Customer Testimonials: Letting Your Customers Tell Your Story

In our office, we constantly stress the power of storytelling. To paraphrase our company president, Jeff Ryznar, it’s why people watch movies, read books, and is one of the most powerful marketing tools you can use. Simply put, customers enjoy hearing stories about your company, rather than the price of your product or service and what it can do for them. It can be difficult to find a place to start when telling a story, but one great, and effective, place to start is by letting your customers tell a story through a testimonial. Here are a few reasons why customer testimonials are an effective way to build a brand and tell your story. 

Emotional Appeal

Having a customer share the experience they’ve had with your company is as real and honest of a review as you’ll find. Stories create a natural, emotional appeal with people, so seeing a real customer tell their story as it relates to your business creates a deeper and more personal connection for your brand. Creating this emotional appeal goes a long way toward creating a positive brand image, which will attract new customers and supporters.

“Show, Don’t Tell”

Testimonials are one of the best ways to build credibility and trust for your brand. Customers tend to naturally trust other customers, so having one share their experience is an effective way to establish credibility. It also shows the results that your product or service can produce for someone, which is much more effective than it coming from yourself or an employee. It’s better to “show” someone what your brand can do rather than “tell” them, which is what makes this so powerful. 

Relatable for Your Customers

Similar to the way customers trust other customers, testimonials give potential buyers someone to identify with and ease concerns they may have with your brand. Whether the testimonial is produced for social media and television, like our “Extra Mile Stories” series with Greenwood Chevrolet, or a simple review on Yelp or Facebook, people will always look to customers with prior experience. Finding a diverse group of people to vouch for your brand makes a massive difference in your brand’s relatability. 

At 898 Marketing, our goal is to tell our story, as well as our clients’, every single day. There are many ways we do this, but utilizing customer testimonials is an easy, effective way to tell a story. From sharing your customer reviews to producing videos of real customers, there are so many ways to take this strategy and make it your own!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Zach Patton is an Assistant Account Manager at 898 Marketing.  As an Account Manager, Zach’s responsibilities include strategic development, creative concepting, market research and analysis, social media management, and content creation. Zach is a native of Youngstown, Ohio, and a graduate of John Carroll University where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration.