8 killer ways to improve the effect of testimonials on your
customers!
Every web business should be using testimonials. Testimonials
are extremely effective in making visitors take that extra step
forward to buy your product because they are given confidence by
looking at what other people have said. Testimonials can work
everywhere on a website; on the homepage or in the sales letter.
Good, believable testimonials on your website can spark a great
number of extra sales. Here are 8 ways to make your online
testimonials more effective.
1. When asking for testimonials, ask people whose opinions
count. If a visitor on your site sees a testimonial from a well
known person who is associated with the product you are trying
to sell then this will have a great boost for your credibility.
Just ask these well known people to review your product and give
a testimonial. Do not be afraid to ask for testimonials because
really you have nothing to lose.
2. Ask your customers to send in their picture when they give
testimonials about your product or service. This will show
viewers that the testimonials you show on your site are not
fake. It gives the impression that real people have said these
good words about your website.
3. Have your customers who give testimonials mail you their hand
written signature. This way you can scan in the signature so
that it looks like a genuine testimonial. Once again, this is
another way to make your testimonials more believable so that
visitors will start to trust you more; a crucial part of
achieving online success.
4. Similarly, you could have customers to send in a hand written
testimonial as a letter. You could scan in the whole letter for
boosted credibility. However, in order to get customers to do
this you could offer a discount or offer a free gift if they
give a good hand written testimonial. Alternatively, you could
ask for a testimonial on a post card.
5. You could have customers give a spoken testimonial. This can
be done easily by the customer recording his or her testimonial
with a tape recorder. An alternative and possibly easier way of
doing this is to have your customer leave a voicemail or answer
phone message and then upload this to your website as an audio
file. Have the audio testimonial played whenever someone enters
your site so that visitors always get to hear how good other
customers have found your product or service.
6. When your customers give testimonials, ask them for their
personal profile too. This will make testimonials more
entertaining to read for your visitors and will show visitors
what type of people your product and service benefits most.
Also, your customers will probably be very willing to give a
testimonial with a personal profile because it will allow them
to include their web address. This way, you should be able to
get plenty of these testimonials.
7. When you receive your email testimonials, take a screen shot
of the email instead of just extracting the testimonial from the
text. This way when visitors see the email, they will see the
date, time and 'who it's from' field. This of course will serve
as sufficient proof to show that this is a genuine testimonial
from a happy customer.
8. Once you have received very positive testimonials, ask the
writers of these testimonials to give their contact information
so that your web visitors can contact them and enquire on the
product you are selling. This is a great way to get people
talking about your product positively and your visitors are more
likely to believe a positive account from a previous customer
than a positive account from your sales letter.
Overall, just be creative about trying to improve the effect of
your testimonials. Put them where people will see them and
include them on all pages of your website so that happy
customers will be associated with your website. If testimonials
are used effectively, many more sales will be made.