How To Write a Testimonial – a Step-By-Step Guide

Tips On How To Write a Testimonial

Testimonial definition: A testimonial is a statement (personal) that highlights the key qualities and abilities of a service, product or an individual. It is a detailed way to advocate for a business and its services or products in a specific way. It focuses on the characteristics of a company or product which are positive.

Writing of a good testimonial entails three essential parts. These include:

  • Describing your problem
  • Demonstrating the benefit
  • The closing of the testimonial

On the first step of describing your problem:

-Introduce yourself

Start with a title and brief information about yourself.

Write more details that will make your opinion more valuable and add more weight.

Note that the type or how much of your detail about yourself you write will depend on the service or the product for which your testimonial entails.

-Describe your situation

Discuss the problem you were facing before you started using the product you are basing on your testimonial. Include as many facts as possible, but you should be brief. These facts should be those only affected by the product or service directly. The facts allow for comparison of your situation by people before and after using the product or service. This act of showing evidence makes the testimonial more helpful to people.

For example, if your business had a problem with advertising of certain products, you might say “My business was able to sell only 15 products a day which made it 450 products a month.”

-List other alternatives you tried.

Include other services or products you tried in solving your problem if relevant. It involves stating ways in which the other services and products failed to help you. It is beneficial if you used a direct competitor and it did not solve your problem. Using the above example, you might say “We hired company W, which is an advertising company, to advertise our products, but after a month, they failed to add sales for our products.”

-Note any obstacles.

Talk about any drawbacks encountered in the product or service you initially rejected and how you managed to overcome that issue

An example of an obstacle may be the cost. Using our previous example of our sales business, you might say, “We did not use advertising company R which is more effective but charges twice as much as company W but since company W made us very low sales, we decided to give company R a try, and it was the best decision we made.”

In the next part of demonstrating the benefits, it includes the following:

-Write how the service or product solved your problem

Describe the service or product of your testimonial in a new paragraph and list two or three essential facts about the service or product. Explain the service or product that is, what it does or what it is and then write how it helped you and what it specifically did.

For instance, using our previous example, you might say “Advertising Company R focuses on increasing sales by posting products on social media and other online sites. It also uses billboards to advertise and has employees who move from house to house advertising products. Since hiring Advertising Company Z, we have made 1800 more sales which is a great increment.

Also, mention if there is something else the service providers or the product uses or has that is unique or creative and different from other competitors which makes it more successful and talk about it specifically.

This helps in describing your expectations say. For example, you might say “We did not expect Advertising Company Z to get us more than 900 sales, but they found a way to double that.”

-Write a personal note

If the company pleased you by doing more than expected or if the contact person was a pleasure to work with, make a note about this, which is an enthusiastic one.

You can mention their names if you worked closely with them.

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It is essential to the people you name since it helps employers recognize the job well done by their employees and can reward them. You can also talk about persons who impressed you on your testimonial. Using our example, you can write “While the whole team ensured our products were largely sold, Brian spent a lot of time in identifying our targets and notifying us. We would not have made such great sales without Brian’s hard work.”

-Include specific figures to show an impact

For correct comparison by the readers, the figures you used to explain your problem should match with those you used to show the results. For example, if you are hiring an advertising company for your business, and you focused on a low number of sales made by your business, state precisely how many sales you had after the advertising company you hired started working with you.

-Describe how you overcame obstacles.

Write on how you feel now about the obstacles you wrote in your testimonial. Include if the obstacles were not a big issue as you imagined or if the success of your business was worth the obstacles. For example, if you had hesitated using company Z because of higher costs, you might say “We were concerned on Advertising Company Z’s fees were very high, but after such overwhelming success in our sales, we are now convinced that they were worth every single money we gave them.” In the last part of writing the testimonial, it entails the closing of the testimonial and it includes the following steps:

-Summarizing your experience

Briefly explain how the service or product you are basing on solved your problem. This is written in the third paragraph of your testimonial. Also, write something about why you are writing the testimonial.

Using our example above, you might say, “When Jane from Advertising Company Z asked if I would wish to write a testimonial about what their company did to our business, I could not refuse since their company did a lot in increasing our sales all over the country.”

