Are testimonials part of your company’s website? Testimonials – real recommendations by real customers – are a powerful way to signal to your current clients and prospects that your company knows its stuff, and can help generate trust in your company.
Here are 6 tips for creating compelling customer testimonials:
1. Ask. Solicit testimonials from your best customers. Most of them will likely be flattered that you’d asked them to offer an endorsement on your behalf. (And by the way, an added bonus is that testimonials will also create more loyalty in your existing customers, since a public endorsement helps cement the bond they feel with you.)
2. Collect a range of endorsements. Highlight various qualities of your company in a range of testimonials about your company and its products or service: Perhaps one of your customers praises your customer support, while another focuses on your product’s ease of use, same-day installation, money-back guarantee. Or whatever. You get the idea.
3. Use real customers with real names. “Cindi S. from Sioux Falls, SD” isn’t going to cut it. Your testimonials are far more credible if you cite real customers and their full names (and companies). If possible, include a link to the business's Web site so prospects can see they're for real.
4. Don’t sweat poaching. Some companies fear using real client names and companies because they worry that their best customers will be pinched by competitors. But the value gained from using a real client's name far outweighs the remote risk of losing that customer to a poacher.
5. Mirror your market. If you market to accountants in the Midwest, be sure that your testimonials reflect that demographic, suggests Rick Sloboda in an article at MarketingProfs. "Going after the average Joe?" asks Sloboda. "Quote average Joe. Is your market upscale? Showcase sophisticated people. Do women make up 90% of your target market? Then 9 out of 10 customers providing testimonials should be female."
6. Include a photo. If possible, consider including a photo of your fan along with his or her written testimonial. A good photo can help bring an endorsement to life.
7. Don’t bury the goods. Don’t hide your testimonials on a single page inside your site. Instead, shout about it: Scatter them across all of your web site pages.
So how about you? How have you solicited testimonials, and how do you use them?