The what, why, where & how of using customer testimonials

Psst. People are totally talking about you. And that’s a good thing.

Testimonials from those who have used your product or service are a great way to let potential clients or customers know that you’re as ridiculously awesome as you say you are. So let’s talk about how you can start using customer testimonials to your advantage today.

WHAT customer testimonials are all about

In the marketing world, customer testimonials go by the term “social proof,” which basically means that someone has used your product or service and then talked about it online. It’s proof that others have tried you out and are willing to vouch for your business.

WHY social proof works

In a survey conducted in 2013 by Dimensional Research, 90% of respondents said their purchasing decisions were influenced by positive online reviews.

That number isn’t surprising. Think about it: we get our social cues from others every day. You see someone rocking the haircut you’ve been thinking about getting, you think, “I knew that was a cool cut. I’m calling my hair dude today.”

Social proof is validation. If someone says something great about your business, she’s telling the world, “I can vouch for these folks, and that’s why you should trust them with your business, too.”

Understandably, many of us have concerns before trying out a new service or making an online purchase. Customer testimonials help alleviate these concerns, and can move a website visitor from being a browser to being a buyer.

WHERE to collect customer testimonials

There are tons of great places to mine for testimonials. Pro tip: Remember to always ask permission first before using someone’s testimonial for your own use, okay?

Emails from customers or clients

If someone has emailed to thank you for your service, send them a quick note asking if you can use their words. Go through old emails to look for testimonials, and make sure to keep them in their own folder for future use.

Twitter search

Do a search on Twitter for the name of your business or products. Send followers a DM to ask if you can use their complimentary Tweets, and make sure to use the favorites feature to save Tweets for future use.

Facebook business page

Like Twitter, you can use Facebook to collect testimonials. Check your business page to see who has written nice things about you. In fact, you can check any of your social media networks for testimonials. Pinterest comments on product pins, LinkedIn endorsements, Instagram comments, YouTube comments — all can be mined.

Blog comments

If you have a blog (and you should, but that’s a topic for another day), you can seek testimonials in the comments.

Yelp

Yelp makes some business owners cringe in terror, but it can be a really helpful place to find nice reviews of your business.

Voicemail

Believe it or not, some people still use telephones. More importantly, some people use telephones to say nice things about you. Pay attention to your voicemail, and if someone leaves you a compliment, write it down then call the person back to ask their permission to use their testimonial.

It doesn’t even have to be a voicemail. If you’re talking to someone on the phone and sense a testimonial opportunity, ask them if they wouldn’t mind if you jotted down their words.

Comment cards

If you have a brick and mortar store, you can ask customers to fill out a comment card. Make sure to provide a box for them to check giving their permission for you to use their comments, and consider offering an incentive for their time and effort: 15% off their next purchase, for example.

Ask for it

Now, what if you’re relatively new, and haven’t built up a storehouse of testimonials across the Internet yet? You’re going to have to ask current and/or recent customers to help you out. Ask in follow-up emails if they might be willing to offer up feedback that you can use.

HOW to use collected testimonials

Now that you have all these cool customer props, what do you do with them? Use them in your content, of course.

Website

You should use testimonials throughout your website: on your homepage, next to an important call to action (like a sign-up form), on your pricing page … anywhere. Here is one of the testimonials on the Buildicus website (with picture!):

Emails

When you send out an email to customers, feel free to include a testimonial somewhere on the page.

Landing pages and long-form sales pages

Since these are all about closing the sale, you definitely want to include more than one testimonial, and definitely near to call to action buttons.

WHO wouldn't use testimonials?

And there you have it: a few ways to use the words of others to do your selling for you.

We’re all about customer testimonials, which is why when you create a website with Buildicus, you’ll see we have a customer testimonial widget that you can drag and drop to wherever you want on your site. The more, the better, we always say. And you can quote us on that.