5 easy ways to use customer testimonials in your marketing efforts today

This is a guest post from our friend, Jordan Wahl, of G2 Crowd 

Let’s face it – building strong brand equity isn’t easy nor can it be done alone.

It’s more than the work of one mastermind, and it’s more than the success of one big marketing campaign (as nice as that sounds).

To be quite honest with you, establishing that solid brand and reputation takes time – it takes an army.

And your front line? It’s customers – the best advocates of your brand.

If you haven’t incorporated your loyal customers into any of your marketing initiatives yet, you might want to reconsider (okay, you definitely want to reconsider).

There are plenty of ways to incorporate customers into your marketing strategy, but one stands out among them all. So to get you started, I’m here to tell you how you can easily leverage one of your most powerful weapons: customer testimonials.

How to use customer testimonials

While there are countless ways to leverage customer testimonials in your marketing plan, I’ll cover six simple methods that will have you winning over potential customers in no time.

1. Put testimonials on your homepage

This is probably one of the most common places you see businesses displaying customer testimonials. Why? Because once on a company’s homepage, 86 percent of visitors want to see information about the product or service. So, why not start with what existing customers love most about your product? I would.

This is a simple, yet effective way to give visitors a reason to keep exploring your site, and ultimately, your product or service.

Birchbox provides a great example of how to use customer testimonials on your homepage. If you scroll down to the bottom of their homepage, there are several testimonials from real customers about their favorite Birchbox products. Additionally, they feature a call-to-action (CTA) that allows visitors to learn more about their service subscription – a great segue to the important product information.

2. Create a customer testimonial page

While having a few customer testimonials on your homepage is a good way to spark interest, some people might want to learn a little bit more about what it is exactly that customers love about your product or service. That being said, having a dedicated page on your website is an easy way to allow potential customers to see feedback on your product from existing customers.

99 Designs’ testimonial page is a great example of how to easily compile your customer testimonials and make them not only available to the public but also searchable for visitors who are looking for information on specific categories or industries.

3. Share them on social media

When it comes to using customer testimonials on social media, the options are endless.

Testimonials are generally short quotes, making them great for sharing on platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Similarly, when you receive positive feedback from your customers directly on the social media platform, engage! Retweet them, feature them on your Instagram and Facebook stories, or create a longer post highlighting them on LinkedIn. Doing so allows you to reach your target audience quickly and it encourages engagement with your brand.

HubSpot simply retweeted one of its customers, sharing the testimonial with its network which then caused others to retweet and share with their networks, too. It’s a simple snowball effect resulting in effortless brand exposure.

The best part about this particular strategy? It’s free and easy to do! It doesn’t take a lot of additional planning or development like some of the other strategies, so it’s a great way to jumpstart using testimonials in your marketing efforts right away.

4. Use them in case studies

Case studies are more detailed accounts of how a business helped a customer, typically including testimonials and other information on the transformation that the customer underwent on their journey.

That being said, they really give you a chance to sell the reader on what life is like before and after your product.

Actually, case studies are great for buyers who are nearing the end of their buying journey as they give a more in-depth look – more reassurance, if you will – at the benefits and effects of your product or service.

In a BigCommerce case study, the company used testimonials from its customer, Jeep People, to highlight the important data points – the spike in conversion rate and increased revenue – that give potential customers a clear idea of what they can expect if they too switch to BigCommerce.

5. Use testimonials in top-of-funnel content

While some might say that testimonials should only be used in content targeting those further along in the sales funnel, I’d have to disagree.

Sure, testimonials help potential customers make the final decision between the products they’ve been considering, but what about the initial decision to even consider a product?

There have been times that I’m not even in the market for a product but I see a raving review from a customer about a product. This not only entices me to check out the product but it also leaves me considering actually trying it because of the testimonial.

Keeping that in mind, use testimonials in top-of-funnel content! Whether it be in blogs or shareable video content, using testimonials in this content enables you to reach potential customers early on and it sparks interest – sometimes enough to convince them to try your product.

Mailshake’s success stories section of its blog is a great example of how to incorporate testimonials into your blog strategy. And you can even turn sections of these blogs into videos and voila – you have great video content for your social media channels.

Other ways to use customer testimonials

While these are just a few of the ways to can utilize testimonials in your marketing strategy right away, I’d encourage you to try others! Use them in advertising, in email marketing campaigns, or even in your sales process. Be creative – the marketing world is your oyster.