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You can go on and on for days about having the best products and highest quality, but it will never match a testimonial from one of your customers. If you take a minute and think about it, this makes a lot of sense. Who would you trust more; a marketer that wants to boost sales or a customer giving their honest opinion on a product they used? With this in mind, it’s easy to say that testimonial advertising for eCommerce is an essential part of your marketing efforts.
Social proof is not something that you can easily obtain or utilize. But with some tips and tactics, you can master the art of testimonial advertising for eCommerce businesses and increase sales!
Table of Contents
- What is testimonial advertising?
- Why do advertisers use testimonial advertising?
- Should your eCommerce business use testimonial advertising?
- How to get testimonials?
- How to use testimonial advertising to buy more? (with examples)
What is Testimonial Advertising?
Testimonials are a form of social proof that demonstrates the experience of a customer with a brand. It can be in the form of a review, rating, video, or any other form of user-generated content.
It’s important to note that testimonial advertising is different than endorsements or influencer marketing. Testimonials usually come from existing customers for free. On the other hand, celebrity endorsement and influencer marketing are forms of paid marketing. Accordingly, testimonial advertising has higher credibility and better results with lower costs, but it takes a lot more effort and time.
Why do advertisers use testimonial advertising?
Testimonial advertising is the integration of the testimonials your business gets in different platforms and marketing campaigns. It can help any type of business in many aspects.
For instance, it can increase brand awareness if customers upload their testimonials to their personal social media accounts. Also, it can help in conversions, as most customers nowadays check reviews before making any purchase.
In a nutshell, marketers use testimonial advertising because it makes brands more trustworthy and authentic!
Should Your eCommerce Business Use Testimonial Advertising?
As previously mentioned, testimonials help you increase credibility and authenticity. But are those enough reasons to spend time and effort working on testimonial marketing? In other words, is testimonial advertising for eCommerce worth the effort? We have gathered some facts and numbers for you to help make that decision for yourself:
- 86% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase if a website’s home page has positive reviews.
- Around 77% of consumers check reviews when looking for local businesses.
- 72% of consumers will only purchase a product after reading a positive testimonial.
- Placing testimonials beside expensive products can increase conversion by 380%.
- Almost 72% of consumers read less than seven testimonials before making a purchase.
- 88% of consumers trust online testimonials as much as recommendations from friends and family.
- Only 5 customer testimonials displayed can lead to a 270% increase in conversion rates.
How to get testimonials for your eCommerce Store?
Now that you learned about the importance of testimonial advertising for eCommerce, it’s time to know how to get it! Ideally, all your customers will fall in love with your products or services and leave reviews on their own.
However, that’s hardly the case. Surely you will get some positive testimonials without anything from your customers, but many customers need a little nudge to share their testimonials. To start using testimonial advertising for eCommerce, you can:
- Offer a discount or a coupon for customers who leave a review.
- Send surveys in your order confirmation and post-purchase emails.
- Ask for ratings and reviews on your website’s landing pages.
- Make testimonials easy to leave by just asking for a 1-5 rating score and an optional text box for those who want to elaborate.
- Respond to reviews, which will encourage customers to leave their own testimonials and start a conversation with you.
So you got your testimonials; now what? Here comes your part. You need to utilize every testimonial you get to increase conversion and drive sales.
How to Use Testimonial Advertising To Drive Sales and Increase Conversion? (With Examples)
There are multiple ways to use testimonial advertising for eCommerce businesses that have been proven to be extremely beneficial. Here are some of the best ways you can kick off testimonial advertising for eCommerce brands:
1- Integrate testimonials in social media ads
By resharing testimonials you get on social media or sharing screenshots of website testimonials on your social media ad campaigns, you will increase brand awareness and drive more sales. It’s important to create ad campaigns on the platforms that your target audience already uses regularly.
2- Add testimonials to your email marketing campaigns
From welcome emails to post-purchase emails, any email your eCommerce business sends should include some customer testimonials.
Each type of email can have a different kind of testimonial. For instance, in welcome emails, you can include some reviews and ratings for your most popular products. Whereas in order confirmation emails, you can integrate some testimonial videos showcasing how to use the product. This won’t only help in increasing sales, but it could be a great way to encourage customers to share their own testimonials.
3- Use influencer testimonials
Using testimonials from micro-influencers can have the same effect (if not better) as regular customers. Keeping in mind that this is not the same as influencer marketing. As micro-influencers often don’t need to be paid. You just need to find a local influencer with followers ranging between 1,000 and 10,000 and send them some free products in exchange for their honest opinion.
Then you can use their testimonials on social media ads, email marketing campaigns, and your own website to encourage conversions.
4- Create Youtube ads
If you are getting enough video testimonials, then youtube ads should definitely be on your list. You can create a short clip with multiple video testimonials and have it as part of your youtube ad campaign. Or, you can go the extra mile and record a professional video with one of your loyal customers that showcase how your brand helps them.
It is worth noting that Youtube ads can increase conversion for your eCommerce business by 14%, that’s 40% higher than all other social media platforms combined!
5- Google Ads
Google ads may not always be the top choice for eCommerce business, but having ads for the right keywords and linking them to landing pages that include both your top sellers and some testimonials can give you tremendous results!
The success or failure of this tactic completely relies on your choice of targeted keywords. They have to be relevant to the products you are linking to them, and the products you base this on should have outstanding reviews.
Another simple way, you can use testimonials in google ads is by adding them as a site link extension. In this method, you should be targeting keywords that relate to your eCommerce business in general, not specific products.
Final Thoughts
Testimonial advertising for eCommerce businesses is not only beneficial but vital for increasing conversions and driving sales! There are many tools that can help you utilize every testimonial you get across different advertising and marketing channels.
For instance, if you use a marketing operating system like ConvertedIn you can automate your ads on different social media platforms and automate your email campaigns. Needless to say, these aren't the only smart solutions you will be getting. Book a demo now to learn more from our experts and start using testimonial advertising to grow your eCommerce business!
