It is testimonial advertising when you pick positive customer feedback or client review on your product or service and run an advertisement campaign with that review. Building up good impressions is vital for any business, especially when online. And testimonial advertising plays a significant role here.
Suppose you are about to buy a table lamp from a well-known retailer online. You found three table lamps matching your interests with different reviews and ratings. One has a 4.5-star rating with thousands of positive comments. Others have 4 & 3.5-star ratings with fewer comments. Which one will you pick?
It will probably be the first one that impressed thousands of customers. If it’s suitable for thousands, why is it not for you?
A similar thing occurs in your client’s minds when they are about to buy your products or services, as 95% of online purchasers tend to read client reviews before purchasing.
That is, testimonial advertising is crucial to convince the customers as they trust the client reviews in the first place.
What is Testimonial Advertising?
Testimonial advertising describes a marketing method in which customers, celebrities, or product experts positively review a company’s product or service. In other words, testimonial marketing demonstrates how a product or service benefits its users.
It’s typical human nature to follow others in a new place. If people aren’t sure how to act in a situation they are never in, they take clues from their surroundings. For example, suppose you join a party in a community you have never attended. In that case, you will be more likely to observe how others behave first. Therefore, you must know how to act in that situation or setting. This is a psychological phenomenon called “social proof.” In his book – Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Dr. Robert Cialdini first used this term in 1984.
When you visualize social proof in your online presence, then it becomes a testimonial. Helping people with that psychological phenomenon by providing a testimonial statement is a way to gain trust.
Testimonial advertising is publicly sharing customer experiences of a product or organization. It helps new visitors to cope with your business correctly. The advertising of your products can be more effective when you do testimonial marketing. People check customer testimonials to know what the customers’ perspective is.
How Testimonials Make Your Email Content Better?
Talking about your products in blogs, marketing emails, and other advertisement mediums is not enough to make your clients believe you. Letting people talk about their experiences with your products is essential, as most of your customers won’t be interested if you don’t. In addition, your review email template will be more vital when people find their family and friends reviewing your products.
Statistics show that 82% of consumers recommend social proof from family and friends before purchasing.
Celebrities can play a significant role as people follow their choices and actions. For example, when a star reviews your product, it becomes one of the great social proof examples to advertise via email or other marketing platforms.
Study shows that using a celebrity name in the subject line can boost the open rate by up to 468%, which is significantly huge.
Besides these, we all love those products which the experts use in their daily life. So, a testimonial statement by an expert is valuable because it will increase the confidence level of customers to use your products.
Types of Testimonials
There are several types of testimonial advertising to increase the brand reputation. Some of them are capable of making your review email template more fruitful. Such as –
- Customer Testimonials: When your customers willingly put reviews and ratings of your products, it becomes a testimonial explaining their experiences and opinions. It helps new prospects predict the usefulness of your products.
- Experts’ testimonials: It is defined as experts’ testimonials if experts of your products talk about their experience in the review section. It can lead your customers to think and act as the experts who give the green light to the product.
- Celebrity Testimonials: Celebrity testimonials, also called endorsements, are the reviews from the face of celebrities that bring tremendous value to customers.
- Award Testimonials: If your business won an award, show it up as it increases the reputation, which might drive the users to trust you. So, attaching awards in emails are examples of testimonial ads.
- Friends & Family Testimonials: Reviews from family members and close friends make Friends & family testimonials. People have the tendency to love and trust these types of people mostly, making it one of the best testimonial examples.
How to Request a Testimonial
A good testimonial shows the visitors that your business is not only authorized but also how it is satisfying your clients. Therefore, you can’t define it as a business holder. Instead, it would help if you give your customers a chance to publicly share their experiences with your products so that others can follow. There are several ways when asking for a testimonial. Some are worth mentioning.
Request a testimonial on Your Website
You need to request a testimonial on the page where you display your product, as it would seem engaged when others visit. On the other hand, it will be easy for recent customers to put a testimonial statement while browsing your site. So, to improve your testimonial marketing strategy, grab the opportunity.
Here is an example from Chewy on how they request a testimonial on their web page.
Toptal stores their client review, helping their clients trust them easily.
Asking for a Testimonial via Email
You can ask for customer reviews from those who purchased by email, as it is now one of the top mediums to communicate with them. It is useful when asking for a testimonial from those who left your site after purchasing without commenting. But, it is tricky as you need to consider time, features, freemiums, questionnaires, etc.
This is how Chapelle sends a testimonial letter through email as a medium.
Here is another testimonial letter sample with a formal email.
Timing
Your customers need a minimum of time to experience your products after purchasing. They can’t express their experience if you don’t give them enough time. On the other hand, if you have a SaaS (Software as a Service) business (like MailBluster), your clients might need more time to experience the features of your services with the software.
An example of requesting a testimonial letter from Amazon can clarify the concept.
Here, Amazon sends a reminder email to someone who purchased Amazon Fire TV to collect client reviews and ratings.
Exchanging Freemiums
You will get customer testimonials and opinions on only some purchases. Most people won’t show any interest in providing social proof willingly. That’s why you need to establish an excellent reason for some vital customers so that they put reviews.
Exchanging freemiums or free offerings is the best way here. Here is an example of asking for a testimonial from Hollister, where they aim to exchange gift points with their valuable ratings and opinions.
