like Google. Google and other search engines reward sites that are consistently updating their pages, which means your site is more likely to pull up when someone searches keywords associated with your occupation.
Low On Testimonials? Here’s How To Start Building!
We’ve talked about why reviews are important for small businesses and why testimonials are important overall, but if you’re having trouble building client testimonials, you could find all of this information a little moot.
One of the best ways to build up your client testimonials is to simply ASK your clients to leave them. You’ll be surprised how many happy clients will be so willing to leave you a great review if you simply request it.
And if you want clients to leave a review on a specific site, like your website, Yelp, Google, or your Facebook Business Page, I suggest getting a short link and keeping it on your cell phone. Text it to clients after a job well done and ask them to leave a review right then and there.
It may feel awkward the first few times you ask, but you’ll get into a groove once you’re used to asking and once you realise the response from your clients is generally positive.
If you’re ready to talk more about why client testimonials are important and learn how you can capitalise on them, check out my workshops and 1-to-1 coaching!
