Ecommerce Marketing
May 2, 2019 -
by
Ecommerce Marketing - May 4, 2019
A lot of eCommerce store owners don’t realize that persuading new customers to buy a relatively unknown product or purchase from an unfamiliar website is a challenging undertaking. This is what exactly how customer testimonials can help you overcome this issue.
Because online shoppers donât have the chance to physically inspect or ask a salesperson about a product, they need more reassurance that this product will meet their needs and expectations. Thus, customer testimonials are extremely crucial for eCommerce stores to establish trust, alleviate doubts, and help shoppers towards conversion.
Today, you will see 20 excellent customer testimonial examples to ease your online shoppersâ uncertainty and steer them toward a purchase.
In general, customer testimonial is a persuasive marketing strategy because it takes advantage of social proof â the theory that explains why people look for other peopleâs suggestions and reviews before buying a product.
The more people attesting for a product, the greater the probability that potential customers will have the confidence to buy it. Testimonials provide validation for the product because they are authentic product feedback from real people who have tried and tested it.
Various studies measured how customer testimonials could impact online stores’ performance. Overall, they share the following benefits:
While you may be tempted to produce fake testimonials, most of the time this could backfire. Online shoppers can tell if a testimonial is authentic or just made up. Getting real testimonials can be a huge task, but they are more believable and relatable.
To help you increase genuine positive testimonials, here are 20 effective customer testimonial examples that you can steal and apply on your own eCommerce store:
Probably the most commonly used testimonials are quotes. This is because they are simple to apply. Normally, the quotes are taken out from a review. These quotes highlight and summarize the main idea without having to display the whole feedback.
You can now see quote testimonials on homepages or product pages to help instill more confidence on visitors that their purchase will be a good choice. Theyâre usually short but concise so people will easily grasp the idea.
There are many customer testimonial examples to showcase quotes. You can add sliders on your homepage or put a quote testimonial at the bottom of a product page. For example, Poo-Pourri both display customer testimonials on its homepage and product page.
A quote testimonial showed on Poo-Pourri homepage.
Poo-Pourri also displayed customer testimonials on its product page.
Another one of the most well-known customer testimonial examples is customer product reviews. Before making a purchase decision, 61% of shoppers read product reviews first. These product reviews are generally one of the sources of quote testimonials. But instead of just quoting a specific highlight, you can display the entire customer reviews to give more extensive feedback.
This helps people understand better where the praise is coming from and why such praise is given. Most often quote testimonials will just be the tip of the iceberg which prevents potential customers to know the underlying reasons for a positive customer product review.
A study conducted by Deloitte confirmed that customer reviews, alongside family/friends, are the top most trusted source of information on product and services.
A variation of customer product reviews is customer service reviews â instead of focusing on the feedback given for a companyâs product, the focus is now on the customer service provided by that company.
You can use a customer service review or feedback as one of your customer testimonial examples too because how you handle customers, resolve their issues, and satisfy their needs will also reflect the overall credibility of your online business.
Bad service will impact your conversion. In fact, a customer service study revealed both positive reviews (90%) and negative reviews (86%) relating to customer service impact customersâ buying decisions.
Lazada displays positive customer service reviews to build more trust in its store.
From three highly popular customer testimonial examples, now at the very end of the spectrum is reverse testimonials. You may be hearing this for the first time but reverse testimonials are also highly effective.
Compared to traditional testimonials that begin and end with high praises and positive reviews, reverse testimonials actually start with customersâ doubts. A reverse testimonial acknowledges a customerâs hesitance and distrust first. Then, it gradually explains the truth to cast away the skepticism.
If your testimonial is all praises, it will be perceived as too good to be true. But when you start with doubts first, you give more depth and authenticity to the testimonial. The purpose of customer testimonials is to resolve doubts, not add more insult to injury.
Bony to Beastly occasionally showcases reverse testimonials to openly discuss customersâ skepticisms first before product praises.
