How To Write Testimonials and Where To Put Them on Your Site
Word-of-mouth is one of the most influential marketing tools that companies use. People really trust the experience of another human being, even if they’ve never met. And that’s exactly how testimonials work. Learning how to write testimonials for your business can provide your audience with a voice they can trust and encourage them to take the next step in their buyer’s journey. In this article, we discuss:
- What Is a Testimonial?
- Why Are Testimonials Helpful?
- How To Get Great Testimonials from Your Clients
- What Can You Do With Testimonials?
- How To Write a Testimonial for Your Website
What Is a Testimonial?
Image via Unsplash by John Schnobrich
A testimonial is a positive review or recommendation that someone gives to your business. However, they’re a little more detailed than a simple, “I loved working with this company!” Testimonials often describe a specific way a business helped a customer or client. That might include how the business solved a problem, helped them overcome a challenge, or assisted them in achieving a goal. Testimonials are a very common tool that brands use to advertise their services. They include these reviews on their website and in their content to attract their target audience.
Why Are Testimonials Helpful?
Testimonials are helpful for several reasons. First and foremost, they build trust and credibility with your audience. That’s because they act as an endorsement for your products or services. Someone who’s not attached to the company is saying, “Hey! This company really benefited me, and they can benefit you too!” Even though some testimonials seem like placed advertisements by the company, people still read them as third-party positive reviews.
Because of that, testimonials help to improve businesses’ conversion rates. By reading the positive words and recommendations of others, your audience feels like they already know your business and what you can do for them. That helps them feel more inclined to purchase your products or services. Or at the very least, it makes them feel more motivated to start a conversation with your sales team.
Two Ways to Get Great Testimonials from Your Clients
Here are two effective ways to find great testimonials from your customers and clients:
1. Ask For Them
Most people don’t like to give testimonials. That’s especially true when businesses send their clients pages and pages of questions for them to fill out so they can find the best quote to use. Because of that, if you go around asking people to give you a testimonial or to fill out a survey about your business, a lot of people will just outright ignore you. That’s why we recommend a slightly different approach.
Instead of emailing your clients and customers and begging for a testimonial to use on your site, try doing a couple of cold calls. Pick a few of your best clients or customers and call them simply asking, “Hey! We’re calling some past clients to ask what they think about our business and how we performed during our time with them.” This opens up the conversation right away and doesn’t take a ton of time. Sure, you might still have some people turn you down, but if they have a moment, most will give their honest feedback and thoughts because it’s quick and easy.
While talking with your client, record the conversation. If they say something that seems favorable to your company, consider asking if you could quote them. If they agree, transcribe the recording to get the exact quote and send it back to them to confirm their words are okay to put on your website. Chances are, if that’s how they truly feel about your company, they won’t mind sharing it with others.
2. Look For Them
If you search for testimonials on popular review websites, like Google Reviews, you might find some excellent quotes for your testimonials page. It’s also possible that you might find the perfect quote for your testimonial in a past email exchange with one of your clients. Being aware of possible reviews or recommendations you can share with your target audience can help you find perfect statements to hook their attention. But gathering testimonials like this can have some challenges to it, especially because the FTC has very clear guidelines on what makes up a testimonial.
It’s okay to grab a testimonial from a public site, such as Google Reviews. As long as you didn’t solicit the review in any way, you’re perfectly fine to display that review on your site. But soliciting something can be more than just paying someone. If you give them anything in exchange for a review, like company merchandise, it becomes a solicited review instead of a testimonial. Though there’s nothing wrong with solicited reviews, you have to label them as such, you can’t call them a testimonial on your website.
Lastly, when taking a testimonial from an email exchange or a phone call, it’s important to ask for the person’s permission before using it. Though you might not have asked for them to say anything, it’s still helpful to cover yourself legally if they ever decide to turn around and demand money from you for using their words.
What Can You Do With Testimonials?
There are a number of ways you can turn testimonials into effective content for your audience. One of the most popular ways that businesses use testimonials is on their website, almost like an advertisement. Companies can program the testimonial to attach itself somewhere on the page, no matter what the visitor is looking at. That includes major landing pages, as well as blogs, articles, or other pieces of content.
You can also gather all of your testimonials and combine them into one webpage where visitors can see them. This allows your audience to read all the major companies or clients you’ve helped with your products and services. But why stop there? For testimonials that are really meaningful or effective, some companies use them to develop powerful case studies. Case studies allow them to show exactly how their products or services benefited a customer or client. It provides an in-depth analysis of how the client prospered from your business and how other clients would receive the same.
