Yes, it is hard to believe that those fluffy testimonials (a gift of your creative and imaginative mind) do real value to a website given the fact that you are using them the right way. Ok before get into any further, let us get our point straight. Why do we use testimonials? Yes, we do because we do believe (I have no idea where this belief came from) that slapping some testimonials here and there might go a long way to make visitors see how products or service have changed the way of people’s lives.
But believe me, this is not the way thing should. There are some rules that you need to follow religiously if you really wish to draw out some benefits from testimonials.
Do Not Fake
Do not act smart and have fake testimonials on your website because they are not going to do any good to your website. Apart from the fact that they lack the semblance of truth, fake testimonials if you get caught will have dire consequences on your website online reputation. So, if you do not have any testimonials, it is absolutely fine. We all start from zero and believe me if your product is good, it is destined to have some positive reviews without yours being involved in it.
Do Not Give Importance to Big Boys Only
Unless you have some kind of allergy to small business owners, you should not be featuring testimonials of only large corporate organizations. You need to present a mix bag both – small, large and medium sized business organization so that an average Joe can relate himself with the service you offer.
Be Creative Man
We are not living in 19th century; so you can spice up the testimonial page does not have to be a simple text based anymore. You have the right and the liberty to make the testimonial page a bit colorful by using video testimonials or if that is not possible, you can try some audio format as well.
The biggest advantages of using video testimonials is that they are highly interactive and the best part is that you can use them for promoting your service in Youtube and in other video sharing platforms.
Basics are not that Easy
In the chase of making ones testimonial section awesome, people often forget to include some basic points like – full name of the customers, their locations, their age, what they do etc. These may seem not that important but they may make big difference in the conversion process.
Consider adding signature of the customers along with the real life images. Images of smiling customers is something that you should always strive to achieve.
Be Specific
There is no point in adding testimonials that says only the same thing over and over again. You need to features those testimonials where the customer is explaining how your product or service has made his life easier. Go for the big one because they supposed to contain substance and raw data that your prospective customers might be reading to have an understanding of the quality of the service. Now if some testimonials are extremely long, you can emphasize the important sections in bold letters.
Position Them Prominently
Some people are of the belief that testimonials should be placed only on the home or else in the product landing pages but the reality is that you can use them almost in any pages where there is a chance of visitors getting converted.
However, if you are unsure where to position them, you can always go for A/B testing to figure out which version audience is preferring which versions is failing to woo the audience. Depending on the result, you need to make a decision as to where to place the testimonial section.
So, all it boils down to one thing that you can easily turn a window shopper to a loyal buyer depending on how and where you are placing the testimonials.
Article by Vishal
Vishal Gaikar is a professional blogger from Pune, India. If you like this post, you can follow him on Twitter.
