My B2B marketing mantra has been for a while “Know Your Customer”. It still holds that position. Customer testimonials are a great means to achieve this and more.
In starting any new client project, I look to two sources for really critical information: the CRM system and the customer. While they should relay very similar information, the benefits of a good CRM include an understanding of who your customer is and what marketing activities are effective. This review will give quantitative data – numbers, percentages and charts of averages, trends and activities. Nice. But inadequate in some ways.
Customer testimonials provide so much more insight and usable information.
I’m just starting a new B2B Marketing project for a well established company and, for me, it is an obvious thing to do first to listen to the existing customers. Among many questions I have, I want to know why they are using the IT system I am working with, what were their problems that led to the use of the system and what does it actually do for them?
Know Your Customer
In listening to customer testimonials I am able to hear their language. My client company might provide ‘bespoke business critical information management systems’, but the end customer might be using their ‘Customer Processing Platform’ or a ‘Sales Taker Tool’ or something else. Such a name reflects the same product but as viewed by each customer. This language is what can connect a brand to the next customer. It helps you know your customer.
Listening to end customers has other benefits for B2B Marketing. It is widely known that recommendations are one of the most valuable sources of new business. Valuable not necessarily by volume but by impact. We see this evidenced through the use of reviews in adverts on television and, as I saw recently, on the back of a bus by B2C brands!
Customer testimonials in B2B Marketing are equally valuable, especially when linked to a tangible business benefit. While I was working with a reviews company, I created a raft of testimonials and categorised them by benefit and sector. This demonstrated, in the customer’s words, what value they received from the service. Value that a similar company could connect with and influence their decision making.
The output of this insight has multiple uses:
it creates really valuable content for a website – getting shown during a prospect’s information gathering phase
it is useful content for social messages
in support of social selling
in proposal writing to deliver proof of capability
… there are plenty more!
Customer Testimonials in B2B Marketing
OK, I became an advocate of customer feedback while leading the marketing function of a reviews platform. I still believe that the words a customer says can and should influence marketing and the complete business life-cycle. Specifically in B2B, customer testimonials are a rich source of information for marketing purposes. And, do you know what? Investing time in listening to your customer also makes them feel valued and important. If they have just spent thousands of pounds with you, it is surely the least that they deserve!
Customer testimonials should be a part of your B2B marketing toolkit. If they are not and you want to know more about reviews, recommendations and testimonials, please get in touch:
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