Jon Baker suggests that many testimonials aren't worth the screenspace they're "printed" on and I have to agree with him, at least partially.
Testimonials represent a small piece of the evidence your prospects want to see before they trust you enough to take that leap to using your services/products. Let's have a quick look at some of the others:
- your awareness trigger: whether a tweet, LinkedIn post, email or letter, something must have piqued their interest to get them to your website
- Headlines and content: they are unlikely to hit your website on the testimonials page, so what they see before must nudge them a little further down the sales path.
- Testimonials: people (hopefully just like them) saying good things about how you've helped them.
- Case studies: more detailed information on what you did and the results that work delivered.
- You: people buy people so they will talk to you before buying.
Your prospects will go through all these stages and all need to do their jobs.
What’s the main job of a testimonial? We assume testimonials are to support the sales process. In other words help potential buyers believe your claims about your service. How many times have you read a piece of marketing and thought Yeah right!? A testimonial is supposed to help the reader believe your claims and thus support your sale. In other words they help support your credibility and move your marketing from claiming towards demonstrating.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/testimonials-total-waste-time-jon-baker
