Step 7 Building on your Success with Customer Testimonials

In Step 7 of our ongoing series on Lifecycle Marketing, we’re talking about expanding your marketing reach by gathering testimonials from satisfied customers. In our previous step, we looked at ways to increase the value of your existing customers by upselling. 

Word of mouth is more than just advertising that money can’t buy. In many cases, it’s more effective. According to a recent Forrester Research report, 70 percent of US online adults place high value on brand or product recommendations from friends and family. The report goes on to say that nearly half of them trust online reviews written by customers, but only about 10 percent feel the same way about company sponsored advertising. 

It only makes sense. For example, if we’re trying to decide whether to see a film in the theatres, are we going to listen to a longtime friend or rely on a critic we’ve never met?

Personal reviews and testimonials can make a valuable addition to your marketing efforts. So how do you go about getting them? 

The simplest way is to ask. That’s essentially what Travis Miller and Jimmy Vee, two small business coaches for Gravitational marketing, did. They took it a step farther though, and automated much of the process. Approximately one month after the customer has purchased the product or service, they will receive an email asking about their buying experience. Depending on their answers, they will be placed into a ‘satisfaction’ or ‘dissatisfaction’ track. Unhappy customers will be directed to a landing page where they can more fully voice their complaints and, if necessary, receive follow-up contact from a customer rep to see if the problems can be resolved. 

Happy customers are taken to a brief survey page. When the survey is completed, customers are invited to give a recorded testimonial to a phone number that is provided. Afterwards, they can click on the finish link to reach another landing page where they can upload a photo to go with their testimonial. It all happens automatically, with limited inconvenience to the customer. 

If automating the process seems too mechanical for you, there are other great ways to get testimonials. Why not take advantage of social media such as Facebook or YouTube? Some companies have sponsored contests and offered prizes for the best video testimonial. You can even add a voting element to increase participation. If you don’t need or want video testimonials, the same methods can be used for writing or photo submissions as well.

However you go about getting them, testimonials can add a personal touch to your marketing efforts. Done properly, testimonials feel less like a marketing campaign to customers and more like a helpful suggestion from someone just like them. 

In the next step of our series, we’ll discuss how to leverage the hard work you’ve put into ‘wowing’your customers by gaining referrals.