Customer testimonials examples wonât be complete without tapping the power of social media influencers. Influencers are like the most popular students in high school (e.g. quarterbacks, cheerleaders). Their peers gravitate towards what they say and recommend.
Naturally, mega-influencers will charge for paid testimonials so if you are a budding eCommerce store, this might be a budget problem. You might want to look for niche influencers who have a relatively good number of followers with ideally the type of audience you want to target.
You can reach out to niche influencers in your industry and ask for a testimonial. In exchange, you can reward them with product samples. They can post their testimonials on their social media accounts so that you can get brand exposure to new potential customers.
For example, Sephora has a beauty-influencer program called Sephora Squad that offers long-term partnerships with social influencers in exchange of âunique, unfiltered, sorry-not-sorryâ stories and reviews, regardless of their followers.
Just like social influencers, independent experts such as industry leaders and well-known professionals are usually highly regarded by people. This is because people tend to put a higher value on testimonials made by an authority figure.
For example, if you are an online store selling skin care products, you want testimonials from trusted dermatologists because they have more credibility and expertise to talk about skin care routines than someone without a medical background.
Dermstore, for instance, has a âDermatologist Reviewedâ section to showcase all expert advice as well as product reviews that would be helpful for customers.
Aside from well-known experts, you can also use celebrity endorsements as one of your customer testimonial examples. You can either opt for paid endorsements with a local celebrity, which may be costly.
An alternative is to proactively seek interview statements made by local celebrities. For example, during press Q&Aâs, celebrities are often asked about what products they used that are not sponsored. This is because their fans are usually curious about their daily lives, especially the makeup brands they put on or the dresses they wear.
A great example is how Eminence Organics curated all celebrity testimonials about their products with its âCelebrity Loveâ page.
Did you know that your employees are also your customers? Thereâs even a theory of âEmployees First, Customers Secondâ that explains why putting your employees first will impact the word of mouth about your brand. The goal is to make them happy because they will work harder and eventually become your most crucial brand ambassadors with your target customers. In fact, staff reviews (16%) are one of the most trusted sources of product information.
You can add your staff reviews on your eCommerce store site to show the behind the scenes stories about how your products are produced and handled well. Make your employees feel empowered so that they can talk more about your brand positively to the people they know.
Casper, a mattress company showcased one of its design research leadsâ testimonials about their production process.
Your business partners like suppliers or manufacturers can also be good customer testimonial examples. They donât only provide you with the raw materials to produce your products, but they are most likely consumers of your products too.
For instance, they can attest to the quality of ingredients that go into your products because they know where and how the ingredients are sourced. It also adds authenticity to your brand because the people involved prior to production are shown.
A âPartner Testimonialsâ page is set up by Eminence Organics to tell their potential buyers what their partners are telling about them.
When we talk about press or news outlets, people immediately think of unbiased opinions and expert advice. You also want to increase your chances of getting reviews from the press because they instantly add credibility to your eCommerce store.
The key to obtaining press reviews is attending important events related to your industry with press involvements. You have to build real relationships and connect with the right people in order to land reviews from the press.
For example, Poo-Pourri scored several testimonials from highly sought after press and news outlets.
User-generated content (UGC) testimonials from social media are also extremely important customer testimonial examples that you have to include. UGC testimonials are free and earned contents that leverage consumersâ feedback posted on their social media accounts.
You can reach out to these customers and ask if you can share their testimonials on your site. For example, Casper Canada embedded Tweets and Instagram UGC testimonials to its homepage.
Case studies are also perfect customer testimonial examples that will help you demonstrate how your brand or products have assisted your customers to transform their lives. You can use case studies as in-depth research about the development of a particular person, group, or situation over a specific period of time.
But, to make it more effective, you can showcase it in an easy to digest form like before and after testimonials. You can invite previous customers with success stories to tell. Ask them to share how your product helped them to achieve their goals. Thereâs nothing more powerful than seeing quantifiable and obvious results.
