In this analytical age, brands are competing with each other on tiny details. Creating campaigns targeting the right demographic and keyword, developing effective CTAs, and all those trifles. However, there is an element that cannot be measured using an existing tool.
That’s where testimonial link-building comes into play. Testimonials posted on websites for products or services can help you get a quality backlink from their home page.
Words hold so much power, and simple customer feedback can shatter all the efforts brands put into their campaigns. You may be a brand and do everything right, but a negative customer experience can adversely impact brand equity, which can be hard to shed.
In the same way, positive experiences by customers boost your sales manifold. That’s why testimonial link-building is a great way to harness the strength of customers’ positive experiences.
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What Is Testimonial Link Building?
Testimonial link building is the process of posting a positive comment about a product or service by users on the owner’s website. At its core, link building testimonial is meant to provide genuine positive comments for website owners in exchange for a link. Testimonials are similar to product or service reviews, and it helps brands grow and gain brand recognition.
How To Do Testimonial Link Building?
The process of creating a testimonial link is straightforward and follows some easy steps. Before going further, bear in mind that relevance is the key. Always try to be unique and honest in your testimonial, and do not try to approach brands with a niche that is irrelevant to your blog.
Track the simple steps to create testimonial links mentioned below.
- Devise a targeted list of products or services.
- Discover the contact information for each of them.
- Pitch them with your testimonial or positive experience.
- Write the testimonials themselves.
- If possible, back up your testimonial with a video.
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What Is The Importance of a Testimonial Link?
Testimonial links are Tier-1 backlinks with the same advantage as good-quality ones. Testimonials are posted on highly reputable websites, so the link created will be good quality and authoritative. Testimonials build trust between brands and customers and spread awareness.
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Benefits of Testimonial Link Building
There are good reasons why well-known online marketers and link-building experts love testimonial links.
- You Don’t Need to Write Long-Form Content
Unlike a guest post strategy, you won’t need to write long articles to build links. You’ll only need to write a paragraph at most to get a testimonial link.
And in some cases, you won’t have to write anything at all. You can simply record your video testimonial and send them to the brand you’re working with.
- You Are Less Likely to Get Rejected
Testimonial link-building efforts have a high success rate as compared to other strategies. This is because the users spend their time and money on your services or products if they have something they can refer to. With testimonials, the users are likely to trust you, and you are less likely to get rejected.
But, you must monitor your links to fix any broken links and look for other sites with broken links that you can use. But to do that, you’ll have to explain the consequences of having broken links to businesses. And if you fail to make them understand, they’ll be less receptive to replacing their broken links with yours.
Blogger outreach strategies can be difficult since not all businesses need content from you, especially those with an in-house team of writers. But all brands understand the importance of having testimonials on their site.
In fact, they’re actively looking for influential customers that are open to submitting testimonials. That’s why you’re less likely to get rejected.
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- You Get Some Credibility
The perks of this strategy go beyond backlinks. People have the impression that those who get featured in testimonials are experts in their fields. And in most cases, they are right.
So, if you’re getting featured all the time by different brands, that will ultimately help you build some authority for your business.
- You Will Rank Higher on Search Engines
Successful marketing experts know the value of receiving strong homepage links. If owners of authoritative sites link back to you, it’s almost certain that you’ll rank higher on Google and other search engines. And if it is a testimonial, it’s like a cherry on top.
- You Will Get Some Exposure
Promoting your blurb prominently on other sites will bring attention to your business. A potential buyer might come across your testimonial and click on your link to check you out. That’s a great deal considering all you did was write an awesome review.
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How to Get A Testimonial Link?
Testimonial link building doesn’t require technical know-how. That makes it an ideal strategy for those without knowledge about link building.
What do you need to get started?
For the most part, you’ll need a spreadsheet and the guts to send emails to people who don’t know you personally.
A tool that’ll help you find a lead’s email address might help but not necessarily. We’ll explain this in more detail in a later section.
Here’s how you can get high-quality links (and potential customers) from large-scale business websites:
Step 1: Find Products and Services to Review
You are good to go if you already have products you can review. Otherwise, you’ll need to find products and services to review and write testimonials.
It should be kept in mind that these don’t have to be physical products. You could focus on digital goods and services if that’s a better match for your niche.
It’s also important to remember that you’ll need to be an actual user of the products being reviewed. Not only is it morally wrong to write reviews about a product you’ve not even tried, but there might also be legal ramifications to this. So better be on the safe side.
Besides, some companies can check if you really are a customer of theirs or if you’re only looking to get featured on their site. Remember that your reputation is also on the line here. You don’t want to mislead a potential buyer.
Having a spreadsheet would help you keep track of all your options.
Tip: Some companies let people try their products and services for free. While free trials only last for a while, they will give you enough time to try all of its features and see if they are worth recommending or not. However, this strategy will only result in a testimonial backlink if you are a well-known influencer in the industry.
Who Should You Target?
As suggested earlier, you should only work with brands that fall within your niche. Having a list that’s too broad will only hurt your campaign in the long run.
Finding businesses that display testimonials on their websites and allow backlinks is just as important. Your target list should only include legitimate companies. If you work with shady sites, you could find yourself on the receiving end of harsh criticism from upset customers.
Most of all, you should only write testimonials for products that you truly enjoy using. It’s hard to write good things about a product or service that does not meet your standards.
