The Importance of Testimonials and Social Media

Buyers in today’s age are more educated than ever, conducting vast amounts of research before making a purchase. In the B2B realm, product reviews and testimonials from other organizations can make all the difference in acquiring more market share, making them an absolute necessity for your website.

Additionally, social media is a huge component of increasing leads for new customers. In fact, lead generation is the top objective for B2B marketing programs according to a recent survey, and 54% of these B2B respondents said that they have generated leads through social media.

With that being said, it seems like it is more important than ever for B2B marketers to not only focus on quality testimonials from other business, but also on sharing these testimonials via social media.

Why? Let’s take a closer look.

Why Testimonials?

So, what exactly makes testimonials so important? Simply put, it’s the educated consumer. B2B buyers have shifted toward the habits of B2C end users. They do a large amount of online research about a company or product before even reaching out to the company to begin the purchase process.

They particularly like to see how a product has helped or benefitted a similar company, which is where testimonials come into play. As a B2B owner/marketer, you need to shed light onto commentary from your current clients, so that new buyers develop a deeper interest in your product.

Take the therapy-pool company HydroWorx for example. They have an entire page dedicated to “elite customers.” The page includes testimonials from other high profile businesses like NASA and the San Francisco 49ers, and have a story of them working with Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III on their homepage. You can’t get a much better endorsement than that. This gives their potential new clients a chance to see what other businesses thought of their product, not just hearing the benefits from the company itself.

By publishing testimonials from current clients, you are also helping a potential client with their research. Having an array of product reviews in front of them via your site will help to move the purchasing process along, potentially leading to a faster sale.

But how exactly can you turn these testimonials into more leads? That is where social media comes into play.

Social Sharing

Once you have gained positive testimonials from other organizations and added them to your website, it is time to incorporate them into your social media presence. Your existing audience will be able to see these new testimonials in their feeds, and if they aren’t customers already, they might become more interested after reading the reviews.

Additionally, since you can purchase ad space on social media sites like Facebook, you can target your exact customer base in a given area for a small fee. If these potential new audience members see that you have positive feedback from businesses similar to them, they will be more likely to not only follow you, but consider you for a future purchase.

They Go Hand in Hand

At the end of the day, you must keep in mind that social media and testimonials play off of one another in the B2B world. Testimonials add a sense of trust and serve as a research point for potential buyers.

At the same time, you need to be proactive in getting these reviews noticed by publishing them onto social media platforms. The combination effort will not only increase your chances of acquiring new business, but it will also showcase the quality of what you have to offer.