Testimonial advertising is an effective method of building trust with your potential clients. In fact, according to a Vendasta study, 68% of people will trust your business more after reading a review about it.
It’s a great way of leaving a great first impression, especially if a testimonial is coming from someone influential and trustworthy. On top of that, customer testimonials do wonders for conversion rates.
There are different ways of showing testimonials to your potential customers. Let’s start by exploring various types of testimonial advertising.
What kind of testimonial advertising is there?
Testimonial advertising primarily differs by format. Mainly, there are textual and B2B video testimonials.
Other different categories include success story testimonials and influencer testimonials.
Let’s take a closer look at them, and then we’ll explore a couple of outstanding testimonial advertising examples.
Text testimonials
Most often, you’ll find text testimonials on business websites. These types of testimonials differ in terms of the goal they need to fulfill.
For example, if a business wants to attract new employees, the website will feature employee testimonials.
If the business promotes its outstanding services, it’ll feature testimonials from previous clients.
The design of text testimonials usually features an image of a person with a quote stating their words.
Video testimonials
Video testimonials are an even better way of creating a strong bond with your potential clients.
The format comes with higher authenticity, as people can relate to the person in the video.
Many companies are turning to this form of advertising testimonials, as it’s a much more effective marketing tool.
Success story testimonials
The format of a testimonial is one thing, but the story it carries is something completely different.
Success stories are impactful testimonials because they rely on results. They use them to show how a particular product has helped them.
Sharing a success story is a compelling call to the viewer to achieve the same result. Plus, it’s proof that the product is effective.
Influencer testimonials
Partnering up with influencers to create authentic testimonials is a great advertising approach.
These individuals have a close connection with their audience.
Why is that important?
With a high degree of trust, an influencer can deliver an authentic recommendation of your product or service.
The best part?
You can have different testimonial formats for the influencer to share.
Consider working with smaller influencers because they have a stronger bond with their followers.
Plus, if they are familiar with your product and like it, they can create a more impactful testimonial.
Where are testimonials featured in advertising?
Various testimonials appear in different advertising channels. Most of the time, brands use them in the following ways:
- On the brand’s website
- PPC campaigns
- Social media
It’s likely best to combine all these advertising channels for the best results. Each of them is effective in its own way. Let’s see how.
Brand’s websites
You’ll find the majority of brands placing testimonials on their websites.
It’s a great approach because someone interested in the brand’s services can see recommendations from previous clients.
When it comes to different testimonials, you’ll often find textual and video testimonials on websites.
Of course, video is a quick way of delivering the message to a visitor but, including a quick quote is also effective.
One of the most significant advantages of delivering testimonials on the website is the amount of available space.
You can include a separate testimonial on various pages on a website.
That way, no matter what your customer’s looking at, testimonials about your business will pop up.
Businesses often pick this strategy because it’s a form of free advertising.
Your website is already live so why not make the best use of its space?
PPC campaigns
PPC campaigns carry plenty of advertising benefits for businesses.
A couple of their biggest benefits are automation and tracking performance so companies can quickly measure how effective their campaigns are.
Testimonials can be a part of PPC campaigns as brands can create imagery containing short recommendations from customers.
It’s a great way of showcasing testimonials to your target audience.
Also, besides incorporating textual testimonials, it’s possible to use video testimonials too. It all comes down to the platform where you’re advertising.
Social media
Social media is an excellent place for testimonial advertising. The majority of platforms are very visual, making them the perfect place to share your testimonial text or a testimonial video.
The best part is the fact that you can use your social media profiles to collect all your testimonials. Your potential clients will immediately have access to many videos showing how great your product or service is.
Furthermore, every post that you make can also appear in PPC campaigns.
Some of the best social media channels where you could feature your testimonials are:
- TikTok
- YouTube
These platforms receive millions of visits every day. Your potential clients are already browsing them. Therefore, make sure that your testimonials are available there.
Some great testimonial examples
Here’s how different brands use testimonials to advertise their businesses.
1. Codeless
This Codeless video testimonial is an example of direct message delivery. One of their clients, Zoe from Monday.com delivers a short message on what the company did for them.
On top of that, you can head over to Monday.com’s blog and check the quality of the service it was able to provide.
2. Grammarly
Grammarly does a great job of creating video testimonials. Head over to the brand’s YouTube channel and take a look at a wide range of video testimonials.
The videos feature people from all walks of life who tell their stories of using Grammarly. It’s a simple message that helps people relate to different scenarios where the tool is useful.
3. Vendr
There’s nothing like having a VP of a prominent company such as HubSpot say good things about your product. That’s what Vendr had in mind when they created the video testimonial.
Kerry Munz quickly gets to the point about the challenges she had to go through before she started working with Vendr.
The best part is how she smoothly shares how much the company could save by working with Vendr. The sum of 1.5 million says enough.
Vendr testimonial is an excellent example of quickly saying that your product delivers impeccable results.
