Customer testimonials are a powerful way to convey your company’s capabilities and strengths. Unfortunately, many testimonials are buried in the middle of a website on a testimonials page instead of featured front and center. How can you harness the power of testimonials to work for your B2B content marketing strategy?

Understand Your Why

Testimonials provide powerful social proof and social proof is a key ingredient in converting leads into sales. Before you gather testimonials, however, make sure you understand what you are trying to accomplish with them and who you are targeting in an organization. If you’re trying to sell a specific product, make sure the testimonial addresses what the buyer’s issue was and how your product filled the need or solved the problem. Think of the testimonial like you would a case study: The more specific the better.

Be Genuine

Testimonials that feel forced or phony can be a huge turnoff. The key to acquiring genuine testimonials is to ask the right questions. Asking customers to simply write a testimonial with no guidance often leaves them struggling to come up with the right words. Some may neglect to turn in a testimonial at all and others may come back with a very generic reply. Copyblogger recommends 6 questions to ask for powerful testimonials, including asking about the obstacle that spurred them to buy your product or service in the first place, the specific features they like, and the specific results they’ve seen as a result of using your product or service.
I also like their final question: Is there anything you’d like to add? We always ask this, and more often than not, the customer will offer something we hadn’t thought of.

Fill the Gaps

In our experience working with B2B companies, we’ve been able to harness the power of testimonials in a variety of ways, both in online and print. Here’s a nice list for inspiration from the Content Marketing Institute:
• Blogs
• Case studies
• Services/product pages
• Next to calls to action
• Social media posts
• Print marketing materials
• Email marketing campaigns
• Dedicated testimonials page on your website
• Video testimonials

Keep Your Eyes Wide Open

You should also monitor the web for testimonials through Google Alerts to see what others are saying about your company on review websites like TripAdvisor and Yelp. You can also use testimonials to build up your employees by giving shout-outs in response to good deeds. Companies who don’t monitor online reviews and recommendations are at a serious disadvantage. One really bad review that isn’t responded to properly can do a lot of damage – before someone even reaches out to your company.

If you’re short on time to gather testimonials, consider automating or outsourcing the project so that quality testimonials can be captured.

Need help? Contact 3 Aspens Media today, and we’ll help you communicate the right message to the right audience on the right platform.