5 Ways To Showcase Your Testimonials and Wow New Clients

As a freelance blogger, it feels so good to know you’ve made a client happy.
You wish you could capture the joy of the client at that moment, frame it, and display for all to see. But it’s sometimes difficult to get recommendations or testimonials from clients, because they’re too busy or too distracted.
In a survey by Dimensional Research, results showed about 90% of customers were influenced by online reviews to make a purchase. People put a lot of trust in feedback given online, hence the need for freelancers to collect glowing testimonials.
Without testimonials, it’s that little bit harder to get the gigs you want at the rate you deserve.
No problem. There are several options you can explore to capture the feelings of your happy clients. 
The first step is to make sure that you over-deliver. Whenever you’re working on a project, always put in your best effort. By the time the job’s finished, you’ll be left with an excited client willing to give you a testimonial or recommendation no matter how busy they are — because they know you deserve it and they have the “I owe you” feeling.
At that point, you can pick any of the methods outlined in this post to display the testimonial on your site.

Quote client comments

One common way of showcasing recommendations is to display them as block quotes.
When you’ve made a client happy and they say something nice about you, that’s your cue! Ask them immediately if you can quote what they just said and show it to the world. The answer will almost always be a yes.
Then write out what the client said, add it to your website and, if possible, include the client’s name, photo, or website URL to give the recommendation more credibility. That way a potential client can easily contact any of your past clients for confirmation.
If you have lots of testimonials, you can create a page full of them on your website. Try using the blockquote setting or other special styling to make these quotes and comments look attractive too.
Take a look at these testimonials on Sophie Lizard’s website for an example of how simple this can be:

One great tool you can use is the print screen key on your computer keyboard, to capture an online quote or comment in its original context — an email, tweet, or LinkedIn recommendation, for example.
Capture it with the Print Screen [often abbreviated to PRTSC] key on your keyboard, paste it into MS Paint or a similar program, and crop it to the size you want. Then put the cropped image on your website.
To fancy-up testimonials you collected in person, or to make all your testimonials match, you could use an online quotation image creation tool. Qouzio and Recite both offer some great designs for free.

Collect audio testimonials

When you have very busy clients that can only spare a few minutes, grab a testimonial from them when you have them on the phone or Skype.
There are plenty of smartphone apps that help you record your phone calls. Always make sure you get permission to record before you start.
Afterwards, you can choose to upload the audio clip to your website, or transcribe it and use it as a quote. Or both!
If you want more info about this method, read this detailed guide to recording your phone conversations.

Screenshot social media

Sometimes your clients are kind enough to commend your work on social media. It might be on your Facebook wall, on Twitter, Google+, or anywhere your client hangs out online. LinkedIn is great for this — use the “ask for a recommendation” feature to request testimonials from your current and past clients.
With the print screen option I mentioned earlier, you can capture images of these testimonials to add to your website.

Rotating banners, sliders and carousels

If you’ve got a few great testimonials already, how about displaying them in a moving carousel? You can create a slide show using free online tools such as Gifmaker or Cincopa, then add it to your website where it’ll display a rotating set of images.
All you have to do is upload the images and create the slide show. There are different styles and templates to choose from, depending what tool you’re using.
This can be useful for freelancers who have only a few testimonials, because the rotating carousel shows them one at a time, making it seem like you’ve got plenty!

Collect email testimonials

Your client can give you a recommendation via e-mail easily and in their own time — useful if they’re usually hard to get hold of. With the client’s permission, you can screenshot or quote those comments to use on your site.
Here are some examples of how different freelance writers display their testimonials:

• Alicia Rades has a dedicated testimonials page, and on her home page there’s a carousel of testimonials.
• KeriLynn Engel uses cropped images to add visual interest and credibility.
• Kristi Hines displays her testimonials in rectangular quote boxes to draw the eye.

Always try to get a testimonial from every happy client. When you have a handful of genuine, detailed testimonials on your website, new potential clients who visit your site will be convinced you can handle their assignments.
One great testimonial or recommendation from a happy client can bring you a continuous flow of clients, so make your clients happy in every project and you’ll never have to hunt for work.
Have you captured your clients’ testimonials? How do you show them off? If you need help coming up with ideas, contact me and I’ll gladly help out!
Source: go