Tips for Using Homebuyer Testimonials in Your Content

Tips for Using Homebuyer Testimonials in Your Content

Testimonials are an effective way to build trust and confidence in your homebuilding brand. They offer a more transparent view of your product, services, and processes from the eyes of the customer – helping resolve customer objections, showcase your successes, and drive revenue.

Here are a few facts to consider about the benefits of testimonials:

• 72% of customers say positive reviews and testimonials increase their trust in a business.
• 88% of consumers trust testimonials and online reviews as much as friend or family recommendations.
• 97% of business to business customers said peer recommendations and testimonials were the most reliable content.
• Customer testimonials can generate roughly 62% more in revenue.
• Testimonials placed near expensive products increase conversion rates by 380%.
• Websites that use testimonials see a 45% increase in traffic than those who don’t.

Using homebuyer testimonials in your marketing strategy works because people simply trust what others think more than anything else.

Using testimonials in your marketing strategy

Here are a few ways to use testimonials to help build your reputation and attract homebuyers:

Put them on your website

One of the best places to display your homebuyer testimonials is right on your homepage. This is one of the first spots people visit when they want to learn more about who you are and what you have to offer them. It’s the perfect place for showcasing a few happy customer quotes to spark interest and develop trust in your brand. In addition to testimonials on your homepage, it’s great to have a dedicated page full of testimonials about your homebuilding services.

Place them near call to actions

Whenever you’re asking a lead to do something – sign up for your emails, fill out a contact form, attend an in-person or virtual tour, etc. – placing a brief testimonial nearby can help push them over the finish line and complete the call to action (CTA). Seeing a positive review of your business can give them the extra boost of trust needed to overcome some of their objections and take the next step.

But make sure your testimonials match the CTA. For example, an email or social post talking about your energy-efficient home features should have a homebuyer testimonial that mentions how much money they’ve saved on energy costs.

Center an email around them

Email campaigns are an effective way to nurture your leads through the decision-making process. An entire email dedicated to one homebuyer’s incredible experience can encourage those on the fence to consider you more. Send out multiple emails targeting different segments of your audience like first-time buyers, couples with children, or those with financial objections, for example. By speaking directly to their specific wants, needs, and concerns, you can make a bigger emotional impact.

Share on social media

Social proof is powerful and using homebuyer testimonials in your social strategy can help you build your reputation as a quality and trustworthy builder. Short quotes, photo slideshows, and video testimonials from your homebuyers can all be incredibly effective. Make sure to tailor your posts to each platform. You can then link your posts to the full story on a testimonial page, to your homepage, or even to a landing page you’ve set up for incoming leads.

Testimonials don’t have to be formal either. Reviews left on Google or comments left on your social media posts make great shareable content. Make sure you engage with all your comments and reviews to encourage others to leave them too.

Related: Simple Social Content Tips for Busy Housing Professionals

Use in presentations at your webinars and events

Giving a second-hand account of homebuyer experiences with your brand during a webinar or event can make a great reputation-building presentation. Customer stories can be more compelling than any sales pitch if done well. Better yet, get a first-hand account from the happy buyers themselves and let them tell their story.

Tips for effective testimonials

Not every customer quote is an effective testimonial. Here are a few tips to ensure yours are:

Keep them specific and tangible

Fluffy testimonials don’t give other homebuyers a good idea of the experience to expect from you. For example, “We had a great experience with XYZ Homebuilding Company,” doesn’t hold nearly the same weight as saying: “XYZ Homebuilders communicated with us throughout the entire process from start to finish, even after we moved in! They reached out to us as soon as there was an issue and told us exactly what steps would be taken and how long it would take to fix. They were very transparent and professional, which put our minds at ease.” See the difference?

You might not always get such a detailed response from online reviews, but you should be reaching out to satisfied homebuyers specifically for a testimonial and asking them questions that will yield these types of responses.

Make them traceable and trustworthy

Testimonials can sometimes be questioned when they’re just quotes because they can’t be verified. To avoid this issue, make sure they can be traced back to real homebuyers. If you’re sharing reviews as testimonials, having them collected by a third-party source, like Avid Ratings, can avoid this problem altogether. Because they’re verified as 100% authentic by someone outside of your company, they’re more trustworthy to leads.

Tailor your testimonials to different buyer segments

We mentioned this briefly already, but you want testimonials that target each segment of your audience. Testimonials showcase your success. You want every potential buyer to believe you’re the right homebuilder for them, so you need to share testimonials of homebuyers just like them. Think about the type of personas you’re trying to attract most and start gathering testimonials and social proof from happy customers that fit the description.

Related: Database Marketing Helps Drive Homebuilder Customer Acquisition

Keep edits to a minimum

Testimonials are most effective when they’re authentic because they appear more genuine and real. Editing for misspelled words is fine, but try not to edit grammar quirks or language. You want them to be in your homebuyers’ own words and overly-edited, “salesy” testimonials can come across as fake.

Use video content

Video is one of the most engaging forms of content. Ask a few of your most satisfied homebuyers if they would be willing to film a testimonial of their experience with your company. A few shots of their new home and them enjoying it can add to the sentiment of their words. You don’t need a huge budget either; A simple camera and some editing software is plenty. Post the video to Youtube, social media, and feature it on your website.

Ask for testimonials right away

To get an effective homebuyer testimonial you need to time your request right. For homebuilders, the ideal time is right after move-in; You’ve just delivered an exceptional product and service, your homebuyers are delighted, and they’re at peak likelihood of agreeing to a testimonial. There may be other times a testimonial is appropriate to ask for, but you’ll want to refer to your customer journey map to determine which moments are best.

Related: Homebuilders Guide to Creating an Effective Customer Journey Map

Get written permission to share

Before you use any testimonials, make sure you have written permission from your homebuyers to do so. This could be as simple as an email agreement. This protects you from any legal issues. You should also include a clause in your privacy policy stating that any reviews submitted to your website can be used for marketing purposes.

Know review-site policies

If you’re using reviews as testimonials, keep in mind that many review sites have restrictions as to how the reviews can be used. Some state that user-generated content is licensed to the website and owned by the user, so testimonials can’t simply be copied and pasted to share. To avoid this, you can use resources like AvidCX’s social tools that auto-aggregate reviews to your account, making them easy to share with your social platforms.

The bottom-line

Great homebuyer testimonials start with the delivery of an exceptional customer experience. Enhance yours today with the power of AvidCX, the leading survey, and customer satisfaction management platform for homebuilders. 

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