Turning Testimonials Into Your Strongest Marketing Assets

Testimonials have become the digital version of word-of-mouth marketing, increasing brand awareness and credibility throughout the online world. It’s no secret that online reviews are a crucial part of marketing. A lot of marketers think the work stops here. However, collecting positive reviews is only the first step. The challenge continues with finding the creative inspiration to use positive testimonials throughout your business’s marketing efforts. 

Let’s break down the best ways you can use testimonials in your marketing:

1. Website Pop-Ups

All your business’s marketing and communications efforts lead back to your website. As the hub of all your marketing, your business’s website is where your target audience will learn in detail who you are, who you serve and what you do. Most importantly, your website should explain why your target audience should care. The way you tell your business’s story will have the biggest impact on the overall engagement. In fact, 82% of consumers find online reviews more authentic and influential than marketing claims. Your website is the best place to showcase the strongest snippets of your positive reviews. Written content should be meaningful, but also concise. To maximize engagement with your testimonials, the ideal length should be under 50 words. Pop-ups and website banners throughout your core website pages are the best placement as these pages will get the most website visitors monthly. 

2. Email Content

Email is a leading communication channel within every industry. The key to including testimonials within content is to be mindful of your audience. If your business’s email database is segmented into sub-audiences (i.e. active customers, past customers, etc.), the email content to each of these audience lists should correlate with how they use your business. A testimonial from a returning customer about the service quality will bring in much more engagement from potential customers. This is why it’s important to collect testimonials from different types of consumers. 

3. Video Testimonials

With TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels, short video content has become the leading preferred form of content from online consumers. Video content within 60-90 seconds receives the highest engagement rate across all video-based channels. For example, a call-to-action within a video produces 380% more clicks than linked text. The reason for this spike in engagement stems from evoking more visual emotion. Video testimonials are a chance to get more personal with your audience — showing first-hand experiences with your services Strategically select returning customers with deep ties, unique stories and an outgoing personality. 

Bonus Tip:

The best part of video testimonials is that they can be repurposed throughout all your business’s marketing channels!

4. Social Media Carousels

Social media is a great channel to share testimonials. With so many features and post types, it might be confusing to know the best format. On average, Instagram Carousels are the highest engaging post type on Instagram (yes, even including Instagram Reels). With up to 10 photos included, carousels are a great opportunity to tell your business’s story through testimonial snippets. When designing your posts, keep in mind:

• Don’t make the fonts too small — instead limit the word count to keep a larger text size
• Colorful backgrounds will stand out more in feeds
• Keep consistent with your school’s brand
• Watch out for contrast — Overlapping text and images can make it hard to read

5. Paid Advertising 

Paid advertising should go hand-in-hand with your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. Reviews and testimonials play a large role in your business’s online reputation. Search engines don’t want to lead searchers to bad results so they look for “trust signals” while scanning and ranking content in search results. Short, keyword-rich testimonials could potentially make great display advertising graphics or highly-designed elements on your landing pages.

6. Case Study Blogs

Website blog feeds are often used as a news channel – sharing updates, announcements and event recaps — but they can be much more than that. Most other marketing and communications channels have a user expectation of short and concise key pieces of information. Case Study blogs are a great way to share longer-form testimonials mixed with information regarding your mission, services and community ties. Not only will they be useful in the sales process, but these case studies will add great SEO value to your website.

CONTACTING THE EXPERTS

Let Katava Marketing handle your digital marketing so you can focus on what’s more important: your business. Contact us today to learn how we can help!