It’s easy to get caught up moving from one sale or project to the next and not take the time to go back and get a testimonial from a client. However, taking that time can really help you grow your business by increasing brand credibility, driving leads, closing sales and selling more to existing clients. In a recent CMI/MarketingProfs study, B2B content marketers reported a 70% effectiveness rate for case studies in their campaigns. Here are six ways you can use testimonials or case studies to grow your business:
- Put them on your website – a short testimonial quote or a full case study or possibly even make a video. This gives your brand credibility as a reputable professional organisation with proven results and, consequently, warm leads and helps close sales. Won’t hurt your SEO efforts either.
- Put them in your sales materials – not only in your brochures and flyers but also, most importantly, develop a selection of case studies/testimonials that you can choose from to put into sales proposals and presentations. Proven work and results help confirm why the prospect should buy from you particularly when the examples are relevant to their service/product type and/or industry.
- Write a PR article based on the case study (if it’s a really different or interesting one) or the service/product topic and use the case study or testimonial to demonstrate results. You can then utilise this to get coverage in some media publications and/or post on article sites or through associations like the ABN.
- Write a blog based on the case study or the topic related to it with testimonial quotes included. This is a good chance for you to demonstrate your position as a thought leader in the area and get some credibility for your business.
- A snapshot in your newsletter – This will not only please the client the case study came from, giving their business some promotion, but also reinforce your value to other clients and prospects and encourage additional sales.
- Use it as part of a content marketing campaign – It can be a downloadable flyer or an e-guide of relevant case studies or even a video. There are lots of ways to creatively use a case study or testimonial to demonstrate to prospects your proven abilities, expertise and reasons why they should choose to buy from you. Don’t forget to include a marketing funnel to drive anyone who downloads to convert, i.e., join your mailing list, take up an offer, make a sale, etc.
Testimonials and case studies are gold for helping new prospects perceive you as credible and reputable so they are more comfortable purchasing whilst also reinforcing your value and other offerings to existing clients. When marketing your testimonials and case studies, make sure you think outside the box because there are many ways to repurpose this great piece of content to drive real results for your business. For most organisations we find the company testimonials and case studies fall down at the collection point rather than the marketing point. You can’t put them to good use if you don’t collect them. Our advice is to set up a process and schedule – know at what point, e.g. after invoicing, that you are to request the case study/ testimonial and develop a process for collection, writing and getting approval – then have a marketing plan for the channels to launch it. If it’s all too hard or you just aren’t optimising your testimonials, then give Blaze Marketing a call and we will help you maximise your testimonials to grow your business.
