8 Best Customer Testimonials to Boost Your Sales Exposed!

Who do you believe is a more credible ambassador for your business – you or a happy customer?

While you clearly know your stuff, consumers are more interested in proof that you’re the real deal. As a result, the significance of testimonials cannot be overstated.

According to research findings, nine out of ten people trust what a customer says about a business more than what the business says about itself. As a result, customers are more likely to spend 31% more with a company that has positive customer feedback. That’s a gold mine just waiting to be discovered.

Customer testimonials are extremely valuable to any business.

They can not only highlight the positive experiences of existing customers, but they can also provide insight for prospective customers who research a product or service online before purchasing it.

Testimonials remind current customers of why they continue to do business with you.

Why Do Customer Testimonials Matter?

Testimonials are one of the most important pieces of copy you can put on your website, landing page, sales letter, social media or any other kind of marketing communication.

The reason for this is they give your audience that one final push to buy your product or service. customer testimonials have the highest effectiveness rating for content marketing at 89%. a testimonial establishes your credibility in front of your potential customers.

No one likes to buy a completely new and unfamiliar product from a new business. They first want to wait and see someone else try it. If that person likes it, then they may buy it too. A testimonial makes the product a less risky purchase for your new buyers. It reassures them that your product is ‘tested’, ‘works great, has quality, and, therefore, is safe to buy, it is worth the money.

You need to put high-quality, elaborate testimonials on your website in order to attract the kind of ‘high-value customers you desire. By showcasing your existing customers, you can persuade potential customers to buy your products.

To create customer testimonials that don’t sound fake and are more relatable, you need to be aware of the three core elements.

Before (the client’s hesitation prior to the purchase): The before stage shares the doubts, difficulties, fears and negative emotions the customer felt before they purchased your product or service.

After (the client’s ‘discovery’ after the purchase): The after stage shares the results they got after using your product, and how it helped your customer eliminate the negative situation they were going through. What concerns were addressed?

The Experience (the emotional response): The experience states how your customer felt after they achieved the result they got from using your product. Did they feel more confident, knowledgeable, or happier? State these emotions here.

Once your testimonials have these three elements, they will instantly become more relatable and better at convincing your audience to try out your products and services.

How to Get Elaborate Customer Testimonials

If you ask your client or customer to give you an elaborate testimonial regarding the services you provided, they would probably find an excuse to get out of it. People are busy. You can’t just ask anyone to give you the kind of long testimonials you want. But there’s a technique that works.

You can ask your customer to get on a five-minute call with you. You record the call and ask them the following six questions, courtesy of psychotactics.com:

• What was the difficulty that would have prevented you from buying this product/service?
• How did buying this product/service helped you?
• What specific feature did you like most about this product/service?
• Mention the three other benefits of this product/service.
• Would you recommend this product/service? If so, why?
• Is there anything you’d like to add?

When you ask these six questions during the call with your customer, you will get a testimonial so long that you’ll be able to easily create any kind of copy you want.

Types of Customer Testimonials You Can Create

1. Quote Testimonial

This is the most traditional and also the most used form of testimonials. It’s extremely effective and powerful. They’re credible too. These are testimonials simply pulled from a quote directly from a customer.

People quickly want to digest the information provided to them, and quote testimonials help accomplish just that.

When you add these short testimonials to your homepage, landing page, emails, etc., you can expect most of your readers to go through them. Adding a customer quote only increases your chances of converting your site’s traffic.

If you can, add a high-quality image of the customer providing the quote.

This adds extra credibility to your campaign and will boost your conversion rates for signups, pre-orders, and revenue.

2. Longform Testimonial

People who want to buy your products will get to hear the full details of a real experience from someone who has used it.

This kind of testimonial feels more genuine, is more detailed, and is more impactful.

Blog post reviews are one type of long-form testimonials.

Longform testimonials are a great way to put out the benefits of your products and how they helped your customers. But very rarely do customers spend time writing such a long detailed testimonial for you. You could schedule a five-minute voice call with your client and record it.

Post it as a long form on your website. Also, use parts of it for a quote testimonial.

All you need to do is to transcribe the recording. I use the Live Transcribe app for this.

There are a lot of other apps available that can serve your purpose. Sonix, Rev Voice Recorder, and oTranscribe are a few other transcribing apps that you could try.

You can add the original audio clip file or video file of the call as well. This will serve those people who prefer listening or watching rather than reading. But make sure to ask for the approval of the recorded customer first.

3. Social Testimonial

A social testimonial is another form of testimonial you can ask your customers to create for you.

