Do you have customers complete surveys? Do you solicit (or get unsolicited) testimonials? Do real estate agents tell you what a good job you've done? (Well, maybe I'm stretching this one a little bit.) The most powerful people on your marketing team are your past clients and real estate agents!
Why? Because they tell everyone in the world how wonderful and great you are. But my guess is that you just put these thank you notes in a drawer to read when you are feeling bummed out. Or, that you add them to the closed file. Or you may even post a few of them on your website, hidden behind a “testimonials” tool bar.
Well, listen up. Here are 10 ways you can use your testimonials and client surveys as a killer marketing tool:
1. Instead of calling them “testimonials,” call it “What Our Customers Think About Us”.
2. Take a picture of the actual, hand-written statement and post it on Facebook. These can from a thank you note, from the client survey and even from the note card if you are sent flowers or a gift.
3. Create a tab on your Facebook fan page and post all of your testimonials there too.
4. Add them to your website.
5. Create a coffee table book for your lobby. Place the originals in a plastic binder sleeve and take a picture and create a book using online companies like SnapFish.com.
6. Send a copy of the survey to the real estate agents involved in the loans (yes, both listing and selling) with a note that say, "Just wanted you to know what Mr. & Mrs. Jones thought of me!"
7. On the back of your business cards.
8. In your personal brochure.
9. Make a video or get an audio recording of a testimonial. Take your recording equipment to the closing. While maybe one out of 10 people will do it, those that will agree, will have an even bigger impact!
10. When sending in thank you note or thank you email to your clients for doing business with you, add a P.S. that says: "Also, thanks for the testimonial (comment) that you made about my services when you said..." and then quote their exact words. By doing this, it reinforces and jogs their memory and is a “record” of what they said about you and your company.
Oh, and one last thing—be sure to use these 10 ways to market your testimonials when you get them from real estate agents also!
Karen Deis is the publisher of
