Transcription
If you own a business, your goal with social media is probably to get more leads. But you post over and over again, and you get nothing—crickets. Maybe you get a couple of likes, a few comments; your mom obviously is giving you a big old love, but you never actually get business from it. So, you get frustrated, and you stop doing it.
Well, I have a social media strategy that is super boring. However, it gets a ton of leads. Stick around, and I will share with you the exact strategy and how you can do it for you to build your business with actual paying customers.
So, the internet is riddled with advice from all of these social media gurus. However, they're just influencers. They're not actual business owners. Maybe they have built a business off of the influence they built from social media. But if you're a business owner starting out with a business and then trying to get into social media, the strategies are a whole lot different.
So the strategy that works the best for every single business and will actually get you people paying you money might not get you followers and likes. However, if you own a business, the goal is to make money and not followers and likes.
So the number one strategy you can use to grow your business with people paying you money is to get client testimonials—as many of them as often as you possibly can. I know there's obviously different ways you can use social media, and I don't suggest only doing this, but if there was only one thing you could do to get actual money out of your social media, it would be to do client testimonials over and over again.
Why are they effective? Well, first, if somebody else is telling the story of what their life was like, why they chose you, and now what their life looks like afterwards, you're making it very relatable. Other people that are like that person are able to put themselves in the shoes of the person telling the story, understand what they're actually going through, and see that you were the person that helped them get back to their success. Storytelling has been used throughout history as one of the most powerful tools to get emotional buy-in. Think about in the olden days; they used to sit around campfires and tell stories so people could relate and understand what's happening. They don't just talk at you. They allow you to put yourself in the shoes of the person within the story to understand what could possibly happen next.
Another massive benefit of using a testimonial, especially if you can get these people on camera, is someone else is sharing how awesome it was to work with you and why it made their life so much better. Anytime you can get someone else singing your praises and sharing their actual success because of you, it's way more powerful and effective than if I was telling people that it's awesome to work with me. It goes from this person is having a great life, and that's the person that helped them get there, to wow, that guy's trying to preach to me and get me to buy something from him. Slimy salesman versus someone that's being recommended—you're always going to go with a referral and recommendation over someone that's slimily selling you their services.
So, I don't believe I need to convince you anymore that testimonials are effective for growing your business and it's a good tool for social media. However, having a formula to follow is going to make getting testimonials significantly easier. Here is the easy three-step formula that I use every single time I do videos for clients to get client testimonials.
Number one, you ask them, "What was their life like prior to working with you?" I want to hear all of the pain and struggle that was happening before you were working with that person.
Next, you say, "What was the turning point? What was that last-ditch thing that made me say, you know what, I need to give a call to that person that is the one that I want to work with?" Obviously, they share their story, what it was like working with them. I don't always include that, but sometimes there's some gold in there.
Finally, the last piece of this story is what does it look like after working with the person. So I have painted this picture of it was poor, bad, dark, dreary, ugly before I found this person, and they have solved the problem, and now that my problem is solved, it's bright, sunny, happily ever after. That is the beautiful formula for a story. It can be 10 seconds, it can be 30 seconds, it can be four minutes if you can continue holding attention in the story. However, this formula will work for every single client testimonial there is. It just depends on how you can kind of engage that story, how you can get more of a pain point at the beginning, how you can really entice that turning point and get them to really talk about it. Share how awesome it was working with you and what beautiful life they're now living because they found you and you helped solve that problem.
The beauty of this, it's the storytelling arc. You as the business owner are not the hero of the story. You're the guide that guided them along to now live their life happily ever after. I think it's Donald Miller as story brand, and it's literally the story arc. Person was in pain and struggling going throughout life trying to find something. They stumbled upon the guide. The guide told them what they should be doing and helped them along. Gave them the insights that they needed to then be successful. They did the thing, and now they are successful living their best life. Getting over and finding the thing that they were first seeking out at the beginning of the story. That is a client testimonial. It's the hero's journey. It has worked time and time again. If you go and look at all of your favorite movies, it goes through this exact formula, and you can probably start predicting movies. I'm sorry. I've now ruined movies for you forever.
