Haven vs. Harper.

It’s the match up of a lifetime.

I’m not sure who to cheer for, and the announcers aren’t giving me anything to work with.

Okay, fine…

Haven vs. Harper isn’t a soccer match. It’s a matchup between the 2 couches I’m between buying.

And the announcers are the marketers behind the product pages.

The problem is I love both options.

• They’re the same size.
• Similar colors.
• Very twinsie-like styles.

So, I went searching (and I do mean searching🔎) for reviews.

Exceppppt…the reviews were nowhere to be found on the product page.

Ppfff, West Elm thinks I’m going to trust them to tell me how comfy the couch is? I think not.

I exited out of my Chrome browser (because I refuse to be one of those people with 82 tabs open) and Googled, “Haven vs. Harper sofa review blog”.

There were multiple results for the Haven, but ZERO for the Harper sofa.

I even redownloaded TikTok (which I deleted after watching Paula’s new moon video on Instagram urging me to give something up) to search for literally anybody’s opinion on the matter.

And…nada.

Which is a problem. Because I love the look, but I’m having trust issues.

Let me explain what this has to do with your business. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that…

Your marketing might be a bit like West Elm product pages…missing some much-needed social proof.

And I’m not talking about testimonials from an ask you made to previous clients that refer to your name in 3rd person.

Those are great, but they don’t always feel like they give you the full story, you know what I mean?

They usually sound like those LinkedIn recommendations where your work bestie writes about your “professionalism” and “organization skills” when you’ve never actually been on a cross-team together.

“Rachel was so kind and helpful with my health!”

“I would highly recommend Rachel to anyone.”

They tend to speak to your character, rather than your results.

Don’t get me wrong – it’s great to hype up your character, but people need more than a “she’s nice!” before they’re willing to put big money into your offerings.

🤌The BEST types of testimonials are a mix of those professional reviews PLUS real life stories and direct-to-you-quotes from people you’ve worked with.

Those ones that sound more like…

• “Seriously- I have never felt this dang good in my entire life. And I’m a fitness instructor!”
• “I’m actually LOLing at myself that I made losing the weight so complicated before this reset.”
• “I’m not kidding when I say I tried ev-er-y-thing before acupuncture, and I’m honestly a little bit in shock that it worked so quickly.”

Do you feel the difference?

The 3rd person reviews feel like that strong referral letter you got from your favorite professor. The others drop you immediately into someone else’s story.

Look at the 2nd example again.

It’s not just that she “lost weight” or that “this reset was worth the money.”

• It’s that she was spinning her wheels before she found you.
• She was overcomplicating things.
• And she can look back and laugh now, because she’s achieved her transformation.

Now, I know what you’re thinking.

Yes, Rachel, I WANT THESE. But how the heck do I actually get them?

I hope it goes without saying that your offer has to be 100% tuned up. When you deliver great results, people are excited to give great feedback.

But with that caveat out of the way…

I’ve got some tips on how to capture these golden nuggets with some semi-formed structure.

🎙️Interview past clients / Case studies

If they’re comfortable on video or audio, and you have a podcast, bring your clients on! If they’re writers, interview them blog style. If they aren’t into either, write a case study on their behalf and have them approve it.

This lets you get into the context of their story and allows them to feel more comfortable putting the story into their own words.

📲UGC (user generated content)

There’s a reason this is so popular! If you have a marketing budget, you could pay for UGC. But you could also capture this content as part of a giveaway or create an exchange for a free offering.

This type of social proof lets your clients get creative. They might have loved part of your offering that you never even think about!

#️⃣Put a number on it

As an easy way to add social proof without your client’s time or energy, you can show you’ve done your homework and showcase the – 

• # of clients you’ve served
• hours you’ve worked/been educated in
• books you’ve written
• podcasts you’ve recorded, etc.

e.g. if West Elm told me 1,923 customers bought the couch and gave it 4.7 stars, I’d have felt a littttle bit more trusting, even without reading the reviews.

🤔Survey 
These quotes aren’t impossible to capture in a survey, but you do need to ask the right questions.

You can’t just go dropping the love + light questions. Get into what could’ve gone better, or dig into where they were initially hesitant to work with you and what changed their mind. That’s what gives the story context.

XO,

Rachel Murphy