-State whether you want to recommend the service or product to other people

For a good testimonial, you should include specific words encouraging other people to acquire the service or use the product for them to enjoy the benefits as well. You may target specific people to use the product on service depending on what you are basing on in your testimonial. For example, you might write “I highly recommend Advertising Company Z, particularly to small businesses who want to increase their sales in different communities.”

-Write a call of action

This is necessary if you want to provide further encouragement for readers to access the services or products offered by the specific company although your testimonial could end with the recommendation.

Using the above example, you might say, “If you are a small business selling products with difficulty due to lack of market for your products and you want to achieve the best sales, call Advertising Company Z today! They offer the best advertising services and free initial consultation of your preference.”

Importance of testimonials

  1. They increase conversion rates.

Testimonials act as third-party endorsement hence building trust by triggering the conformity bias.

  1. It is easy to see when and why you study consumer behavior.

Testimonials provide an answer to this for instance, “why?” This is because you want to know what others think about the service or product of a certain company. For instance, if you get to know why other people like or prefer the product, you are more likely to risk your money and purchase the product or use the service.

When it comes to acquiring leads, you need a variety of tools to help you. Testimonials provide these tools by adding more gravitas to the pages you want and help you get more leads and customers.

  1. They offer social proof.

It is because one can see from testimonials that other people have used the product or service and have gained much success in their business and other personal use. This encourages them to give a try also

  1. Testimonials are also effective because you add other people’s voices to your work instead of filling your website with your own writing. It thus creates a balance of voices hence given more credence by readers and customers.

Characteristics of a good testimonial

  • A good testimonial should be short. This is because if you write long testimonials, they are unlikely to be read by visitors.
  • It should be direct. It entails writing of the most impactful statements and you should write it in that people can get the meaning in a quickly
  • A good testimonial should be authentic

Where to use testimonials

Ensure you put your testimonials on different sites to increase the number of readers as much as possible

  • Put them next to the service or product they mention. This is on that product’s or service’s page.
  • Put them on the most popular pages. This increases the number of readers since many people can visit the popular pages.
  • Put them on pages optimized for that phrase. This increases the conversion rates.
  • Put them within landing pages
  • Put them on your home page
  • Put them testimonials page
  • Put them on sidebars with quotes
  • Put them on customer stories page

Reasons for using customer testimonials in business

A customer testimonial is a recommendation written by a satisfied customer about the performance, value or quality of a service or product.

  • It helps build your reputation. Testimonials answer the questions about what people like about your products or services. This increases prosperity in your business since people will know the good things about you.
  • It helps build trust between you and your customers. This can have a positive experience with your company since when customers explain how they benefitted from your services or products, they let other readers know about your business.
  • It helps you overcome skepticism in your business. Testimonials bring about more potential customers when they read about your service provision and your products and how they benefited others who have used them.
  • Testimonials deliver a true voice. This is because it is written by a customer who has used the product and experienced your service unlike writing your own copy which may be biased.
  • It helps you get feedback about your products and service provision. This encourages participation by answering their questions and correcting problems identified by consumers hence improving the quality of your products and services. Consider asking for testimonials from your customers, by crafting a letterthat asks for testimonials specifically, and sharing with other customers and explains to them how you would use their testimonials on your website and other collateral. If your customer has reached you privately through email and they give you valuable feedback, ask for their permission first before posting to the public. Note that you should never post private comments without permission from the customer.
  • Testimonials help to promote your business if the writer indicates words such as “this product is good!” or “company Z provides the best services.”  Testimonials help explain the benefits of your company’s products or services. For example, “Company Z helped increase the number of sale to 1800 which is a great improvement from 450 sales in a month.” This will increase the users of your services and products since other potential customers would want the same kind of improvement in their businesses.
  • Testimonials from customers help to substantiate your claims. Good testimonials will explain how your company delivers the best services needed for the prosperity of a business or how your products are of high quality and beneficiary to customers. It will also state how you keep your promises and this increases the number of new customers to your business.
  • Good testimonials from customers will help you win against your competitors. If the writer gives a good comment about your products or services, it will encourage more customers to select your product to other products since they are aware of its goodness and have more information about your products.

Having gone through this guide you are now good to write any testimonials.