So, now that you know you should be doing client testimonials and how you can craft an effective format to record these testimonials, we're going to show you Nick and I, who's behind the camera, we're going to show you what a client testimonial looks like. There's two different ways you can do this testimonial. First is the most effective, but also the most challenging to get, which is getting somebody on camera. So getting your client actually to tell their story on camera through an interview or them actually saying it is the most challenging one. It's hard to get them to say this actual hero's journey. So I like to do it in an interview format. So Nick is going to sit here. I'm going to interview him, and you're going to hear the questions I ask him to lead him into kind of giving me the hero's journey. Then we're going to cut it, and I'm going to show you what that looks like together in a—I think we're going to make it maybe 30 to 60-second client testimonial. So stick around, and we'll show you what that interaction looks like.
And look over here, please. Sir, what are you going to give a testimonial about? What's something you bought recently? Electric guitar. Electric guitar. Perfect. I'm going to go with like guitar lessons actually, cuz you wouldn't do a testimonial for buying a guitar. You play guitar, and you're trying to learn. Can you tell me about what it was like um, you know, playing your guitar and, you know, struggling before you got these lessons?
Yeah, it was really frustrating. Uh, I was looking stuff up on YouTube all the time, and I would watch the same tutorial over and over and over, and I have questions, but I couldn't ask. So I'm like just playing and trying to figure it out over and over, and I sounded horrible, and I never—I couldn't figure out how to sound better.
Why do you think it wasn't working using the YouTube tutorial?
Um, cuz there were like individual things. So like if I tried to learn a song sometimes and I couldn't get my hands to stretch maybe as far as I needed to or whatever. So then I have to look up a tutorial like, well, how do you get your hands to stretch more? And then it's all these like individual—anytime I have a question, I have to like leave learning the thing I'm learning, and I'm not on a track. So, like I just have to individually find these parts and figure out how to piece it together. And I don't even know if I'm right.
Can you tell me about like the exact time when you were like, you know what, enough is enough. I'm going to call uh ABC guitar lessons.
Um, honestly, I can like—I can play some songs and stuff. Uh, and I was shopping around for a different guitar, and I got into these guitar stores, and there are these other people there playing, and they're like, "Let me hear you." I'm like, "Yeah, play song or whatever." They asked me like, "Oh yeah, like I just use triads to remember that." And I'm like, "Try no, I just know like yeah, this is like uh this is Stairway to Heaven," and they understand like what it's doing, and they could play it in a different key. So, I just met people that had a lot deeper understanding of the instrument than me, and I wanted that.
Nice. So, uh, you know, you called ABC guitar lessons here and, uh, you know, tell me what it was like working with Bill, your instructor.
Yeah, right when I got started, uh, it was a little con—I was—I wanted to know where I was at, and I told him that, and I didn't know if somebody could figure that out or not. So, I just uh—he just—he—he walked me through like some exercises to do in front of him and some different songs to play. And he was able to kind of point me out like exactly where I'm at and what I need to work on, which is good cuz I didn't know what I needed to work on.
Yeah. Like now that you've been working with him for 3 months, how's your playing improved?
More in three months than in the past three years. It's like I was crawling before, and now I feel like I can—I'm not just walking, I'm like running.
What uh what are you able to do? You know, do you play in front of people now, and you were embarrassed before? You know, what's it like?
Awesome.
Uh, people that are maybe looking for guitar lessons out there and, you know, may be considering different people to work with, you know, what would you say to them?
You feel like you could just learn it online and do it yourself, but you will learn at 100 times the rate, and you will understand it way deeper if you have somebody that already knows what they're doing and making the mistakes you've made, show you how to overcome those.
Perfect. Thanks, Nick.
All right, so that is a uh interview of a testimonial. That is exactly what I would do, asking people questions. We're now going to show you what that cut looks together as like a little 30-second guitar testimonial for our fake ABC guitar lessons. And uh yeah, we'll put it in here so you can see what that would look like.
