How to Get Testimonials to Use as Social Proof for Your Blog

Having a hard time proving your product or service to the market?

Nowadays, consumers are wary of buying things on the internet if there are no public customer reviews and testimonials.

Why? Because people are inclined to purchase if it’s a personal recommendation by their friends and family.

This means one thing:

You have to get recommendations to back your credibility up and boost your conversions!

Running a blog means you are running a business. And if you want to drive more sales, you should apply this same logic to your business.

We all heard them say “use social proof” as one of the best practices.

But, how and where are you going to get customer testimonials that you can use as social proof on your blog?

Luckily, we listed these tips to guide you on what you should do:

Five ways on how to get testimonials that convert to sales

Interview customers after your session together

Never miss customer feedbacks.

Your customers are the perfect individuals that you should be chasing for testimonials.

Testimonials come in many forms. Let’s take an example from South Tulsa Dental Dentist where they use video testimonial as social proof.

With a video as testimonial like that, you can actually see how the person feels, and it shows the genuineness of how they think of the service they received. If you can score something like this for your blog, then it’s a bonus!

Here’s another example of a video testimonial from Brucke Flooring.

Video testimonials are harder to get as some people are camera-shy. Don’t fret! You can always use texts and screenshots as your social proof.

We’ll talk about more different ways of getting testimonials below.

Turn blog comments into testimonials

Showcase the glowing comments that readers have about your posts.

Comments on your posts mean your content gets traction and is valuable to some people. Don’t hesitate to use them as your social proof.

Here’s how Ahref blog’s comment section look like.

Even if you don’t have lots of blog comments, what you currently have is still a valuable addition to your testimonials page.

It doesn’t matter whether they are your actual customers or not. What matters is that you are providing evidence that you are someone people can trust!

According to Nielsen, 70% of people will trust a recommendation from someone they don’t even know.

Don’t worry; you have full control over which of your blog comments will be displayed. Make sure omit statements that are too vague and doesn’t add value like “awesome services” or “good job”. These comments don’t give much substance and have less trustworthiness to it.

Document your experience with them into a case study

Case studies are long-form content that strengthens your credibility and serves as a great sales tool. They can even be enhanced further if you include actual testimonials from your case studies.

In your case study, provide specific details on how your business solved your customer’s problem.

What AC Owen Construction did in the screenshot above is write a short blurb about their experience with clients. At the bottom is a link to the client video testimonial that further attests their expertise in the industry.

Taking the cue from this brand, personally reach out to your loyal customers and feature the services you did for them.

As much as possible, feature customers that are also credible. Ask for their permission before doing this as some may prefer to keep their business private.

Incentivize the testimonials

Testimonials are best when given freely. Unfortunately, not all of your customers will remember doing so.

Therefore, send an email to your existing customers asking them to leave a review.

Make sure that you personalize it to the best that you can. They know when the email is just a template that is blasted to everyone.

However, do not offer incentives in exchange for a positive review. This can be deceptive and might just backfire on your blog.

Instead, give incentives after they give you their testimonials.

In the email, say that you would appreciate it if they leave a review about your services. Make no mention of the freebie they’ll receive after sending the review. Once they complete the task, only them should you send them the freebie!

Note that they are using their time to help you. Show your token of appreciation by giving exclusive content or granting discounted prices for one of your services.

BONUS: Testimonial WordPress plugins to use

Social influence plays a huge factor, and it’s critical to feature all your testimonials the right way.

Here are five tools we handpicked for you to consider using:

• Testimonial Rotator – This tool allows you to create a rotating testimonial carousel anywhere on your blog.
• Easy Testimonials – It allows your customers to submit their testimonials to be displayed on your site.
• Strong Testimonials – This plugin is customizable and lets you to display testimonials in a slider, grid layout, masonry, and more.
• WP Testimonials with rotator widget – Easily sort your testimonials into different categories and tags with this tool.
• Testimonial Slider – Display your testimonials anywhere within your blog using a shortcode or a widget.

Conclusion

The truth of the matter is, having good testimonials can get you even more testimonials.

When asking and looking for testimonials, focus on what is so great about your services and how you helped people fixed a problem.

Having these powerful testimonials as social proof, positively raising your brand as a successful online business will become effortless.