Imagine converting high-quality potential leads to long-term customers using customer feedback and a minimal budget.

That’s customer testimonials for you!

95% of customers read online reviews before making a purchase decision, and over 58% of customers would even pay more for brands with high positive reviews.

So, to help you capture a client testimonial, we’ll provide all the essential elements that make a well-articulated customer testimonial template and a hands-on guide on creating one using Trust. — a full-suite, affordable video testimonial platform. 

Before that, apart from winning more customers, what are client testimonials used for?

 

Why do you need to collect testimonials?

Here’s why using authentic testimonials must be a major part of your brand’s marketing strategy:

• Testimonials are from real people, and your website visitors or prospective customers read them to learn about your product or service. Text and video testimonials allow visitors to relate to your current customers and form an instant connection with your brand.
• They build brand credibility. We’ve all been scammed due to fake product reviews, but when you use testimonials with pictures of real people, you portray your brand as trustworthy and reliable.
• They enable top-quality lead generation. Displaying an eye-catching testimonial page on your website or social media channels garner attention and can convert readers into long-term customers.
• Video testimonials in marketing are incredible sales weapons as they are more engaging and showcase your customers talking about their experiences with your brand.

 

Who to ask for effective testimonials

The secret behind high-quality testimonials is not entirely the content but who they are coming from. Here’s how you can find the perfect customer base:

 

1. Ask your best customers 

You may be wondering how to identify the ‘best’ customers. Below are some ways to group them:

• Find customers who’ve repeatedly purchased or consulted with your business. They are your most loyal customers, aka fans.
• Search and sort high-spending customers. You can track metrics such as average high order value to find customers who spend the most.
• Look for long-term customers. This is a no-brainer, as long-term customers would be more than glad to submit a great testimonial.
• Look for customers who’ve referred their family or friends. You can find this group if you have a referral code that a group of customers previously used.
• Explore your brand’s Google reviews and reach out to users who’ve submitted a 5 or 4-star rating. 

Sorting your customers based on these segments is a sure-shot method to fetch effective testimonial videos or reviews.

 

2. Reconnect with ‘highly-satisfied’ customers 

Maybe you’ve already sent a Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey or plan to send one. Either way, NPS lets you identify highly satisfied customers based on their rating for your business or products on a scale of 1 to 10.

If you’ve recently sent an NPS survey, sort out customers who’ve rated 8 or more, and ask them if they’d like to submit a testimonial video or quote. You could always send a new NPS survey to your new customers.

Since satisfied customers are most likely to submit the best testimonials, this method is fool-proof.

 

Testimonials: The essential elements + 3 testimonial templates to use 

A winning customer testimonial template must have the following vital elements

1. The customer name and high-quality headshots

Rich headshot images and the customer’s full name add authenticity to your testimonials.

 2. The customer’s credentials and social media links

This way, your readers can be confident that your testimonials are from real, credible sources. Trust’s testimonial request forms are in-built with this option where customers can enter their social media profile links and offer consent to use them in your published testimonials.

3. Proper structuring

Ensure your testimonials are easy on the eye and formatted to ensure clarity. Remember, it’s alright to paraphrase your customer’s text testimonials if need be.

4. Ensure testimonials answer questions your potential customers would like to learn the answers to

For instance, why did the customer choose your business? How did your product or service help them? How has their overall experience been working with your brand? Offer a clear benefit to converting more leads.

Bonus tip: Use a combination of engaging text and video testimonial templates stand out from your competitors’ testimonials and create an emotional connection using solid social proof. 

Here are three top-notch testimonial examples that you can use to ensure you master these elements:

 

Text testimonial template

 

Video testimonial template

 

Product testimonial template

Want to create high-converting testimonials like these with zero design or coding skills?

Trust can help!

Let’s get started.

 

How to build a testimonial template with Trust

 

Step 1. Log in to Trust (or sign up if you are new)

Trust has a 14-day free trial and does not require your credit card details.

