How Customer Testimonials Can be the Best Marketing Tool By encouraging customer testimonials, entrepreneurs can leverage it to bring validation for their product.

Be it a phone or a restaurant, before using any product or service the first thing a user does is check the reviews shared by their peers. If the review is good, the product is finalized upon, but even one negative review sends away the customer.

While entrepreneurs are working day in and out to polish their products and services, the aim by the end is one – to ensure they deliver the best to their customers. Your customers determine the growth of your business and often become the best marketing tool.

Most entrepreneurs have feedback options for their products, but what's important is to use it to their advantage. By encouraging customer testimonials, entrepreneurs can leverage it to bring validation for their product.

We spoke to start-up founders about how one can turn a testimonial into a marketing tool.

Leverage Feedback from Industry Experts

The first part of the process is to decide who you want to get feedback from. While reviews from users work in your favour definitely, an added advantage is to get a positive insight about your product from an industry leader, believes Gaurav Golwalkar, founder, BuyTestSeries. "A testimonial from a leader in the industry will definitely bring more attention to your product. So, where you get the feedback from is also an important part of the exercise," he said.

Onboard Customers With No Extra Investment

Through word of mouth, your customers will bring more customers to your platform. Himaghna Dey Sarkar, Chief Expansion Officer, ToneTag believes that customer testimonials often become a yardstick for your product or service. "This becomes a marketing tool with no extra investment. It creates a communication tool for your customers, which again attracts more users," he said.

While the aforementioned works well for B2C start-ups, Dey Sarkar believes that for B2B start-ups the game changes. "A lot of times, when you are meeting prospective clients, they ask you for relevant case studies. Customer testimonials can become your case studies which present your value proposition," he said.

Dey Sarkar added that every customer brings a new value to the product, for the founder can sort out the pain points as well after referring to the testimonials. Golwalkar too agrees to say that a customer's feedback becomes a confidence booster. "It is 10X more impact on a client than your regular sales method," said Golwalkar.

Real Power Lies in Marketing & Promotion

If modulated well, Dey Sarkar believes that customer testimonials can be used as a great marketing tool. He points out that even on a Google playstore, user reviews bring you more users. "It becomes a tool and channel for your product," he said.

However, it varies from start-up to start-up depending upon the audience of the business. If you are a B2B start-up, Dey Sarkar believes that you can circulate it through your sales channel and also talk about it on your website. Social media, of course becomes a great platform to advertise your product.

Talking about social media, Golwalkar added, "You can even join industry groups on social media and post customer testimonials there to bring more positive reviews."