Testimonials are an important tool that your business should be using. A testimonial provides social proof and helps build trust with your customers by having third-party endorsements. Using a testimonial on your website will help to identify your brand as reputable among your customers. There are six types, and we will go over them all so you know which one is right for your company…
Types of Testimonials
Quote: Typically, a quote is the easiest type of testimonial to receive. The majority of the time, you will have reviews on your google business page, or it was verbally given to you. Although this type is easy to acquire, it can be powerful because they are direct words from the customer.
Peer Testimonial: Peer testimonial is like word-of-mouth marketing. When your brand resonates with one of your customers the chance that they go and tell their friends about you. These are incredibly important because the person giving your brand praise is of similar status to the rest of your audience. Peer testimonials will increase the likelihood of those people using your brand.
Social Testimonial: If your company has social media accounts, you will be able to find lots of different social testimonials. Customers are constantly writing about their experience with certain brands on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Social testimonials are very organic and add another layer of trust to your brand. When you receive a social testimonial its social proof of the times you have already succeeded.
Video Testimonials: Arguably one of the most powerful types of testimonials are video testimonials. The reason these can be very popular is because your audience is able to put a face and a story behind the testimonial. This makes it more authentic and personal. These types of testimonials are very hard to fake because the audience can tell if someone is not genuine. Video is attention-grabbing and gets people to tune in and really pay attention if done correctly.
Interview Testimonial: Interviews are another type of truly authentic testimonials. By doing an interview with your client, you disguise a testimonial in the form of an interview. Since nothing is forced, oftentimes your client will say positive things about your company that you can use for future use. An email or typed-style of interview works but becomes more effective when you have audio or video to accompany.
Influencer Testimonial: You can use a celebrity or social media influencer to talk about your brand. Sometimes these do not always work because the audience can become skeptical if they think you are just paying someone to say good things about your company. If you use this type of testimonial, the Federal Trade Commission requires all formal, paid influencer marketing campaigns to be disclosed. The disclosure must be prominent and clear. You cannot make people scroll or click to see it.
How Do You Get A Testimonial?
Now that you know the types of testimonials, you need to get someone to do a testimonial. The first way to get a testimonial from a customer or client is to ask. If you have their email address, sending out an email works best. Make sure the email is not too pushy and give them the opportunity to say “no” without the fear of repercussions. The email should be concise. It does not force anyone to do something that they are uncomfortable with and gives them an option to decline. If they accept then great! If not, then you move on to the next person. The great thing about testimonials is that you only need a few people to say nice things about your brand, and you will immediately become more trusted. The other type of testimonial is listening for it out in the real world. People are constantly talking about things they like, so your brand will eventually come up in that conversation. If your company is doing their social listening, often times you will find multiple people per day, saying really nice things about your company that you can use.
Where Should You Put A Testimonial?
Now that you have a few testimonials, you need a place to put them. Instead of creating a dedicated testimonial page, if the testimonial mentions a product or service, put it there. Testimonial pages are oftentimes the least visited page on a website. People think when they go to a testimonial page that they are going to get a boring sales pitch on why your company is so great. Putting it next to a product or service automatically gives it social proof because they were visiting that page anyways.
Always be sure to put your strongest testimonials on the most popular pages of your website. This is to ensure that it has the highest chance of being seen by people who are most likely to purchase something from your brand.
How Can TM Help You?
Testimonials are an important part of establishing your brand above others. No matter what type of testimonial you decide to go with, Transformation Marketing can help. We would love to give you pointers on talking points, the right type of people to ask, where your testimonial should go, and just about anything else that you’ll need help with. Contact our office or visit our website for more information.