4. Shopify
Source: Shopify’s Homepage
Shopify combines all the advertising testimonial formats. It features a quote testimonial with an image on their homepage.
Additionally, you’re one click away from Cee Cee’s Closet in New York success story video testimonial.
It’s a powerful way of saying what their platform can do for creatives.
5. ZenDesk
Image Source: ZenDesk website
ZenDesk uses every chance to showcase that customers love using their platform. You can see different testimonial quotes on multiple pages of the site. All of them are from prominent figures in business.
6. FineDine
FineDine testimonial is an example of a B2B marketing strategy done right. A restaurant owner tells the audience how the platform helped him increase sales.
He mentions all the critical aspects of the product and what makes it so great.
Using this testimonial as a source, a potential client can quickly learn whether the software tool is the right match for their business.
7. Oracle
Image Source: Oracle website — Career section
Businesses do not only advertise their products and services – but they also advertise to potential employees.
Oracle is the perfect example, as it features testimonials from its employees.
It has a complete selection of career blogs where readers can see various Oracle employee stories.
That’s a perfect way of using testimonials to grow your brand.
A business will be more likely to attract better talent with this approach, as more people will gravitate towards working with a company where employees have nice things to say about their employer.
8. Fugoo
Image Source: Fugoo Facebook Page
That is an excellent example of how valuable your customer reviews can be.
The BlueTooth speaker brand has quoted one of the positive reviews on Amazon about them.
That’s a perfect way of showing what previous customers are saying about your product.
Consider adding them to your testimonial advertising campaign next time you’re wondering what to do with all the positive reviews you’ve received.
They’ll fit in quite nicely.
9. Harry’s
Image Source: Harry’s Website
Besides including only testimonials from your customers and employees, there’s another option. You could always have a testimonial from a good source such as Telegraph.
That’s what Harry’s has done.
The brand has used positive reviews of its products in the press and quoted them on its website.
While you’re scrolling through the brand’s selection of products, you’ll notice all the positive news about the brand.
10. Casper
Image Source: Casper website
Casper is a brand that puts a lot of emphasis on the quality of its products.
That’s why you can head over to the review section of their website, where you can see a broad range of testimonials about the quality of their products.
If you keep browsing the site, you’ll also come across recommendations from authoritative publications.
The point is that the brand features testimonials of different kinds on their web pages.
11. Fabletics
Image Source: Fabletics website
Fabletics uses a unique approach with its testimonial advertising strategy.
The brand uses its hashtag to feature images of its customers on its website.
When you head over to the testimonial section of the site, you can see countless images from social media with their products.
The incredible amount of images is a clear indicator that people are happy with their products.
Fabletics has chosen a great advertising approach, as it’s steadily growing its hashtag that now features over 139 thousand images!
12. Care/Of
Image Source: Care/Of website
Care/Of is an excellent service that delivers desired vitamins to your door.
The website has a reviews section of the site where it features both the reviews from the press and the customer reviews.
It’s a great way of quickly showing how good your service is.
It’s interesting to see that the brand does not only filter positive reviews, but you can also find negative reviews on the site.
That shows how transparent the brand is, which instills more trust.
13. Upserve
Image Source: Upserve website
Upserve is a straightforward example of how testimonials need to appear on a website.
The POS system provider takes all the steps to deliver effective testimonials. On the site, you’ll find:
- Video testimonials
- Textual testimonials
- Case studies
The brand has chosen to stick with all the testimonials they could gather.
There’s something for everyone.
14. IKO
IKO uses a simple testimonial video to tell more about the brand.
In the brief two minutes, people get to understand the people behind the brand better.
They also had the opportunity to see all the big projects the company worked on in the past.
It’s a straightforward testimonial that shows how professional the staff is and can easily tackle big projects.
15. Forter
Forter is an eCommerce fraud detection system.
In the testimonial video, their partner quickly sums up how effective the platform is.
Sometimes, that’s the perfect approach for promoting your product.
You simply state how effective it is, and it speaks volumes about your brand.
Besides this video, Forter features several success stories on its website.
Potential customers can see different eCommerce businesses successfully using the platform to detect and reduce fraudulent behavior.
It’s an effective yet simple way to deliver great testimonial stories to your clients.
Finishing thoughts
Use these examples to find inspiration for telling your customers’ stories.
Ask them why they’ve decided to work with you and you’ll get the feedback you can quickly turn into a testimonial.
You can also use your testimonials in your advertising campaigns.
Combine them with inspiring imagery and promote them on your social media ads and PPC campaigns.
Once you perfect the art of making effective testimonials, you’ll be able to turn them into a powerful tool you can use to get more customers.
Author Bio:
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Cristian Stanciu is a freelance video editor, owner, and post-production coordinator of Veedyou Media – a company offering video editing services to videographers, marketing agencies, video production studios, or brands all over the globe.