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4 Ways You Could Be Using Testimonials More Effectively on Your Website

When someone has used your service or bought a product from you, do you ask for a testimonial or a review? If not, you should be. Using testimonials effectively is a great way to turn someone from interested in what you do into a paying client or customer.

If you do ask for testimonials, are you using them effectively?

When it comes to websites, we see lots of people bunch all of their testimonials together on a testimonials page or a reviews page, which is fine but it means the website visitor has to actually click on that page to read them. It’s much better to place your testimonials strategically around your website. Here are four ways that we think you could be using testimonials more effectively on your website.

Using Testimonials on Your Homepage

The purpose of your website homepage is to draw in your ideal client. You should be showing them that you understand the problem or need that they have which has brought them to your website. You need to show them you have the solution for the problem and you need to show them that other people have benefitted from your solution.

The easiest way to show them the latter is by using testimonials on your homepage. Specifically, it’s good to use testimonials or sections of testimonials on this page that showed how the client or customer felt after using your service or product. The home page should be emotive to draw the website visitor in and so by demonstrating the positive emotion of the person writing the testimonial you will make the website visitor feel that they want to feel that way too.

Using Testimonials on Your Services or Products Pages

It’s a really good idea to be using testimonials on your services or products pages that are specifically relevant to that service or product. If people are browsing these pages it shows that they are interested in what you sell and being able to read how someone else has found the experience and the outcomes they have had afterwards will help your website visitor decide that it’s right for them too.

Using Testimonials on Your Landing Pages or Sales Pages

Landing pages or sales pages are the pages on your website that are focused on getting the person visiting them to take a specific action. Maybe you are selling tickets for an event or offering them a free resource to get them on your email list.

Using testimonials on these pages are really effective as a convincer to get people to actually click and sign up or buy. Again, it’s great if the testimonial is specific to what the landing page is for, but if this is the first time you have run the event or the resource is new, then general quotes about how good you are at what you do or how great your knowledge is on your specialism are really good to put on these pages as well.

Using Testimonials on Your About Page

If you have a business that is very much centred around you, then using testimonials on your about page that talk about how great you are, how caring you are, how your experience shines through is a fantastic way to get people to trust you and like you. We all know we are much more likely to buy form someone we like and trust.

Getting the Right Testimonials

To be able to use testimonials most effectively, you need to guide your clients or customers in what to write. By this I don’t mean dictating to them what you’d like them to say! The way we do it is once someone’s website has gone live or once someone has finished a challenge or course with us, we send them an evaluation form asking specific questions around the areas we would like feedback on. At the end of this form we ask whether they would be happy to summarise the feedback they have given in the form of a testimonial. 

By doing it like this their summary covers the areas that we have asked questions on which provides a testimonial that can work across our website and on social media. One other key thing to consider is that you must get permission from the client or customer to use their testimonial in the public domain and be clear where it’s going to be used eg. social media, your website or printed publicity materials.

If you would like more guidance around planning your website or landing pages, then we have three courses that will support you which you can find here.

Photo by Felicia Buitenwerf on Unsplash

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2 Comments

  1. Tammy Rolfe on May 4, 2021 at 5:57 pm

    I loved your tips on using testimonials! I have lots of great testimonials and have them dotted around in many places, but not dotted around on my website!

    It seems so obvious now you have said it, so I will put that done on my to do list and make the changes you suggest.

    Thanks!

    • Jude Wharton on May 5, 2021 at 1:22 pm

      Thanks Tammy. I’m glad the tips are useful. I know people say such lovely things about you, so definitely make the most of those comments! 🙂 Jude

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