When using social media, I write stuff… to show that I write stuff.

I generally I do this so that people can get familiar with who I am and how I work, as well as to provide a glimpse into what is hopefully my ‘way with words’. It’s not often I’ll directly use a platform to sell my wares (or my words). I just don’t feel comfortable doing it, as rubbish as that could potentially be for my business, and so whilst I dick around talking about things like jam and Escape to the Country rather than what I can do for potential clients, it’s important that my ‘pitch’ still gets out there…

I prefer this to happen via having my existing and former clients speak on my behalf!

I’m not talking about affiliate marketing or anything like that, but rather just good old fashioned testimonials.

I like any talk of my business in glowing terms to come from my clients because they’re the ones who can genuinely vouch for my good work (if they’ve happened to witness it). They have this right because they parted with their hard-earned cash for the opportunity, and so what they say about the whole experience and its outcomes are of huge importance.

I wanted this blog to remind people about the importance of testimonials. It’s for the people who need them – and the people who need to make sure they give them.

Let’s start with the business owners and freelancers reading this. Never underestimate how important it is to collect and present all of your testimonials. Clients may write recommendations on review sites and social media pages, but make sure you copy them onto your actual website, because that’s where people will be visiting for the majority of the info they need about you. Ask for a testimonial as soon as you can after everything has been signed off and paid for. Strike whilst the iron is a scorch risk!

Some clients may tell you to go ahead and just write something yourself that they can put their name to, which is better than nothing, but if you’re just going to go the whole hog and start making stuff up, you WILL get caught out. Signing off your imageless testimonial with ‘Anonymous’ or ‘Manager, Sheffield’ just screams that you’ve made it all up. You’re better off putting no positive comment on at all than essentially outing and embarrassing yourself as a bit of a fraud. Same goes for showcasing a screenshot of an ace review but neglecting to show the name. How do we know it’s for real?

Proud as you’ll feel when a testimonial goes live, remember to keep your lines of communication open with that person and keep a positive relationship with them, even if you never work together again. I had a prospective client a couple of months ago who took great joy in telling me he’d called up Steve and Gaynor (two real life Testimonials on my list) at random to check that my testimonials were indeed legit! I was a bit taken aback at first, but really, this is absolutely brilliant and completely within the rights of someone who’s considering putting trust and money your way. I have to be honest and admit I later did a quick scan through all my testimonials just to check that all of them were solid. I deleted one, as it happens. It was a guy who’d said really good things in the first year, but in his second year of working with me, he stopped paying me and we fell out. I doubt very much he’d say great things about me now if he was called up, so it was worth deleting his previous glowing reference to avoid the risk of that situation ever happening.

I can’t finish this blog without speaking directly to the clients of said business owners and freelancers. Please make sure that you do indeed write or film a testimonial for the person who’s provided you with a product or service. Obviously there may be a rare occasion when something goes wrong and you may wish you’d never set eyes on that person in the first place, but on the whole, if you paid up, and you said nice things during the process, and you love what you got for your money, please throw that person some words. Small businesses, start-ups and freelancers in particular rely so heavily on word of mouth, so play your part and say nice things (if they’re deserved, obviously).

You don’t have to be specific about what that person or business did for you, if for some reason you don’t want people to know that you outsourced something (even though EVERYONE’s doing it to some extent), but that shouldn’t get in the way of saying that you worked successfully on a project together. As a copywriter, some of my clients prefer to keep quiet about the fact that their marketing literature was written by somebody else, but that doesn’t mean they can’t say nice things about working with me in general. Yes, believe it or not, I’m a delight to work with. Show that you’re a delight to work with too, by being keen to praise and support when it’s due.

Have a think about those you’ve been working with recently on your outsourced or partnership projects. They’ve helped you, now you can help them.

Is there someone you could be writing a testimonial for right now?