Marketing Gold: 3 ways to leverage testimonials when clients don’t leave Google reviews
Photography business testimonials remain a powerful tool in our marketing arsenal. Why? It’s always more believable if someone endorses you versus you endorsing yourself. It means someone other than you (or your mom) interacted with you and found it worthwhile to do so. Testimonials are underpinned by the concept of social proof. Being social animals, we trust and use the opinion of others to help us make our choices.
Online reviews are the new personal testimonial
The Internet has evolved personal testimonials into a new form: the online review. You can find a review of just about any business and every product through Google, Amazon, GoodReads and the list goes on. There is usually a star or number rating and the ability to leave comments. We want to gain good reviews and avoid bad ones. We want lots of good reviews. We even leave and receive reviews on individual posts we make or interact with. Our likes, loves, angry faces etc are ratings, aren’t they?
So what if your clients aren’t leaving reviews for you, even after you’ve asked or reminded? Here are 3 ways you can still leverage testimonial marketing:
Use what clients DO give you
Some testimonials are hidden in plain view. After a session, I send a thank you email and direct my clients to their image gallery where I have dropped a highlight image. I often get a response with praise; thanking me, saying they loved the photo, can’t wait to see more, it was great working with me. Even after being so happy and being prompted, many fail to leave a formal review. I would let it go because I believe testimonials are a bonus, and they already expressed to me personally how happy they were in their email message. Oh, wait! Their email IS a review! Once I had that aha, all I did was email back and ask if I could use their kind words in my website and social channels. Was easy to get a yes back. Sometimes, that action even prompted people to leave a formal review, but even if they didn’t, I had something to use.
Diversity is key. While it’s great to have reviews on large search engines like Google, there are many spots where reviews can be placed to help in your booking efforts. I have one in my email signature. I have a few on my wedding sales page. I use them as pull-out quotes in blogs. You can use them in socials, in email newsletters, in client guides, even on invoices to reinforce confidence in paying you those large sums of money!
2. Be remarkable
To be remarkable is to make people want to remark about something. That means it has to get attention and be exceptional. I recently came across a stellar review on a community FB page, for a local Italian restaurant. A couple booked for an anniversary dinner and they were surprised with a glass of wine and a dessert at the end. Find ways of surprising and delighting clients that they would be compelled to say something. Even if a review like that one hadn’t found its way to the Internet, remember that word of mouth is a private review to a private network and is like the part of the iceberg that’s under the water - 10x bigger than what is visible because it is highly personal. That couple may have left one online review but I bet they told all their friends and family in person too, when recounting their anniversary evening.
Realize that fulfilling service to expectation may not be remarkable enough to trigger a review. Why? Because people don’t notice satisfaction. They notice extremes. When you walk outside and the weather is average, you don’t pay that much attention. A skin-melting heat wave or into a full-on snowstorm? Remarkable. Exceptional happenings are like secrets - it’s hard to keep them to ourselves! If you go somewhere and the service is remarkably bad, you can’t wait to go online and tell everyone so they don’t waste their money going there. If you go somewhere and something incredible happened, same! Satisfaction goes under the radar and thus so can the review.
How can you be remarkable? Being obsessively caring for your clients, unexpected and delightful gestures, genuine ways to make their lives easier, crafting a beautiful experience for them. My Little Luxuries guide offers additional insights into crafting a remarkable brand and business.
3. Be the change you want to see
How often do you leave reviews for businesses you have patronized or services you have used? If you might believe a phrase like what goes around comes around, be the person you want your clients to be and leave honest and timely reviews for those you’ve interacted with. Might spur some movement within the universe with the concept of reciprocation: Give testimonials unto others as you would like to have testimonials given unto you. It can also help you get insights into what prevents your clients from leaving reviews. Have you intended to and forgotten? Have you not had the right words? Did you feel it was too late and it would be odd to leave a review if it wasn’t immediate? Walk in the testimonial shoes to find your pain points and it might spur some solutions.
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