Hannah Samuel How to Make Client Testimonials and Endorsements Work Harder in 2014.........
Imagine you've just received a fabulous testimonial from a superbly happy client. What do you do with it? Add it to
the testimonials page on your website? Put it in a ‘happy clients’ file? If you're anything like most business people you
probably won't do anything with it, ever.
Research shows testimonials and endorsements can be between eight and ten times more powerful than traditional
advertising, yet few businesses and individuals use them effectively to help position themselves as credible candidates
or service providers.
Not only do testimonials lend serious credibility, they can also dramatically reduce the amount of effort and money
you spend on advertising and promotion. So making testimonials work harder is essential to growing your business
and credibility without spending a cent.
Make them work harder by using them in far more places, and many more ways, than a conventional ‘testimonials’
page on your website. Consider placing them in or on:
Every page of your website - Ensure there's at least one testimonial on each page of your website so no matter what
page someone is on, they'll see what others are saying about you (especially if they fail to click on the 'Testimonials'
page).
Your testimonials page - This almost goes without saying and is absolutely essential, but you may be surprised how
infrequently testimonial pages are updated. Ensuring you have recent testimonials on your website will also help your
search engine optimisation.
The back of your business card - Stop promoting your features and benefits, or worse, leaving your business card
blank. Instead let a happy client explain why they think whoever you give your business card to should get in touch
with you.
Your email signature - Add a short testimonial (perhaps changing it monthly) alongside your contact details to turn
your email signature into a significantly more powerful promotional tool.
Printed and digital newsletters – Short extracts of feedback from two or three clients positioned effectively in a
newsletter can enhance both the readability of the newsletter and any call-to-action responses.
Fliers, brochures and advertisements - Stop talking about yourself and let others speak for you! Ensure at least 30-
40% of the space available is taken up by testimonials from happy clients.
Proposals and pitch documents - Again, back-up what you're saying about how marvellous you think you are by
including relevant feedback from others at appropriate points throughout the document.
Annual and other reports - If you report regularly to a board or any kind of stakeholder group, include plenty of
testimonials to demonstrate just how great you are and remind the people you're reporting to continue to support,
recommend or fund you.
Invoices and Estimates - A single, powerful testimonial on an invoice or estimate is a powerful reminder of why the
company or person about to pay the bill should engage or pay promptly without you having to spell it out directly.
Posters for your wall - Seeing a growing range of positive testimonials every day will be an encouragement to you to
continue doing a really great job and also provide a sense of assurance to visitors to your workplace.
This isn’t designed to be an exhaustive list but a prompt to help you think about where you might benefit from
including or displaying testimonials and endorsements. Be creative! Ask yourself 'could a testimonial enhance this?'
and if the answer is 'Yes' and you have permission to use it from the person who gave it to you, then add one in!
After all, it’s the most powerful advertising you can have.
Hannah Samuel CSP speaks, writes and mentors worldwide on reputation, trust and
integrity issues. She was President, National Speakers Association New Zealand
2009 to 2011, a Global Speakers Federation Representative 2008 to 2013 and five
time NSANZ award winner including 'Speaker of the Year 2012’.
http://www.hannahsamuel.com | [email protected] or phone + 64 9 419 4249