ReThink180™ Testimonials: 5 steps to a scalable recommendation engine
SUMMARY:
Social media testimonials are an extremely quick-to-implement, highly scalable form of content that immediately generates trust and product interest.
Personal recommendations are the best source of hot leads. Scaling these testimonials can be a decisive game changer for B2B companies. Read this article to find out how you can generate compelling customer statements with real added value, share them with tens of thousands of decision-makers in your specific target group, and turn them directly into sales appointments. Ready to activate untapped potential? Then read the article below or contact us directly.
About Leadvolution
About LeadvolutionWith over 160 advertising setups for fast-growing startups, exciting medium-sized companies, and over 35 global market leaders, Leadvolution is one of the most experienced social media B2B marketing consultancies in Europe. Within 4-8 weeks, we build a globally scalable social media lead generation system for very specific and complex B2B target groups, generating up to 500 leads per month.
The opportunity: Recommendations generate the hottest leads
When a potential customer contacts you with the request “XY recommended you to me,” you know right away that you have a good chance of actually closing the deal. Authentic experiences and recommendations from other customers strongly influence your target group’s purchasing decisions or even give them the idea to consider your company as a possible solution provider in the first place.
If your customers are enthusiastic about your product and can describe what you have achieved for them in quantifiable and therefore comprehensible terms, this will inevitably have a positive effect on decision-makers in your target group. This means that you enjoy a high level of trust. Your sales team therefore has less work to do to convince customers. You close deals quickly and increase your closing rate.
The problem: Testimonials are difficult to scale
For direct recommendations, your customer has to take action every time. This means repeated effort, and as a rule, they don’t directly benefit from it. The number of personal recommendations and thus the scalability therefore tends to remain rather low.
Written testimonials can make these recommendations more independent of the customer. However, generating them requires cooperation between several departments, such as account management, marketing, and sales.
The process therefore often gets stuck somewhere or petered out completely. In addition, case studies involve a huge amount of effort on the part of the customer, as your contact person for the testimonial must in turn ask various stakeholders within their company for approval. As a result, significantly fewer testimonials are usually created than could be.
Last but not least, these written statements must be brought to the attention of your target group. This often results in insufficient reach, meaning that the few testimonials that are available are only seen by a small number of potential new customers.
Due to these difficulties, only a few B2B companies can claim to have efficient testimonial processes in place and to have scaled up the number of their advocates – and thus also the number of new hot leads – accordingly. We can show you how your B2B company can join them. (If you don’t have time right now but would like to know more, you can contact us quickly here.)
How to build a “viral circle” in 5 steps that will keep providing you with new customers and testimonials
Five clear steps are required to systematically generate testimonials and ensure that as many decision-makers from your target group as possible see these advocates.
- Clarify internal responsibilities and set up a streamlined testimonial process so that testimonials are requested from existing satisfied customers and nothing is lost.
- Develop the appropriate messaging. The clearer you formulate how you solve your customers’ pain points and what added value your core products deliver, the easier it will be to suggest testimonials to your customers that will immediately generate interest among third parties. Please also read the article on our ReThink180™ methodology.
- Create reusable templates for attractive social media posts and ads
- Use target group templates and systematic processes to ensure the right reach on LinkedIn, Google Display, Meta, etc., so that your testimonials are seen by as many decision-makers as possible.
- Get more out of the likes, comments, and shares you receive on your testimonial posts. By tracking them promptly and systematically, you can significantly increase the number of leads.
We will go through these steps in detail below. We would also be happy to discuss the best approach for your individual situation in a free expert consultation.
Step 1: First, make sure that you don't miss any more testimonials.
Scaling testimonials can be a real game changer for your B2B company. It therefore makes sense to have a process owner who drives the topic forward across departments. Make it clear to the departments involved what they have to gain—testimonials attract new customers, which means more revenue and increases the chance of bonuses. Create a matrix of your customers and the products they are currently using. Also record the progress of the project there. This will give you a quick overview of when it’s time to request a testimonial.
Write down every positive comment from your customers—even a few words can form the basis for a testimonial later on. Prepare statements in advance. Offer incentives to employees who are particularly involved in this area.
Step 2: Develop messaging that immediately resonates with decision-makers
Testimonials must be concise and explain in a single sentence why the customer in question enjoys working with you. To achieve this, it makes sense to develop clear and versatile messaging and suggest this to your customers as a possible quote. How do you go about this?
