How to use Testimonials in Language School Marketing

Using testimonials in your language school marketing can be a game changer, especially during the back-to-school period when potential students are considering your language school.

Having testimonials on your social media and on your website will make potential students feel reassured when they need to choose the best language solution. In other words, testimonials help potential students understand if you are a good option when they check you out on social media. Yes, people do check out language services on social networks as well as on Google.

If you say that your school is the best school in town in your ads, people will not believe it as much as they would if a friend or someone else said this. Would you agree?

Hi, I’m Gina Rodriguez. I’m a Digital Marketing Consultant specialized in the language education sector with 25+ years experience in ELT.

I help language schools and independent language professionals build an engaging social media presence through training, consultancy and tailored social media strategies.

Who can be a testimonial for language school marketing?

It is usually a current or former parent/student who shares how satisfied they are/were with your language school usually upon request. Ideally, they say how you helped them and what they achieved thanks to your ELT services. In this way people who see the testimonial will learn more about how you can help them achieve those results.

For this reason, it is really important to craft the right questions to send to your testimonials so that their comments help build trust and reassure others.

The best format for testimonials is video testimonials. Prioritize video testimonials for your language school marketing as these are more trustworthy. Photos of testimonials also work well. In both cases, testimonials do wonders in improving your social media presence.

How can testimonials improve your school’s social media presence?

Technically using testimonials on social media will help you increase your reach organically.

The moment you share a video testimonial or a photo of the person (and tag them), it is very likely that their friends and followers will not only see you but also start following you.

A bigger reach means increased visibility and consequently, more people will consider your ELT services and you’re increasing the chance to enrol more students. Isn’t it great?

What’s more, by regularly sharing others’ experiences about the quality of the ELT services you are building brand awareness, i.e you’re becoming top of mind in your potential students’ minds. Therefore, testimonials should be considered a priority of your language school marketing strategy.

What should a testimonial say to use it on social media?

I’d suggest that you note down good questions or prompts for the students or parents that will be your testimonials.

These should focus on showing:

How do I get testimonials for my language school marketing?

Make a list of satisfied present and past students and ask them for a testimonial. If they agree, then send them the prompts or questions you have prepared and ask them for a video testimonial or a photo. As well as this, don’t forget to request for permission to share their testimonial on social media. Also, ask them permission to tag them on social media.

These are three simple steps. Set a deadline for them and make sure you send a gentle reminder if they are running late. Their testimonial is gold dust for your school’s social media marketing so it deserves attention and a little bit of planning, too.

Finally, thank them for their time.

What’s the best way to use testimonials on social media?

We know that social media posts have a very short life span. It is also known that only a small percentage of your social media followers will see your content organically. So what to do to transform testimonials into an evergreen type of content? The short answer is : Place them strategically in places where they will live longer and potential customers can have easy access to them. Where?

Here are some social media post ideas to help you out:

Instagram: once you post the testimonial share it in stories and from there add them to Highlights. In this way it will remain at the top of your feed just under the bio. Create a Highlight called testimonials and add a cover to make it stand out.

Facebook: Videos have a longer life on this platform but they will be buried soon. So to extend the life of a video or post on Facebook the best way is to pin it. When you pin a Facebook post it stays at the top and it’s the first thing Facebook page visitors will see.

LinkedIn: Think of adding a video testimonial in your “Featured Section” on your profile. LinkedIn allows you to share photos, media, links and pdf so it’s like a shop-window to display your testimonials.

WhatsApp: You probably know by now that I’m a fan of WhatsApp marketing ( you can read about WhatsApp marketing here) . If you read the article you’ll find out that WhatsApp Business (which is a FREE app) has a feature called Catalogue. You can add a link to the video testimonial there. Alternatively, you can add the photo of the testimonial with the text on there. It will be easy to share from there to contacts and onto WhatsApp Status (read more about WhatsApp Status here).

Ready to use testimonials in language school marketing?

After reading this article you’re hopefully convinced about the importance of testimonials in your language school marketing strategy. This means including testimonials of your ELT services on social media and on your website.

School owners often ask me how many testimonials they need for their language school. The answer is as many as you can!. Keep a folder with as many testimonials as you can for the various types of English language solutions you offer. They will always be an important asset in your language school marketing and excellent content for organic social media posts, social media ads and for your website.