Think about your own purchasing habits for a second. Before you pay for a product or service, you look for other people's experiences and opinions before you make a decision, right? I certainly do!
Testimonials (or sometimes referred to as reviews, as I will throughout this blog) are a critical part of building trust with potential customers and that’s why a well-curated, up to date and beautiful testimonials page is a must-have on any small business website.
- 87% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses in 2020, up from 81% in 2019
- 73% of consumers only pay attention to reviews written in the last month
- 48% of consumers would consider using a business with fewer than 4 stars
Nearly nine out of ten consumers worldwide make the effort to read reviews before buying products.
Note: Testimonials and reviews are key, not only for closing sales but also for improving your website's SEO. Product specific review content (specifically when a business earns 10 or more reviews), drives keyword rankings and increases search traffic significantly, up to 20%.
How do you create a testimonials page?
Now I've thrown all these statistics at you, you must be thinking how on Earth do I make a testimonials page that my customers will love and appreciate. Well, no matter what kind of business you have, it’s important to include these essential elements to your testimonial page.
1. Be relevant to customers
Include the testimonials that win over the possible customer by highlighting how others benefit from your product and/or service. This can include results like the problems it solves, amount of time saved because of your business or even the profits increased. The more specific the testimonial is, the better.
2. Make the testimonials page visually appealing to your customer
You need build a user-friendly page that’s easy to understand at a glance, with visuals that pop and are eye catching. You can do just that and easily build an awesome testimonials page with the website templates from Avanty. Be creative but know what your customers will look for.
3. Tell a quick story through the testimonials
When I say quick, I mean a miniature story that gets all the key points in just a few sentences. These sentences should be meaningful and do some heavy lifting for you. What I mean by that is, collect reviews that contain relevant details that tell the story of a challenge or solution your business provides its customers. Simply compare the two examples below and ask yourself "which one would I trust and take into consideration myself if I was a customer?".
Example 1:
“This is the softest and comfiest shirt I have ever bought myself.”
Example 2:
“Great lightweight material, perfect throughout the year, no matter the season. Ideal when you need a long sleeve but don’t want to be too warm as the sun comes out. I wear it mostly when walking the dog, as it’s so lightweight and it fits nicely under my coat if needed. Don't have to worry about sweating either, the shirt breathes very well! Highly recommend!”
I know which one I would read fully and trust, example 2!
4. Use testimonials throughout the website
Yes, I know this blog is about creating a page on your website that serves as a centralised place for your testimonials. However, that doesn’t mean you should avoid sprinkling these essential pieces of social proof throughout your website, where relevant (of course). Again, you can be creative with it, whilst building the trust between you and your customers in the process.
5. Mix things up when it comes to content type
Consider using different content strategies to get the social proof over to your potential customers. For example, before and after photos to go with a customer's testimonial about a fitness coach is undeniably valuable. Pro tip: Include video whenever possible. Increasingly, consumers are demonstrating a preference for video over text. For instance, 69% of people prefer video over text when learning about a product or service. Get your customers to film a testimonial for you, people buy people after all. It adds that personal touch that can see your conversion rates rocket.
Get your customers' opinions out there
Just keep these five points in mind when you create your awesome testimonials page, and don’t forget to include testimonials on other pages throughout too (where necessary). As always, you should test and measure the testimonials you put forward to improve customer conversion. Making sure your testimonials are displayed in an easily digestible way is a necessary ingredient for your businesses successes when it comes to online sales.
If you're looking for inspiration? Click here for 10 testimonials pages that will do just that. Get some ideas, play around with it and have fun!
