How Testimonial Advertising Works in Modern Marketing [Definition, Examples, Best Practices]

Introduction:

Testimonials are the positive experiences your customers have had with your product, service, and brand put down in words. When you use these testimonials to further promote your business and in marketing activities you are advertising them. So, in a way testimonial advertising is the art of using the power of social proof in the form of customer experience to promote products and services.

Studies show that over 93% of consumers read online reviews before making a decision to purchase something. When you operate in a large arena where there are multiple players, multiple advertising tactics, and way too many options for potential customers—it helps to stand out from the crowd. And this is where social proof plays a big role since it can show that customers trust you more than your competitors for solid reasons. And these reasons in turn can encourage other leads to do business with you.

In this blog we are going to understand more about testimonial ads and look at some testimonial ad examples.

Understanding Testimonial Advertising

Definition of Testimonial Advertising

How It Differs from Traditional Advertising

Types of Testimonials Used in Marketing

Video Testimonials

Video testimonials are short videos in which a customer shares their positive experience with a product, service, or brand. Think of them as a personal recommendation, but in video form. And this makes it much more genuine and trustworthy.

Text Reviews and Ratings

The most common form of testimonials we see on the internet today. Their popularity stems from the fact that it’s easy to just type out and put your thoughts down with the option to re-edit it after.

Social Media Shoutouts

Influencer and Celebrity Endorsements

Case Studies and Success Stories

The Role of Testimonial Advertising in Modern Marketing

Building Trust and Credibility

Did you know that 50% of all internet users claim to post online reviews at least once per month? This means that people are regularly engaging with the brands and businesses they purchase from online. When there are actual people with actual opinions consistently talking positively about a businesses’ product or service it can contribute to building better trust and credibility.

Increasing Conversions and Sales

Visit any well performing e-commerce site today and you will see that they have testimonials and reviews plastered all around their pricing and conversion pages. Why is this? Because,

Enhancing Brand Reputation

Your brand and its reputation is what will get you the most sales at the end of the day. Remember that. And the best way to build it up is by using the positive words that your customers are using to describe you.

But did you know that allowing consumers to dig into your bad reviews can lead to an 85% increase in conversion rate! Isn’t that wild? Most of the time when someone leaves a bad review they are just looking for an apology from the business. And it does not help that people are more likely to leave a bad review than a positive one. So, always ensure you respond to any negative feedback you get to show that you do care. It can offset any damage that a bad review might do to your business.

An increase in brand reputation can also,

• - Help build credibility within your industry
• - Attract high-quality partnerships
• - Increase customer loyalty and retention
• - Generate positive word-of-mouth marketing

SEO Benefits of User-Generated Content

What is one of the first things any brand trying to do business online tries to game? SEO! Everyone wants to rank for it but not everyone knows how! What if I told you that using fresh, unique, and candid content is what search engines value?

Testimonials can have a positive impact on your SEO performance since they naturally include long-tail keywords in them as used by your customers. And this in turn helps you rank better than your competitors in search engine results. Especially true if you are a local business and have a profile on Google My Business.

Best Practices for Using Testimonial Advertising

Collecting Authentic Testimonials

By authentic testimonials I mean ones that have actually been written by your customers without any gain out of it. You need to use strategic approaches to make this easy for them by using well structured and easy to answer feedback forms and surveys. Over 70% of customers leave reviews for online businesses but only about 60% do so when asked.

Timing is important when requesting testimonials. Try to send in your request within 2-3 days after a purchase. This can bring a higher response rate. You can,

• - Send follow-up emails after a purchase is made
• - Create simple, mobile-friendly review forms and surveys
• - Personalize review requests based on the customer segment
• - Respond to both positive and negative feedback

In certain cases you can give out incentives to your customers for leaving a review. You can follow these pointers:

• - Offer small rewards that will not influence the overall content of the review
• - Roll out the incentives whether someone leaves a positive or a negative remark
• - You can choose to disclose incentives in testimonials that you publish

Showcasing Testimonials Effectively

Placing Testimonials on Key Website Pages

Identify the webpages on your website that get the most traction or have the most links leading back to it from across the internet. Some examples include:

• Landing pages (To instantly hook in your audience)
• Product showcase pages (To support features and experiences using them)
• Pricing pages (Justify the value of the spend)
• About page (Build credibility of the company)

Landing pages with testimonials perform much better than those without. Choose the best type of testimonials and know what kind to use.

