4 Ways to Get Reviews & Testimonials for Your Small Business

Gail Oliver

When customers are looking to purchase from your small business, chances are they will want to read your reviews or get testimonials from your customers. When your business is just starting out that may be hard to do, but here are some tactics to consider that will give instant credibility to your business.

Various Types of Testimonials

1. Publicity – I always tell customers to put all (good) press that they get front and center on their site, on their social media pages, and in their copy, because it really does act like a testimonial or endorsement. If a major publication thinks your products are good, why shouldn’t a potential customer? So include sentences like, “As seen in the March issue of Vogue Magazine...” and include a shot of the cover, a link to the article, and any “as seen in” badges the publication may offer.
   
2. Making “Lists” – Last year I made a few lists, including “The Top 10 Small Business Blogs to Read in 2014” by American Express Open Forum, the people behind Small Business Saturday, and I can honestly say that I have milked it for all it is worth. There are many lists, particularly local lists that you can apply for and, if you make them, you can then use for credibility. Go to your local Chamber of Commerce website and see if they have any “Small Business Person of the Year” awards or Google something to do with your industry such as “Top Online Indie Home Decor Shops” (a lot of respected websites like “Racked” have lists like this) and then you can use these “shout-outs” as a form of testimonial.
   
3. Your Customers – This is an obvious one, but how often do you ask your customers for testimonials? Most happy customers have no problem doing it. I know some businesses hate asking (and I for one am one of those people), but an easy way is to say in your outgoing message to your customers (whether it is in an email, on a note, on an invoice, etc.) “How Did We Do? We value your feedback so that we can always improve upon our products and business, so please leave a comment at …” and then give a link to the feedback form or comment section on your site.
   
4. Social Media Notifications – Do you ever read your social media notifications on Twitter, Facebook, etc., to see if anyone said anything nice about your business or products? Personally, I don’t check very often as it is typically people spamming me, but I did the other day and saw a very nice tweet about my services (thank you again, RemoteStylist.com). So I have now included the tweet in the testimonial section of my blog.

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