From Words to Growth: The Impactful Magic of Testimonials with Beverly Cornell

Make testimonials work for you in this Spark & Ignite Your Marketing episode! Beverly Cornell explains the true impact of social proof, showing how powerful testimonials can be for service-based businesses looking to build trust, attract clients, and grow with confidence. Whether you're just starting out or scaling up, you'll find actionable tips to seamlessly integrate customer reviews across websites, social media, emails, and in-person interactions. Tune in to learn how to create and share testimonials that drive results and help you stand out in a noisy digital world.

Key Topics:

1. The Magic of Social Proof: Why Testimonials Are Essential for Building Trust and Credibility:  Beverly explores the psychology behind social proof and how testimonials are an influential form of validation. 
2. Where to Place Testimonials for Maximum Impact: Website, Social Media, and Beyond: Knowing the value of testimonials is only the first step—strategically placing them is where the real magic happens! Beverly shares where to feature testimonials for optimal results, including your website homepage, service pages, landing pages, and even social media channels. 
3. How to Gather Powerful Testimonials Easily: Tools, Timing, and Strategies for Success
   Collecting testimonials doesn’t have to be complicated! Beverly covers simple, practical strategies for gathering impactful testimonials, from using tools like Google Review links and Vouch to determining the perfect moment to ask clients for feedback. 

 
P.S. Ready to spark your unique opportunities and ignite your marketing? Here are three ways to work with us.

1. 📞 Schedule a Complimentary 15-minute Call and let’s delve into your goals and answer any questions you may have.
2. 📘 Read Beverly’s book Marketing for Entrepreneurs a quick guide filled with actionable steps to help make your brand and business shine even brighter. 🎙️ Listen to Beverly’s Marketing Podcast where she interviews entrepreneurs to get inspired and gain new business and marketing insights.
3. 🎓 Learn more about marketing and Enroll in Our Marketing Courses designed to bring clarity to your business efforts. They’re easy-to-understand and self-paced, perfect for busy entrepreneurs like you.

