You Can! Inspiring Women In Business
The Real Currency Of Business: The Power of Testimonials & Reviews
Fri, 07 Feb 2025
Want to boost trust, attract more clients, and grow your business effortlessly?In this episode, we’re diving deep into why testimonials and reviews are your REAL currency in business—and how to start leveraging them today.You'll learn:✅ Why testimonials are essential for credibility, conversions, and long-term success✅ How to start collecting reviews (even if you haven’t had clients yet!)✅ The exact questions to ask for powerful, results-driven testimonials✅ Where to store and showcase them for maximum impact—Google My Business, Trustpilot & beyond✅ Proven strategies to turn client feedback into a marketing goldmine🎁 FREE RESOURCE: Grab my Testimonial Question Guide to make collecting testimonials simple and effective - send an email to [email protected] with the title 'Testimonial Guide'If you're ready to elevate your business with social proof, hit play now! And don’t forget—if you love this episode, leave a review (because reviews matter here too! 😉).🔗 Subscribe, share, and tag me on instagram @sarah_jolleyjarvis—I’d love to hear your biggest takeaway! 🚀Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/you-can-inspiring-women-in-business/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Chapter 1: What is the main topic of this episode?
Hello and welcome to the You Can Podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Jolly Jarvis, and today we're talking around why testimonials and reviews are the real currency within your business. The thing is here is, wow, that's a bit of a claim, you know, like really, you know, to keep the lights on, you need revenue. Yes, you do. But what actually can drive that revenue?
Chapter 2: Why are testimonials considered the real currency in business?
What can help people feel confident in making that decision to work with you? That can be your testimonials. You can't buy them. They're things that are genuine. Well, As long as you don't make them up, but that's a totally different story. And I 100% advise you not to do that. But, you know, they are your proof that what you are saying actually you can deliver on.
And those testimonials, you know, the more clients now come to me and I'm like, Google reviews, get your feedback, get that feedback onto platforms, which is easily accessible for potential clients. People want to do their due diligence. They want to feel confident that they're making the right decision. And I do not blame them.
There are so many claims going around on the internet, particularly with online businesses.
The claims that they're making, particularly within that sort of coaching world, are so unsubstantiated and so extreme that it makes a lot more sense to make sure that every scrap of evidence you've got that actually you can deliver on what you're saying is there for them to take note of and to feel reassured by.
So, you know, whenever somebody is working with me, whenever they start off working with me, we look at what resources they already have. And one of those key things is always testimonials. Have you got proof that what you want to sell, you can actually deliver on, you can actually provide?
If they don't, and if that's what you're thinking, then we're going to go into that in a little bit more detail in a minute. But if you don't have the evidence, all is not lost. There are ways to get them. That generally means working with people in return for testimonials, but not always. But as I say, we'll come on to that in a minute.
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Chapter 3: How can I collect testimonials even without clients?
So I'm going to share with you how to get those testimonials, whether you... have had clients or not, what to ask, where to store them and how to use them effectively. Because I bet you a lot of you are going, you know what, I have testimonials, but I don't really know how to use them, where to use them. And so we're going to be sharing all that in today's episode. So why do they matter?
They are social proof, as I've already talked around. They are the proof that you are able to deliver on what you're promising. It helps people trust you. OK, beyond that, I believe that actually it can be a great way to access and to engage your audience. For example, you know, people always remember stories and so it's easier to provide information in story format.
I have a client who is very high end considering what he does. And so people come to him, they're expecting him to be paid by the hour ad hoc and instead he puts together packages which provide the outcome that they're looking for. And within that, he provides them straight from the get-go.
Chapter 4: What are effective strategies to use testimonials?
As soon as he finds out what problem they're experiencing, he provides them with a case study with evidence that this can happen. Now, he does that for a number of reasons. He does that because it shows that person, it gives them belief that actually this problem can be resolved. They've got long-term problems. And so...
You know, how can they, over time, your belief that actually this can change your circumstance, this can change, begins to waver. And so he gets them right up there with going, you know what, here's the evidence that actually you can go from where you are. Actually, you can go from a position which is worse than what you are and you can be fully recovered. And so that sets that belief off.
But it also means that that individual is able to relate to that story rather than feeling accused. So what I mean by that is when you put out social media posts, again, I'll come on to this in a bit. I love just jumping ahead, don't I? But when you put out social media posts and you share with them that this individual went from this problem, they did this and they got this outcome.
It's much, much better. It's more powerful. It gets rid of any emotion around that person feeling accused. If you were to say, hey, you, I believe that you are this, this, this, and this. You're not confident. You're not at your best. They're probably likely to start feeling a little bit on their guard, a little... a little bit like they are being got at. And so they're going to get defensive.
And with defensive, they stop listening because they start getting offended. They're not taking on the information in a positive way. They're seeing it as a dig at them. And you want to avoid that as much as possible. You don't want to be calling out your clients. You don't want to make them feel bad. You want to give them hope. And that is what you can do with testimonials. You
You've also got, it's a conversation starter. It's a point of reference. I talk about my ideal client, Jenny, a lot. She isn't a testimonial, but she is an example of a situation that people are in when they come to me. My ideal client is Jenny because I talk about ideal clients a lot. My ideal client is Jenny and this is the scenario she's been in.