- Identify all relevant pain points for your target group that you can solve with your product.
- Identify the causes of the pain points and their consequences – for specific job profiles that you would like to reach within your specific target group.
- Quantify the results your target group can achieve with your product.
Based on these facts, you can create a wide variety of the above-mentioned quote suggestions for your customers, thus ensuring maximum persuasiveness of the statements. By combining the authenticity of your customers with the very high reach of paid advertising, you can create a real game changer for your lead generation.
Would you like to build up a pool of messaging approaches for scaling your testimonials in just a few weeks? We would be happy to accompany you through this process with our proprietary ReThink180™ methodology. In interview sessions, we generate a variety of compelling messaging approaches and efficiently prepare them as part of a structured process.
Step 3: Develop design templates for efficient scaling
To efficiently produce the additional content required to promote the testimonials, you should create templates: a basic structure for the social media post text for LinkedIn (including headline), a template for the corresponding visual, and an adaptation for Google Display Ads.
Video testimonials are particularly effective – because what could be more convincing than a satisfied customer enthusiastically talking in front of the camera about what they have achieved thanks to your company? What’s more, they require significantly less coordination than a written case study and are a win-win situation: your customer can present themselves as an innovative “thought leader” (read more in our Viral Circle video article).
Step 4: Create target group and campaign templates and a transparent process for ad creation
In LinkedIn Campaign Manager, as well as in the corresponding counterparts in Google and Meta, you should create appropriate campaign and target group templates so that, in order to promote a new testimonial, you only need to create a new ad with a few clicks using the text and visuals generated from the above-mentioned template. Ideally, you should have clustered the target groups by industry so that you can show each recipient as many of their competitors as possible, thereby creating a “FOMO” (fear of missing out) effect.
To maximize the targeted reach of testimonial posts and “viral circle” videos across all channels, you should define a systematic process so you don’t lose track:
- For organic reach, post testimonial statements in predefined social media groups and systematically notify employees and external multipliers such as influencers and partners.
- With paid measures on LinkedIn, Google Display, and Meta, you can ensure that your content is read by as many people as possible. Retargeting is particularly recommended for the latter two.
- Finally, social selling offers you the opportunity to address individuals personally. This can also be (partially) automated without appearing impersonal.
Would you like to learn more about the reach concept? Feel free to contact us for a free consultation with an expert if you need an assessment of your individual digital reach.
Step 5: Automatically capture all social touchpoints such as likes, etc., and convert them into sales appointments.
Social media testimonials can quickly generate trust and traffic on landing pages. If a user then contacts you via a web form, you can assume that they are highly interested. In addition, you can generate significantly more sales appointments by tracking all likes, profile visits, etc. Because when someone responds to your testimonial post on social media, the ball is already in your court. This is your chance: every like and every comment is a good opportunity to send a personal LinkedIn connection request offering further information. This will accelerate the growth of your network exponentially and generate 50 to 100 percent more leads.
The reason why most companies still don’t take advantage of this huge potential is usually due to limited sales resources. Systematic, (partially) automated processes can help here, which we create for customers with Teamfluence, a software that automatically collects all social touchpoints.
Figure: Qualification of recorded social touchpoints in Teamfluence
Leads can now be qualified either manually, with AI support, or fully automatically—not by your sales team, but by a separate team, which can also be provided by us if desired. Once a lead has been marked as positive, it is pushed to your CRM. We have also developed a standardized process with an interface and automation templates for different CRMs, which makes it very easy to transfer them to the CRM and create the corresponding contacts, companies, deals, and tasks.
The leads can now be contacted by the separate team (“I saw that you liked our customer XY’s testimonial post – what was it that interested you? Would you be interested in a quick chat about it?”). Direct calendar access allows you to schedule an appointment with the responsible sales representative and, of course, document it in the CRM with the relevant background information.
If you don’t have dedicated internal resources for lead qualification, we can offer to take over the entire process of contacting and scheduling appointments completely externally.
With Leadvolution, you can implement a testimonial pilot in 4-6 weeks.
We support you every step of the way, from conceptualization, including topic and project planning, to content creation and publication, to promoting your content and scheduling appointments based on the leads generated.
Upon request, we can take care of the setup, including setting up social media accounts, detailed KPI reporting, channel and target group analysis, and ongoing support.
