ReThink180™ Testimonials: 5 steps to a scalable recommendation engine

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.

1. Clarify internal responsibilities and set up a streamlined testimonial process so that testimonials are requested from existing satisfied customers and nothing is lost.
2. 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.
3. Create reusable templates for attractive social media posts and ads
4. 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.
5. 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.

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.

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?

1. Identify all relevant pain points for your target group that you can solve with your product.
2. 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.
3. 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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.