Podcast Transcript:
Here are four things I bet you didn’t know about testimonials.
Hey, there, I’m Jillian Kendrick and welcome to the Momentum Marketing Podcast. I’m a mama, a wife, an entrepreneur and a three time best selling co-author. In each episode, you’ll get real world, practical advice and strategies and maybe a parenting tip or two along the way. If you’re ready to create a business that supports your family and your lifestyle, then you’re in the right place.
Hey, there, I’m so excited that you’re joining me for this episode of the Momentum Marketing Podcast. We are talking today about four things that you didn’t know when it comes to testimonials.
But before we get into it, head on over to jilliankendrick.com/webinar .
And you can get my latest training, how I get over 600 leads every single month consistently. I would love to show you how I do that. And I promise you, even if you’ve been in the marketing game for a while, even if you’ve been a business owner for a while, even if you have a massive list. I promise you because I’ve gotten this feedback so far you are going to learn things that you have never ever seen before. So whether you are brand new to growing a list and owning a business, you need to start growing your list and getting eyeballs on your offers. Or if you’ve been in this game for a while and your list has grown stagnant and you need a new resurgence of leads. This training is definitely for you.
Also, before we get into the topic at hand, I want to share with you a couple of products that I really, really love. So, of course, I’m going to share my Amazon affiliate links in the description or in the transcription if you’re watching this on youtube or somewhere else.
But honestly, I don’t really care about making $2-3 as much as I care about sharing some really great products with you. So the first one are some pens that I really love are the Sharpie S gel pens. These are some really great pens.They flow really nicely. They feel really good. They’re not ball points, I’m over ball points, y’all. I don’t know if anybody else really loves ballpoint pens, but they’re just not my thing. And I had these other pens for a while that I really liked, but these Sharpies are just magic. They write on everything, they actually do dry. Have you ever had a pen where it seems like the ink doesn’t dry, these will dry and they just write so smoothly. I really love them. So you can see the link below here.
Next product that I love is Lume deodorant. So we’re about to get real personal. I don’t know how many people out there are using deodorant. That’s, that’s up to you. But a lot of modern deodorants contain aluminum and I’m not a doctor, but I have heard. Please correct me if I’m wrong that aluminum can actually be cancer causing, especially for women. So I’ve been looking for a long time for an aluminum free deodorant that actually works. And trust me, I have tried every single one on the market. They’re all garbage except Lume. Lume is truly amazing. It comes in multiple different scents. They have a cream one that you can put on. They have a solid, they have a bunch of different options. They even have body wash and wipes and other really cool stuff. Lume is not to be missed for sure.
It is one of my new favorite products. And I’m like telling everybody about it if you didn’t want to know what kind of deodorant I use now, you know.
And the other product that I absolutely love that I just bought recently is my Encool water bottle. These are stainless steel water bottles. They come with a straw and so they have a straw thing, but they also have a spout where you can pour out or if you’re kind of a germaphobe, I guess two people never mind. But anyway, they’re stainless steel and it’s double walled so it’s not gonna leak all over the place. And what my issue was with my previous plastic water bottles is living in Florida. Everything condensates. If there’s anything that’s cold, it’s going to condensate whether it’s indoors or out doesn’t matter. So my previous water bottles would condensate and then if I forgot to put them on a paper towel or somewhere else, they would be sitting on notes and the notes would get soaking wet and I would lose all my handwritten notes or it would get soaking wet and then ruin my desk. And I just got so fed up with having to deal with this wet water bottle that I was carrying around everywhere when it started leaking. I was like, all right, I’m done with this and I found and Encool my insulated metal water bottle and I really, really like it. It’s so nice. It doesn’t condensate, it doesn’t leak, it has the straw feature, it has the pore feature. They come in a ton of beautiful colors and I will post. Of course, my Amazon affiliate link below. So there are three of my favorite favorite products that I’m using right now. I hope they can benefit you in some way.
Now, on to our topic, let’s talk testimonials. We’re going to talk about four different things. What are the different types of testimonials? Where do you get testimonials? How do you get testimonials? And then most importantly, how do we actually use them? Where are they beneficial?
