Testimonials on YOUR website?
Thanks for turning in again to <Geek Speak>. I appreciate all the questions and feedback from my “Interview with an iPhone” from last month. This month we are going to dive into the world of “Website Testimonials”. Word of mouth is one of the oldest and most effective forms of marketing. In the past it was limited to person-to-person communication. Today we live in an exciting and different world. The internet allows conversations to be shared and re-shared though your community and across the globe.
Offline Testimonials
When a client/customer shares with you how happy they are with your product or service and goes as far to write you a letter (or collection of letters and paragraphs) of thanks, it feels great! You might have a special file for those or even share them on a special wall at your business.
Why Should I put Testimonials on my Website?
The biggest reason is that it helps build the confidence of potential clients. Feeling comfortable with your company is a big part of why people will, or will not do business with your organization. A business can say a lot about their experience or qualifications, but a single (powerful) testimonial caries so much more weight. People believe other people more than they do businesses.
How do I get Testimonials from my clients?
Chances are, you already have some laying around the office. If you do, I recommend calling the client and thanking them again for their kind words and then ask them if it would be OK for you to post it on your web site. I strongly recommend that you contact the writer and ask for their permission to post it on your site. This gives you another chance to thank them for their kind words and receive permission to share.
How to get some more testimonials? The answer is easy. You ask.
While some of us feel uncomfortable asking people to endorse us, it is a widely accepted practice in the business world. When I was encouraged to begin doing this years ago by my brilliant wife, I was reluctant. Get over it. I did and I’ve had great results ~:-)
Ask for Testimonials on your site
Another way is to offer a feedback form on your web site. You can ask direct questions on your site and take the pieces for testimonials. For ideas you can go to our web site omOriginals.com and go to the contact section and look for our Feedback Form. And if you feel up to it you can leave us some feedback, we’d really appreciate it. As a bonus, we link to the web sites of clients in their testimonials.
How should I put Testimonials on my site?
After you have 4+ testimonials in hand it is time to get to work. It is good to have a page dedicated to testimonials, but over the years I’ve learned (from viewing lots of web stats) this page is often overlooked.
Tip: Place a single testimonial on your most popular pages. For some extra geek points you can have your web site randomly display different testimonials throughout your site. I’ve found that a single testimonial will more often get read and THEN people will click through to the testimonials page to read more. I’ve had numerous clients say, “I read your testimonials”. When I ask which one, they often say, “all of them! “
Do people trust online Testimonials?
According to the latest Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey of over 25,000 Internet consumers. Ninety percent or consumers surveyed noted that they trust recommendations from people they know (offline), while 70 percent trusted consumer opinions of strangers posted online.
We are all in this game together. I’d love for you to share your thoughts and experiences with testimonials on our web site.
omOriginals Marketing in Longview, WA. handles hundreds of local and national accounts, we are ready to help with any questions relating to anything marketing: web, design and planning. We are available at (360)575-9839 or online www.omOriginals.com
Partners Claim Services has some great testimonials on their site: http://partnerscs.com/