5 Types of Client Testimonials You Need in 2024 + Using Them
Trustmary teamLast edited: October 7th, 2024
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It’s 2024 and there are so many platforms out there that you can use to get more client testimonials and customer reviews.
Time to update your image about client testimonials as well as on online reviews.
Here’s an extensive guide to
- Why client testimonials are important
- 5 types of client testimonials and testimonial examples
- How to get, make and use customer testimonials
And here we go!
Importance of Client Testimonials
When it comes to choosing a product or service, we often look to reviews and testimonials to help us make our decision.
The same goes for when we’re looking for a new service provider, like a lawyer, doctor, or accountant.
Therefore, reputation management for lawyers and similar providers is important.
We want to know that other people have had positive experiences with them before we make our own decision.
What differentiates a testimonial from a review?
Client testimonials are a great way for service providers to show potential clients that they’re good at what they do.
While a review is your customer’s honest opinion about the experience, a testimonial is exclusively positive. So, some reviews can be testimonials and vice versa, but reviews can also be negative.
Testimonials provide first-hand accounts of the quality of service that a provider offers, and can be a valuable marketing tool.
If you don’t believe me, check out these statistics:
- 92% of consumers read online reviews and testimonials before buying.
- 95% of consumers say that negative and positive reviews alike influence their purchase decisions.
- 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as they trust recommendations from a friend.
- And 89% of marketers view customer testimonials as the most effective method in content marketing.
All of this is based on science: the power of social proof.
In a nutshell: testimonials build trust between a business and its potential customers, because the prospective customer sees that other people have trusted the business before, and reached good results.
This will generate more sales for you!
Types of Client Testimonials
Let’s get through five different forms of testimonials. These should help you get you up-to-date and use social proof on multiple platforms effectively.
You find examples of the testimonials in the following section.
1. Written Testimonial
The most basic version of testimonials is the written testimonial.
The length of a testimonial can vary from one sentence to paragraph – whatever comes naturally to your client!
Best suited for: websites, social media advertising, pamphlets, posters, and other physical marketing materials.
2. Testimonial Video
Video testimonial is a next-level marketing asset.
In a testimonial video your happy customer talks about their customer journey and how you helped them overcome their problems.
A testimonial video can be professionally produced, Do-It-Yourself style or filmed by the customer with a remote video testimonial app like Trustmary.
Campaigns with video testimonials usually produce a higher conversion rate that campaigns without them, as video testimonial statistics show.
Best suited for: websites, social media, TV advertisements
Check out these Top 5 Things to Consider when making a video testimonial.
3. Audio Testimonial
Audio testimonials are what they sound like: an audio recording of your client’s testimonial.
Best suited for: radio advertisements, podcast, or in-store announcements.
4. Case Study
A case study is a more elaborate testimonial that really digs into your customer’s story.
Especially business clients could be interested in making case studies, as it provides visibility for the client as well.
It can be a mixture of whatever affordances you want to use! It could be a video, its own blog post, or even a podcast episode.
Best suited for: websites and social media.
5. Quote Testimonial
A quote testimonial is a snippet from your client’s review or testimonial, which is presented as a quote. You can pick that from a longer testimonial, like a video.
The quote testimonials are preferably showcased together with a profile picture, and made visually appealing.
Best suited for: social media (especially Instagram and other visual platforms), websites, physical marketing materials.
Client Testimonial Examples from Different Fields
Different businesses have different target audiences, which means they need different tactics to feature testimonials.
Here are 5 examples of effective testimonials in various fields.
This is your chance to learn from others!
Real Estate Client Testimonials
Real estate is a competitive field, and you need to stand out from the crowd with glowing customer testimonials.
Check out this example, where a young couple speaks about how great their realtor was.
The video seems to be DIY, but it works nevertheless.
Once you have collected a video testimonial like this, you can pick snippets from it to use in other contexts, such as quotes and images.
Imagine a picture where the couple signs the papers and there is a quote “I highly recommend Monica. I don’t think we would have been able to do this through a different realtor!”
Client Testimonials for Attorneys
If you are an attorney, you need to be able to cater to the client’s needs and speak the same language (literally and figuratively!).