So first thing types, the different types of testimonials that you can get are verbal or written testimonials and they come in multiple forms. So you can get an audio of a testimonial, you can get a video of somebody doing a testimonial, you can get a written test or think reviews, right? They don’t have to be testimonials necessarily, even just reviews of somebody’s experience can be what I am referring to as a testimonial. So written, video, audio, any of those types and then you can do multiple things with them. You could take a bunch of videos and you could cut the whole testimonial video. You could make sure that they get on Google or Yelp or Amazon or somewhere else. Especially important if you have Google my business or you sell a product. Everybody on Etsy wants reviews of their products, make sure that you’re asking for those things. And we’ll get into all of that in much more detail in the last part.
Next, where do we get them? So it’s pretty obvious, but I’m just going to state it as an ethical business owner. The only place that you should be getting your reviews and testimonials are from purchasers. From verified qualified purchasers or people who have worked with you, period. Now, you can get what we call character testimonials, which would be like me asking a friend of mine, hey, I know we haven’t worked together per se, but you’ve known me for a really long time. You know, my character and my heart and my ethics. Can you please write a testimony or write a review about what you know about me? A character testimony or a character review is pretty much like asking for a referral, somebody that, you know, who knows you well, that you trust who would be willing to vouch for you. So if you’re brand new to business and you don’t have any products sold, you haven’t worked with anybody yet, but you need something to show that you’re a good human being and you are who you say you are. Character testimonials are a great place to start. And then as you get more reviews and testimonies, you can swap those out.
And then as far as the technical piece of where to get testimonies, you want to make sure that you’re asking your clients, your subscribers, your people that you’re asking for these testimonies and reviews from people who have purchased or people who know you. And the best way to do that in my opinion, whether it’s through text message or email or even just going up to them, handing them a cell phone and saying, hey, record right now, you can do that too, but make sure that you’re directing them to where you want that testimony or that review to live. Because if they just verbally tell you, hey, I really love your product or hey, it was so great working with you. You built us an amazing, gorgeous website. Well, that’s wonderful. You can totally use that, you know, on your sales pages or your website or somewhere else. But Google is not going to let you do that. Etsy is not going to let you do that. Amazon, is probably, I would have to verify, but I don’t think Amazon is going to let you do that either.
If you want somebody to write a review for you through Google my business, they themselves have to log in through Google and post that review as them, you can’t post on their behalf. It used to be that you could post reviews on people’s behalf. Gosh, 13-14 years ago, but it’s no longer the case. So wherever you want that testimonial or that review to live, make sure that when you do the ask you’re directing them to that place, send them a proper link. Not just saying, hey, please go to Google and write me a review but send them a proper link of exactly the URL that they would go to and make it as easy for them as possible. Because as we know, if it’s hard for them to buy, they’re not gonna buy, if it’s hard for them to leave a review, they’re not gonna leave that review. So do the leg work yourself and make it as easy, as simple as no brainer. One click sort of thing is possible so that they can be more motivated to leave you a review because it’s not an inconvenience to them. And I think most consumers are like this, but you would have to be like, really, really angry, pissed off or unbelievably excited. Thrilled, amazed and jazzed up to actually sit down at a computer or go and Google that business. Find them, click the review thing, go through that whole process and then leave your nicely or strongly worded comment about their business. So make it just super no brainer as easy as possible. Don’t send them to Google.com. Send them to even the button where they would click to leave a review, make it that easy for them.
