How to Get Customer Testimonials (and What to Do With Them)

Would you like to know one guaranteed way to get people to trust you, buy from you, or subscribe to your emails? I mean, something that’s actually legal and moral. Two words: customer testimonials.

**Would you like a template for getting more testimonials? Subscribe to receive this free resource.</strong></p>

Why are customer testimonials so important?

You may or may not know this, but folks trust online reviews more than just about anything else on your page. This study shows that 90% of customers used online reviews to decide whether to purchase a product or ditch it in the freezer section.

It goes back to the idea of social proof. People trust other people– but not necessarily you. In the mind of a prospective buyer, you don’t count because you’re trying to sell your product.

Instead, your prospective buyer will trust people who have actually entered into a business relationship with you. That relationship can mean paying for a service, purchasing a product, or subscribing to a newsletter.

To the prospective customer who’s teetering on the edge of whether or not to buy, positive testimonials represent a realistic picture of what to expect.

How can I include customer testimonials on my page without being obnoxious?

Are you afraid that, if you put testimonials on your page, people will think you’re:

A.) Corny

B.) Smarmy

C.) Full of It

D.) All of the Above

Don’t worry. They won’t. In fact, adding customer testimonials to your site adds context, personality, and a much-needed human component to an otherwise one-sided pitch.

Your site visitors will love reading reviews, comments, and success stories from other folks just like them.

The best reviews work seamlessly with your calls to action. Need to sell your latest self-help ebook? Pair it with a short personal story from a customer you’ve helped. Want to increase your email subscriber list? Share a testimonial from a subscriber who enthusiastically loves your newsletters.

Remember: the point of testimonials is to eliminate their reasons against buying your product, trying your service, and subscribing to your newsletter.

The point of testimonials is to eliminate their reasons against buying, trying, and subscribing. Click To Tweet

How do I get customer testimonials?

You’ve got to ask for them. I know what you’re thinking:

How do I ask my customers for testimonials without cringing?

You’re going to cringe… at first. That can’t be helped. But the more you ask, the easier it will become. Then you’ll realize that people actually like sharing their opinions when given the opportunity.

In fact, there are three main reasons your customers don’t share their opinions:

They just don’t think about it

Maybe they did think about it, but then they got distracted and completely forgot

It’s inconvenient to share their experience

We’re going to annihilate all of those reasons/excuses. This is how:

Create an email questionnaire that’s automatically sent to new subscribers only. This way you won’t bombard your entire list with the same request for feedback.

Give your customers a script

Your customers may not know how to describe their appreciation for you. You should help them along with a script or prompt. Create a series of questions that they can answer without the pressure of coming up with their own ideas. Here are a few suggestions:

Would you recommend us to a friend? Why?

What’s your favorite feature of (your product)? Why?

Are you happy with (your product)? Why?

You get the point. Some (most) people won’t answer, but you will find a few to provide the quick, snappy testimonials you need to enhance your website.

Where do I place customer testimonials?

Customer testimonials can go just about anywhere on your site, as you’ll see in the examples below.

The Home page

The Home page is probably one of the best places you can add testimonials. Start out with a positive first impression by showing your new visitor that people like you, they really like you.

The Life Coach School does a great job of making the testimonials an inescapable visual element of the home page. Scrolling down, you’ll see three large testimonial blocks complete with a friendly photo and bio snippet.

Image Courtesy of The Life Coach School

The “About Me” page

Don’t waste your “About Me” page talking about you. Section off at least a small portion for a customer testimonial. Sure, they’ll talk about you too, but they’ll also talk about themselves, especially how you helped them improve. That’s what people want to hear.

Designer/ developer Leah Kalamakis included a scrolling testimonials blurb on her “About Me” page. You should as well.

Image Courtesy of Leah Kalamaksis

The “Contact Me” page

Why stop at the “About Me” page? Bring those testimonials right on over to the “Contact Me” page. People are usually contacting you because they want to buy your product or hire you, so why not give them that extra boost of confidence that you’re the right person for the job?

Check out how Cure Tooth Decay (love the info on this site, by the way) adds testimonials right onto the contact page.

Image Courtesy of Cure Tooth Decay

Join/ Subscribe/ Services page

Just as you added testimonials to your “Contact” page, do the same thing on your Services page. Add testimonials that inspire trust in your offering.

Check out how Elegant Themes makes magic happen with their long, slender testimonials.

Image Courtesy of Elegant Themes

Landing pages for your various products and events

Do you have a landing page for a product or service? Great! Now, let’s add some testimonials to it. For inspiration, take a look at Kim Garst’s Scoping for Biz landing page. She pairs powerful reviews with photos for added motivation.

Image Courtesy of Scoping for Biz / Kim Garst

Header

Put your customer testimonial(s) in the header section of your website so that visitors won’t miss it.

Brian Dean of Backlinko knows how to get attention. He makes a huge impact on site visitors by sharing a short testimonial from well-known industry thought leader, Neil Patel.

Image Courtesy of Backlinko

Sidebar

I dream of a world where the sidebar isn’t cluttered by paid ads and tag clouds. That’s why I’m so excited to see this sidebar, courtesy of Francisco Rosales of Social Mouths. It’s not cluttered with a whole lot of random ads. It has one solitary testimonial that demands attention.

Dedicate an entire page to it

Marie Forleo does it.Wix does it, too</a>. Create an entire page dedicated to testimonials. You can label it “praise” or “success stories,” for example.

One of my favorite ideas for a testimonials page comes to us from Evan Marc Katz. He included a drop down menu that separates testimonials by product. Visitors can select different products to pull up a whole new set of testimonials. Boss.

Image Courtesy of Evan Marc Katz

Final Thoughts

Customer testimonials are an essential part of your website. They can market your services better than almost any other component. Use these tips to get customer testimonials and put them to good use.

**Would you like a template for getting more testimonials? Subscribe to receive this free resource.</strong></p>