Testimonials are the driving force behind any successful marketing funnel.
Without social proof like website testimonials, it would be incredibly difficult to make sales consistently, no matter how good your product might be.
And when you think about it, it makes total sense.
If you can’t show your prospects that you have managed to meet the expectations of your previous customers, then they will be hesitant whether the claims that you make are valid and can be trusted.
That’s where a personal testimonial template can be so helpful.
With the help of personal testimonials, you can gain instant credibility by having a real person talk about what they loved about your company and why others should trust you as well.
Instead of having to list your benefits yourself, you can use testimonials to have others tell your story in their own words, making your entire pitch more authentic and much easier to trust.
However, just because testimonials can be incredibly powerful, doesn’t mean that using them to their full potential is easy.
In fact, many companies don’t know how to use testimonials correctly and are missing out on a ton of opportunities.
So, to make sure that personal testimonials become an integral part of your online marketing effort, let’s go through some of the most common mistakes people make when using a personal testimonial template.
Having Too Similar Testimonials
When operating any sort of business, you may find yourself dealing with similar clients most of the time.
While that is great in general, it can also be a bit limiting in terms of what your testimonials look like, and you may end up having dozens of testimonials that all read more or less the same.
Therefore, it’s essential to encourage your happy customers to focus on different areas of your service in their testimonial.
Whether it’s excellent customer support, the effectiveness of your product, or the amazing results that they were able to get, if you can tell the story about your business through the words of your customers, you’ll be well on your way on establishing an excellent reputation in your field
Not Segmenting
Another common mistake that companies make when setting up their testimonials is not segmenting them based on different types of clients that they serve.
If you have multiple products or levels of services, you should leverage that in your testimonials by only displaying the testimonials that are the most relevant to different prospects that visit your site.
If you show only those testimonials that are the most relevant to a specific visitor, you can make sure that they will have the biggest impact improve your chances of making a sale.
You can highlight different features of your products, show testimonials from people that best represent a particular segment of your audience, and gain more credibility by using testimonials to address the biggest pain points and concerns that a prospect might be having.
Having Untrustworthy Testimonials
In order for testimonials to be effective, you must design them in a way that makes them look trustworthy and authentic.
Unfortunately, that’s where a lot of companies fall short.
They take what could otherwise be reliable testimonials and ruin them by making the design look unprofessional, not using images of the people behind the testimonials, using fake names, or even making obvious spelling mistakes throw out any credibility out the window.
The good news is, if you do take the time to design professional and trustworthy testimonials, you can instantly separate yourself from a lot of companies that are out there and draw prospective customers away from the competition.
But how can you design testimonials that not only have the right message but look great as well?
Well, luckily, you don’t have to know the graphic design or be a web designer to make your testimonials look sharp and be extremely effective.
With the help of testimonial app solutions, collecting and designing stunning testimonials is now easier than ever before.
Whether you’re creating text or video testimonials, you can use a personal testimonial template to instantly design beautiful-looking testimonials, and can even place a link or button on your site where people can leave their testimonials directly from your website.
Whichever route you end up choosing, the important thing to remember is that the testimonials must not only be in-tune with your company’s brand and other communications but also be designed in a way that your customers are most likely to respond to.
Therefore, at least initially, make sure that you split-test your testimonials and experiment with different formats so that you find an approach that delivers the best results consistently.
Providing No Framework
Finally, a mistake that many companies succumb to when adding testimonials to their site is entrusting their customers to come up with compelling and comprehensive testimonials on their own.
The reality is that customers, no matter how happy they might be with your services, are not salespeople.
They don’t understand which aspects of your products or services to emphasize, and often won’t take the time to write more than a few words before posting the testimonial.
And as you can imagine, having a testimonial that says “Excellent service” won’t be of much help when trying to convert new customers.
Therefore, if you want to get those stunning testimonials that tell your story for you and highlight your company’s best benefits, you will need to offer a framework that your happy customers can use to fill in the blanks and create their own testimonial that adds actual value.
Luckily, this doesn’t have to be a difficult process.
Instead of telling your customers what to say (although some companies do just that and then ask if the customer agrees to have their name next to the message), you can simply have your customers answer a series of questions that will naturally tell a compelling story about your services.
Here are some questions that you could ask in your personal testimonial template:
- What was the one thing you liked the most about our product?
- Which features did you end up getting the most benefits from?
- What made you choose our company over our competitors?
- Why did our product work so well for you specifically?
With the help of questions like these, you will be surprised at not only the quality of the testimonials that you will get but also the level of insights you can gain about what your customers value.