Your customers might find a reason to put a review or rating if you offer something to them like this, as shown above. In addition, it will encourage them to give feedback on your site.
Making it more accessible to customers
It would be best if you make it easy for your customers to put a review. For example, you can send an email asking for a testimonial with adding criteria because some might need to learn the way to give a review. This is one of the most effective ways, as it clearly shows them how they can get into it.
Biscuiteers has an example of how they request a testimonial with adding criteria.
Providing Questionnaires in the correct order
A client’s testimonial statement will significantly impact your business. So, it would be best if you prepare a questionnaire for them to concise your customers’ talking on your products in the correct order. The more engaged your customer feedback is, the more trusted your business will become.
Asking for referring friends
You can offer your trusted customers freemiums or pay-offs via email in exchange for referring their friends and family members, as it is the most thoughtful way to gain trust. Moreover, 82% of Americans will follow testimonial advertising from their families and friends. So, you should try that!
Here is an example of Casper’s on how they collect customer feedback with fascinating features.
Collect Testimonials from Social Media
Besides websites and email marketing; social media can bring massive customer reviews. You must ensure your business’s online presence through your prospects’ social media. Nurturing those presences can not only get you more traffic but also empower your lead generation process.
If you are on Facebook, asking for customer testimonials and ratings in each post you create will bring you the best results. You can also collect customer reviews from your Facebook review and comment sections. You can use a hashtag on Twitter to find out who is tweeting about your products. Tweets can be one of the best testimonial examples for your email marketing campaign. You can share your fans’ tweets directly from your business page, improving your impression as it seems that you care about their experiences.
Giant companies like Amazon use this trick to market their testimonial statement.
LinkedIn is also an excellent medium for client reviews from other businesses and organizations. These kinds of testimonials play a crucial role in improving your impressions.
You can ask for a customer testimonial video from your trusted customers to post on YouTube. A customer testimonial video can improve your image dramatically. It is always more comforting to watch than to read a whole paragraph.
Helping with Co-writing
Some customers may be unwilling to complete the questionnaires you made for them. You can add some helpful features for them. Help them with co-writing while communicating. You should talk about your products so that you can write to them if they feel sluggish. This process will bring more customer feedback for your business to stand out.
Interviewing directly
It’s an excellent idea to invite your most trusted customers to an interview in exchange for some freemiums. This trick will get you transcripted and help you make a customer testimonial video to run the most effective email marketing campaign.
Best Types of Emails for Testimonial Advertising
Testimonial advertising plays a significant role when you use it in suitable types of marketing emails. Examples include welcome emails, milestone emails, thank you emails, promotional emails, and lead nurturing emails.
Welcome Emails
This marketing email is handy when new people subscribe to your business. It’s all about welcoming new visitors and introducing your business. The welcome email is vital as the first impression depends on it. So, it would be best to include customer reviews because customers tend to trust other authentic customers’ words, not yours.
The Good for Company has a welcome email, one of the excellent testimonial advertising examples, including a client review that can clear a lot of confusion.
Milestone Emails
Milestone emails are essential when you reach a goal with your business and want to share this news with your trusted customers. For example, suppose you recently got 1 million subscribers and are thankful for them. It’s a great idea to let them know that you completed a milestone in your business with their help.
Revolution Tea has one of the best testimonial advertising examples in milestone emails: they are cheering up those they surveyed. This organization lets the customers know they are happy, with 94% of people who responded to their survey.
Thank You Emails
It’s good to let the customers know that you are very thankful to them for joining your community. This approach will make your customers feel special as it will seem you care about their actions. It also brings good impressions if you add a client review with your “thank you email.” This is because it will show your recipients and others are taking action and providing feedback simultaneously, especially to those you are thankful for.
Lead Nurturing Emails
Sales don’t come quickly that often. Instead, you need to make your customers’ minds grow slowly but effectively by stages and by nurturing the generated leads. So, a lead nurturing email is essential to convince the subscribers to be your paying customers. And they will not purchase if they can’t trust your business. Adding customer testimonials to lead nurturing emails is one of the best ways to trigger them so that they try to connect with your business. Adding a customer testimonial video to your lead-nurturing email will bring you the best conversions.
Below is one of the testimonial advertising examples.
Promotional Emails
Testimonials are most important when introducing your customers to new products and services, as these new arrivals first need to gain their trust.
It would be best to add customer reviews to every product you advertise. An example of testimonial ads from Z Gallerie is worth mentioning here.
How to Prepare the Best Review Email Template
Your email marketing campaign can be more effective if you choose them wisely and decide where to use social proof in the email body. For example, most people don’t advertise emails if the headline can’t catch their attention. So, the headline is where you can put a sign of social proof, as it is very trustworthy to the people, especially the target customers.
Add a client review to the opt-in form to encourage your visitors to fill it out correctly. It will show them that not only they but others are also filling out your form.
You can trigger your customers with your testimonial advertising campaign, especially when you offer freemiums in exchange for more customers from their surroundings. Your offerings and customer feedback will make their minds act just as you want them to.
MailBluster has a drag-and-drop feature that allows you to add client reviews or other types of testimonials wherever needed to make your review email template successful.
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