Customer Testimonials: How to Showcase Your Credibility

Whether you’re in eCommerce or industrial manufacturing, establishing credibility is essential to building your online presence. There is a limited number of brands that don’t need to build credibility anymore because they are huge. I’m talking about Nike, Apple, Target, etc. In this day and age, with AI-created content all over the internet and phishing scams running rampant, it’s incredibly important to differentiate your company as a credible and trustworthy business.

Credibility is especially important when trying to rank well on Google. Under Google’s EEAT Guidelines, it is important to have trust signals on your website to showcase your credibility and trustworthiness. Customer testimonials are one of these trust signals that tell Google if you are a credible business or not.

One of the ways in which you can increase your brand credibility is by strategically using and placing your customer testimonials on your website. Incorporating great testimonials from real customers signals to your users that you are a trustworthy brand.

If you’re already doing so, then you’re on the right track. But if you aren’t using testimonials or reviews or all, that needs to change ASAP.

The Purpose of Customer Testimonials

It is important to understand what customer testimonials are and the purpose they serve for your company. Customer testimonials are statements from satisfied customers or clients that tell a story about their experience with your company. Testimonials are usually used by companies in promotional materials to highlight the positive experiences of their clients.

It is important to state that customer testimonials are different than customer reviews. Reviews are typically shorter statements about a product, service, or business that are posted on third-party websites. While reviews can be used in marketing materials like testimonials, they are not usually solicited by the company.

Now that you know the difference, it is important to know the purpose of customer testimonials. Customer testimonials are used to build trust with potential clients and showcase social proof. Social proof is a psychological phenomenon where people look to the actions of others to validate their own choices and actions. Social proof is especially important when people are in uncertain situations and are looking for validation on the choice they are making.

Social proof is an important factor during the purchase process. Customers want to know that others have had positive experiences with products or companies before deciding to do business with them. Put more simply, if someone sees multiple people using a product or service and saying it’s good, that person is more likely to think of your business as credible.

Odds are that you’ve looked for social proof in your life and didn’t even realize it. A good example of this is looking at reviews online about a new restaurant before going to see if people like it. Another time you might have been looking for social proof is when buying something online and looking at the reviews to see if the actual quality matches up with what the company is advertising. In these examples, you needed the reassurance that there are more positive reviews than negative ones, and so do your prospective customers.

To prove the point further, here are some stats on social proof in the purchase process:

• 98% of consumers say they read testimonials and customer reviews when they are deciding to make a purchase.
• 72% of consumers trust businesses more if they read positive testimonials about those businesses.
• 84% of consumers trust testimonials just as much as a personal recommendation.

Examples of Customer Testimonials

There are a few different types of customer testimonials that you can use to showcase credibility and social proof to potential customers

1. Written Testimonials: These could be either quick quotes or longer success stories from customers. Written testimonials are great at providing social proof and can be used in many different ways in marketing materials and on your website.
2. Video Testimonials: These are short pieces of video content where a client talks about their experience with your company. Video testimonials are great because they are more personal and authentic than written testimonials, as you are able to see the person giving the testimonial in real-time. If your clients are open to being on camera, these can be a great piece of content for potential customers to see because of the authenticity.
3. Case Studies: These are in-depth narratives that typically showcase a problem a customer had and what your company did to fix it. Case studies are great at telling a story about your relationship with a customer. These are a great way to show potential clients how you solve problems and what kind of relationship to expect when working with you.
4. Social Media Mentions: These testimonials come from people posting about your company on social media. These could be a customer giving a review of your product or talking about their experience with your business on any of the social media platforms, and then you reposting it to the company’s social media pages.
5. Before-and-After Testimonials: These are testimonials that visually demonstrate the transformation the customer experienced. These are most common in the fitness or home improvement industries and are great at visually showing customers the kind of results they can expect from working with a business.

How to Collect Customer Testimonials

Now that you understand the purpose of customer testimonials and the different types of customer testimonials, it’s time to find out how to collect some testimonials of your own. Here are just a few ways to collect customer testimonials.

Directly ask your customers for testimonials. If you have a good relationship with your clients, ask them directly if they would be willing to provide you with a quote or video testimonial. If you have a good relationship with them, the testimonial will likely be authentic and positive, which will be great for building up your credibility and social proof.

Utilize automated systems to collect testimonials. One way to do this is by sending a post-purchase email. You can set up an automated email to be sent to your customers a few days after they receive a product or service. This is a good strategy to employ because you are still top-of-mind with the customer. Another way to automatically collect testimonials is by running a feedback form on your website. Having a feedback form on your website will allow you to address both positive and negative customer experiences. Positive responses from the form could trigger an email being sent to the customer asking if they want to give a testimonial. Negative responses can be sent to a team member so they can reach out to make the situation better.

Incentivize customers to leave testimonials. Offering customers a reward could significantly increase the chances that you receive testimonials. This reward could be a discount on future purchases, a gift card to a popular coffee shop, or an entry into a large giveaway. Just think of some type of reward that your target customer would want and go from there. It is important when incentivizing testimonials to make sure that the testimonials you are receiving are still authentic and genuine, so potential customers trust them.

Repurpose existing content into testimonials. Look at the organic feedback you have already received and convert it into testimonials. Go through your social media mentions and convert the positive ones into testimonials. Be sure to reach out to these customers first for permission to use their words and name. You can also go through third-party review sites and reach out to customers who have left you a good review and see if they would allow you to use it as a testimonial.

No matter how you decide to collect testimonials, just be sure that you are asking at the right time and making the process easy for your customer. Things like providing customers with leading questions or example answers will make the process easier and more enjoyable for them, leading to authentic and genuine testimonials.

Best Practices for Showcasing Customer Testimonials

Now that you have your customer testimonials, here are some tips to make sure you are maximizing their impact.

Be strategic when placing your testimonials. As you’re well aware by now, social proof is extremely important in the purchasing process. Since testimonials are a great way to provide potential customers with social proof, it is important that they see testimonials at different stages in the purchase process. Placing general testimonials on your homepage will establish credibility with the customer in the early, information-finding stages of the purchase process. Placing product or service-specific testimonials on those specific product or service pages will help convince the customer in the purchase decision stage of the purchase process. Placing testimonials on the checkout pages will offer customers reassurance that they are making the right decision and help them through the post-purchase stages of the purchase process. As you can see, it is important to continually provide social proof throughout the entire purchase process to support and guide customers through the process.

Establish authenticity and credibility with customer credentials. You want to use testimonials to build your own credibility, but you also need to make sure the testimonials look and are credible. Because if they aren’t, they’ll do more harm than good. Show who the happy customer is and what they do if it’s relevant to your products and services. Including things like name, job title, and even a photo of the customer are all trust signals to potential customers that the testimonials are authentic.

Keep testimonials up to date. Be sure to rotate older testimonials out and replace them with newer ones to keep content relevant. This is especially important if older testimonials reference products or services that you no longer offer.

Use video or audio testimonials when possible. Visual or audio testimonials are seen as more authentic and trustworthy to potential customers because they are less likely to be faked. If you are able to include these types of testimonials in your marketing materials, you will be able to build even more trust with potential customers.

Focus on specifics. Try to avoid vague phrases like “Good service!” when possible by asking customers to focus on specific benefits they enjoy because of working with you. The more specific the statement, the more information potential customers will have about your business and what they can expect.

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