That’s what makes testimonials an excellent last step in your marketing strategy. They help to close the sale. But how are you doing with the previous steps of your strategy? That includes capturing your audience’s attention and informing them on all your company offers. At CopyPress, we specialize in that area of marketing to make its process easier for our clients. With our team of expert writers, editors, and quality assurance specialists, we know how to deliver compelling content that attracts your target audience and converts them into customers.
You bring the testimonials, we’ll bring everything else. Schedule a call with us today to see how we can start boosting your marketing campaign and capturing your audience’s attention.
How To Write a Testimonial for Your Business
Once you’re done talking with your customers and clients, and transcribing their thoughts on your company, you might have a lot more information than you need. Here is a list of steps to help you cut those quotes down and craft the best testimonials for your business:
1. Understand What You Want to Communicate
Knowing what you want your testimonial to communicate is half the battle. Though all testimonials will recommend your company in some way, shape, or form, they’re all going to slightly differ. You want your testimonial to communicate one or more of the following:
- Benefits you provided
- Problems or challenges you solved
- Actions you took to approach the challenges
- Goals or achievements you helped with
Picking one or a few of these points can help you craft your testimonial more easily. If you had an interview with your client or customer, take a look at their responses. Is it possible to capture any of these in a single quote? If the answer is yes, cut down the section until you have just one or two sentences. If not, it’s okay to find one or two quotes and piece them together using an ellipse.
2. Keep It Short
There’s no reason your testimonial needs to be much longer than a couple of sentences. You want them to be direct and immediately tell your audience what they need to know. Not many people want to read a couple of paragraphs of what someone thought about your company. Not to mention, the longer the quote, the fewer places you’ll be able to place it. For your website, something short, or small, doesn’t take up too much room on the page.
The same goes for your content. You want to fit your testimonial around your content, not the other way around. You should have the opportunity to add your testimonial to any page, blog, article, or eBook, without it taking over the entire space.
3. Use Authentic Lines
When possible, it’s helpful to use “authentic lines.” Really, that means any quote or recommendation from your clients that’s written in an engaging, unique voice. You don’t just want your testimonials to communicate the benefits of your company, you want people to say, “If I don’t take advantage of this today, I’m really missing out!” For example, look at this testimonial:
“Drax Marketing Services provided us with excellent consultants that really benefited our business and improved its customer outreach.”
There’s nothing wrong with this testimonial. In fact, if a customer gave you something similar, you should definitely consider using it. But take a look at a more authentic example:
“Drax Marketing Services really saved our butts. Without their consultants, our business would still be stuck in the mud. But thanks to their help, our customer outreach has exploded!”
Depending on your brand and the language you like to use, this exact testimonial might not be for you. But it’s a great example of how a clear and unique voice can really help engage with your audience. If you put a testimonial like this on your site, you’re sure to catch your audience’s attention and hopefully improve your conversion rate. Of course, not every past or current customer or client is going to give a testimonial similar to the more engaging one above, but if they do, definitely consider using it over one that sounds like most other testimonials out there.
4. Include The Customer’s Name and Picture
One of the most important pieces you can include with your testimonial is your customer’s or client’s name and picture. Having a name and face to put with the recommendation helps to improve its effectiveness, especially in the eyes of your target audience. That helps the testimonial feel more human and personal, which can greatly benefit your rate of conversion. If you’re a B2B company, it’s also helpful to include the name of the business or company you worked with, especially if they’re well known. Working with a well-known brand demonstrates your expertise and authority in your industry.
No matter what idea or message you’re trying to communicate with your testimonial, the key thing to remember is how it demonstrates your value. Whenever someone reads the testimonial, whether it be on your site or in your content, you want them to immediately understand how you can help them. And it’s no different for other areas of your marketing strategy, like content marketing. Content marketing is a great way to communicate with your audience and show them how you can improve their lives or solve their problems. Let them understand what you can offer as a company and motivate them to reach out to you or make a purchase.
At CopyPress, we understand the importance of crafting compelling content that attracts your target audience. When we start a new content marketing campaign, we set our clients up with a success manager who gets to know their brand and its content marketing goals. From there, we develop quality written content that engages with your audience and converts them into paying customers. Schedule a call with us today to see how we can help boost your content marketing efforts and get even more positive testimonials for your company.
CopyPress writer
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