As far as we know, modern “business” rose to limelight in the sixth century (Greece). It was accompanied by virtue of FEEDBACK. The one who chose to garner this virtue dug the gold mine while the others only scratched the surface with a hope to make it big one day.
And while hope is a big thing, it certainly doesn’t benefit those who don’t comprehend the importance of FEEDBACK.
With time, feedback transformed the businesses. Today, a part of it even serves as an exhibition on websites. However, the name has changed to TESTIMONIAL. This part is extremely important for your business’ success and, in this article, we’ll tell you “why” and “how” to use it in your website design effectively.
First off, what is a testimonial, and when would you need one?
A testimonial is different from feedback. For instance, feedback serves the purpose of improving the offerings. Contrarily, a testimonial works to promote the offerings.
We define a testimonial as an unbiased “positive” customer review, which aims at explaining your strengths to the world through the words of appreciation from the customer.
Now, unbiased doesn’t mean that you put forth negative or mixed reviews. The focus is at promoting your business. Obviously, everything that goes out must reflect your good side. In that light, a testimonial is a review that your cherry-pick and use it to your benefit.
When would you need one?
Possibly when you’re promoting your products and services and definitely when you’re building your brand. This means that a testimonial is essential while launching a website, branding through social media and even sharing the portfolio.
What kind of testimonials can be used on websites?
A good question! Why? Well, because not many people inquire about it. Whenever the discussion about using a testimonial takes place, all we can think of is a textual review. But there are a few advanced things you can do.
- Twitter Review – Since you must be using a lot many social media handles for promotion, you’ll surely be gathering reviews out of your sales. Why not use them? And what’s better than a credible platform like Twitter? Showcase what people say about you on your websites.
- Case Studies – Testimonials aren’t just limited to a 40-words-review. They can be much more — presumably a case study that allows the understanding of how your products and services are helping consumers out.
- Experience – Obviously, the importance of short testimonials can’t be warded off. They can fit anywhere on the website as quotes. Ask your customers to write those for you and promote them wherever you deem right.
- Video testimonials – Stop! Do you want to scale? This is the thing for you. A video testimonial can work wonders, especially when you need to explain something sophisticated. For instance, check out Convert Kit’s way of sharing the email marketing testimonials. They feature their case study videos from their YouTube channel — a brilliant idea.
Do customer testimonials really work in 2021?
We’ll cut straight to the point — YES. As long as businesses are approaching the online world, customer testimonials would work wonders.
Almost 400 million websites are active as of December 2020 out of the total 2 billion. Even then, it’s a staggering number. In case, you’re wondering that your industry is not that competitive and you might not require including profound testimonials — you’re mistaken.
Customer testimonials are buzzwords in the B2B arena. Almost every business envisions showing to the world what people say about them. Just like you shouldn’t hold your breath while running, you mustn’t hold back the positive reviews from the world.
The COVID pandemic further fuels online proficiency. Since it has continued over to 2021, the mass digital presence isn’t going to embrace the moderate levels. By the way, we don’t think moderate will ever be in the picture again.
What is the impact of customer testimonials?
Now, let’s get into the benefits of customer testimonials and why to have them on your website.
1. Revenue
When it comes to revenue, no stone should be left unturned. That’s precisely why including well-formulated testimonials is a must. Even the stats speak in favour as Big Commerce’s analysis reveals that 62% more revenue is generated when customer testimonials are employed consistently.
2. Conversions
Well, if the revenue is more, it means that the conversion rate is soaring. Through A/B testing, Wikijob was able to demonstrate how using sober language testimonials allowed them to increase the purchases by 34%. Their sales pages’ conversions increased dramatically, and you can do it too.
3. Time
The time here accounts for the time spent on the website. You are well aware of the fact that Google ranks websites with low bounce rates higher. That means you have to, at all costs, prevent the prospect from leaving the website. Bright Local’s survey reveals that click-through rates (CTR) increase by 28% when positive reviews are put forth. Better CTR means customers are spending time on your website for reading through all the reviews — a win-win scenario.
