When it comes to communicating that you can do what you say you can do, your customers’ words carry a lot more weight than yours do. When you talk about yourself, it’s a platitude. When your customers talk about you, it’s credibility. That’s why it’s important to gather and use testimonials throughout all of your sales and marketing messages so that you can build trust with every interaction.

The best way to get testimonials is to pull them from the stories of your customers’ experiences. Through open-ended conversations, you can learn how your solution helped people solve their problems and how the outcomes were able to help them meet their goals.

Customer stories also give you the opportunity to learn something that can improve your business. You can get ideas for other products or services your customers need; input on how you can improve service delivery; and inspiration for your employees when they learn how what they do every day ultimately impacts your customers.

Related: Read more about how to get testimonials from customer stories

Make collecting customers stories an ongoing initiative so that you’ll have a library of content that you can pull off the shelf for different situations. You need variety because the same message isn’t going to resonate with everyone, and you’ll be better able to match up your message with specific situations.

Here’s How to Utilize Testimonials in Marketing

1. Testimonials Page

Create a page of testimonials on your website. Link each quote to the full customer success story so that visitors have the choice to either scan the testimonials, or go deep by reading the story.

2. Website Pages

Sprinkle testimonials around your website. If you can put a photo next to the quote, that’s even better. Make sure that the testimonial matches the web page. (Can you see the testimonial in this blog post?

3. Sales Documents and Proposals

Include testimonials in your sales materials. If you have a library of testimonials to choose from, pick quotes that are from companies that are in the same industry as the prospect.

4. Social Media

Testimonials provide loads of raw content for social media posts. Put a testimonial in a graphic along with the headshot of the customer, and write a post that tells a summarized version of the story.

5. Calls-to-Action

Include testimonials with your calls-to-action to help people take the next step, whether it’s to schedule a meeting or sign up for your blog. The quote should be relevant to the CTA.

6. Email Lead Nurtures

Include a testimonial in your email lead nurture sequences either within the body of the email or as a PS. Whether your goal is to overcome an objection or ask for the sale, a relevant quote can be the trust builder you need to lead to a conversion.

7. Customer Communications

Keep giving customers validation for their decision to choose you by including testimonial in your eNewsletter or customer-directed communications. Provide a link to the complete story and include a call-to-action that invites customers to share their stories too.

"We’ve had a lot of success since working with Lori, including good feedback from the emails we sent out that got more conversations going with current clients about advanced cybersecurity services."
-- Chris Freeman, XPERTECHS

8. Paid Ads

Testimonials can speak to just about any stage in the buying process and can be used strategically in online advertising. Depending on how you’re targeting, you can match up the audience with the stage in their buying journey.

9. Video

Take your testimonials to the next level by gathering customer comments in a video. Plan your on- camera questions to piggyback on the customer’s story and don’t worry if they don’t say exactly what they said in your initial interview. Create a plan for promoting your videos.

10. Email Signatures

Change up your email signature when you publish a new client story. Link the story to a call to action such as “Here’s what NAME OF CLIENT has to say about our work together.”

BONUS > Internal Communications

Your testimonials are a great way to validate the good work that your employees do and help them understand the impact that their day-to-day activities have on customer success. Include testimonials in your employee handbook, intranet, newsletters, and annual reports.

Need Help Gathering and Telling Your Customer Stories?

Customer success stories, and the testimonials that come out of them, communicate the value of your work helps prospects make the decision to choose you, support customer retention, and inspire your employees in their everyday work.

Contact me to explore how I can guide you through the storytelling process, from how to gather ideas for stories, to publishing them and sharing them with the world.