Why Testimonials are Important: How to Optimise Them
Testimonials from satisfied customers illustrate the value of your products and services; they give potential prospects the confidence that you're worth doing business with. Why? Because testimonials play a powerful part in strengthening your company’s credibility - quickly.
WHY THEY ARE GREAT
Firstly, testimonials provide comfort to individuals and companies seeking to conduct business with you; they speak for your experience and expertise. Prospects will have an easier time trusting your company when they see that your previous customers were happy with your services and are recommending them. You might tell prospects you’re good, but that doesn't necessarily mean they'll believe you – after all, you’re trying to sell something and could be lying or at the least exaggerating. Secondly, testimonials give your clients the opportunity to thank you and communicate with you. It allows you to stay in touch with them after you have provided them with a service or product, showing that you care about what your clients have to say, and also giving you the opportunity to gain valuable feedback in regards to any areas they think you could improve. Thirdly, they’re easy to obtain! Just contact your best clients and ask them to provide you with one. If your clients want to write their own testimonials — great. If not, you can make it easy for them by “interviewing” them on the phone or emailing them a short questionnaire of 3-4 questions, and then write the testimonials yourself; clients often appreciate this as it saves them time.
HOW TO OPTIMISE THEM
Be shameless and boastful! You want to provoke a critical emotional connection, causing the reader to want you to work with them so they get the same outstanding results.
The right time to ask for testimonials from clients
The best time to ask your clients for a testimonial is when you have fully completed their work and they are satisfied. This way, they’ll be happy to write some good words on you. If they don’t seem too keen, explain to them how effective and beneficial it will be for their own site visibility if they have their link on your website. Remember: always ask for permission before you publish someone’s comments; get their consent in writing and keep it on file. A consent form can be a simple statement, in example: “I understand my testimonial and name may appear in any marketing or promotional materials created by IT Pie. I also understand that I will not receive any compensation for its use as stated and I waive my right to inspect or approve any finished product wherein my testimonial appears.”
Increase your testimonials’ credibility
Using specific but solid testimonials is much more powerful than generic compliments. For example, “I love the work you guys did. Thanks!” is specific but not solid. Instead “Our previous designer went out on us a couple of days before our website launch, leaving us worried. On extremely short notice, IT Pie came forward with their matchless services and excellent web designing solutions.” addresses more to how your company brought out positive results from an issue facing the client. Another way of increasing a testimonial’s credibility is by including a thumbnail photo or video feeds of people talking about your company. This can increase your site visitors’ response even more towards you, giving you an upper hand on your competitors. Lastly, although written testimonials on your own website are easy to create they are the least effective. This is due to prospects being aware of the fact that testimonials on a company’s website can easily be faked. It is recommended that client testimonials are placed on third-party websites; this is because it makes testimonials significantly more effective, but another added benefit of third party websites are that they save you the work of updating testimonial web pages manually.
ROUND-UP
When done right, testimonials can be a strong ally in establishing the credibility of your website. They create certainty in the minds of your prospects that they’ll be able to get similar results. You can say whatever you want, but words coming from you need supporting evidence. To increase their effectiveness, use specific testimonials which demonstrate a benefit or positive outcome when possible, and don’t just upload testimonials to your own site; use third-party sites as well. If you do upload testimonials to your own website try to include a thumbnail photo or video feed to increase the authenticity of it. Remember, your customers don’t have to say good things about your services. They don’t have to say bad things either – they can say nothing at all. That’s why when they do go out on a limb and tell the world that you’re good, the effect, in terms of your reputation and trustworthiness, is significant.
