Harnessing the Power of Testimonials to Build Trust in Your Multifamily Brand
When people hear a great story, they look for an opportunity to tell it again to someone new. The same holds in the business world: When you receive exemplary service or purchase a great product, you want to spread the word.
As a multifamily branding agency, we have seen word-of-mouth communication as a powerful force — especially when building brand trust.
Are you more likely to watch a video advertisement or a video that a close friend shared on Facebook? Most likely, you answered the latter because your friend is someone you know and trust.
For most businesses, building multifamily brand trust is of utmost importance, particularly when consumer trust is declining. However, creating an honest brand built on consumer trust does not always require deep pockets or extensive resources. In fact, building apartment brand trust all starts with customer testimonials.
Why Are Testimonials Important for Building Multifamily Brand Trust?
Customer reviews are pure gold for businesses. Why? Because your prospective customers will trust the opinions of your current customers more than they trust your website content, blog, or advertisements.
According to BrightLocal, 85% of people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Moreover, 91% check reviews before making a purchasing decision.
As people research your company and check out your reviews, they become leads that are virtually free to generate. Further, those buyers are more inclined to purchase from you because they trust your customers and your multifamily brand.
At Criterion.B, many of our current clients are from word-of-mouth referrals. As a smaller multifamily branding agency, establishing and maintaining an honest apartment brand is something our team prioritizes for ourselves and our clients. This is why we designed an entire page on our website dedicated to case studies and customer testimonials.
We have also helped our clients incorporate customer testimonials on their websites. (See below for an example from property management software provider ResMan.)
The True Impact of Testimonials
The numbers speak for themselves when using testimonials to build multifamily brand trust.
- 72% of consumers claim positive reviews make them trust a business more.
- Consumers read an average of seven reviews before trusting a business, up from six last year.
- About 50 reviews per product or service can result in a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Consumers are 58% more likely to convert when interacting with your review.
Additionally, testimonials can also drive traffic by increasing SEO. Product-specific content can increase your keyword rankings and search traffic. For example, a business earning 10+ product-specific reviews can increase search traffic by 15 to 20%.
Test the Waters With Experimentation
From multiple-page case studies to video reviews or quick quotes from customers, there are a wide variety of testimonials that you can incorporate into your apartment branding. The important thing is to experiment with the different formats to find what resonates best with your audience. Use your discretion of where and how often you want to display them, and include different types of testimonial content throughout your website and collateral.
Testimonials are one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to build apartment brand trust, so it’s time to take advantage.