HOW TO GET GREAT CUSTOMER TESTIMONIALS

HOW TO GET GREAT CUSTOMER TESTIMONIALS

by Trudi Roach

So often we don’t utilize one of the most persuasive selling components in our marketing materials – the words of our own customers.

Many creative entrepreneurs have wonderful testimonials from customers, but never use them for fear that they are “bragging” or that it is “too self-promotional.” But of course it’s self-promotional!

That’s what good marketing is!

You want to create authentic and engaging brand content, right? Then start with customer testimonials. Figuring out how to get testimonials and use customer feedback in your marketing is simple if you follow these 9 tips.

TIP #1 HOW TO GET GREAT CUSTOMER TESTIMONIALS: Discover exactly what is a testimonial

At least once in your life, you must have experienced buying a product online, from a website store or marketplace.

After receiving your order, you might have received an email or a message asking for your thoughts on your experience or what you thought of the product you just purchased.

You may have responded positively, providing your opinions and thoughts.

You just provided a product testimonial.

Testimonials are seen by marketers and entrepreneurs as one of the most effective marketing tools out there.

And often word-of-mouth is the best form of advertising. That “word of mouth” is pretty much what you would get in a testimonial.

Go to any online store, and you may even find a separate section dedicated to testimonials. On Amazon, each product page has its own space dedicated to customer testimonials.

There are even websites that are established specifically for gathering testimonials, from real people, on brands and businesses.

TIP #2 HOW TO GET GREAT CUSTOMER TESTIMONIALS:

Understand how product testimonials can help your business

What makes testimonials so effective is that they are provided by customers who have actual experience with your product.

Trust will definitely be high, as prospective customers find more credibility in people who have firsthand experience buying and using your product.

While a simple review looks at both good and bad points of a product, a testimonial showcases the good things, with an express recommendation attached.

So how can you use these product testimonials from your customers? How can your business benefit from testimonials?

• Testimonials will help create and build trust for your brand. When you read the testimonials from other customers talking about their positive experience with the brand, you probably feel more at ease, and develop some trust, enough for you to make the final purchase.

• Testimonials improve your sales pages for your product. Since testimonials come from customers, and not from the company, they sound more genuine and less of a sales pitch.

• Testimonials create strong conversions. Because they are written by real people, who have real experience with the product and with the same needs as your prospective buyers.

TIP #3 HOW TO GET GREAT CUSTOMER TESTIMONIALS:

Learn how to ask for a customer testimonial

When you have sold a product to a customer, why not capture that moment in the customer's own words to use for showing potential new customers the value of your products?

Testimonials are even more crucial for creative businesses because it is more difficult for the average person to set a value of many clothing, custom, handcrafted or arts related items.

Seeing others talk about the benefits they found from your products will help them more readily understand the value of your collection.

Understanding that the benefits your customers gets from a clothing or accessory item is often emotional as well as physical is important.

Emotional benefits of clothing can include feeling chic, stylish, on trend, like you fit it, like you stand out, like you’re a trend-setter, or that you feel comfortable, comforted, sexy or super hot

TIP #4 HOW TO GET GREAT CUSTOMER TESTIMONIALS: How to get customer feedback

If your customer doesn’t come running to you with a testimonial, then ask her for one.

There is nothing wrong with that and most customers are honored you asked them.

The best testimonials are ones that show a real results or benefits have been reached and use language that your potential customers can identify with.

If you have testimonials, but they don’t include results, or benefits, then they aren’t as persuasive as they need to be in order to sell a future customer.

To get measurable testimonials, all you have to do is ask for them.

TIP #5 HOW TO GET GREAT CUSTOMER TESTIMONIALS: How to write a testimonial

If you receive a testimonial from a customer that isn’t measurable and doesn’t show a specific example of how that customers benefited since purchasing from you, then thank them for the kind comments and ask them to narrow down perhaps one or two specific things that were beneficial about their purchase.

You can respond with something like:

“Thanks for your feedback. It’s wonderful to hear about your experience. What specifically has improved during our work together? Were you able to measure the difference?”

The more specific the testimonial, and the more the customer speaks in her own words, the more persuasive it is to the potential customer, and the easier it is to generate new business.

TIP #6 HOW TO GET GREAT CUSTOMER TESTIMONIALS: Contact customers and ask directly

This is, by far, the most effective way for you to get a testimonial. Ask for it. Sounds simple

enough. So, how you are going to ask for them?

Provide positive responses. This is in the case of customers who reach out to you first or those who are expressing their satisfaction with your product on their social media accounts.

You must be ready with options. Aside from written text or narratives, testimonials can also come in the form of videos and audio recording.

Contact customers through different channels, such as email, over the phone, or a plug-in or widget embedded on your website.

Always ask for testimonials politely. Being rude or inconsiderate to customers when asking for a testimonial will not get you the results you want.

Ask only the relevant questions. What did the product do for them? Why did they like it? Why would they recommend it to others? What made them choose your product over the other products?

TIP #7 HOW TO GET GREAT CUSTOMER TESTIMONIALS: Use social media

Customers might also praise your products on their social media accounts. These can also be a great source of testimonials for your brand. Here a few ways you can capture testimonials from social media.

• Set up a notification alerts if your brand, product or company name pops up in these external sites. Google Alerts has this function, alerting you if your business name comes up anywhere on the web.
  

• Look up positive tweets on Twitter (you can use the hashtag function to help your search), then curate the testimonials and share them.

• Curate reviews from Facebook, Instagram and other social platforms, and compile all the positive ones.

TIP #8 HOW TO GET GREAT CUSTOMER TESTIMONIALS: Conduct a survey

A customer feedback form is often distributed by physical stores at the cash register. The customers can fill up the form and return it, in exchange for a freebie or a discount on their next purchase.

Similarly, customers buying online may encounter a similar survey form upon checkout, and they have the option to fill it out or not.

Another way is for the company to automate the process, so that the buyer will soon receive a survey form a few days after the purchase, giving them ample time to try out the product before giving a testimonial or review.

You can also conduct these surveys directly on your blog. Chances are that customers who liked your product or service will look you up, and are likely to visit your blog, where they’ll find the blog survey to be filled out.

TIP #9 HOW TO GET GREAT CUSTOMER TESTIMONIALS: Use what you already have to get even more testimonials and product reviews

Review your customer list and look back over recent sales. Ask your best customers for measurable testimonials. It’s a whole lot easier than selling a new customer!

Check your email or chat facility. Satisfied customers may have left messages that you can quote in crafting testimonials.

Check the comments left by customers on your blog and product pages. You are bound to find comments that look promising in becoming effective testimonials.

OK, so there it is, 9 things you need to know to get great customer testimonials for you clothing and accessory brand.

Don't forget to book a free on-demand product positioning assessment, the link is here!

When you sign up, you are going to fill out a short questionnaire. Then we’ll to hop on the phone together for 30 minutes and you'll share a little bit about your business with me. ⁠ ⁠ I'll take a look at your specific situation and analyze what’s going on! I'll share three ways to help improve your product positioning to increase sales and traffic at the end of the 30 minutes.⁠

You're going to learn more about positioning your product to grow your online sales.

You can also check out trudiroach.com to learn more about my paid FashionVIP program.

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