A social testimonial is one that your customers write down themselves and post it to their social media accounts.

This can either be a quick tweet, a long status on Facebook, a photo of your product along with a quick compliment in the captions on Instagram, and so on.

To get social media testimonials like these, keep your customers engaged with your social media accounts by posting regularly yourself, and encouraging them to tell you about their experience with your products.

If your client is comfortable with it, use quantifiable results.

Nuvovivo uses pounds lost and muscle gained.

Sidz does the same by stating the revenue generated within a specific time frame after his coaching.

Sometimes, you don’t even have to ask your customers. If your product or service is great, and if people love using it, chances are you’ll find a testimonial like that without even asking. Show images, screenshots, and visuals of results whenever you can.

That might be just a screenshot of the money you saved your client, or a before and after photo of a web design you completed.

4. Video Testimonial

Video testimonials are the way to go if you truly want to convince your prospective customers that your products or service are worth buying.

Your audience will be able to see your product or service in action, learn how other people are successfully using it, and get helpful product information, all in one video.

You will need to ask your client to sit with you and record the interview.

Another option is to hire a production company to help you build your video testimonial.

You can transcribe the video interview as well and post the text as a blog post on your website for reading.

5. Case Studies

Case studies can also serve as customer testimonials. You could take a full-blown case study and break it down into brief, small pieces. Then, showcase these parts on a website or sales funnel.

You can link back to the full case study so users can conduct a further investigation if they desire.

6. Interviews

Interviews are particularly effective because they help to get more details from the customer about their experience and create a good impression in the minds of your prospects.

Success stories walk the potential buyer step-by-step through a specific transformation another client has made with the product or service.

To get a great interview, make sure you ask questions that produce a story about how and why your customer came to buy your product.

7. High Profile Customer Testimonials

People tend to place a higher value on something when an authority figure approves of it. So if one or more of your customers are well-known or authorities, make sure to feature those people on your website.

These customers could be celebrities, well-known professionals in your industry, or people who have certain qualifications that make them authorities.

If you can’t get an actual testimonial, simply drop the names of your high-profile customers or their logo.

8. Peer Reviews

We said earlier that people are influenced by the behaviors and opinions of other people like them.

That’s why peer reviews, especially from people who are similar to your customer profile are so powerful.

You can use a screenshot to place these reviews on your website.

Trust Pilot, Trust Pulse, Yelp, and Google Business Page are apps or sites which you can use to get reviews.

Your testimonials could be made better by a person who has a true appreciation for your products and services and is willing to offer genuine compliments.

If you can find a customer like that who is an influencer for your target audience, their endorsement of your product or service can serve as an even better testimonial.

It might seem hard to find a perfect customer like that, but if you have a truly great product, then it should be no problem.

How to start getting more customer testimonials for your business

Many newbie entrepreneurs and freelancers have this question. How exactly do you go around asking for these testimonials? How do you ensure that you get a worthy endorsement that you can boast about?

Here are a few steps you can adopt to ask for and receive a testimonial that’s going to convert for you:

• Keep it simple. Provide a few options for your client on how they want to provide that testimonial, whether it be in the video, audio, written form, or long form.
• Exploit your social media handles. Collect FaceBook page reviews, Google business page reviews, LinkedIn recommendations, YouTube video reviews, Instagram comments, etc. You can request proof of their review.
• Ask questions. Your client may be happy to give you a testimonial but they’re not sure what they have to say. You can solve this by providing them with a set of questions they can answer. You can join the pieces together later.
• Proofread your testimonial. Remember to look at what you’ve received and make any changes if necessary so that it shows you and your product in a better light.
• Get approval from the client. After finalizing your testimonial, send it to your client for approval. Inform them of the purpose and where you are going to display it. Get their agreement in writing as well to avoid future legal disputes backfiring on you.

Share it on your website, social media, emails, and even presentations. Let everyone know how good you’re doing.

Invest your time in testimonials. Don’t ignore it as I did for more than 15 years not collecting testimonials. I simply threw the money away on the table.

The time spent collecting customer testimonials is worth it.

You will notice:

• An increase in leads
• More social buzz
• More conversions
• Build trust and authority
• Brand building
• Better conversions
• Increased sales

I hope you now understand the significance of customer testimonials to boost your sales. Use them liberally across all of your digital and offline marketing materials, and you should see an increase in conversions and profits in no time.

Please come back and share your results with us. We want you to invest your time in this because it’s one of those neglected marketing things that actually work. What’s your experience with customer testimonials vs. sales? Do you use them or are you just now thinking about it? Share your insights, stories, and questions in the comment section below!

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