It helps to use video testimonials simply because there are moving visuals to accompany it. And there is a person sitting and talking to the camera which adds to the human touch. It is storytelling and will pique the interest of the viewer. The good thing about video testimonials is that it can be repurposed and used in content for marketing purposes such as email campaigns, online ads, newsletters, case studies, and presentations.

Leveraging Testimonials Across Marketing Channels

Building on the idea we just discussed, using testimonials across different types of marketing channels can greatly help you bring more leads to your website. Repurpose all the video content you get from your users for designing testimonial ads, testimonial infomercials, commercials, social media campaigns, email campaigns,and other initiatives.

Another great way to use testimonials is to feature them in paid ad campaigns. Test out different testimonials and see which ones are getting the most clicks or impressions. This way you will know what to look for in new testimonials you collect and also understand what keywords audiences are most drawn toward.

Don’t shy away from featuring it anywhere and everywhere you can. This is why it will greatly help to build up as large a library as possible of positive feedback from your customers.

Keeping Testimonials Fresh and Relevant

Your job isn’t done with just collecting one set of testimonials. You have to stay on top of managing them and regularly updating newer and fresher content. One easy way to do this is by investing in a testimonial collection software or a tool that automates collecting and updating your testimonials for you.

As much as 85% of people think that if an online review is older than three months then it’s no longer relevant. Try to have a person or a team just dedicated to collecting testimonials for you. Or as I’ve already mentioned you must try and get all your testimonial collection automated with a simple one time investment.

It is also helpful to have testimonials from people of all kinds. Right from small time everyday consumers to large scale organisations and key decision makers. You want your brand to seem like it is accessible to everyone and not just for "experienced" folk.

Examples of Testimonial Advertising in Action

• GrowSurf

GrowSurf is a referral platform that helps software companies build referral programs into their tools to reward customers. They claim to be the preferred referral program software for multiple marketing and product teams. And it’s all up for everyone to see as proof on their Case Studies page.

Their case studies are detailed and engaging to read. What makes it even more unique is the media they’ve used—actual screenshots from their clients’ use cases for GrowSurf. This allows the reader to see the tool in action and also visualize what an implementation in their own business might look like.

Additionally, while I don’t generally recommend this, GrowSurf makes you submit your email to access the case studies. Through this they know who is actually interested in reading the case study and comparing it for their own use case. So, they aren’t just using case studies as a form of testimonial advertisement but also as a lead generator!

• Grammarly

Grammarly has long been used in a professional setting by corporate employees and office workers. And the percentage of students and academicians using the platform was relatively low. To increase adoption by these demographics they ran a six month long influencer marketing campaign where they collaborated with college students, NCAA athletes, teachers, professors, and tutors.

These influencers showed exactly how they used Grammarly in their life by providing a firsthand experience with the product in the content they produced. This helped achieve three goals:

• Showcase how Grammarly is utilized in different environments
• Promote the idea that Grammarly is a writing tool that can help improve grades and productivity
• Build confidence in being able to write with the assistance of a tool like Grammarly

And the campaign was a major success with around 214M impressions and over 33M video views from working with about 130 influencers.

• IDK Culinary Experiences

IDK has established itself as one of the best Indian catering services for upscale parties and events in the SF Bay area. Their reviews on Yelp show how popular they are and also their unique offerings like onsite catering, live chaat stations, live tandoor and kebabs, and special plated menus.

They even use their Yelp page as a website of sorts to allow potential customers to schedule free consultations. Plus they seem to have mastered the art of asking for reviews since their customers have introduced themselves, explained the process of working with IDK right from the initial consultation call to the final execution, and ultimately their satisfaction with the service.

This example just goes to show how you cannot overlook the impact of simple written testimonials and reviews from platforms like Yelp and Google My Business.

Conclusion

Thousands of brands have already used testimonial advertising and are thriving in their fields of expertise. Don’t just take my word for it. There are numerous studies and facts and figures to back it up. And as the online marketplace grows more and more customers are opening up to the idea of leaving remarks about their experiences and thoughts. In 2020, emails requesting reviews had an average open rate of 69%! You’ll never know how receptive your own clients and customers are to giving you glowing reviews until you ask for it.

You can start implementing a strategy for testimonial advertising only by collecting testimonials. What if you haven’t done that yet? No worries at all. You can actually get started for free and within minutes by using a testimonial collection tool like Feedspace. Just head over to our imports page to directly import from a leading customer review site or create an account, build a testimonial form, and start collecting testimonials today! Once you have even about ten solid ones in place you can easily start running testimonial ads. The ROI on testimonial advertising has proven to be great so far the past couple years. And it is only going to grow. Are you going to cash in on it now or wait until it is too late? Your choice.