The Easy Way to Get Awesome Testimonials for Your Website

As entrepreneurs, we are always on the lookout for ways to grow our businesses, but testimonials seem to be commonly overlooked. Third party testimonials are an incredibly powerful tool and a great way to help grow your business, establish your brand, increase credibility and leverage your past success.

Work Smarter, Not Harder

I was talking to a fellow Realtor the other day, and it astounded me how often people discard clients once they exit the sales funnel. It simply blew my mind. It’s like starting over from zero after every house sells.

In comparison, when I go on a listing presentation or meet with a motivated seller, I always have a copy or two of video testimonials ready to go. That, or I have them incorporated as part of my email drip campaign. It’s a great tool to build more trust and will help you secure more deals, no matter what side of the business you’re in.

So, I asked him, “Why are you not using testimonials?

“Well it just would make me feel uncomfortable asking for one,” was his response.

Come again? You’re a real estate professional; talking to people is what you do! Especially this guy — he gets a ton of his leads cold calling prospects, and he is scared of asking for a testimonial?

With that being said, let me share my secret for how secure testimonials. I write it into my listing agreements because my intention is always to deliver 5-star service — no matter if it’s a traditional listing, wholesale deal, flip etc. — and when I deliver, clients are usually more than happy to provide me with one.

Getting the Testimonial

Make your end goal clear with your client. You intend to deliver – star service, and if you meet or exceed this requirement, ask for a testimonial at the end. If you’re giving high quality service, then this should pretty much always happen. If you’re renovating homes, you can showcase a testimonial with the seller and the house you helped them out with interjected with before and after transformations of the house.

It’s really just about getting in the habit that needs to be established. This is powerful stuff, and it seems like hardly anyone is taking advantage of it. And guess what: if you do a good job, many clients are happy to do one for you!

Written is Good, But Video is Better

When it comes to testimonials, IF people have them, they tend to just be generic statements on a page of your website with a first name and last initial. There is no personality in that, and people are growing more and more skeptical of testimonials posted in this manner. For all they know, you could have just written up some glowing remarks, made up a name and, hey, you got yourself a testimonial.

Here in the Dallas Fort Worth area — and across the rest of the country — the market is growing increasingly competitive. Start using testimonials to separate yourself from the competition. Not only will video testimonials quell any doubt there may be that the testimonial is genuine, but it will also be much more powerful.

Check out this post I did on recording HD video for your business last week to see it in action.

Landlord Videos

Think about it from a renter’s perspective: you’re browsing through the internet and find a certain property — as well as a dozen others. All the houses are fairly comparable, but one of them has a link to a website. On the website, it has testimonials from previous or current renters about what exactly the renting experience is like.

Don’t you think having happy testimonials from tenants is going to help a great deal in helping them choose your property over everyone else’s? You better believe it. After all, like “real estate investors,” landlords often have a bad reputation, so separate yourself from the crowd.

If you’re doing a good job, at the end of the day, all you have to do is ask for a testimonial and get in the habit of doing it. Start leveraging prior success and start building up your testimonials for your business.

Do you use testimonials on your website? How do you go about asking for them?

Let us know your tips and tricks in the comments section!

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.