You can spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours creating great content that highlights the value of your product, and just one good customer review can get you the same (if not even better) results!
The power of customer testimonials lies in the authenticity and transparency it provides. No matter how good your marketing efforts are, they can never compete with reviews, ratings, or any other form of testimonials and user-generated content.
But even getting reviews is not enough on its own. As an eCommerce business, you have to learn how to utilize these testimonials and turn them into sales and dollar bills!
In this blog, we will present you with everything you need to know about customer testimonials and how you can make the most out of each one you get!
Table of Contents:
A customer testimonial is an endorsement coming from a satisfied customer. These are essential for all eCommerce businesses as it showcases how your products are viewed from your customers’ point of view. In other words, they show the true value of your products. Additionally, they help present you as a reliable and trusted seller.
Recently with the rise of influencer marketing, a form of paid customer testimonials was introduced. However, a real authentic customer testimonial will forever be the most effective type of endorsement.
In a nutshell, testimonials show the real value of your products, but is that a good enough reason for you to go around showing everyone the testimonials you get? Although many think it is, there are several other reasons why you should use customer testimonials for your eCommerce business.
Did you know that over 95% of customers read and base their purchasing decisions on testimonials?
Besides increasing credibility and trustworthiness, showcasing customer testimonials can help you in:
Now that you know what customer testimonials are and why they are essential for the growth of your eCommerce business, let’s take a deep dive into the top 5 practices for using them to SKYROCKET SALES!
Many customers leave testimonials on their own, but there are many ways you can encourage more to do so. For instance, you can ask for testimonials in post-purchase emails, run contests, and offer giveaways.
Learn more in User Generated Content For E-commerce: Everything You Need To Know
But the real challenge is not getting testimonials; the challenge lies in utilizing them! In simpler terms, you got a bunch of testimonials. Now what?
Here are the 5 top practices that allow you to magically turn testimonials into sales!
There are countless studies that show the positive effect of having testimonials on your home page or the product page. However, many eCommerce businesses think they have to choose one over the other.
There’s absolutely no reason why you can’t add some general testimonials to your home page, then add product-specific testimonials to product pages. Needless to say, don’t overdo it and shove the testimonials down customers' throats!
Do you have an email marketing list? A newsletter? Any email marketing campaign? Great, add some testimonials as a form of social proof and give your online store that unique edge it needs.
This is especially beneficial in abandoned cart emails and welcome emails. Also, don’t forget to personalize; this can do wonders for your email marketing efforts.
Social media is the bread and butter for all successful eCommerce businesses. Accordingly, you have to regularly post the top customer testimonials you get. Try to make it fun; maybe make a short video of all testimonials or add screenshots together in some creative designs.
Any of your social media accounts can be the right place for these posts. So you can them to your Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and Youtube.
It is also worth noting that the best type of testimonials to add are video ones. But when doing this, make sure that the customer who provided the testimonial agrees to you sharing the video on your social media channels. You don't want any legal problems with this.
Remember when we told you customer testimonials could help you in search engine optimization (SEO)? Yes, we are finally gonna tell you how!
By including the testimonials in your meta description, when potential customers type in what they're looking for, they'll be able to see the reviews. This can increase website visits and, of course, conversion.
The cherry on top is that all that helps Google recognize you as a reliable website. As a result, your rankings will get higher, and people will find you more!
Paid ads will never go out of style. They get good results and increase sales, so why shouldn’t you use them to showcase customer testimonials?
Don’t just run an ad with testimonials that will defy the purpose of an ad. Instead, you should add some testimonials to your ad alongside the product. For example, if you are running a Facebook carousel ad for your top 3 products, there you can add a screenshot of a testimonial for each product in the following card.
Final Thoughts
To sum up, customer testimonials can help you attract more customers, increase sales, and generally take your eCommerce business to the next level. If at this point, you are overwhelmed with all you got to do to utilize testimonials, don’t worry we are here to help!
Marketing operating systems for eCommerce like ConvertedIn can help you kick off the best campaigns that skyrocket sales! Book your demo now and become the number one online store.