A testimonial is a first-hand account of a customer’s experience with your company, products, or services. Customer testimonials can be extremely useful to use on your website and other online channels as they act as a form of social proof, meaning they show prospective customers how and why your company, products, or services are dependable and valuable.
Therefore, a good customer testimonial can help to build trust in your business and create conversions. While customers need to write testimonials themselves in order for them to be authentic, you can give pointers as to how they should be worded and what they should included.
So, here are some helpful tips for writing testimonials.
1. Testimonial Formats
Before we look at tips for writing testimonials, it should be noted that testimonials can be created in various formats.
Written testimonials and video testimonials are two of the most popular customer testimonial formats, but you can also use things like quotes, interview-based testimonials, social media reviews, case studies, press coverage, and more.
The following tips will help your customers to write testimonials that are text-based or video-based.
2. Set Clear Expectations
To help your customers write the right kinds of testimonials that can enhance your business’s ability to create more conversions, you need to set clear expectations. You should clearly tell a customer how the testimonial process works and what kind of content they should write.
You should also let the customers know that you have the right to edit their testimonials and inform them as to whether they can review their testimonials before you publish.
3. Testimonials Should Be Short and to the Point
The best testimonials are always short and to the point. The reason is long testimonials will seldom be read in full by your potential converting customers.
Long content is much more likely to be scanned, which means people could miss the most important parts. You also want to ensure testimonials don’t ramble. They need to use clear and relevant wording.
Ideally, written customer testimonials should be between just thirty and fifty words. And video or audio testimonials should ideally be less than a minute. If you do decide to use longer testimonials, make sure the most important words are in bold so that scanners of the material can easily see the important highlighted parts.
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4. Use Impactful Words
Pow! Good testimonials begin with impactful words. When the first sentence of a testimonial is powerful or interesting, the reader is more likely to continue reading the rest of the content.
Spend time looking at which words and phrases are the most compelling to use in the first sentence of a testimonial for your specific brand and type of business.
5. Be Specific
The more specific a testimonial is, the better. For instance, if the testimonial relates to a particular product, make sure the content specifies why the product is so good rather than simply saying the product is great without backing up why that’s the case.
6. Testimonials Should Be Authentic
Authenticity is key for a testimonial to be good and, in turn, create conversions. The content shouldn’t feel hyped up with marketing terminology.
Instead, it should use natural language to describe what’s so fantastic about the company, product, or service that the customer is recommending.
7. Testimonials Should Explain Benefits
Following on from the last point, a good testimonial explains why a company, product, or service is beneficial.
The more that customers can demonstrate how your company, product, or service has improved their lives, the more interested other people will be in converting to customers.
8. Use Visuals
Whether your testimonial format is text-based, video-based, or takes the form of any other kind of media, it’s a good idea to use visuals to make the testimonials more eye-catching and appealing.
That could be as simple as using a headshot of the customer or a photo of the customer using the product he or she is recommending, in written content. For video content, carefully consider the background that’s used.
9. How to Get Customers to Provide Testimonials
You can simply reach out to any of your happy customers to ask them to write or record testimonials. But you will have more success if you ask them at the right time.
For example, customers are more likely to agree to give testimonials and be more enthusiastic about your company, products, or services soon after they have made a purchase, as things will still be fresh in their minds.
So, be mindful of your timing when asking customers for testimonials. When contacting customers for potential testimonials, ask whether they would be comfortable recording video testimonials or whether they would prefer to provide written testimonials.
Conclusion
You can then help them get started by setting out your expectations and providing them with testimonial examples. Get customer testimonials right and you will create a lot more conversions much quicker.
Now, take a look at these conversion rate optimization services to generate even more conversions.