Request a free consultation with an expert now:
ReThink180™ Expert Articles: The most efficient content for scalable lead generation AND awareness
SUMMARY:
Expert articles are the most efficient and flexible form of content for quickly generating leads and awareness on social media.
Many B2B companies write about their products on their own blogs – unfortunately, often with little reach and without any real measurable success. In this article, we show you how traditional industrial and mechanical engineering companies, SaaS startups, medtech firms, and others can use the ReThink180™ method and a systematic process for increasing reach with expert articles to generate concrete leads and sustainable awareness in a short period of time and achieve measurable success. Ready to activate untapped potential? Then read the article below or contact us directly.
About Leadvolution
About LeadvolutionWith over 160 advertising setups for fast-growing startups, exciting medium-sized companies, and over 35 global market leaders, Leadvolution is one of the most experienced social media B2B marketing consultancies in Europe. Within 4-8 weeks, we build a globally scalable social media lead generation system for very specific and complex B2B target groups, generating up to 500 leads per month.
B2B companies usually do not achieve measurable success with blog marketing and generate questionable “awareness.”
Before writing blog articles, many B2B companies do not consider what they actually want to achieve with them. They hope for “awareness” in a very unspecific way. This often results in unfocused posts with no product reference that do not generate any concrete inquiries. Why? A general article provides superficial information but hardly interests the reader in the company’s products.
The term “awareness” is rarely defined and its actual benefit is usually questionable. Many B2B companies spend a lot of money to generate attention – and often achieve exactly the opposite. This is because people in the B2B environment in particular may perceive “brand building” and “awareness” measures without concrete information as annoying advertising that does not offer them any added value. In the worst case, companies can even create a negative branding effect. Internally, marketers then often find themselves in the uncomfortable position of having to justify the costs of awareness, which can sometimes lead to unpleasant discussions due to the difficult-to-measure benefits.
In our opinion, sustainable brand building in B2B marketing can only be achieved if customers internalize concrete information such as product quality and added value, innovation leadership, performance, cost-benefit ratio, and service level, and develop trust in the company. This automatically and permanently inspires them to embrace the brand and understand why they should consider it when the need arises.
Many are stuck in the dilemma of “product interest vs. advertising appeal.”
Many companies write general articles on industry topics (“5 trends in…” etc.) for fear of appearing too “advertising-oriented.” These often generate interest, but if the article does not present the product as a solution, readers are left wondering what problem they should contact the company about or, worse still, which company wrote the article in the first place.
Even if solutions are presented in the content, they are often described in vague terms and are not quantified. A typical example: “Product XY will make you faster.” This leaves the customer unclear as to how much speed they can gain. One percent more would not be exciting for them, but 40 percent faster might be. They cannot therefore decide whether the product is right for them and, due to the lack of clarity, risk wasting time with a pushy salesperson if they do make an enquiry.
Articles that focus entirely on the company or product (“Who are we?”, “What products/services do we offer?” and “What features do we have?”) are unlikely to arouse much interest among customers. Why? This product-centric communication does not allow customers to intuitively recognize why the product is relevant to them, which of their problems it solves, and how it can improve their situation. Since very few customers are willing to do background research, they leave without any interest in the product.
How to achieve conversion rates of up to 5% with expert articles – and generate lasting awareness at the same time
To spark interest, B2B companies should always start their content from the customer’s perspective, i.e., with one of their problems or desires. Customers know their own perspective and can therefore immediately and intuitively recognize that the article could be interesting to them because it shows them how they can improve their situation. There are usually several lines of argumentation that lead to product interest, e.g., quality, cost, effort, etc. Regardless of the “pain point” you choose, you can always use the same structure:
- Are you in industry x, working in position y, and have problem z?
- Does this lead to unpleasant consequences a, b, and c for you?
- We have a solution using approach X
- With this, you can achieve the (quantified) results 1, 2, and 3
- You can trust us because we have already solved this problem for x, y, and z
- “Call to action”: “Would you like to know more?”
These points can be used to develop an argument (a “message”) that, unlike a general “awareness” text, is highly relevant to your target group, generates direct product interest and leads, and also delivers genuine and sustainable brand building. Reason: The customer can now link the valuable solution they have learned to your company name and your product.
