Client and customer testimonials are one of the most crucial pieces of your marketing strategy. The journey you want to take people on to lead them to a sale consists of three main parts:

1. The “Are you in my head?” stage when you relay their pain points to them

2. The “Yeah, that actually would be nice..” stage when you have them envision what their life would be like if those problems weren’t problems

3. The “Okay, I’m ready to buy!” stage when you present the solution as your product or service

But– hold on a minute– hardly any one is just going to be ready to buy after seeing your thing. First they want to know if it will even work, and that’s when you bring in the big guns. (Big guns being testimonials, if that wasn’t clear.)

Testimonials can sometimes be the single defining moment of someone ready to hand their money over, or not. You probably wouldn’t purchase a product on Amazon if it didn't have a single review, would it? We as consumers count on those reviews as the proof of a product being worth the investment or not.

So, what makes your products or services any different? You can use those testimonials strategically in your marketing plan to be the final push that gets someone over the line and to the checkout page or paying their first invoice.

That’s why we’re going to share with you 7 places you should be showcasing client or customer testimonials, if you aren’t already.

We all know that testimonials are a crucial part to a functioning business. Unfortunately, many of us are met with fear and anxiety just from the thought of having to ask clients for testimonials/feedback.

“What if I’m actually not doing a good enough job to warrant a great testimonial?”

Thinking of actually bringing it up to your clients almost makes you want to run away or barf (or both). It can even seem like a super awkward conversation, like you’re saying, “Hey, I know we’ve working together for a while, and I think I’ve been doing a great job, but can you just confirm that by writing a testimonial that will potentially be shared with thousands of people depending on how good it is?”

Okay, so you won’t actually say it that way, but it can seem like it! So today, we’re going to walk you through how you can put this task on autopilot so that you can avoid the testimonial-asking anxiety. Or if you’re just simply the worst at remembering to ask for them, these tips are also for you!

We all aim to shoot for those killer client and customer testimonials, the ones that you’re so so proud to display on every outlet possible. And why wouldn’t you be? 87% of consumers place as much trust in reviews as they would word-to-mouth, and 90% of consumers want to read between 5-10 reviews before gaining trust in a brand.

That places a LOT of pressure on us as creatives to give our people the best experience possible when working with us so that we can have another awesome testimonial to add to the pot. After all, birds of a feather flock together and when you wow one dreamy client, another is bound to follow soon after.

But what if we told you that there’s no need to feel so pressured? That there are actually a ton of simple actions you can take to get raving client testimonials and wow your customers?

It’s been over three years (really, close to four) since we launched The Strategy Hour Podcast. Since then, we’ve made the ranks of Apple’s Top 30 Business Management Podcasts, have been featured in multiple blog posts about business-related podcasts, have had X total downloads on Apple Podcasts alone, and we’re coming up hot on the heels our 500th episode (that’s a lot of freakin’ recording time!).

And while we’re so grateful that our podcast took off the way it did and has influenced thousands of lives and launching it was a blast, in no way has it always been easy. So, today, we’re going to be pulling back the curtain on how we launched our podcast, the challenges we faced, all of the hustle we put in to launch, how we plan and upload new episodes, the whole 9.

If the idea of launching a podcast has been tossing and turning in your brain, our totally candid and honest experience will hopefully help you determine whether this is the right next move in your business journey!

Instagram recently released their new feature, Instagram Reels, and it’s catching like wildfire due to the similarities with its rival, TikTok. The reason TikTok is such an amazing platform for businesses is all thanks to the possibilities you have of organically reaching a large audience, and now Instagram has adopted this capability.

Accounts have been able to grow by the thousands after landing on Instagram’s explore page and gaining views from hundreds of thousands of people (similar to what happens when a TikTok video lands on the For You page). If you tailor your content to catch the attention of the right people, the opportunity to grow on Instagram is higher now more than ever.

But for those people who aren’t experienced with TikTok and the culture that’s now been brought over to Instagram, it can be super difficult determining what kind of content to post, how it works, etc. So, with that, we want to give a breakdown of Instagram Reels, how to use it, and what kind of content to post so you can increase your organic reach!

There are nearly 300 million daily users on Pinterest. That’s 300 million potential customers and clients out there just waiting to scroll upon your content. In fact, 97% of searches on Pinterest are unbranded, which leaves a huge opportunity for your content to show up. But how do you make them stop scrolling to check it out?

Since Pinterest is a visual search engine, you can bet that there are millions of beautifully stunning images already, but images are static, so a great way to catch someone’s eye is by creating a video Pin.

They’ve been around for a while, but their popularity has been rising exponentially in the past couple of years with the amount in 2019 increasing six times what it was in 2018. Even though video Pins are gaining traction, they’re still less used than images, which means there’s a huge opportunity just waiting for you to increase your visibility on the platform.

Another great thing about video Pins is that they automatically start playing when they’re halfway on a user’s screen. In a sea of static images, that’ll immediately catch someone’s eye and, hopefully, entice them to click through to your website. Why else should you create video Pins, though, and how do you create them?

“Do I need a website to use Dubsado?”

“How will I be able to use it for all the things I need to launch my business?”

We get these questions tons. The short answers are no, you absolutely do not need a website in order to make Dubsado work for you. And yes, you will be able to use it for every aspect of your launch and beyond. In fact, Dubsado could actually completely replace your website.

Evenmoreso, although Dubsado is a CRM, it can serve the same purposes as many other softwares, especially for someone who might be new to being in business and doesn’t have the extra income right now to invest in other tools.

So, keep reading if you want to deep dive into all things Dubsado, how to use it if you don’t have a website, how to use it to launch your business, and how to bypass the headache and set it up in just one or two days.

The great thing about having an email list is that it’s yours, and you’re able to market to people who you know are interested in hearing more about you and what your business is up to. It’s amazing for building lasting relationships with your audience, which is the key to making consistent sales and seeing growth.

However, like many aspects of business, there are a few dos and don’ts that are important to remember. Otherwise, it’s super easy to break down your relationships and see a large increase in unsubscribe rates and, ultimately, sales.

That’s why, today, we’ll be going over these do’s and don’ts. Some we’ve experienced ourselves and others we’ve seen firsthand with other businesses. And if you really want to up your email game, stick around till the end!

The Instagram algorithm, A.K.A. this seemingly mythical being that’s confusing the heck out of tons of people. You may see it talked about a lot either by Instagram gurus or in Facebook groups, but one piece of information that seems to get left out is what it is and how it even works.

We’re all aware that a few years ago, Instagram stopped showing posts in users’ home feed by chronological order, so now it almost feels more like a popularity contest. (We miss those simpler times!)

Everyone is scrambling around searching for information on how to beat this beast, so we pulled together a list of our top tips for making Instagram’s algorithm your very best friend.