How Testimonials Influence Buying Behavior and Attract New Customers

Testimonials, whether they are in the form of a video testimony or a written textual endorsement, are social proof, designed to give unbiased, positive feedback about your product / services. An effective client testimonial will build your customer base and give:

• Credibility / Trust – A testimonial builds confidence in your message, service/product, and company because it offers proof that it has been successful for other customers.
• Objectivity – People expect you to say good things about your own product, so your persuasive abilities have a limit. But your argument becomes reliable when other people say good things, especially when those other people have no bias and nothing to gain.
• Similarity – The best testimonials are from those similar to your prospective customers. People give more weight to the opinions of those who are like themselves. Musicians trust musicians. Domainers trust domainers.
• Expertise – If you receive testimonials from experts, this can have a greater effect than testimonials from similar people but in this case, authority figures in the marketplace.  
• Viral Effect – When many testimonials are presented together, they can trigger viral contagion where lots of people follow suit and jump on the bandwagon.
• Hype – Hype builds more hype.  
• Benefits – Testimonials also offer an objective means of presenting your product's/service's most important benefits. 
• Features – Along with benefits, customers can point out important features how they helped.

How to Collect Testimonials

You have to use real testimonials from real people in order to make them believable and credible, delivering the social proof you need to attract clientele.

Using the real words of real customers is the best long-term approach to putting together an effective testimonial. Your customers will say things you could never have thought of and add their personal touch to it. Real testimonials are significant since they give you an inside look of how your satisfied customers perceive you.

There are a few ways of getting testimonials:

• Set a quota on how may testimonials you should assemble every month
• Call your customers or contact them online, asking for their opinion about your products/services and questions in relation to their experience, whether it was positive or negative. In addition to testimonials, this type of information would be valuable to your business, as it will give you an insight of what works and what does not work. Write down all the specifics of your conversations.
• Get a formal release from your customers, asking for permission to use the testimonial with limitation forever and to quote them in your advertising. Maybe you can give the customer a special discount to show your appreciation.
• File and organize all testimonials according to service/product to subject matter.
• Add a feedback form on your site where users can send online testimonials
  

How to Build Credibility Without Testimonials

But what if you don’t have testimonials and you need other ways to make you more trustworthy and credible in regards to your services/products? There are a number of ways you can achieve this:

• Use indirect testimonials. List businesses using your products or services. Or list the states or countries in which you do business, the industries you serve, or the types of professionals who trust you.
•  Show pictures of people using your product or service. Seeing is believing.
• Provide case studies of some of your best customers or clients. Simply write up an account of how someone solved a problem or derived a benefit from you.
• Mention how long you’ve been in business if it is noteworthy.
• Let people know the number of products you sold, if they are considerable.
• Mention the number of customers or clients you have.
• If you have a popular, scarce product let customers know. 
• Mention any best selling products.
• Cite information on your market leadership and something you were first in.
• Mention well-known people using your product or service, making sure you have their permission. 
• Display a seal of approval or any type of digital signature, affiliation / partnership, authentication from credible sources. 
• Cite favorable reviews from 3rd parties and media.If you get a favorable mention, you can quote it, or else list media coverage.
• Associate your product/service with respected magazines or media. List the magazines you advertise in or list the TV networks your ads have appeared on. This way you can show public approval of your product or service. For example, "As Seen in Wired Magazine" or "As Seen On TV." 

Remember - Testimonials or facts can hurt you if people think they are not real.