This YouTube clip from Create PT Wealth looks at how to get testimonials to give you credibility and help grow your business:

 
This is Tip Number 4 on how you can get your message out to your clients. The next place to start is your own clients: testimonials. You need to be collecting those testimonials and you need to be broadcasting those testimonials to your whole database.

Let’s think about testimonials… There are a few good things that you need in a testimonial. One thing that I recommend having in there is some type of photo of the person, because what that enables the person reading it to do is to start making a connection with the real person. Even better than that is to have some kind of ‘before and after’ shot. So if you’ve had a client who has had some outstanding results – lost 15 kilos or done something – if you’ve got some kind of before and after picture and they’re happy for you to use it, then it’s absolutely great.

The second part of a testimonial is to have it written in such a way that there is some some qualitative information in there.What I mean by that is the actual real evidence. So even though it might sound cool, it’s not that great just saying “Dave’s a really nice guy; I enjoy training with him and he makes me laugh all the time.” What you need to do is send out a message in there: “When I started with Dave I had tried every diet under the sun and joined every gym but I found that I just wasn’t getting the results that I wanted. Since training with him, in just 12 weeks I’ve been able to lose 10kgs and I feel better than ever! I highly recommend his services.” You need something along those lines. There’s a huge difference between those two testimonials.

The next thing I’d encourage you to do is have the person’s name attached to it. Possibly have their age, and possibly even their occupation or their position in their company.

The last part, and this one’s the clincher… Ask permission first of course, but put down their mobile phone number. Why would you do that? What it does is that it gives a lot more social proof to show that it’s a real person and this person is willing to back up what they say if you give them a call. The funny thing about that is, that nobody calls. But if they do, I’m sure that your client will be the first person who will want to sing your praises. It’s a win-win all round.

You can slot that testimonial into any information that you send to clients, be that hard copy, an email newsletter, a blog. Get that information out there on your website. You need to put the testimonials everywhere you can.