Using client testimonials as social proof

Today’s blog is going to be all about how you can client testimonials as social proof to get more couples to book with you.

So what is social proof?

Social proof is when we take cues off what other people are doing to try and eliminate making mistakes.

Social proof is:

- Client testimonials

- Creating scarcity

- Being exclusive

I’m going to focus on client testimonials, here’s an example: you’re looking for a restaurant, there’s a huge queue for one, and the one next door is empty. Naturally you assume the busier restaurant is better as there’s demand for its service.

We use social cues to make daily decisions. Knowing this, you will want to get some social proof in your venue to support the client sales journey.

Having testimonials as social proof reassures someone they’re not taking a risk by working with you because someone else has already taken that risk and it worked out for them. By reading a testimonial they can see this person had a great experience with you and if they also decide to book you, they’ll have that same experience.

People are more likely to book with you if they can clearly see that others are booking your venue and having a great experience.

The aim of a testimonial is to make your client feel confident in their buying decision. Your potential clients are about to plan one of the biggest events in their lives and with that they have a lot of anxieties and expectations.

A testimonial works best when:

- It has a photograph of the person giving the review

- It features something that further reinforces your brand values and supports what you also say in your marketing

- Demonstrates that you have relieved a fear or pain point that the couple previously had

You need your testimonials to tell a story, it’s not enough just to have a paragraph saying how good you or your venue and service is. You need to have objective, the story needs to have a beginning, middle and end, for example:

For example.. You’ll want to have a review to highlight your clients fears of wanting to choose a venue with great food not just the standard chicken dinners & risotto. A lot of couples will have this fear when searching for their perfect wedding venue to impress their guests.

The start of your testimonial would be the couple explaining how worried they were about choosing a venue with good food & plenty of options. The middle would explain how they had a tasting meal to put their minds at ease, and the end would be how happy they were with the food on the day and how all their guests loved it.

You want a couple to read your testimonial and resonate with it, it needs to make them feel ‘that could be us!’ They will see that you’ve already solved their concerns for another couple and you can solve it for them too.

Did you find this blog helpful, I’d love to chat if you did!

Colette