If you don’t use testimonials and case studies in your marketing communications, you’re missing a trick.
We get so many sales messages bombarding us these days, that we see through most ‘marketing speak’. As consumers, we know you are after the money in our pockets, and we don’t want to give it to you (unless you really can convince us you provide what we want).
But, if someone exactly like us says: “Hey, I used so-and-so and they were really good!”, we are much more likely to buy.
As a supplier, it’s all very well sharing testimonials that say: “Thank you, you were great.” It gives you a warm fuzzy feeling when clients tell you that. But it doesn’t help your marketing as it doesn’t tell the whole story to potential customers.
What you really need is a testimonial in the format of problem : solution : results. As Lesley Morrissey commented last time I wrote about testimonials, people buy results.
In the client’s own words, start with the situation before you got involved, explain what you did to help them, and finally what results you achieved. For example: “I needed an electrician to fix the faulty lighting in my kitchen. Acme Electrics did a wonderful job at an affordable price. Now I can see what I’m cooking!”
Interviewing the clients of my clients to write testimonials for them is one of the services I provide. Please contact me for more information.