A super fast way to increase credibility in your business is to get testimonials. Now, you may be wondering how you can get testimonials if you’re new to your home business, but it’s not very hard if you think a little bit outside the box. All testimonials do not have to be from people who have paid for your services. It is not uncommon for a someone who just started their home business to ask others within their circle to trade free services and products for honest testimonials.
In order to properly display and use the testimonials you receive from friends, volunteer work, and clients it is important to create a testimonial area for your website or blog. Additionally, if you create a LinkedIn.com profile (free) you can solicit testimonials from people with whom you are connected. LinkedIn.com makes it really simple to get testimonials, called recommendations. If you don’t have a LinkedIn.com profile yet, get a free account immediately. Fill out your profile completely, including a good headshot, and then ask people for recommendations using the easy push button links on the service.
When you ask for a testimonial to put on your website, just send them a personal email message that says something like: “I really enjoyed working with you on xyz project. You were fun to work with and the product we created together was really affective. I’d really love it if you would give me a testimonial on my website. You can click this link here (insert link) and fill it out online, then when I receive it, it will go live on my site. You will also get a link back to your website for the trouble. Thank you so much!”
It is important that you not be afraid to ask for recommendations and testimonials. Many people will not think about it otherwise. They may have loved your service and attention very much but it might never occur to them to give you a recommendation or testimonial if you don’t ask. The worse thing they can do is say no, or ignore your request. But, most of the time they’ll give you a nice recommendation or testimonial.
Make it a habit at the end of every single project to ask for recommendations. If you have created an informational product and you want testimonials for that, send your buyers a request for reviews of the product. Ask them for their ideas and tips to make your product better. Was anything missing? What did you learn from the product? If you have developed an affiliate program it is a good idea to tell them about it when you ask for the review because this will be added incentive to post the review on their own personal websites and blogs.
Once you’ve collected testimonials you can use them across any of your marketing channels, not just on your website or on LinkedIn.com. You can use them on sales pages, on brochures, in your newsletters. You can feature them on a slide show to share on YouTube, Slideshare.net or other sharing sites. Use your testimonials in any way that you can. I know that it feels strange at first, and like bragging, but in business, if you don’t blow your own horn sometimes, you might miss out on a lot of business.
