A great and often overlooked way of increasing leads and conversions is by strategically using customer testimonials on your website.
With the gap between companies and consumers closing in online, social proof is now a must for most businesses. Customer testimonials are the candid endorsements of people who actually use your product, and send a strong signal of trust to prospective buyers.
Customer testimonials can do some of the heavy lifting for you, and great ones are personable, specific and relatable with their words and stories.
So what are some tried-and-tested tactics to make your customer testimonials stand out:
Put a face to the name
'But why do I need to justify what I say, when what I say is the truth?' you may ask credulously.
We've all been burned by a business before, whether it's through misleading messages or failed promises. Addressing your customer's reservations by having a real person enthusiastically recommend your product will not only help alleviate their fears, but also make facts and statements more believable.
Research suggests faces can make us more empathetic to others, even if we have never met them. Using photos of real people makes the testimonial feel more trustworthy, and capture our attention more than text on a screen can.
Give credibility to your testimonials by showing your customers a real person.
Here, Zapier does this by putting a face to the name for each testimonial, together with their name and occupation.
Putting a face to a name instantly adds a sense of authenticity and trustworthiness to the testimonial, that would otherwise be lost in a sea of words and metrics.
Specific numbers make the greatest impact
Using data in your customer testimonials is another great way to underscore the positive impact your product can offer. Just make it an exact figure.
Research shows that using an exact number rather than a round one gives the impression of greater knowledge about the value of the product. So instead of rounding off metrics to 80% or 50%, stick to results like 78% and 46%.
Hubspot's testimonials provide exact metrics to show that the investment in their product is worth it for many customers.
This precision bias shows that people often confuse precision and accuracy, believing that the more precise the figure, the more accurate it is. Just like customer photos, these exact numbers can help alleviate uncertainty for your prospective customers.
We are more receptive to those who reflect us
Social proof is so powerful now, partly because no amount of advertisement can sway us like the honest opinions of those around us.
Not every customer will have someone to consult with when they buy your product, so the next best thing is hearing from real people who are similar to them.
We are also generally more trusting and interested toward people who reflect who we are and who we want to be.
When it comes to customer testimonials, feature customers that potential buyers can relate to. In this context, it may be useful to do away with polished testimonials, and instead feature unedited feedback from real users.
For example, Notion shows live tweets from real people praising their product.
Focusing on testimonials from real users not only provides a visual impact of the sheer number of happy customers your product brings, but also adds the credible proof needed to sway prospective buyers on a purchasing decision.
Tell a relatable story
Customer testimonials that run along the lines of, "Excellent support, great product, love it!" may actually backfire as the prospective buyer will have come across hundreds just like it.
Instead, do away with generic praise and dive into the details. Find stories that are specific and relatable that the buyer can connect to.
Here, customer support and sales software company Zendesk provides testimonials that highlight specific pain points their product was able to resolve.
Who wouldn't want better collaboration, positive reviews and consistent customer satisfaction for their business? Specific examples make the product's potential even more tangible for the prospective buyer.
Throw in some big names
Establishing credibility with some notable customers can make a considerable impact, especially if you're a new business. This isn't a new tactic - recognizable brands make things they endorse look better, by instilling confidence through familiarity.
News aggregator platform Feedly does this by dropping in some big name clients who use their AI research assistant, Leo.
Throwing in some household names like these ones aren't just great for you, they are just as useful to the big names too, as you are also indirectly selling them to your prospective buyers.
Testimonials like these are typically a mix of persuasion and credibility. If you are unsure of which ones to go for, think about where you would be placing them. For instance, the homepage is where most visitors who are unfamiliar with your product will land, so it may be a good place to emphasize credibility here.
As a final note, customer testimonials should be specific, authentic and count as social proof towards your product. Generic jargon will only take up online real estate with no promotional use to you.
Whichever form your customer testimonials lives in, the main goal remains the same - for a real person to talk about a specific problem that your product solves, in a relatable way.