Content marketing is important for the success of your online business.

There is no way around it. As things are getting more competitive and moving towards “survival-of-the-fittest” model for online businesses, you need to make sure you are doing everything right.

From eye-catching website design, clean and clear layout, a prominent call to action, concise website copy and convincing user generated content, everything must be in place and according to the digital body language of the customers.

Yes, you read it right. User generated content is the latest content marketing trend playing an effective role in increased conversions and sales for businesses but only if you are doing it right. As the term indicates, it is the content that is provided by your customers about the experience they had with your business.

In simple words, we are talking about customer reviews or testimonials.

Why Customer Testimonials are Important

If you are doing everything right and still fails to make people buy, one of the prime reasons could be a lack of user generated content.

Many studies claim that testimonials and positive customer reviews increased conversion rate and sales for businesses.

Testimonials add credibility, trustworthiness, and reliability to your business. These are the factors that drive people into making positive decisions about a business.

Customers don’t want to learn about your business and product/service quality only from you. They want to learn from other customers. Such social proof influences customers into buying from you.

Here are some more interesting facts why every business needs customer testimonials.

• A survey conducted by Zendesk claimed 90% customers say they are influenced by the online reviews while shopping.
• According to this very interesting infographic, consumer testimonials are rated as the most effective with the score of 89% in terms of influencing buyers.

And to top all of these pretty convincing numbers, more than 63% of customers are more likely to purchase from a website with customer testimonials. This is exactly why your business website needs testimonials, it is simple math.

Simply put, no business can really move forward without using customer testimonials after reading these overwhelming statistics.

So, let’s discuss the best testimonial practices and examples for business websites. How to do it the right way?

Anonymous Testimonials? Seriously?

No, you can’t do that anymore. You may in the past, but not now, sorry. If you are using a customer testimonial on your website, it must be from a consumer with a valid biography and if possible, link to the social media account or a website so the readers can verify.

So what does a good testimonial look like?

• It provides nice feedback about your business.
• It provides the name of the person.
• It provides the company name and the designation of the person.
• It links to the social media account or website of the person.
• It includes a picture of the person.

The point is, consumers are smarter now. Even if the testimonials are from the real source, if you fail to provide the authenticity of the actual consumer who wrote it, most readers will see it as fake. They will start questioning your authenticity.

When the use of social media link adds to the authenticity, adding image can create a more personal connection with the reader. This is why it is extremely important to add a complete biography of the person who wrote the testimonial.

The Content Must be Motivating

I personally like the testimonials or reviews that include stats, figures and tell a story of customer success. General testimonials like “someone having a great experience with your product or service”, “someone really happy about your responsive customer service” or “someone finds your product quality satisfactory” are not going to work anymore.

Use the testimonials to make incoming traffic read success stories in a convincing way. Here is a test for you. Which one of the following testimonial looks better to you for a website that sells weight loss products?

“The product I used from the store looked great. It worked for me and I am very satisfied with the results. I had a great experience buying and using their products”.

Or

“My product arrived within 3 days of my order. I started using it immediately and find myself losing 5 pounds in next two weeks. It delivered results as promised. I have ordered again and I hope to lose an additional 5 pounds in coming weeks”

I guess you have chosen the second one, right? Great, that’s the one that looks more motivating and inspiring. Why? Because it tells a success story with specific facts and figures. It tells customers what the product can do for them. Even though the first testimonial sounds nice but it fails to tell people what the product can do.

The second one is the type of testimonials you want to keep on your website. Also, make sure the testimonials back the claims you are making on your website. For example, for this particular testimonial, if the website claims it helps people lose 5 to 10 pounds in two weeks, the testimonial looks perfect.

Use the testimonials that substantiate business claims. The content must talk about how much money or time they saved using your products, how the product or service improves their lives or solved the problem for them.

Placing Your Testimonials on the Homepage or Landing Page

Most of the business websites use a separate page for testimonials. This is a common practice until now but things are changing. Businesses are now well informed about the power of a convincing testimonial.

This is exactly why an increasing number of business websites is putting the testimonials on their homepage or landing page. It allows businesses to not only add an impression of customer first approach but also to add credibility immediately to the claims they are making on their homepage. If you have a testimonial page, it is good, but using the best testimonials on your homepage is better marketing practice.

One of the prime examples of such websites is mHelpDesk. They claim they have thousands of satisfied customers on their homepage and they immediately provides you with a list of testimonials, mostly video at the bottom of the page.

Another good example is FreeAgent. Despite having their own testimonial page, the website adds testimonials from third party sources like PCMag and Reviews.co.uk on their homepage to add more credibility to their business. It makes them look popular and widely used.

I find this as a nice practice. If you are adding testimonials from the third party sources, it creates an impression that you are a popular business across the internet. If your business is positively reviewed on third party review websites, add them to your website.

But here is the problem. There is a limited real estate on the homepage. You cannot have a lot of space for the testimonials. Putting one or two testimonials can make people think that you have a limited audience. A very nice solution to this problem is testimonial slider.

Weebly users can easily add testimonials to any page including homepage using Baamboo Studio Testimonials App. To add sliding effect to accommodate more testimonials, use a Testimonial Slider App that comes with 7 different layouts.

Almost all websites with testimonials on their homepage are using testimonial slider. When you can post as many testimonials as you want on your testimonial page, you have a very limited space on your homepage.

Businesses use the best and most convincing testimonials with sliders on their homepage. Simply put, if you are using testimonials on your homepage, make sure you are also using a testimonial slider. It is not only effective, it also looks good.

If you have a lot of testimonials, a good practice is to distribute them on all core pages. For example, if you have a pricing page, use the testimonials that talk about your great prices. If you have a services page, use the testimonials that talk about the effectiveness of your service. Use the testimonials to add credibility to your claims you are making on each page.

Post testimonial as it is

I know you may want to add a comma or adjust a grammatical error in the testimonial you just received from your customer, but my suggestion is to leave it as it is. If you start editing each of your testimonials, you will end up making all of them look alike with same tone and style, making your readers suspicious if they all are written by one person. You don’t want that, do you?

It is really important for the credibility of your testimonials that they look natural with different and unique writing styles. As I already mentioned, readers are smarter now, they can quickly identify if the testimonials are tempered.

Testimonials are essential for business websites. If you are not using them as your marketing tool, you are missing out on a great opportunity to increase your sales and conversion rate. For Weebly users, adding testimonials to their website is simpler and easier with the help of Bamboo Studio Testimonial Apps.

It is one of the cheapest digital marketing tools you can use for your advantage, so don’t miss out on that, start working on it from today.

Testimonials are essential for business websites. If you are not using them as your marketing tool, you are missing out on a great opportunity to increase your sales and conversion rate. For Weebly users, adding testimonials to their website is simpler and easier with the help of Bamboo Studio testimonial apps.

It is one of the cheapest digital marketing tools you can use for your advantage, so don’t miss out on that, start working on it from today.