What are the benefits of testimonials on the website?
Now that you are aware of the impact, it’ll be easier for you to agree with the benefits.
1. Brand Image and Identity
There’s one word that circulates consistently on social media these days — BRANDING. Almost everyone talks about it; however, a few explain how branding can reach its potential.
One certain way is to use testimonials for attracting customers. Attracting? Absolutely! When positive reviews are on display, users find themselves attached to the brand’s image. They form an identity, which later transforms and perpetuates through them as brand reputation.
2. Increase in Conversions
You read about Wikijob’s success story in the previous section. It presents itself as the perfect example to reflect upon an influence on the conversion rates by employing appropriate testimonials on the right places.
But why is it happening? To put it straight, it is human psychology to get influenced by a host of positive things that talk about solving someone’s problems or catering to someone’s needs.
That’s right! Testimonials are brilliant interventions to answer questions like these:
Can this company solve my XYZ problem?
Are they providing what I need?
Are they successful in satisfying people with similar requirements?
Is their product/service of the desirable quality?
Automatically, when these questions are answered, the users are forced to convert into customers.
3. Emotional appeal and Engagement
In a world where competitors are innumerable, and the competition is immense, the only thing that can save the businesses is an emotional appeal. Emotional appeal accounts for emotional-connectedness and businesses that can achieve it succeed in their endeavours.
Since testimonials are written by people who have a relatable vibe. Hence, when the users go through them, they can associate with the company on an emotional level. Believe us, this is significantly better than word-of-mouth promotion.
So, how many testimonials to include on the website?
There’s no industry standard, to be honest. A lot depends on the UI your website assumes. Even so, at least three to four testimonials must be present in the entirety.
Don’t place them all in one place. For instance, you can use some textual or video testimonials on the home page with possibly the image of the consumer. You can further use relatable quotes from customers on your services pages.
You can even define a separate page for case studies in case you have a lot of experience working on long-term or even short-term projects.
Still, if you want a number — Bright Local carried out a Consumer Review Survey a few years ago and found that 85% of the respondents read over 10 testimonials before trusting a business.
If you can touch that number, well and good. If not, no need to get disheartened, for you can always work your way around. Know that the number depends on you and the number or quality of projects you have undertaken.
Finally, how to influence purchase decision through customer testimonials
It all comes down to driving the customers through the gate of conversion. What to do to facilitate their landing on the purchasing page?
Realise their place on the website
No, you can’t place the testimonials anywhere and everywhere. This decision should be strategic. You wouldn’t want them to be scarce and overwhelming.
Just like many businesses, you can include some of these on your home page. As explained before, these can be textual or video testimonials. Just ensure that they serve the UI well and vice versa.
You can also include a quote or two on the contact page. Consider a scenario where the user is hoping to get in touch and right there, he or she comes across a positive review. This can instantly fuel their decision to reach out to you.
We can say the same about the services or the sales pages, which are quite active and serve a massive amount of your website’s traffic.
Make use of the Heat Maps
We just don’t understand why most people never talk about heat maps. Ideally, they are your best bet for recognising what’s working on the website and how to channelise the strategy to facilitate better and presumably desirable navigation.
You can even make use of scroll maps. As the name suggests, they help you recognise the scroll paths and patterns. So, when you learn users are not visiting a certain portion of your sales page, no need to put your testimonials there. It’s as simple as that.
Likewise, when you realise a certain path being followed regularly, append the testimonials somewhere in between so that they readily catch the eye.
Conclusion
Testimonials are a great way to help users understand your brand persona and make it mandatory for them to purchase from you. The different forms in which these testimonials can be put forth is an added advantage. Because a host of businesses are always doing something in your niche, you must constantly be on your toes to catch the eye of the users, and there’s hardly any better way to do that than using positive customer testimonials.
