Last week we furthered our discussion on connecting with your visitor – we explained how personal stories can have a great impact on this. Your goal as a company should be to tell people about all of the ways that you are different from any of the other companies out there, and you can achieve that except in one area – and it’s an important one. You cannot tell people how you are better at what you do. Luckily, while you can’t do this, other people certainly can, and you can achieve this goal by using testimonials.

The issue with telling people you do things better is one of trust – if every company is saying they are the best at something, how is anybody to believe that the company they are looking to hire is the actual best at something? It’s like the scene from the Christmas movie, Elf, where Buddy the Elf takes his date to a coffee shop in New York that has a sign out front saying “World’s Best Cup Of Coffee.” The joke is that everybody is in the know that everybody claims to have the best cup of coffee, but Buddy is naïve enough to actually believe this sign. This scene is the perfect example as to how it is almost impossible to just tell your potential customers that you are better at something – it just isn’t believable coming from you. A testimonial changes all of that. It’s a first-hand account of a customer that has dealt with you and, hopefully, had a great experience.

So how do you use testimonials? Liberally and often but keep it topical.

If you have a lot of testimonials, it may be good to show the sheer number of happy customers with a testimonials page. Other times, putting a testimonial on the page that it relates to can help drive home the message better.

If you install windows, and have a testimonial for installing windows, having them together is a powerful message. A testimonial about gutter installation on that same page? Might not be as effective.

A testimonial is worth its weight in gold, if it had a weight. When putting together content for your website, you should never be without at least a couple of testimonials, as these are the items on your site that tell people that you ARE better at what you do – and that is one task you cannot accomplish yourself.

So let your customers tell your new customers how great you are, and if you don’t have any, start asking for them. You’ll be surprised with how willing a happy customer is when it comes to writing a testimonial for you.