Testimonials - word of mouth works
The recommendations of other people are THE most effective means of establishing the credibility of your product or service.
You’ve built an effective, engaging website, and built up a steady stream of good quality traffic, of visitors who are interested in what you have to offer. Congratulations on winning half the battle!
The other half of the battle is getting your visitors to ‘convert’ – to carry out the main action you want to them to take (maybe make an enquiry or buy some products).
And how do you convert these visitors? There are many ways of course, but one of the most powerful is to include testimonials on your website.
What are testimonials?
Testimonials are basically comments, quotes or reviews from previously satisfied customers. Used properly, they’re a tremendously powerful tool in building trust, and persuading your visitors to buy what you’re selling.
A recent Nielsen study found that “more than three-quarters of consumers worldwide trust consumer recommendations over any other type of ad. The advice of strangers can carry more weight than the best brand Web site“ (source).
It’s common sense really!
And it’s no surprise either. It’s obvious that positive ‘word of mouth’ recommendations and comments from fellow peers would carry far more weight than any other forms of advertising or persuasion.
At Definition we know that up to 90% of our current clients have come from referrals from happy customers, and I know of several occasions when a well-placed customer review on a website has certainly cemented my decision to buy.
Trust and the perception of credibility are everything.
Doing testimonials well
So what’s the best way to use the power of testimonials on your website? Certainly, the inclusion of a choice quote or 2 dotted around would be better than nothing, but there are ways of really maximising their effectiveness.
Here are some tips:
- Use video – video testimonials are hands-down the most effective form of testimonial there is, yet so few people do it. There are many services out there that allow you to easily create, upload and host video on your website for free (with YouTube and Vimeo being just 2 examples).
- Use audio – not quite as powerful as video, but still a great way of enhancing the credibility and authenticity of your customer’s views
- Include a photo – a photo adds a layer of credibility to the testimonial not afforded by text-only quotes
- Cite your sources properly – a testimonial that doesn’t at least mention the reviewer’s full name and location (or job title) is next to useless. The more detail you can give about the person the better – full name, job title, company, telephone number, email address, etc.
- Be specific – ensure that you use testimonials that address specific benefits or positive results they’ve seen, rather than just generic compliments. Testimonials with specific and personal detail outweigh more general comments every time.
- Intersperse freely – although it’s good to have a dedicated ‘Testimonials’ page, it’s also really important to ensure that your testimonials are also scattered throughout your website. Place them prominently on the home page, directly within the website copy, in sidebars, right alongside services or products they relate to, etc.
Why not use testimonials?
We suggest using testimonials to most of our clients and yet occasionally meet resistance. Here are 3 of the more common reasons we hear:
- It’s tacky – people sometimes feel that testimonials can seem tacky or crass. We think this is a peculiar (maybe British??) attitude – surely if testimonials are so powerful in getting visitors to buy into your service, it’s silly not to do so! If you’ve invested a good amount of money in your website, we feel there’s no room for subtlety in making the site a success.
- It’s not appropriate – maybe the use of testimonial is simply a poor fit for the tone of the website or just not appropriate to the service being offered.
- It’s ammunition for the competition – very often we hit reluctance to use testimonial because a company will be frightened to give away sensitive information about their customers to their competitors. They often suggest that we use just a first name only – sadly, as pointed out earlier, this is next to useless so we usually decide to ditch the testimonials completely in cases like these.
Word of mouth and the advice of strangers
If you’re not currently using testimonials, you’re really missing out on one of THE most important tools in anyone’s marketing arsenal, and one that’s free and easy to implement.
It’s common sense that people will put more trust in the advice of someone who has already had a great experience using the same product or service.
How do you get these testimonials? Simple – just ask! We ask everyone we work with about their experience of working with us, and ask each one of them for a written testimonial.
So now could be the time to begin to gather some great customer comments and start thinking about including them effectively in your website.
What next?
Need help or advice in including testimonials in your website? Give us a call on 01482 341797 and we’ll be happy to advise.
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