And the amount of people who go, oh, you know what? I'm just, I'm basically Jenny. And so being able for people to relate to that, it starts that conversation. I know when they say that exactly the situation they are in. There are also SEO benefits to testimonials because Google, Google My Business, Trustpilot, they help your business appear in searches.
If you are feeding that Google My Business, if you are feeding your Google profile, then obviously you're going to get more hits. You're going to appear higher up.
when people search on those search terms which are relevant to your business so well well worth it the other thing is is testimonials are essential if you are in it for the long term okay because they will deliver for you time and time again now i do meet people sadly who they are in it to make as much money in a short period of time deliver as little as possible and then make a run for it to another little lucrative pool which they will do the same thing in um
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Chapter 5: When should I start collecting testimonials?
Chapter 6: How do testimonials enhance SEO for my business?
It doesn't matter if you think, oh gosh, but I'm only on week three with this person. You know, I've got another eight weeks. So what I should really do is wait till the end. The problem is, is that the biggest change happens in the first few weeks. You are a new thing. You are creating change quite quickly. So the effect is quite, it's quite a steep learning curve to start off with.
And then people tend to plateau a bit because they've picked up that information, they've learned that information. And then it's between juggling client meetings, managing your website, keeping up to date with everyday tasks. Who has time to stress about website security?
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Chapter 7: What common mistakes should I avoid when asking for testimonials?
it's a course it's a program which helps you to create courses so therefore evidence that my courses are actually decent is helpful and they'll be working one-to-one with me and so the testimonials on working one-to-one with me cover that off as well so you know she's good at creating courses and she's not weird and she's actually quite enjoyable to work with um come over with those testimonials and that's what you're trying to do with these testimonials is it's not specifically you
about that program that you're currently offering or the offer that you've got on that page. It's about you as a person, you as an individual, you providing those credentials. Now, if I was to start marketing my skills for, I'm a qualified riding instructor, horse riding instructor. If I started to use my client testimonials from my business mentoring for a landing page for my equine coaching,
then I would absolutely feel that that would be wrong because that isn't about me in the same setting. It's not me on Zoom. It's me working with somebody with their horse. That's very, very different. And so if I needed testimonials, if I wanted testimonials, if I wanted to reignite that element of my skill set, then I would provide free sessions so that I would get testimonials that way.
So as long as it's relevant, I don't feel it's unethical. If you don't feel comfortable with it, you can make it very clear. If you still don't feel comfortable with it, then don't use them. Go out there, get some free or low cost people trialing and then get their feedback in. So what are you gonna ask them to say?
Well, I have a free download for structuring testimonials, those key sort of testimonial questions that you wanna be asking people. So in the show notes, you can click a link and get those downloaded. So do click that link, do download those free of charge. The sort of thing you wanna be looking for are, and what is detailed in this download,
a questions around that sort of circumstances prior to working with you um any hesitations they had um before working with you the change the transformation that happened with by working with you um specific results they got um whether they'd recommend what they would say to somebody is always a good one and it's one that's actually on there the download is you know what would they say to somebody thinking who was kind of on the fence thinking about working with me
So, you know, all those are available in that free download. Click the link in the show notes for that download for me and you can get that for free. Where do you store them? What do you do with these testimonies once you've got them? Well, you know, I've said about using them on social.
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Chapter 8: How can I effectively record client testimonials?
You can obviously use them on websites, your social media posts, your email marketing in a kind of case study style. You can use it on Google My Business, on Trustpilot. You can use it for your landing pages for your various courses or products or offers. So having those testimonials and also checkout pages, guys.
So not just the landing pages, but also if you're just sending them to checkout, I'd have a brief bit of information on what they're gonna get with that on the checkout page. And then I would have testimonials, at least one or two testimonials on there. As far as storage is concerned long-term,
I actually have a screenshots, well, I have a folder in my, I'm all appled, so in my photo section on my phone, which is like business brag. And in there are all my screenshots from things that people have sent me. I will, normally I'll put them out almost straight away onto, or yeah, almost or actually straight away onto my stories and then I will also save them in there.
Then they can be used by the team for all sorts of different reference points. Google Drive is what we use. You can obviously use Notion or you can use Notes or whatever else. However, notes to store them, we use Google. So we have different Google Drive sections and I keep them in a brag section. I tend to have them just in there and then I'll potentially date them.
I'll potentially put them by offer, but I tend to just have them in there now because I've found that otherwise you're rooting around way too much. So how often should you be using them? I would say that one in every sort of three to four posts should have something in there of social proof, making reference, telling stories.
If you're thinking how much, how often, then what you can do is you can look to use them, you use them as snippets, you can reference the person's full name, you can reference initials so that you can feel like you're not just having to put out the exact same testimonial. There's ways to switch it up while still feeling like you're using your integrity.
If you're using a combination of formal testimonials plus screenshots, then actually you'll surprise yourself with how often, even with a sort of handful of clients, you can get some decent evidence and resources to use on a regular basis. The thing is, is it's consistency with testimonials like everything. Not sexy, but really effective. So keep collecting, keep updating them.
We can all get out of the habit. So don't beat yourself up. You can always go back to a client and say, hi, would you mind? If you haven't started yet, then set yourself a goal. Collect your first three testimonials this week. OK, do something, take action to get yourself into that better place.
If you haven't got anybody yet, then reach out to three or four people and see if they'll do something with you in return for a testimonial. So once again, if you want that testimonial question guide, then click that link in the podcast description. And as ever, thank you for listening.
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