How to Find the Right Target
You could take different approaches to find the right businesses to target. One of the simplest routes is to search Google for products relevant to your industry.
If you’re in the graphic design space, you can do a Google search for products and services related to that niche. For example, a search for “best tools for graphic designers” will bring up a whole lot of options.
It’s also possible to find inspiration from your competitors. Go to their sites and see what products and services they recommend. You can then check if those businesses display testimonials with links on their homepage.
Another way to find link targets is by carefully analyzing your industry. Think of all the products or services a user in that space might need. And after you have some data, search for businesses that provide solutions in the relevant category.
How to Check a Website’s Authority
You’ll want to prioritize working with authoritative sites. But how will you know which ones fall under that category?
Relax. It’s not that hard to do.
You can use online resources to see how authoritative a site is. And the best part? You can use some of these tools for free. Ahrefs’ Website Authority Checker is one such example.
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Step 2: Look for Business Contact Details
Once you have a list of businesses that you want to work with, you can now start collecting their contact information. You need to find out who you need to talk to and get their email addresses.
Some businesses will have a dedicated page filled with contact details or a contact form you can fill out. These are worth trying. However, there are tools that you can use to find the contact details of specific people within the company.
Email lookup tools allow you to find company employees’ names and email addresses by entering the website. Popular options include Find That Email, FindThatLead, and Email Finder by Hunter.io.
Admittedly, these services can be expensive — especially for first-time marketers. So it’s hard to find details using the paid versions if you’re just starting out. However, some tools have free versions as well. There is a limit on how many emails you can get per day, but it should be enough to get you started.
You can try social media if you can’t find a person’s email using a lookup service. For example, you can search for the company on LinkedIn and see the names of the employees working there. Find the right person to contact. If you’re lucky, they might have their contact details displayed on their profiles.
Tip: As tempting as it might be, you shouldn’t contact employees through social media if you can avoid it. Not only does it make you seem unprofessional, but you also risk irritating them to the point that they won’t want to work with you. Think about it: Would you want marketers contacting you on your personal social media account? Probably not.
After you’re done, review your list of businesses and tighten it. Your list should only include websites that have high authority and accurate contact information.
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Step 3: Send Your Pitch
You don’t want to send your review right away. What you want to do instead is send a pitch. Explain to the recipient what it is that you want to do and how it can help them.
The experts at Dlinx Outreach advice to keep a pitch short. Stand directly to the point. And make sure you personalize your pitch. Don’t send the same generic email to everyone. You can use a template but have to edit certain details to cater to the business you’re writing to.
You’ll also need to confirm what type of testimonial they’ll need from you. Do they want a short blurb? If so, how long or short does it have to be? Or they may want you to send a video. If that’s the case, what file format will they accept?
You should only work on the testimonial after receiving confirmation from the company. That way, you know you’re not wasting each other’s time.
Here’s a sample email pitch that you can modify as you see fit:
–
Hi [Recipient’s Name],
My name is [Your Name], and I’m the owner of a website called [Your Website].
I’ve used your [Name of Product or Service], and I have to say — I was impressed. I especially like how [Name of Feature] helped me [Achievement].
I loved [Name of Product or Service] so much that I’ll be more than happy to write a testimonial you can use on your website and as part of your marketing materials.
Are you interested in receiving a testimonial from a very satisfied customer?
If you are interested, let me know how you’d like to proceed.
Thanks!
[Your Name]
–
It’s important not to sound aggressive or rude. Be the sweetest person in the world. That way, you’re more likely to receive a reply.
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Step 4: Write Your Testimonial
After getting the green light, you can start writing or shooting your video testimonial.
The biggest challenge when writing a testimonial is making it sound relatable to potential product buyers. Unlike SEO agencies, you don’t have an army of writers to help you out. So you better familiarize yourself with the best practices for writing testimonials.
Here are a couple of tips on writing a killer testimonial:
- Identify a Problem — What problem is the product or service trying to solve? Tell the reader what problem made you try the product. And make sure that it’s a problem they can relate to.
- Mention Key Features — After defining the problem, tell the reader what product features helped address those problems.
- Share the Results — Let everyone know how the product was able to help you achieve your goal. If you tried SEO software, did it help you get more traffic? Did you rank higher on search engines? Did it generate more sales? Tell people how the product improved your life or business.
You’ll also find some testimonials where the reviewer had doubts about the product initially but was proven wrong. If you’ve felt the same way, you can write a testimonial with a similar flow. It makes a testimonial sound more believable. And it makes you sound more human too.
Since written testimonials are often short, you must be as concise as possible. That means learning to deliver a ton of information in as few words as possible. You have more leeway if you’re doing videos.
You should also start thinking like a potential buyer. Ask yourself about what words can convince you to buy the product.
But whatever you do, don’t exaggerate. Give an honest assessment of the product.
If everything goes according to plan, the product owner should publish your testimonial with a link pointing to your site.
Now all you have to do is rinse and repeat.
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Conclusion
Knowing what you know now, you should better understand why so many marketers prefer testimonial link-building over other conventional link-building methods. It’s a pretty straightforward method with a high success rate.
With good research, a solid pitch email, and a well-crafted testimonial, you can implement testimonial link-building as part of your SEO strategy and get great results.
You can even use this technique to build relationships with the brands you attested for. For example, you could work with them again and review their new products to create your trust for future growth opportunities.
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