You can try to assure the potential client about your ability to do so all you want. But what really makes a difference is when an actual customer says so.
For example, Goosmann Law Firm understands how important it is to have endorsements from real customers. They showcase written reviews from existing customers.
The above testimonial tells in detailed manner how this law firm and the individual lawyer has helped the client to succeed.
In case you already have some great reviews on review sites, such as Google, you should add those reviews to your website.
Did you know that there’s a review widget for lawyers?
Well, technically it’s suited for any business, but especially lawyers can benefit from having customer reviews embedded on their site.
Patient Testimonials
For healthcare professionals and medical products, gathering patient testimonials has previously been challenging, to say the least.
Many people are afraid of dentists or worried whether their doctor will truly listen to them. In these cases, it’s important to have proof that you are good with patients and provide friendly service.
Patient testimonials can be very emotionally persuasive, especially when there’s a professional production team behind the scenes of a video testimonial.
Check out this almost cinematic piece:
However, you don’t need to hire a team of professionals to get customer testimonials. You can simply let Trustmary do the work for you.
How to Get Patient Testimonials
- Place a QR code on your front door which takes to a review form
- Use email to ask for a review within a few days asking if the problem was solved
- Ask for their experience after 2-4 weeks of their visit
- Send a reminder after a few days
There are many ways to ask for testimonials and customer reviews from existing customers.
However, the most effective way is to use Trustmary’s review request campaigns.
We’ve done all the thinking and heavy lifting for you. You just need to decide on which review site you need more reviews to, and we’ll take care of the logictics.
Many customers would love to tell their full story, if someone would just ask them to.
Start your first review and testimonial request campaign by typing your Google my Business location below
Fitness Testimonials
Fitness testimonials often highlight changes in appearance and showcase a before and after picture.
However, you can employ different tactics, like PT Louise Cornish has done on her Instagram account:
It includes a quote from a happy customer of her running program, and a suitable picture. The quote highlights how the customer feels, rather than how her body has changed.
In the caption, Louise has added a more thorough explanation of the program, so that even casual browsers can learn about what she does.
The picture captures the attention of the potential customer, and the caption tells them what the image is all about.
Also, gym owners benefit from reviews on their websites just as well.
Audio Testimonial for Moving Business
Audio testimonials are not as popular as the other forms of testimonials – at least not yet.
However, they can be very effective and also easier to get than e.g. video testimonials, where clients have to show their faces.
Additionally, you can pair the audio with visual elements like an image. See this example from a moving company called Bust a Move:
How to Get Client Testimonials?
First and foremost: in order to get client testimonials, you need to have happy customers!
You must earn the praise.
After that is sorted, you can employ different techniques to get testimonials from your clients.
The most important thing is to formulate a testimonial request that makes the customer want to give positive feedback.
Highlight these four aspects in the testimonial request:
- They are happy – would they like to make you happy?
- Giving a testimonial is easy
- It is also quick
- It is important for you
Here are some practical tips for making client testimonials.
1. Interview
You can make a customer testimonial by interviewing your customers.
This can be done face-to-face, in a phone call or in a video meeting. Also email interviews are possible.
You know what is the best method for arranging an interview with your clients!
2. Surveys
If you can’t conduct an interview, or you want to save time and money, you can use surveys to collect customer feedback and testimonials.
For example, our software Trustmary allows you to easily create various surveys and collect unlimited testimonials and video testimonials from your customers – for free!
You can send the survey and testimonial form to customers and businesses via email, or embed in on your website.
3. Find Them Online
Sometimes you already have great testimonials somewhere on the internet. Maybe on review sites, such as Google, G2, Capterra or even Yelp or perhaps on social media channels, such as Facebook.
With Trustmary, you can also import existing online reviews to get them displayed on your own website: talk about effortless social proof!
4. Make It Into A Case Study
If your customers are mostly business clients, they could benefit from mutual visibility.
Offer to make a case study about them, and you get your social proof and they get visibility in your channels.
A case study testimonial can include both text and video. Check out our client video testimonials and case studies from Pindora and Office Recycling.
See additional tips on getting testimonials here:
Where to Display Customer Testimonials?