Nerd Fitness has a dedicated page to showcase before and after testimonials from their previous customers.
Videos are considered by 51.9% of global marketing professionals to be the type of content with the best ROI. Aside from written content posted on your site, you also can use videos as another form of your customer testimonial examples.
Video testimonials really do stand out because potential customers can see real people talking about your brand or products. This immediately establishes trust and confidence in what you are trying to sell. You can also upload your videos on social media sites like Youtube or Instagram to increase your social media presence.
Obagi produced a dedicated page of video testimonials to let their potential customers hear success stories from people who have seen real results with Obagi products.
We all know the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. And this is also true with testimonials. While testimonials are easy to obtain and produce, they can also be easy to fabricate. Fake testimonials are everywhere.
To address this issue and make sure that you cast away doubts, the image of the person giving the testimonial is an important aspect to include. Photos help authenticate the testimonials. If you use generic stock photos, they become unrealistic. What you can do is to contact the people who leave their testimonials and ask if they can take a selfie with your product.
An A/B testing conducted to find out the effectiveness between a stock photo and a real image, it was revealed that when the stock images are replaced with pictures of real people, the conversion rate increased by 161%.
Now aside from videos and images, one of the most underrated customer testimonial examples is audio. But, you always encounter them all the time. You have probably heard of radio ads of a number of people praising a product in your favorite radio station.
In the same sense, you can produce audio testimonials by incorporating several quotable statements from customer reviews or feedback. You can use these audio testimonials as radio ads or you can add them into your podcasts if you have one.
Fisherâs showcased several client testimonials in audio format averaging 0.39 seconds each to briefly explain how the company helped them.
If you think you know everything about customer testimonials, then this next example may come as a surprise for you: a documentary series. Yes, you heard it right. Back in 2016, Bryan Harries launched his product called âGet 10,000 Subscribersâ. His launch strategy was to produce a documentary series filming how the lives of his former students changed after being enrolled on his course.
This documentary series called âUnderratedâ showcasing testimonials from his previous students produced a drastic increase in his revenue. From $900,000 in 2015 to $1.5 million dollars by the end of 2016. Thatâs a 67% increase in less than 12 months!
Source: Videofruit
Most of the customer testimonials are usually short and sweet, but you can also take advantage of a longer form through blog post reviews. This type of customer testimonial is more in-depth and will give you more time to convince a potential buyer and maybe explain more about the excellent benefits and features of your product.
There are two options for you: you can produce your own blog post by reaching out to your customers to write a review or you can reach out to niche bloggers related to your industry so they can mention your products in their blog posts.
For example, Health.com can be a good blog post partner for online beauty stores because they release skincare product reviews.
Another form a longer form of customer testimonial examples is through interviews. They can be effective because they can help you get more information about your customersâ experiences about your products without resorting to just a brief quotable statement.
Customer interviews will allow you to ask questions that will evoke an important story of how your product made a change in your customersâ lives or why they have been loyal to your brand. Usually, their answers will reveal the essential features and benefits of your products in detail.
For example, Nerd Fitness conducted an interview with one of its past clients to share his success stories after using their service.
It is also important that you push your customers to leave reviews on online local search directories like Google Business Profiles, Yelp, and Yahoo Local Business. The customer testimonials posted on these local directories will give you more visibility to shoppers who are looking for products on search engines.
You can also use the great reviews from these local directories and share them on your eCommerce site. Whatâs also great about these search engines is aside from the reviews, ratings are also included.
Designs by Kamni, an online jewelry shop, embedded Yelp reviews on its website to display authentic testimonials from its clients.
In an eCommerce environment, itâs hard for potential buyers to validate if your product is genuine or your online store is even real â customer testimonials will help you alleviate these doubts.
With our 20 customer testimonial examples above, you can make your online shoppers feel more comfortable about making their purchase from your online store. Customer testimonials are genuine reviews made by real people which will give credibility and trust to your eCommerce store.
