01 Testimonial Builder Walkthrough
01 Specificity is power when creating testimonials
This is where we identify who or what this case study or testimonial is about. And with case studies and testimonials specificity is power. What do I mean by that? When we're talking about an experience through a testimonial it is oftentimes a lived experience meaning someone actually had that experience in there giving you their firsthand account of that is oftentimes much more powerful to hear that firsthand account about a particular individual and organization than it is to hear that just about the organization by itself? So I realize especially with larger organizations they want the testimonial to be about the organization. And I'm not saying that it shouldn't be.
Start by highlighting instances that display values important to your organization
But what I am saying is start with a specific example and then convey the values that are brought to light through that example and then take those and generalize them across the whole organization. It's a lot more powerful to do it that way than it is to try and start at the whole organization and just make that case study or testimonial about it and it alone. So think about that as you're trying to determine who this case study is actually about so quick tip here specificity is power when it comes to case studies and testimonials. And this really comes into play when we're talking about an organization versus a person. A lot of times when we think about making a case study for an organization we bring it up on a very high level and it's very abstract.
Screenshot of this section of the form
Specificity is power
But we have to remember that testimonials are really about an individual's firsthand account of their experience with a particular provider or group of providers at an organization. What do I mean by that? Let's say we're making a testimonial about our experience at a hospital. We could start by talking about the hospital. But right away we have broken a connection because oftentimes people don't have connections with organizations as powerful as the connections that they have with individual people who happen to represent an organization.
So a better way to do that is to get really specific and even if just for a second of the testimonial describe the interaction with a person at that organization that really highlights the values that the organization holds dear. Then you can transition that positive experience to highlight what that organization really stands for. So remember take it from specific to general and you'll have a really good time with the rest of this work she so specificity is power when it comes to testimonials. Remember testimonials in case studies are a first-person primary account of an experience with either another individual or group of individuals or an organization. And when you start off at the organizational level it is very tempting to only talk about the organization. Most organizations are actually collections of people or interactions with single individuals. So rather than start from general organizational level and moved down or not even go to the individual providers at all.
The larger the organization, the more important it is to stay focused
I recommend starting with specific individuals specifically those individuals whose values and whose experiences are sort of indicative of what that organization holds dear and then take those specific instances and convey them across to the organization in general. So that's the first step. We'll see you at the next one. Testimonials in case studies really benefit from specificity and in this section what we're doing is really honing in on who or what this testimonial is about. If you recall a testimonial is really a primary first-person account of a lived experience and most lived experiences that we have on a daily basis involve contact with either an individual or group of individuals or an organization. But that organization is generally made up of people. The mistake a lot of people make is they start at the organizational level and they end there. They never describe the testimonial from the perspective of those first-person interactions. And that's what people really connect with.
So remember to start specific and then take that general rather than just starting at the general organizational level and stopping there or starting general organizational and trying to trickle it down that way. That's a great tip and I think you'll get a lot of mileage out of it.