So the where and how kind of play into each other. But I’ve sort of already segued into the how you can ask them through text message. You can ask them via email, you can ask them through DMs, you can ask them through social posts, you can ask them on a receipt, you send them a receipt, you send them an invoice, you hand them a receipt after their transaction is done. And on the receipt shows a URL where it says go to this bit link and leave us a review one that I love that. I think a lot of people don’t consider or think of that I just mentioned is if you’re physically in front of that person, hand them your phone and if they want to do a voice recording or if they want to do a video, you just hand them the phone, hand them your cell phone because again, if you ask them to do it and they say, yeah, they’ll definitely get to it. The second they walk away or the second they leave that room, their brain resets and they’re not thinking about your review. I would be thinking about, ok, my son has to take a bath. What, what are we making for dinner? Is the laundry done? What projects are my team working on? How many leads did I get into my webinar this week? I’m thinking about 20 different other things. I’m not thinking about the review that you asked me to leave. Even though my heart might be in the right place or even though you might have the best of intentions to want to leave a review for that person. Even if they’re a neighbor or a friend or a loved one, we still do this because we’re all just so busy. But the best way that you can get the kind of reviews is to do it right there in the moment. I’ve gone to business conferences and have met people where the business was like, hey, we know that you’ve been a partner with us for a while or we know that you’ve used our software or our product. We’d love to get a review for you. Here’s a schedule where you can come back here during the conference and we have a videographer set up in the other room and you can leave a video testimonial. And so then I would go on their calendar or I would set up a time with that person and then I would come back at a specific day and time during the conference to record that video, testimonial.
Or if you’re physically with the person that you want them to leave a testimonial or a review, you can ask them right then and there, hey, if I film you or if you take the phone and you kind of do the selfie thing and film yourself, do you have just 30 seconds to say something really nice about me? And that actually is a great way to do it.
A colleague of mine, he would do this. He would get testimonials this way where he would hand somebody, his phone, the phone was already turned on, the camera app was already opened and it was already switched to video and it was already on the reverse camera so that they didn’t have to fumble through his phone to get to the camera and click the reverse camera button. It was already set up for them. He would hand them the phone in the direction that they would receive it and be looking at it. Not, oh, I’m looking at my phone and then I hand it to somebody and when they grab it it’s backwards. You know what I mean?
So, he was really strategic about, have it already ready on the camera app and hand it to them in the specific direction that they would be looking at it and then they see themselves and then they’re like, oh, hey, I’m looking good. I’m going to do this on camera. Or maybe they’ll tell you that they don’t want to. That’s ok too. But what he would do then is he would have them kind of selfie hold up the camera or even he would hold the camera for them and just tell them to like click record. And then what he would do is he would hold their hand. They would be in like an angled talking head, so to speak and either they would hold the camera or he would, and they would then do their quick 30 second testimonial holding his hand. Which let me tell you is very, very subliminal, subconscious, but very, very powerful psychology of having that physical touch, extremely, incredibly powerful. Now, obviously, he would ask their permission to hold their hand, please just don’t go up to random people holding up a camera and holding their hand without their permission. But he would ask their permission first. He would hold up the camera out or they would, and then they would click the record and take a quick 30 second review or testimonial for him. And it was so incredibly powerful. Some of the best reviews that he’s ever gotten came this way. It was awesome. So that’s another great way that you can get testimonials or reviews.
But wherever you want that thing to live, that’s where it has to go because even if you’re going to use it on a landing page or a sales page or you’re going to use it in your marketing material, you could just go to Google or you can go to Etsy or you can go to Amazon or you can go to Facebook or you can go to wherever and copy paste, that testimonial or screenshot that testimonial, but you can’t post it on their behalf on all of those sites. So if you want it to live somewhere where they have to physically do it, make sure you’re directing them to the right place. So that’s really where and how and again, the how is you can text them, you can email them, you can DM them, make sure that you include the proper and then how to use them.
How do you actually use testimonials, Amazon, Etsy, Facebook, Google. Those ones are kind of obvious for Google my business listing. They’re going to have a place where people can look at reviews and see a star rating and that one’s really obvious and I mentioned a few others already. So you can use them on your sales page in your presentations. You can use them in a webinar. You can use them on landing pages, you can use them on your website. You can use them in your marketing. You can use them on your product packaging. You can use them in videos, you can use them in audio. Really the sky is the limit. Anywhere that you are going to get eyeballs on what you’re promoting and what you’re selling and you want to build some authority. That’s where your testimonial goes.