Sign up here!

 

Step 2: Request a testimonial using an online survey form

Once you’re in, navigate to the Trust dashboard.

It will give you the option to add testimonials and create custom testimonial request forms.

Next, on your Trust dashboard, navigate to Forms > Add New to create a new submission form.

Trust’s testimonial request form helps you create custom guidelines, add question-and-answer series, request consent, create personalized welcome messages for your customers, and more. 

Choose between Smart and Interactive forms.

Once you have set up your form (read the guides linked above), Trust will give your customers the option to record a video, type a written testimonial, upload a video, or import an existing testimonial video from YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, or Vimeo.

You’re all set, and it’s time to share your testimonial request forms.

Step 3. Share your request forms 

Trust makes it super easy for you to share and collect a video testimonial or text review at the click of a button.

You can share your created forms in two ways: using a custom URL or publishing it on your website – here’s how that looks:

Read this guide on how to share a testimonial request form with your customers without having them download or log in to the app.

Step 4: Publish your testimonials  

Trust makes publishing testimonials super easy.

You can turn your video testimonials into fun widgets, Walls of Love, pop-ups, and floating stars:

All these, without any coding knowledge. Just copy Trust’s ready-to-use code and embed it onto your website.

Read the step-wise guide here.

Where can you add customer testimonials?

Placing testimonials are as important as curating them. You must bring them into the spotlight so your target audience can instantly connect and resonate with your published testimonials.

Here are the best places to add your customer testimonials to grab the most attention:

 

Testimonial page

Most brands have a dedicated website page for video testimonials, customer quotes, customer success stories, and case studies. 

Such pages have a notable advantage with lead generation as they share real life examples of customer success stories and offer personal recommendations. 

 

Home page

Prospects land on your home page 8 out of 10 times to understand your offering. Therefore, adding testimonials to your home page copy is a great way to build an emotional connection with potential customers.

You can take your product testimonial up a notch with video content and use your customer voices to highlight your product features and benefits. 

 

Social media

In this digital age, social media is a major deciding factor, especially for younger audiences. To attract their attention, you can leverage your social media accounts and share testimonials from your happy customers as posts or stories. 

 

Product or service pages

If you’re a business selling products or services directly on the website, adding testimonials lets you highlight your offerings better. 

Product testimonials with images add solid social proof to your claims.

Emails

Emails are the most used marketing and sales mediums for communication. So, adding social proof to them can boost your response and conversion rates.

For example, you could include customer image testimonials in your product offer emails to add some credibility to your offering.

 

Testimonial template best practices

What makes a testimonial template stand out and create a lasting impression on the reader? We’ve rounded up some best practices you can follow:

1. Use website elements

Website elements such as widgets, pop-up notifications, and badges to capture a reader’s attention. You can use Trust’s library of widgets, badges, pop-ups, and rich snippets to create custom testimonial templates and post them on your website.

2.  Add customer videos

Videos are more enticing than traditional text testimonials. Use them to capture a great customer story. 

3. Include customer headshots.

For text testimonial templates, it’s best to include a customer’s headshot to add more authenticity to the review.

4. Link to customer profiles

Make your testimonials fool-proof by linking back to their social media profiles, such as LinkedIn.

5. Ensure your customer highlights a benefit of your product.

Good video testimonials talk about your product or service, but great video testimonials also talk about the customer’s experience and benefits of using your product/service. 

6. Tell a story

Ensure your testimonial templates explain how your product changed the lives of your customers. Leads want to know how things were for current customers before and after using your product.

 

Create demand by collecting testimonials from happy customers

Text and video testimonials speak for themselves. Use them as powerful marketing tools and convert potential customers with less resistance. 

When using testimonials, it’s important to structure and display them effectively to get the highest ROI. So, let Trust help you on your testimonial journey from start to finish.

Trust is easy, simple, and takes less time than making yourself a cup of coffee. Try Trust’s 14-day free trial today!