Testimonials. How often do you read them before purchasing a product? I would hazard a guess and say a
lot! According to research by Nielson 92% of consumers trust a recommendation from a peer and 70% will trust a recommendation from someone they don’t even know, highlighting the need to collate, gather and use your business testimonials. Testimonials play a big role in building a brand, developing credibility and loyalty, customer service but also for search engine optimisation.
Testimonials provide your customers with a voice, and allowing them to express it increases customer engagement and interaction as well as loyalty. Businesses with testimonials will rank higher in search engines as both Facebook and Google favour businesses with testimonials (recommendations).
According to MOZ’s Local Search Ranking Factors Survey (2018), online reviews could make up 10% of how Google (plus other search engines) rank search results. Some businesses choose to use platforms like Trustpilot and Tripadvisor to collect and collate their testimonials, where they are awarded stars or a
satisfaction percentage. Whatever you use the process is super simple but the benefits are huge to small businesses.
Ask for testimonials: Using your social media, email marketing or even directly asking, encourage customers to leave testimonials of the service/product they received. Emphasise how easy the process
is and avoid using language like “write a review” which makes it sound like a chore. Instead, opt for ‘leave a review’.
Share your testimonials: Again using social media et al, share with your customers what others have had to say, make the testimonials work as a marketing tool.
Include CTA in your paperwork: Adding call to actions onto all correspondence, email footer, website footer, compliment slips, invoices, receipts, reinforcing the importance.
Make your testimonial obvious: Have a page on your website, even if that’s a link to your Google testimonials, be proud and show off.
So if you want to rank higher in searches, develop your brand and increase your customer base make sure you are utilising and collecting testimonials everyday.
By Joanne Dewberry – https://joannedewberry.co.uk/
