You know your company does great work.
That’s because your team cares deeply, your process is different, and your clients receive real value from working with you. Bet you hear it all the time! But when you say those things on your own homepage, prospective clients expect a little exaggeration.
Of course you think you’re great! Wait, when you say it, doesn’t that sound like bragging?
Which is why it becomes much more convincing when someone else sings your praises.
That’s the power of a testimonial. Instead of asking visitors to take your word for it, you allow happy clients to describe what it is actually like to work with you.
What’s that look like in action? Glad you asked.
We just followed our own advice and created a new homepage video exclusively featuring Idea Decanter clients. We asked them to talk honestly about the experience. And they explained why video matters, what prevented them from doing it themselves and how our team makes the process easier.
Their words make the case better than ours ever could.
Your prospects are already looking for proof
People rarely arrive on your homepage ready to schedule a meeting immediately. Even when someone has been referred to you, they will almost always look you up before deciding whether to schedule a meeting.
As financial advisor Maura Holowchak explains in our new homepage video:
“Even if a client refers a potential client to you, that person’s going to look you up before they’re ever going to call you. And if they don’t have a way to get a sense of who you are, then they may decide to go in a different direction.”
The research supports that behavior. BrightLocal reports that 97% of consumers read reviews for local businesses, while 54% visit a company’s website after reading positive reviews. Although financial advisory firms do not fit neatly into every “local business” category, the underlying behavior is clear: people look for evidence from others before deciding whether a company deserves their trust.
That decision is often happening long before you know a prospect exists. Research from 6sense found that B2B buyers typically complete about two-thirds of their buying journey (including much of the process of selecting a preferred provider) before talking to a seller.
By the time a prospect contacts you, your homepage already helped them decide that you belong on their shortlist.
Testimonials transfer trust
In a trust-building business, a referral also has the power to give you borrowed trust. In many cases, someone the prospect knows has already said, “You should talk to this person.”
A testimonial helps carry that trust across the next step.
It allows prospective clients to hear a real person describe the problem they faced, the experience they had and the difference your service made. Instead of reading a broad claim such as “We provide exceptional service,” they hear the details that make that claim believable.
Testimonials are especially powerful when they answer the questions prospects may be reluctant to ask:
- Will these people understand me?
- What is the process actually like?
- Will this require too much of my time?
- Are they good at guiding people who are not experts?
- Do they deliver what they promise?
Those are exactly the questions we wanted our own clients to answer in our new Idea Decanter homepage video.
Art Dinkin explains that working with us gives him “one less thing” to manage and that professional videos happen automatically.
Casey Pascuzzi describes spending about an hour of his time while our team handles the rest.
Ari Baum talks about how we take the ideas in his head and turn them into scripts that capture both his words and the emotion behind them.
We could have written those claims ourselves. But hearing them from the advisors who have experienced the process makes them more specific, human, and credible.
Video adds another layer of authenticity
Written testimonials still have value, but video gives prospects more information.
They can see the speaker. They can hear the tone of voice. They can notice the pauses, expressions and enthusiasm that are difficult to reproduce in a polished paragraph.
In an online world, where consumers are becoming more skeptical of anonymous reviews, those non-verbal cues matter. An identifiable client speaking naturally on camera can provide signals that a star rating or anonymous quote cannot.
The goal is not to produce a parade of people declaring that you are wonderful. The best testimonial videos provide enough context to be useful. Who is the person? What problem were they trying to solve? What surprised them about the experience? What changed after they hired you?
Specificity is what turns praise into proof.
Financial advisors have more freedom to use testimonials now
For years, many financial advisors were accustomed to treating client testimonials as effectively off-limits.
That changed with the SEC’s modernized Investment Adviser Marketing Rule, which took effect in 2021. It permits SEC-registered investment advisers to use testimonials and endorsements in advertisements, provided they satisfy applicable disclosure, oversight and disqualification requirements.
Among other requirements, advertisements generally must clearly and prominently disclose whether the person providing the testimonial is a client and whether that person was compensated.
PLEASE NOTE: SEC registration status, state regulations, broker-dealer rules and individual firm policies may affect what is permitted. Every testimonial should go through the advisor’s normal compliance review process.
Put your strongest proof where people will see it
A testimonial page hidden in your website navigation may be useful, but it asks visitors to go looking for reassurance.
Your homepage is different. It is often the first place a referral, prospect or center of influence goes to determine who you are and whether your firm feels credible.
That makes it one of the best places to let other people speak on your behalf.
You can still explain your services, experience and process. Just do not make your visitors rely entirely on your version of the story. Give them the opportunity to hear from people who have already made the decision they are considering.
Let your happy clients do the convincing.
Learn more about creating client testimonial videos with Idea Decanter here.