Playing and trying to figure it out over and over, and I sounded horrible. I never—I couldn't figure out how to sound better. It was really frustrating. Uh, I was looking stuff up on YouTube all the time, and I would watch the same tutorial over and over and over. I tried to learn a song sometimes and I couldn't get my hands to stretch maybe as far as I need to or whatever. So then I have to look up a tutorial like, well, how do you get your hands to stretch more? Anytime I have a question, I have to like leave learning the thing I'm learning. So like I just have to individually find these parts and figure out how to piece it together, and I don't even know if I'm right. And I was shopping around for a different guitar, and I got into these guitar stores, and there are these other people. I just met people that had a lot deeper understanding of the instrument than me, and I wanted that. Yeah. Right when I got started, I wanted to know where I was at. He walked me through like some exercises to do in front of him and some different songs to play. And he was able to kind of point me out like exactly where I'm at and what I need to work on, which is good cuz I didn't know what I needed to work on. I was crawling before, and now I feel like I can—I'm not just walking, I'm like running. You feel like you could just learn it online and do it yourself, but you will learn at 100 times the rate, and you will understand it way deeper if you have somebody that already knows what they're doing and making the mistakes you've made, show you how to overcome those.
Awesome. So, you can see that that was super powerful for getting client testimonials as far as like asking the right questions to get them to tell the right story. You could see the leading questions I was asking him to get the story that I was looking for. I knew I needed the before, you know, the pain that he was going through. I knew that I needed kind of that what happened and and why, and then I needed the ending of like how awesome his life is at the end. I also tried to ask a couple of questions to maybe get like a quote for an intro for like that very first line to make it the most powerful that would resonate with somebody off the first like 2 to 3 seconds. So, that's the thing I was looking for with that client testimonial.
Now, that's the hardest thing you can do is get a person talking on camera. One, people are really self-conscious about getting on camera. Two, they feel sometimes like they should be compensated for giving a testimonial. Three, they don't know what to say, and they clam up, and, you know, it's just hard to get somebody scheduled to show up and do an actual testimonial. So, this is really intimidating if you don't do this all day every day.
The other way you can still utilize a client testimonial is through a story. So, me as business owner, I can tell Nick's story of what it was like. So, it's not quite as powerful as a client testimonial, and it's truly just because you see my face rather than Nick, but I can do the same exact thing through a story. And so now we will cut to Ryan telling the story as if Ryan, business owner, is sharing his client stories for a testimonial.
Are you embarrassed to play guitar in front of your girlfriend? I get it. I had a guy that I just got done working with. His name was Nick, and his girlfriend always asked him to play guitars. He had three guitars lined up on his wall, and he never played for her. He called me one day and was like, "I have to learn how to play guitar better." And I asked him why. And he said, "My girlfriend asked me to play over and over again, but I'm not confident enough to know what chords to press. I can kind of learn online, but it's a little slow for me learning, and I just want to get it straight to the point so I can play something for our anniversary that's coming up in 3 months." We got playing, we found the song that he wanted to play, and we practiced over and over again. And 3 months later, Nick called me back after their anniversary and said, "My girlfriend was so impressed with the song that I played for her that I even proposed that night." What a story. How awesome is that? So, if you want to learn how to play guitar so well that you get encouraged to propose to your girlfriend after playing her a song for the first time, I'd love to help, and that's what I can do. Nick's laughing behind the camera—absolute ridiculous story. You can see how the pieces got put together in that story to tell the same thing—the before, what it was like working with us and then living happily ever after. Hey, the dude proposed cuz he was just so moved of his guitar playing just ripping. What is it? Shredding. Shredding on the guitar. Like this guy is now engaged because of his amazing guitar lessons.
So, this strategy is super boring, but you have client testimonials, you have client stories that you can do over and over and over again, and it's really effective to help people resonate and put themselves in your shoes of the story that you're telling. They can kind of imagine and see like, okay, that's what I feel like right now. That's the problems and struggles I'm going through. I want the success. I want that dream outcome. And if you can share those stories, it's going to help you get leads and make sales and make money from social media. You might not get the following, you might not get the likes, you might not get the shares, but you know what you will get is the money in your pocket. But if you do want a better social media strategy of how you can use a funnel to grow your audience, nurture them, and also convert them, I talk about it in this video right here.