Before consumers will do business with any company, one critical element must be present: trust. You can’t buy it. But you can build it, thanks to the power of customer testimonials.

Customer testimonials provide a positive endorsement of products and services. They add validity to your claims about your product because they come from an unpaid, unbiased source. And they are a key strategy to building consumer confidence and sales.

Testimonials speak to potential customers in an honest and believable way, which can help to humanize an impersonal sales message. People trust people, and that’s what makes testimonials so effective. In fact, testimonials have been known to increase sales by as much as 250 percent.

Making purchasing decisions can be intimidating—especially online where you can’t touch or “test” products prior to sale. Before buying a product people often want to know if the product actually does what it promises, if the company is reputable and if the Website is secure. That’s where customer testimonials come in.

Customer testimonials provide answers to important questions, build trust and close sales. And, in fact, research shows that consumers often rely on customer testimonials when making purchasing decisions. Testimonials sell.

 Anatomy of a Testimonial

The typical testimonial includes comments, a full name and descriptive identifier, such as a professional or informal title. Each of these elements is important to the anatomy of a testimonial for unique reasons. Comments from customers—preferably placed inside direct quotes—deliver a powerful endorsement because they are unbiased. Attaching a complete name to clearly identify customers adds validity and punch. You might even include the person’s city and state. And providing a descriptive title can add even more weight, especially if the person has particular relevance to the product/service being endorsed.

Incidentally, it doesn’t matter if your testimonials are long or short. What counts is that the comments are accurate, enthusiastic and compelling. A glowing customer testimonial is worth a 1,000 words of self-serving sales copy.

Obtaining Testimonials

Collecting testimonials is relatively easy, as most satisfied customers will be happy to assist you. The most direct way to obtain testimonials is to simply ask. Whenever you complete a project with a customer, ask what they liked best about your product or service. You can gather their comments by telephone, blog, email, postcard or letter. If you solicit feedback by mail, be sure to enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope that customers can use to return their comments.

You can also gather feedback by providing a free trial to select users in your target market. Then ask them what they liked, didn’t like and their suggestions for improvement. Along the same lines, you could offer product trials or samples to an industry expert who is well suited to judge how your product works.

Regardless of how you acquire customers’ comments, always get permission to use their testimonials in your marketing materials. Better yet, have them sign a release form granting their permission.

How to Use Testimonials

Testimonials are valuable tools that can be used throughout your company’s marketing efforts. Offline, they can enliven brochures, print ads, posters and newsletters. Online, testimonials can be an ideal way to augment your Web content. You can group them on a single Web page or sprinkle them throughout your Website.

To make your online testimonials even more believable, considering having them validated by a Web testimonials verification service available through Trusted Testimonials. The patent-pending service verifies testimonials by email and telephone, and then provides companies with a seal to display on their Website. This instantly shows that the site has real testimonials provided by real people, which will enhance visitor’s trust, loyalty and sales.

Testimonials can reinforce key benefits of your product or service. But for the biggest impact, they should also quantify those benefits. For example, “Product X is less expensive and more effective than other similar products on the market. It cost 20 percent less and has helped my company save 30 percent in labor costs.”

Remember, the words of a satisfied customer are powerful tools for building trust, promoting your reputation and increasing sales. So start tapping into the power of testimonials to promote your business.

Seven Steps to Better Testimonials

1. Be Specific

Use specific metrics your visitors can identify with. For example, instead of saying “this blue widget delivered significant savings!”, it would be more effective to say “I saved $1,593 in 4 months since buying the blue widget!”

2. Limit Benefits

Limit each testimonial to highlight one benefit of your product or service. A testimonial with multiple benefits will be harder to recall and will be less persuasive. If you must have multiple benefits, ensure that each benefit is in a separate paragraph.

3. Preserve the Language of your Customer

Do not try to polish the testimonial provided by your customer. The exact words provided by your customer will often be more compelling even if not grammatically correct.

4. Include the Specifics of your Customer

Include your customer’s name, geographic location, business title (if it was a company purchase) etc. These specifics add to your testimonial’s credibility.

5. Use Emotion

The best testimonials mirror the emotions of your customers. They echo their true feelings about your products and / or services.

6. Leverage Expert Opinions

A testimonial from an expert in your industry will be extremely persuasive as he or she will already have a high degree of credibility in the minds of your visitors.

7. Never Use Fraudulent Testimonials

This should go without saying. It is unethical and will negatively impact the long-term viability of your business.