How to Get Client Testimonials to use in your Home Baker Marketing

Testimonials are one of the most powerful marketing tools you can use in your Home Bakery! A testimonial is like bite-sized Word of Mouth.

I like to include a testimonial on every single page of my website to boost my bakery’s credibility and value from the mouths of many different people.

A testimonial enables your prospective clients to imagine themselves having just as good an experience – before even tasting your cakes yet! That’s golden!

Before I get to HOW you can get Testimonials, we need to have a quick chat about one of the most powerful mental triggers in the Sales world…

Social Proof.

The Power of Social Proof

I first learned about Social Proof in Jeff Walker’s book called “Launch”. I’ll be quoting a few passages from his book throughout this post.

“Social proof is the idea that if we see other people taking action, then we will be inclined to take action as well.”

Buying anything for the first time is a risk for all of us. This risk makes us feel uncertain about what we should do next. We’re on the fence and something needs to show us that it’s safe and awesome on the other side.

“We are social creatures and it’s hard to overemphasize just how completely we are influenced by what we see other people around us doing.”

And Jeff is right!

Who of us can watch a movie nowadays WITHOUT checking its ratings and reviews first on Rotten Tomatoes?

Who can go to a restaurant WITHOUT checking its ratings on TripAdvisor, Google or Facebook?

ALL our decisions, and purchase decisions more than any other, are influenced by social proof.

Testimonials are Absolute

Another simple reason that Testimonials are so powerful is because they are TRUE. They can function as “deal sealers” for people because they are not open-ended. They are absolute and true because a testimonial is a real person’s real experience. No one can argue with it or even challenge it.

You can write 1000 words on your website about how awesome your baked goods are, but 3 words from a client’s testimonial will accomplish more than most things you can write.

And that’s because YOU are not part of the ocean of prospective clients in this case. In sales there is always an “us” and a “them”. Your clients feel like the “us” and unfortunately, by default, you fall under the “them” because you are trying to sell them something.

So even though your product might be “the best”, it won’t matter if you can’t bridge the gap between “us” and “them”.

Testimonials bridge that gap and show people that you can be trusted to give them what they need.

How to Get Home Bakery Testimonials

As with most things in life there is the easy way (which gets adequate results a lot faster) and the hard way (which takes more effort and time, but the results are incredible)

The EASY Way to Get Testimonials:

The easiest way to get testimonials from your clients is to just FOLLOW UP with your clients.

You should ALWAYS follow up with a client 2-3 days after they got baked goods from your Home Bakery!

Send them an email and simply ask if they enjoyed their baked goods. Don’t phone them because then they won’t have the liberty to be completely honest with you. Also don’t send a text message because that’s too informal. Email is best – it’s professional.

Now I know it can be super daunting to follow up with a client, because what if they didn’t enjoy their cake??

Honestly, I still get these doubts every single time I need to follow up with a client. But, then I need to remind myself that this phase is too important to skip for several reasons.

Here’s WHY you Should Follow Up with Every Client:

It’s good policy. Caring about whether someone enjoyed your baking (which they paid good money for) is the good and decent thing to do. Following up tells a client a lot about what type of business owner and person you are. Home Bakers care.

If something tastes bad or went wrong, you NEED TO KNOW so that it doesn’t happen again! Getting feedback gives you the opportunity to make changes in your Home Bakery Business moving forward. It also increases your chances of a high customer satisfaction rate.
It provides another opportunity for interaction and relationship building. After the follow up there will be no real opportunity to connect with them again unless they order again. So the follow up provides the last window to leave a good impression with your client.
It gets you those testimonials you need! So many bakers feel incredibly perplexed about asking their clients for testimonials, but this way you don’t even have to ask them. Some clients are naturally more expressive than others and they end up writing the most wonderful feedback your follow up emails! And feedback is exactly the same thing as a testimonial.

If a client happens to be dissatisfied, they will already like you more for caring enough to follow up with them.

This means they’ll be less emotional about it because they won’t be thinking: “The cake was dry and she didn’t even care to follow up! What a shocker!”

The Hard Way to Get Testimonials:

The hard way of getting testimonials comes into play when you want clients to leave Google or Facebook Page Reviews.

These reviews are essential for ranking higher on Google and Facebook Searches.

For example; let’s say there’s a very prestigious bakery in your area with zero Google Reviews or ratings, but your Home Bakery has a 5 star review on Google.

When someone goes on Google and searches for a bakery in your area, Google will place your Home Bakery above the prestigious bakery in the search results.

Google reviews matter a lot because pretty much everyone uses Google to search for everything they need to know. AND pretty much everyone TRUSTS whatever Google says.

You’ll need to be a whole lot more delicate when you approach a client to write a review for your business on Google or Facebook.

I recommend that you only ask clients who have ordered from you AT LEAST 3 TIMES and LOVED your bakes all 3 of those times.
Send them a polite email. First ask how they are before you get down to business.
Express your gratitude over how much they’ve enjoyed your baked goods so far and how much you enjoy baking for them.
Explain how you are trying to rank higher on Google’s Search Engine results and that a Google review from them would help you out a lot. Explaining your intentions to people really helps them to understand WHY you need this.
ASK them if they are keen to write you a review. Don’t just assume that they will be. Tell them that IF they are keen to write a review, you will send them a link to where they need to go. But if they would prefer not to, you will totally understand – no pressure at all. Now wait for their response.
If they respond positively, thank them and send along the link to your business’s “Google My Business” Page and explain to them briefly to click the “write a review” button.
If they respond negatively, reaffirm that you totally understand and thank them all the same.

Testimonials are the BEST marketing tool you can use in your Home Bakery! They help to convince customers very quickly to order from you. 3 Words from a customer testimonial can convince someone to order faster than anything you can ever write in a promotion. Click through to learn how you can get AMAZING testimonials from your clients! #homebakery #bakingbusiness #cakebusiness #homebaking