In contrast to a general white paper download, this also increases the quality of leads. Because if the customer already understands the added value they can achieve with a product during the initial consultation, your sales team can enter the sales process directly (unlike when downloading a general white paper).
Would you like to test this for a pilot product? We would be happy to accompany you through this process. Simply arrange a free expert consultation with us here.
LinkedIn also allows you to deliver your expert articles to very specific B2B target groups with a reach of up to 5 digits.
Now you’ve created a well-written blog article. Unfortunately, without reach, it won’t generate any inquiries. However, B2B companies often lack the know-how to make themselves heard on digital channels. They are often left hoping that good content will somehow find its way to the right audience – which usually doesn’t happen.
To maximize the reach of your expert articles (and other content formats, videos, etc.), we establish a systematic process with our clients that we call “Content Booster”:
- Posts in predefined social media groups and systematic sharing of content by employees and external multipliers such as influencers and partners ensure organic reach.
- With paid measures, you provide the leverage you need to maximize your reach and ensure that your content is read by (tens of) thousands of people who are relevant to you. Retargeting is particularly recommended here: former users of your website or social media content are your most valuable target group.
- Finally, social selling offers you the opportunity to send personalized LinkedIn messages with new content to your sales team’s network. This can also be (partially) automated.
Would you like to learn more about the Content Booster concept? Feel free to contact us for a free expert consultationif you need an assessment of your individual digital reach.
Your opportunity to increase sales appointments by 50-100%: Automatically qualify all social touchpoints such as likes, etc.
Expert articles can generate awareness and direct leads simultaneously. If a user has read the article and then responded via a web form, you can even assume they have a high level of interest and prior knowledge. However, the conversion rate of expert articles is 2-4x lower than with formats that are 100% focused on leads, such as LinkedIn Lead Ads. However, you can use social touchpoints to generate significantly more appointments from expert articles – by tracking all likes, profile visits, etc. Because when someone responds to your post about the expert article on social media, the ball is practically already in the court of opportunity. This is your opportunity: Every like and every comment is a good opportunity for a personal LinkedIn contact request, with which you can offer further information. This exponentially accelerates your network growth, and you gain 50 to 100 percent more leads.
The reason why most companies fail to tap into this enormous potential is usually limited sales resources. Systematic, (partially) automated processes can help here. We create these with clients, for example, using Teamfluence, a software that automatically collects all social touchpoints.
Want to learn more about social lead qualification? Read our expert article on the subject.
Figure: Qualification of recorded social touchpoints in Teamfluence
Turn social touchpoints into appointments (optionally also possible via external resources)
Leads can now be qualified in Teamfluence either manually, with AI support, or fully automatically—not by your sales team, but by a separate team, which can also be provided by us if desired. Once a lead has been marked as positive, it is pushed to your CRM. We have also developed a standardized process with an interface and automation templates for different CRMs, which makes it very easy to transfer them to the CRM and create the corresponding contacts, companies, deals, and tasks.
The leads can now be contacted by the separate team (“I saw that you liked the article by my colleague XY – what did you find interesting about it? Would you be interested in a quick chat with him about it?”). Direct calendar access allows you to schedule an appointment with the relevant sales representative and, of course, document it in the CRM system, including the relevant background information.
If you do not have dedicated internal resources for lead qualification, we can offer to take over the entire process of establishing contact and scheduling appointments completely externally.
Last but not least: Expert article content can easily be reused multiple times.
Once you have published the article on your website, you can turn it into more lead-oriented content formats with very little effort. Design a template that allows you to turn an article into a short, concise PDF (we call this an “expert paper”) in 1-2 hours, which can then be offered for download with LinkedIn Lead Ads, shared by your sales team in their newsletter, published as a LinkedIn newsletter, or even promoted as a LinkedIn Document Ad. Have you produced a large number of articles? Why not turn them into an eBook? Internationalization into different languages is also quick and easy.
Conclusion: With the right, efficiently designed concepts, you can easily generate a large amount of valuable B2B content from individual articles. We would be happy to help you establish these approaches in your company.
With Leadvolution, you can implement an initial expert article pilot in 4-6 weeks.
We support you every step of the way, from conceptualization, including topic and project planning, to content creation and publication, to promoting your content and scheduling appointments based on the leads generated. Don’t have a blog section where you can publish articles? No problem, we can also implement appropriate landing pages.