How testimonials help your startup?

Posted on October 10, 2022  (Last modified on February 27, 2024 )

4 minutes  • 828 words

Testimonials are a great way to showcase the value of your startup. They help customers trust your business and make it easy for people to understand how you help them.

Testimonials are pure social proof.

They will show your visitors that you’re an established company with actual customers. It’s super important if you’re just looking for your first users for your startup It also shows your potential customers what pain you’re solving and that people are happy with your solution.

Lastly, testimonials are a way to express your values with “normal people” words. No jargon. No marketing. Just pure gut feeling valuable!

You know how your friends and family members can be easily convinced to buy something by a friend or family member they trust? According to research, 80% of consumers are more likely to purchase from a brand that has positive customer reviews on its site. That’s because testimonials are one of the most effective forms of marketing.

But how do you get those juicy 5-star ratings for your startup? And why would people want to leave them in the first place?

Where to find them?

Have you ever wondered where to find testimonials? Well, there are many places:

Social media

Monitor your startup’s name on social media (Twitter , LinkedIn , Reddit …), copy the link of every testimonial for later, and don’t forget to answer! Customers love to share their experiences, and if you’re able to get them on your side, it’s a win-win situation for both parties.

Review sites

Chances are that people who would like to share their experiences with your company already use one of the several well-known review sites (e.g., Yelp). You can reach out directly or use a service like Brand24 to monitor mentions of your company across all channels in real-time.

Email list

Use your welcome email or create an automated sequence that ask for a testimonial a few days after the account creation on your startup product.

In your product

Create a survey or a widget directly in your product that asks for feedback. It’s easier for your existing to answer a quick survey while using your service than answering to an email campaign.

How to get testimonials

Ask for them

No, really. Just ask. Asking people to write testimonials and reviews will not only help you build your brand, but it can also be a great way to connect with other businesses in your industry and potential leads (i.e., new customers).

Offer incentive

You can offer a few months of your startup for free or at a discount. You can even provide cash. I’ve seen many startups offering $10 or more in Amazon gift cards after survey completion. That’s the best way to speed up the testimonial collection.

Interview customers on your blog/podcast

Ask your customers to talk about themselves and their experience working with your startup or product. Having this kind of content is super valuable, even more, if it’s on video! This is a fantastic way to get some original content, and that’s really easy to share on social media! Plus, this gives us their unique perspective into what kind of person might find value in your startup.

How to use them on your website

Testimonials are super precious to build trust, my advice is to place them all over your website!

In your header

Use them to show that your customer won’t be “alone”, they need to see that people are already using your product.

CTA

Use testimonials right below your CTA, or “Buy now” button. Adding a customer avatar and a quote about how your startup help will definitely help to trigger the click.

Pricing section

Testimonails reassure the visitors that you’re trustable and you’re really helping. Having them around your pricing table is a good idea!

A dedicated section.

That’s the prominent part, dedicate a whole section of your landing page to gather all the testimonials from your customers.

Here is an example of how I show testimonials on my landing page:

Make them easy to read, and make them clickable. Nothing worse than testimonials you can’t verify! If they come from Twitter, add the link to the original tweet. Same with any other source. Otherwise may think they’re just fake ones.

The more testimonials you have, the better. Even more, if your startup is just getting started. I personally use Testimonial.to to display the testimonials on my landing page. It makes it super easy to get text and video testimonials and also import all the testimonials you got on social media. And it’s well-designed and super easy to browse!

Conclusion

Testimonials are a powerful tool to help your startup grow. They provide an easy way for potential customers to discover what other people think of your company and its products or services. They also give you valuable insight into what works well and what doesn’t work so well, which can be very helpful when making future decisions about your business’ direction.