Transcript

Beverly: 0:09

Welcome to another episode of the sparking that you're marketing podcast. I'm your host, Beverly Cornell. And today we're talking about one of the most powerful yet often underutilized tools in your marketing arsenal. Testimonials. Whether you're just starting your service based business or you're a seasoned entrepreneur, understanding the impact of social proof can be a game changer for your growth. So let's talk about why testimonials and social proof matter. Have you ever found yourself about to make a purchase but you hesitate? Then you saw a glowing review or heard a personal recommendation from a friend and suddenly your doubts faded away. That's social proof. That's the power of social proof in action. Social proof is essentially the psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others in an attempt to reflect correct behavior for a given situation. In simpler terms, if others say it's good, we're more likely to believe it's good too. So for service based businesses where trust and credibility are key. Everything. Testimonials are pure gold. They provide potential customers with real world evidence that your business delivers on its promises. A strong testimonial can be the difference between winning a client or losing them to a competitor. Now that we know how powerful testimonials can be, the next question is, where should you incorporate them for the most impact? Here are a few key areas. Your website, your home page, your services page, and any landing pages that are prime real estate for testimonials, a well placed testimonial on your home page can immediately build trust with visitors. And if you know, marketing, it's all about building no like, and trust. If they are on your website, they know they're probably learning to like you, but if they see a testimonial, it's helping to build that trust. On service pages, testimonials that speak directly to the results, the transformation that your clients have achieved can be incredibly persuasive. In social media, sharing testimonials on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn is a great way to amplify their reach. You can create graphics featuring your testimonials, or better yet, share videos for even more authenticity and connection. Including testimonials in your email campaigns can boost conversion rates, whether you're sending a newsletter, a promotional email, After a consultation, a relevant testimonial can reinforce your message and encourage your audience to take action the next step on your customer journey in your sales process, use testimonials during consultations or sales pitches or in your workshops or webinars. If you're. Meeting a potential client sharing a few success stories from previous clients can help alleviate their concerns and close the deal at the point of sale or service. So when you're actually doing the sale, if you have a physical location, consider using a Google tap at your register where customers can easily leave a review right after receiving your service. This is a seamless way to collect testimonials when the experience is fresh in your customer's mind. Now, I do all of my services online and when I do them at the very end of the service, I always ask them how their experience was. I asked them what they felt like before, what they felt like after. I asked them about anything they wanted to us to improve and I take that, I record every conversation because I want notes and transcriptions, and I will use that testimonial with their permission as a testimonial on my website or in my content, I'll often take the video, take the transcript. I'll maybe tweak the transcript a little bit, send it to them for for approval. They say yes. And then I'll send them my direct Google my business. My Google Maps link and ask them if they'll post it for me. 9 out of 10 times they say yes, that's amazing and they will post it. Most of the other times, that 10, they just get busy and if I do a gentle reminder, they will do it. You can do this too. Incorporate it right into your process. And then immediately edit and have them ready to go. The other thing you can do that I've done in the past, too, is if you offer a service, you can discount a service until you have enough, uh, social proof, enough testimonials. As part of the discount, they give you a testimonial at the end. So the expectation is you're going to give me feedback with this process. So if you need testimonials and you do not have them and you want to get started, Do that right away, just discount it, whatever that thing that's worth, 25 percent off, 50 percent off. For me, it was 50%. I really wanted to know what the process looked like for them. It was really important. That testimonial is gold. So I took that time and I took that cost, um, savings as part of my investment in that. Collecting testimonials does not have to be a daunting task. Here are some tools that can help. So you have the Google Review link. This is a simple yet effective tool. By sending your clients a direct link to the Google My Business page, you make it easier for them to leave a review. You do not want to make this hard for them. So that's why the Google, um, Tap of the register makes it super easy. Same thing. If you have a follow up email, you could send it there. Um, if you have it at your desk, you could have it there. You could have it in the chat if you are online. Like there are so many ways to make it super easy. You have to like, Make it the easiest it possibly can be so they can share their experience. Um, I also use a program called vouch. Vouch is a great tool for collecting video testimonials. It allows your clients to record short video reviews from their own devices. You can actually ask questions in the video, they can write their notes and then they can share and rerecord as many times as they want so they can feel as comfortable as possible, but really makes the process as straightforward and user friendly for The customer. Testimonial collection cards. These can be a physical or digital, uh, card. A Google tap at the register is an example of a physical card, but you could also create digital cards that have like a QR code or maybe via email or text. They can key in to make it possible for customers to leave feedback for your business. At every single point part of your journey, every single level of service, you should have testimonials that relate directly to those services. So people feel comfortable going to the next level, starting to work with you, whatever that looks like for your service based business. Asking for testimonials can feel a bit awkward. I used to feel this way, but it doesn't have to be. Here's a simple plan that you can follow. Timing is everything. So you want to ask for testimonial when your client is the happiest, right after you've delivered exceptional service or help them achieve some great result. You want to make it easy. So provide a direct link to your review platform. Oftentimes too, like if they don't want to, I, before I even. If I didn't record it for some reason, I will write out what I think were the highlights of the, of the conversation and say, Hey, I am looking to build some credibility on my website so I can help more people. I have summarized our conversation into this particular review, using the keywords and the SEO that matters to my business and said, Hey, I've written this out, would you mind making this your own? Or letting me know it's good to go and I can post it on my website. Also, here's the review link, blah, blah, blah, if you can do it yourself. So giving them some options, but again, taking away the work from them. Most people want to talk about how awesome you are, but they don't have the time. They're busy just like you and I. So the more that we can help them. The better off, the more reviews you're going to have. If you're asking for like a video testimonial, use a tool like Vouch to simplify the process as much for them. Again, you want to guide their response. So some clients might not know what to say in a testimonial. Give them a few prompts or questions to answer. For example, what was your experience like working with us? Or how has our service impacted your business? Always thank your clients for their testimonials. A little appreciation goes a long way in encouraging more reviews in the future as they go through your service and customer journey. Testimonials are more than just nice words on a page, although it's nice to have nice words. They're powerful tools that can build trust, increase conversions, and ultimately grow your business. On top of all of that, as a business owner, as a solopreneur, as somebody who might be working in their business all alone, these testimonials, Our reinforcement that you are doing what you're supposed to be doing, that you are doing the work that matters. It's so good for your confidence when you have testimonials because you know that you're really making a difference. And by strategically placing them in these key areas, the testimonials in these key areas, in using the right tools to gather the testimonials and following a really strong plan to ask for them effectively, you can harness. the full potential of social proof and building your authority in the space. I hope you found these tips to be helpful and I encourage you to start incorporating more testimonials into your marketing strategy today. Remember, if you need help with any of this or other aspects of your branding or digital marketing, don't hesitate to reach out. Thank you so much for tuning into this episode of the Spark Ignite Your Marketing Podcast. Stay tuned for more actionable tips and inspiring conversations. Until next time, keep sparking and igniting.