Another type of testimonial that I probably should have mentioned first, but that’s OK is what we refer to as borrowed testimony. A borrowed testimony is rather than someone else saying, well, I believe in you or I believe in your product. Here’s the results that you got for me rather than them saying it. A borrowed testimony is you the business owner or the product or the person or the sales person believing in them, the client, the customer, the purchaser, the lead your ability to believe in them and say, I believe in you. I know you can do this. I see this in you. I can see how happy you’re going to be when you buy this car. Borrowed testimony is so incredibly powerful because when we don’t believe in ourselves as human beings, other people’s belief in us is usually enough to light the flame and get that kick start of us starting to believe in ourselves. And that’s really all testimonials and reviews are for. Is we want to know that someone else has done it. Someone else has gone through the process. Someone else has achieved the result, gotten the thing or bought an amazing leak proof water bottle that doesn’t condensate and ruin all of my notes, right? We want to know that somebody else has bought the thing that somebody else has had the transformation. That somebody else has been where I’ve been. Done, what I want to do or I’m going to do or I’m thinking about doing and then have gotten and achieved the thing that I want. But if the buyer or the decision maker doesn’t see it, they don’t see themselves, they don’t trust themselves. And it could be for a multitude of reasons. I’ve bought other water bottles before. I’ve tried other products. I’ve done other programs. I’ve seen other things and it didn’t work for me. Then why should it work for me? Now, there’s all sorts of stories as to why these things might not work or the story that we tell ourselves of why we fail again.
But borrowed testimony, someone else’s belief in us is enough to be the spark plug to light the flame that starts to create that belief within ourselves or within the purchaser or the decision maker. So if you’re just starting out in business and you don’t have any reviews or testimonies, you can use character reviews or you can use borrowed testimony as two different strategies until you have enough clients and customers that you can start asking for those reviews and get those testimonies in.
I would also say just as a side note from being an agency owner, there are two different strategic times based on the type of business that you have where you’ll want to ask for these testimonies or reviews. The first, let’s say you have a product. Well, you can’t really ask somebody for a review or a testimonial until they’ve purchased the product or they’ve been given enough time to actually use and experience that product. My water bottle that I really, really love. I bought this a couple of weeks ago. The day after I buy it is probably not the right time to ask me for her review. But now that it’s been like a few days or even a week, that’s enough sufficient time. The deodorant example, I don’t know right after I buy it if it’s actually going to work, but after I’ve had a week or two to use it, now, I know that it works and I can share my testimony on it. So if you’re a product based business, that’s the strategy that I would use. I would wait until somebody has bought or experienced the product and then give them enough time, sufficient time to use and gain trust in your product to then ask for a review or a testimony. If you’re like me and you’re an agency owner and you receive services. Well, it might depend on the type of service that you have, but I typically will ask for a testimony or review early on. I won’t wait until the end of a relationship to ask for a testimony because a few of our clients have been with us for five plus years and I don’t want to have to wait five years, years or longer. I want them to stay.
We’d like reoccurring revenue, but I don’t want to wait until the end of that relationship to ask for a review or a testimony. Because what if that relationship goes south? I’m just one person. I can guarantee that every single business that’s ever worked with us hasn’t left with starry eyes and smiling faces. That’s just the nature of business. And so I don’t want to wait until the end of a relationship to have asked for the reviewer’s testimony. So what we do in our business is we will actually on board that client, do kind of like a quick project for them, get them really, really happy and jazzed up. Then we ask for the testimony, then we go on to do the bigger stuff. And the reason that I do that is, yeah, I don’t want to waste the time.
I don’t want to miss the opportunity, but I also don’t want to leave things up to the possibility that the relationship might not work out because not a real relationship is great in business before I’m asking for that testimony. So we always do a quick win, quick, super happy jazzed up project for them initially. And then we go on to the bigger stuff and that’s when we ask for a testimony.
That’s all I’ve got for you today on testimonials and reviews. Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of the Momentum Marketing Podcast. If listening to this has brought you value improved your life or given you any insight to help you build your own momentum in your business, and please share it with a friend and I’ll see you on our next episode.
The Momentum Marketing Podcast
By Jillian Kendrick
Episode: # 20
Topic: 4 Testimonial Secrets
Contact: hello@jilliankendrick.com
Follow IG: instagram.com/automatedmama
jilliankendrick.com/webinar