Here are tips on how you can use testimonials and maximize their potential in your marketing efforts.
Mix and match as many of these tactics as possible!
Testimonials Page
One of the most popular ways to use testimonials is a testimonial page (or review page).
It is a separate site on your website dedicated to customer stories and testimonials.
It’s a great way to showcase as many testimonials as possible, and they will be read by someone who is really interested in your business and wants to find out whether you are as good as you seem.
Landing Page
Landing page testimonials are a great way to reach those potential customers who are just taking a first peek at your website.
You don’t want the testimonials to take too much space on your website landing pages, or overpower any other important information.
With stylish review widgets, you can still showcase multiple testimonials in a smaller space. Check out what kinds of cool widgets Trustmary offers!
Trustmary allows you to embed all the different types of testimonials you have directly to your own website:
- Quote testimonials
- Video testimonials
- Reviews from third party sites
- Heck, even testimonials you have in excel sheets!
The best part is, you can show personalized customer testimonials to visitors even based on where they came from. This can easily be done by using UTM tags.
By adding social proof in form of customer testimonials to your most relevant landing pages, you can experience:
Furthermore, it eliminates the need to create an own testimonials page for each of your target customer profiles.
Product Page
If you have testimonials that especially focus on a specific product or service, why not feature them on the specific product pages?
That could make the final impression on the potential customer and encourage them to make a purchase.
One great way to boost conversion rates!
Read more about how you can use testimonials on your website:
- 6 Ways to Use Testimonials on Squarespace
- How to Add Testimonials to Website in WordPress?
- 5 Testimonial Page Design Best Practices
Social Media
LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter… whichever social media channel you are using, you can post client testimonials easily with Trustmary. Just a couple of clicks and you’re ready to go!
However, there are differences in what types of testimonials suit which platforms well.
For example, Instagram is a lucrative place for beautiful images. You should choose a quote or other short testimonial with a picture to showcase on your Instagram feed.
Coming up with captions for client testimonials on Instagram can be tricky, but there is one thing you should never forget: a call to action!
The prospective clients should be able to sign up for the service or learn more about you immediately. If you don’t provide this chance, it is unlikely that they will start looking for your business on their own.
The Stories-function on Instagram (and Facebook) can be used to showcase video testimonials, especially laid back, casual selfie videos.
LinkedIn is a professional social networking site, so you should use your most professional video testimonials there.
Here’s some data about the most popular social media platforms for B2B marketers:
Sales Pitches and Offers
Using testimonials in sales offers is a great example of sales and marketing working together.
When you have glowing reviews and testimonials from happy customers, why not shout that out in future sales processes as well?
You could casually slide a testimonial into the potential customer’s inbox via email, or if you make sales pitches, include them in the presentation.
Advertisements
Of course testimonials can be used in paid advertising!
Take snippets of multiple testimonials to add to a video or audio advertisement. The more authentic the clips are, the better!
Here some more inspiration for using testimonials:
Conclusion
You have learned how important it is to have testimonials as a part of your marketing efforts, and how to make them.
You have also seen examples of different types of testimonials from different businesses.
What do all businesses have in common about testimonials?
Everyone can use Trustmary to collect unlimited testimonials and video testimonials – automatically!
FAQ
How to ask for client testimonials?
The easiest way to ask for client testimonials is to invite customers to answer a survey on Trustmary. When you use a survey and message template, and set automations, this requires almost no manual effort from your part!
Why client testimonials are important?
Client testimonials help you get more new customers. A great testimonial convinces site visitors and prospective customers that you really know what to do and can provide the best service.
What are examples of client testimonials?
Client testimonials are success stories told by your real customers. They can be written testimonials, testimonial videos, audio testimonials, quotes, or some other way of highlighting positive customer experience.
How to post client testimonials?
When you use Trustmary to collect testimonials, you can easily post the collected testimonials on your website or social media. See instructions for adding testimonials to Squarespace and WordPress, and refer to our extensive help documentation library to find out more!
How to post client testimonials on LinkedIn?
Once you have collected client testimonials with Trustmary, or imported existing reviews to the software, you can share them easily. Just navigate to the testimonial that you want to use, click Share, click LinkedIn, and share as a post or private message.
