How Customer Testimonials Improve Conversions

Ever since internet marketing and e-commerce became popular, buyers learned how to be more discriminating than in the age of television and radio ads. As a consequence, there has been much push to do everything possible to increase e-commerce stores and websites’ conversion rates. After all, you are losing money if none of your visitors are buying anything.

This is why you should include testimonials in your website. Testimonials can do wonders for your conversion rates and can make all the difference in the world where your business is concerned. Here’s how it does that.

Build Seller’s Credibility

This is even more so when the testimonials come from authority figures and credible individuals in the industry. For instance, if you’re running an entrepreneurship blog and have a book on the same subject, getting testimonials from respected individuals such as Gary Vaynerchuk, Eben Pagan, Robin Sharma, and Hiten Shah can shoot your sales through the roof or get you even more leads and prospects.

Once your audience see testimonials from trusted personalities, a significant number of them will take whatever action you want them to take because they believe that these guys would only lend their names to top quality stuff.

Reinforces Customers’ Buying Decision

Sometimes, customers are not sure about taking the next step – which could be anything from signing up for your email list or making a purchase. They need that extra assurance that they are actually making the right buying decision.

Testimonials can be that seemingly small thing that pushes them right over the edge into taking that action. Testimonials indicate to the buyer that if it worked for A, it can work for me. This is why conversion rate experts often advise placing some small snippets of testimonials in the order or checkout page. It assures the buyer that he is making the right decision.

Eliminates Buyer Anxiety

Buyer anxiety is real. We have all experienced it. We want to buy a product, probably already like it, but aren’t sure if it is the right product – even when it is clear that it is. So, we do some more shopping around, do some comparison, come back to the store, hover over the buy button, and then go do some research again… and the cycle goes on and on for hours until we finally make up our minds to purchase the product.

However, if there are testimonials subtly displayed in the checkout or order page, this can help eliminate their anxiety and doubts about making the right decision. Buyer anxiety is terrible for your business. Use testimonials to remove that from the picture. The fewer objections your customers have, the higher your sales and revenue will be.

Specific Testimonials are Powerful

Many e-commerce stores are fond of putting up generic, bland testimonials. Sometimes these work. Most times, however, they hurt your conversion rate. Thanks to scammers, most people are highly sensitive to bull. They can quickly sniff out fake testimonials and reviews. If your testimonials are generic and all-encompassing, people will be less inclined to believe them.

If they are specific, however, they can be powerful. For instance, if you are selling health supplements targeted at sportsmen and women, ensure that the testimonials you use are ones that address particular problems.

For example, one can address increased focus during training, another can address enhanced performance, another can be about the buyer or user solving a particular nagging knee problem that he has been having. I hope you get the idea. Having a testimonial that says it does all of these things from one individual is less believable than one that’s specific.

The writer, Oscar King, is a budding ecommerce entrepreneur who managed to drive traffic to his site, but quickly learned that that was not enough to turn a profit. He shares the lessons learned through his writing, in the hopes of helping others turn their website into a gold mine. He also reminds his readers that a secure checkout through a resource like Fastspring® is equally essential for conversions. You can learn more about Oscar on Google+.