The transcript for “Best Practices for Testimonials” is below:
Testimonials are a common thing to have on a website that is public-facing. They help increase credibility and trust.
Why Use Testimonials?
Why testimonials? We know that people influence other people and how they act. Also, credibility can increase very quickly when others are talking about you positively. And trust is essential for most organizations to really connect with their target audiences. And that is what you want to do. You want to build trust. Testimonials are a way to speed up that trust.
To increase credibility and trust testimonials should have a few characteristics if possible.
Full Names of Real People
We love to have a full name attached to a testimonial. That means it comes from a real person that people could look up to see who that really is. Also, including a title or an industry gives the context of who this person is. Then nobody does have to go look up, "Who is Mary Jones?" Well, you can give them more information. They then say, "Oh, that's somebody who I recognize or somebody from an industry that I recognize or who has a title similar to me."
Photos if Possible
Showing a photo of the person giving a testimonial also really helps increase credibility. Now, sometimes you run into issues around anonymity or privacy. Those are more important than you getting a testimonial. And those cases, sometimes you can use the quote and you may not have a full name.
Maybe you'll only have a first name or no name at all. At least it is something, and at least it will be told in words that are not yours. Somebody else's words can feel more real to other people. But as much as possible, you want to show that these are real testimonials from people like those viewing your website.
Off-Site Testimonials
We know that recommendations on third-party sites are also really helpful for organizations. Things like GuideStar, Yelp, or Facebook are places where people may put recommendations. For an organization for e-commerce, that's a lot easier. There are sites like Amazon and eBay where people are giving things stars and making recommendations. But even if you aren't selling a product, it doesn't mean you shouldn't see if you can have off-site recommendations as well.
A Common Issue with Testimonials
The biggest issue I see with testimonials is that they are often too long. Here's an example of a testimonial about an event. It has lots of great things to say about the organization and the event and even the employees. But it's just like a wall of words. It's a lot of words here. And so it's more likely that somebody would just skip over it.
But if I picked the thing that I wanted to emphasize, and we use just that line from the testimonial, it might be way more powerful. It will be more likely to be seen.
Let's say I wanted to take this line, which is really an impressive testimonial line, and I would just pull it out. And I would let there be white space around it, so it really pops out on the page. That kind of white space or negative space around words makes them stand out and will draw the attention there.
Sprinkle Testimonials
So keep an eye out for testimonials on your website. See if you can make them shorter. If you aren't yet using testimonials, then think about how could you possibly start incorporating them in. Sprinkle them throughout the site, not on a separate testimonials page. Sprinkle them in to help increase your credibility and trust.
Learn More
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