Harnessing The Power Of Customer Testimonials On Websites

Traditionally testimonials are used as major business conversion tools. It is evident that client testimonials speak louder than any sales brochure.

Online businesses are accessed remotely, and customer testimonials play even more important role in establishing website's trustworthiness. That is the reason why 80% of the top converting websites show testimonials before call for action.

In this article let me show you, 

•  Few samples of top converting websites using testimonials. 
•  Why do testimonials don't work well in many cases.
•  How can we make best use of testimonials on our website.

Customer Testimonial Samples

Look at what internet giant Google is doing with home page of its advertising service that earns 92% of its revenue.  25% of the view port is reserved for  displaying customer testimonial. 

See it on Adwords

Yahoo small business home page call for action view port reserves 25% of the space for customer testimonials.

Visit Yahoo Small Business site

Here is another sample of conversion rate expert website dedicating 50% of its view port for text and graphical testimonials.

See it on their site

Online Trust seal provider site giving  40% of the view port for testimonials.

See it on their site

All the top converting websites understand one thing in common, testimonials sell.

Why Some Testimonials Don't Work?

Good testimonials sell  everywhere and all the time, only reason most testimonials don't sell is people don't trust their validity. When  identity of the testimonial giver is not verifiable, it is natural to suspect the authenticity of it.

In online world, reputation is the new currency. With great power comes greater risk misusing it. Where there is counterfeit money, real money is suspected too.

Internet is full of  fake or counterfeit testimonials. If testimonials you display are not verifiable, default assumption of people is to ignore it or suspect it.

Counterfiet currency

Testimonials which look like following are by default registered as counterfeit testimonials in your website visitors mind.

Your service is best of all, excellent.
— Tom
This product is magic wand! wow!
— Dick
This solved all problems in my life! Thanks!
— Harry  

Even showing faces and videos don't work if givers identity is not verifiable. Showing face and video approach is diluted by businesses using  counterfeit photo and video testimonials.

Producing counterfeit testimonials has become big business by itself, let me show you some samples.

Freelancer sites are full of people who make counterfeit testimonials.

There are many online services to produce counterfeit testimonials.

Video testimonials are not enough

Here is another sample:

If genuine businesses like ours and yours have to take complete benefit of power of testimonials online, we need to prove what we show are not counterfeit testimonials. If we don't prove that, people will ignore it or suspect it. That will not help us in gaining our website visitors confidence.

How To Harness The Power Of  Website Testimonials?

Getting testimonials from our customer's online social profile will let your visitors verify the origin in real time. 

Ideal online testimonial should have the following attributes.

• Name and photo of the testimonial giver should be displayed along with the testimonials.
• Testimonial should be linked to givers online public profile.
• Testimonials should be maintained by trusted third party platform.
• Third party platform should have a system  to verify if testimonial is given by mentioned person.

For more on it, please read "ideal website testimonial design".

Grow your business with the power of testimonials, live life being reputed. 

What has been your experience with customer testimonials? Feel free to share your thoughts in comments.

Get the benefits of Verifiable Testimonials. Signup for Wiwitness.

Write your thoughts in the comment section.

Systematic Reputation Management Solution for Online Businesses

Being in business and growing it involves reaching more people every day. An online business has the potential to grow 24/7. You may have thousands of visitors seeing your webpage, but engaging them and converting them to your customers is completely different ball game.

Is low conversion rate hindering the growth of your business? Read along to know how to improve your conversion rate.

A healthy Conversion rate is a critical need for sustainable growth of your business. Growth in your customer base will result in increased revenues and profits.

In your online business you bring prospects to your website using your favorite tools and tricks. The internet is full of advises on how to bring traffic to your website. But, as you already know, traffic is not revenue. You will have to put in a solid system to maximize the conversion rate.

Two Things That Influence Conversion Rate The Most

1. Product/Service Offerings
   Communicate your business offerings clearly on the landing page of your website. Get your prospects interested in your offerings and encourage them to explore more.
2. Trust
   Provide relevant data to enable prospects to verify what you claim. Add trust factors and evidences, give verifiable references/testimonials to build trust in your business.

Wiwitness is a Systematic Reputation Management Solution built to empower you with tools to better manage the trust factor. Wiwitness enables you to boost your conversion rate by providing System, Strategy and Tools to manage your reputation better. It helps your business achieve exponential growth by guiding you through a proven process for Reputation Management.

Now, let's understand what goes on when a prospect visits your website:

Website Conversion Flowchart

Wiwitness Solution components

1. Your website will get Wiwi trust seal after verification of the authenticity in your offerings.
2. Automated customers testimonial collection.
3. Dynamic widget engine that enables you to display verified trust factors about your offerings in your website. You can present trust seal and testimonials of your choice.
4. Build your Wiwitness trust page with verifiable trust factors about your business using our responsive page builder.
5. Easy to use dashboard to manage your Wiwitness account.
6. Guides and tutorials to help you make optimal use of Wiwitness solution.
7. Reliable customer support.

So, why wait? Learn more about this all new solution and grow your business.

Get the benefits of Verifiable Testimonials. Signup for Wiwitness.

Write your thoughts in the comment section.