While coaching clients on implementing the PracticeBuilders system, I'm often asked for quick ways to spruce up their wellness websites.  The #1 makeover I usually suggest is to use testimonials more effectively.  Here's how to do it RIGHT...

Quick quiz:  What's the #1 way clients like to find a wellness provider? 
Answer:  Personal referrals of course! 

That's why adding more and better testimonials is the first thing I recommend for sprucing up a wellness website, brochure, flyer, or any passive marketing piece. 

Testimonials have almost the same effect as a personal referral.  They make readers feel like they are getting a personal recommendation from someone just like them. 

Readers are reassured and motivated by a testimonial, because they feels that they can anticipate what their own results might be if they work with you.

So bring the power of personal recommendations to your prospective clients by sharing testimonials all over your website and other passive marketing pieces. 

Here are some tips on the best ways to display your clients' success stories.  The related article listed at the end tells you more about how to gather them - so be sure to read all the way down!

TIPS ON POSTING TESTIMONIALS ONLINE

Some website guides recommend you have a page that gathers all your client testimonials.  This creates a "watershed" effect where the combined weight of all the testimonials convinces your potential client that you can help them! 

Like the reservoir that fills with water until it spills over onto the watershed, this effect happens when a visitor reads enough testimonials to decide, "this many people can't be wrong!", and wants to get up and take action and call you.

Other website guides say you should sprinkle them on every page throughout the website so that every time a visitor is viewing your information, they are also exposed to a convincing success story. 

This makes them switch from a passive "information-gathering" mode to an active "problem-solving" mode, in other words, to want to get up and take action and call you.

Well, we think you need to do BOTH, of course!  The wellness arts are so personal, so relationship-based, that you can never have too many testimonials!

So use both a dedicated "testimonials page" (where you mass all your testimonials together for better effect) and a "sprinkle method" (where you place snippets of testimonials on EVERY OTHER page of the site). 

HAVE A TESTIMONIALS PAGE:

Having a dedicated testimonials page allows you to easily add new success stories to the end of your list, so it stays current and fresh, and builds that "watershed" effect we talked about. 

It also allows you to share more detailed client feedback that would be too bullky or distracting if you tried to blend it into the other pages.  Some clients write long, lovely success stories that showcase the many, many ways in which your work has changed their life.  You want to share this!

SPRINKLE THROUGHOUT

Having a "sprinkle method" allows you to pick out the most compelling snippets from these and place them in a prominent position through out the site, where they can have the most impact. 

The idea is to have at least one testimonial or success story on every single thing a visitor sees, whether it be a website page, or flyers or brochures. 

It's good to put the snippets at or near the top of every page (or highlighted in a box in the margin). 

For maximum effect, you also want to include a testimonial at any point where you ask the client to take action, for example, next to an intro session offer or next to the sign-up section for your newsletter, workshop, or program.

So how are you going to get all these testimonials, you may be asking yourself?  Read on!