Why Do Advertisers Use Testimonials?

by Mohammed July 29, 2021

The shorter answer to the question “Why do advertisers use testimonials” is this: “They provide celebrity endorsement to persuade the consumer”.

For a business, a positive customer testimonial is an asset. It helps your business gain a credible and trustworthy position in your industry.

The main goal of an advertiser is to convert as many prospects as possible. And, testimonials are a great way to do that.

Here is a supporting fact: 93% of consumers said that customer reviews influenced their buying decisions.

In this article, I’ll dive deep into why advertisers use testimonials and how can a brand or business benefit from them.

Let’s first see what a testimonial actually is.

What are Testimonials in Advertising?

Testimonials are user-generated content about a product or brand. Advertisers use testimonials to provide proof or evidence that their product or service is great.

As a business, your biggest asset is your customers. Happy customers can bring in new customers without you having to spend your marketing budget.

A testimonial can be:

- Video testimonial
- Text testimonial
- Influencer testimonial
- Success story testimonial

Let’s take a look at each one of them.

Video Testimonial

A video testimonial is of great value to a business because there is no chance of faking it. A text testimonial (we’ll go into its details next) can easily be faked though.

A video testimonial is when a customer talks about a product in a video, praising its features and benefits.

When someone shares their video where they talk directly to the audience, it’s difficult to ignore. So, prospects tend to believe and trust such testimonials.

Videos are engaging and visually appealing. Content consumers spend a lot more time watching videos than reading texts.

Video testimonials are a great way to pique prospect’s interest and present your products in a way that persuades them to act.

You can use video testimonials on any platform you want. It can be your own website if you have enough visitors or a content hosting website like YouTube. Anywhere you think your prospects can easily watch it.

However, making sure the video is high-quality and professionally edited is important. Low-quality testimonials can hurt your conversions.

Text Testimonials

Text testimonials are probably the most common types of testimonials. From entrepreneurs to large corporations, everyone uses them to position themselves as a credible business.

Plus, text testimonials are pretty easy to acquire. Your customers don’t need to pick up a camera and talk into it, unlike a video testimonial. So, there is less effort involved, which lets you get more reviews from your customers.

These are more effective than ads because people tend to trust reviews more than marketing messages. So, they can help your conversions big time.

The best way to showcase a text testimonial is by showing the customer’s face and other details, with a link to their identity if possible. This makes it appear legitimate, helping you win the trust of the prospects.

Here is an example of a text testimonial with a call-to-action and a hero image.

Source: Sleeknote.com

Influencer Testimonials

Influencer marketing is one of the most impactful strategies these days. Influencers are people that have a sizeable following in a particular niche or industry.

Their audience trusts them. So, when theyprovide a product testimonial, most of their viewers will likely try that product.

You can use these testimonials to build your brand awareness or boost your product sales. It’s important that you chose the right influencer to work with.

Someone that has a decent audience in your industry. Only then you’d be able to achieve a high enough conversion rate.

Success Story Testimonials

Success story testimonials can be an incredible way to attract more customers. It shows how a customer achieved their goal with your product. What can be more powerful than that?

Let’s say you have a weight loss program. Someone buys it and sees incredible results after a few months. They make a success story about it and show the prospects that your product works. It’s going to work wonders for your brand.

Why Do Testimonials Matter?

Consumers tend to buy from brands that they trust. And, probably the best way to gain trust is social proof.

However, you need to offer top-notch service to consumers to get in their good books. Their positive testimonials can be a game-changer for your business.

Research suggests that 90% of consumers trust customers more than the business. This means even if what you say about your product is true, it’ll be more believable when it comes from a customer.

Testimonials matter because they make your business credible. A lot of consumers don’t go through with the purchase because they don’t’ get enough evidence whether what you’re saying is true. Positive testimonials can push them over the edge, boosting your conversions.

What is the Benefit for the Advertisers?

Gaining trust isn’t the only benefit advertisers enjoy with customer testimonials. Here are a few other benefits:

- When advertisers ask an existing customer about a testimonial, they feel valued. It’s a way to tell them that their opinion matters. This lets advertisers build a rapport with existing customers
- Plus, when they endorse your product, they would feel obliged to keep doing business with you.
- Advertisers also get to learn about the positives and negatives of their product/service. Honest testimonials can help you identify loopholes in your product or strategy and improve them
- Not only that, but positive testimonials can be a boost for employee morale as well. This will ultimately help your productivity and customer relationships
- Lastly, they can boost your business profile exponentially

What are the Different Techniques Used by Advertisers?

While you can just send out an email to all your existing customers asking for a testimonial, there are a few techniques that can be more effective.

Advertisers use these techniques effectively to collect customer testimonials.

Let’s see what they are.

Follow-up

This is probably the most popular and effective strategy to get a customer to create a testimonial. What advertisers do is, ask them to share their experience a few days after they’ve purchased your product.

Here is an example from HubSpot.

Source: Hubspot.com

Repeat Buyers

Advertisers also leverage repeat buyers as they are more likely to be satisfied customers. What they do is, send a testimonial request right after a customer makes a repeat purchase.

Detailed Testimonials

While you should make the process as easy as possible for the customers, it’s a good idea to get a detailed testimonial. A short one won’t offer enough information about your product to prospective customers.

Sending over a short yet comprehensive Q&A is probably the best way to go about it as an advertiser.

Incentives

Most of your customers, despite being happy with your product, might not want to take out the time to write a testimonial.

What advertisers do is that they offer them an incentive in return for a testimonial. For instance, a 10% off if they review your product.

What You Will Miss if You Don’t Use Them?

Your existing customers are an asset. You can leverage them to attract more customers without spending too much of your marketing budget. Using customer testimonials is the best way to achieve that.

As an advertiser, if you don’t use them, you’d be missing out on one of the most impactful marketing strategies out there.

Conclusion

Advertisers use testimonials because they provide celebrity endorsement to persuade the consumer.

If you have any kind of business, your existing customers can be a huge marketing asset for you.

Using customer testimonials, you can not only attract more people to your business, but you can also do that cost-effectively.

As an advertiser, you don’t want to miss out on such a lucrative marketing strategy.