The Art of Client Praise: three ways to Level Up Testimonials Beyond Online Reviews
Last week on the blog I talked about 3 ways to use testimonials if clients haven’t left a Google review. This week, I am encouraging you to go deeper and use the art of client praise as a strategic tool in your business. Testimonials are powerful because they come from other people but we don’t realize that we can take them to the next level. Do you want to be this kind of thinker and marketer that can make a positive impact in your business? Train your mind to see the opportunities where others don’t, by continuing to educate yourself on marketing.
Don’t let testimonials collect dust
A client has left you a review somewhere, and the traditional thought is to display it by either adding it to the website or embedding it into our website from a third party such as Google. Have you done anything more with testimonials other than displaying them? Yes, they are helpful to those seeking feedback on your services, but otherwise sitting there collecting dust. We treat them as a passive element and maybe they feel a bit untouchable because they are someone else’s words and not yours. But we want to be booked, right? We must squeeze every benefit out of what positive things we have, to get us to where we want to be. Here are 3 things ways you can level up photography testimonials beyond online reviews:
Find themes to support your brand
We love receiving testimonials and we get a self-esteem boost, but have you ever taken any time to sit down and digest what people have actually said and used that information to deepen your brand communication? Let’s think about it this way. When we first start our business, we don’t have many clients, so we have to create our brand and ideal client profile from very little outside information. We include what we believe is value in our brand and communicate that to the people we believe we want to serve, in our website and socials and advertising. Once you have some client reviews coming in, it’s important to check that your brand aligns with the service you gave and the person you wanted to work with. It allows you to use real feedback to refine and adjust your messaging and it can alert you to new possibilities.
For example, I received 2 reviews where both clients used the word magical. This word isn’t part of my brand vocabulary. Having 2 clients use it alerted me. While I haven’t added it as a formal word to be using on my website, I do sometimes add it to client communications when responding to an inquiry, and I also think about how to make the experience more magical for my clients. So what is it that I did to make them feel magical? The one bride said I captured her day in a magical way and went on to say that she loved seeing the emotion on everyone’s faces and so many hugs. So to her, the magic was in capturing the emotional displays. This feedback has lead me to pay even more attention to wedding moments like guests greeting each other, and getting their reactions during a ceremony.
Use reviews/ testimonials as a feedback mechanism or report card to be turned into gold!
2. Extrapolate success factors
In business circles, success factors or KPI’s — key performance indicators — are analytics that help you measure the level of success. Often they are tangible numbers such as the number or amount of sales for an organization or how many new clients within a certain time frame. But there are businesses for whom impact — qualitative data — is better suited than quantitative. For us, it may be somewhat helpful to have stats for how many clients used our services or how many sales over a certain threshold we had, but it’s much more helpful to demonstrate success in less tangible ways. The stars on reviews is one of these ways. Have you ever used your review rating in any marketing? For example, creating a post saying you feel such gratitude that you have a 5.0 review rating and your aim is to always keep it that way?
Another way is to glean information from reviews and aggregate into success factors. 80% of dads reported the the experience was better than they thought it would be. Now that’s a great stat, considering how many men/ dads/ grooms usually hate getting their photo taken! Look at your reviews, and tease out elements to qualify, quantify and validate your services and use as social proof.
3. Use non-traditional testimonials
I have had several clients comment that their children asked when I was coming back. So I created this quote that’s on my family page:
“When is Lucy coming over again?”
— Young daughter of a family session client
A child didn’t submit it, but I used what they actually said as a testimonial. It’s fun and endearing and also truthful because I do tend to be able to create a natural rapport with kids. That’s part of my brand, so it’s an added reinforcement to demonstrate that the kids feel it too. Listen and look for ways to be creative with what people say. If you overhear a husband saying to his wife during the session that this is actually kind of fun, create a testimonial that reads: “OVERHEARD: Man tells wife he actually had fun during my session!” Or how about if you’re a pet photographer? Getting drooly licks and crazy wags are noteworthy! Write a testimonial from the dog’s perspective “I really loved the treats she brought, because I begged her for them constantly.” Observe your session for testimonial-worthy moments and infuse your brand with the spirit of those made-up testimonials as pointers to your brand promises.
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