Table of Contents
- Text-Based Customer Testimonials
- Benefits of Text Testimonials in Testimonial Marketing
- Limitations of Text Testimonials
- How to Make Text-Based Customer Testimonials Engaging and Impactful
- Customer Testimonials Should Be Concise
- Highlight Key Phrases
- Prioritize the Best Testimonials
- The Text in Your Testimonial Pages Can Help Your SEO
- Image Testimonials
- Effectiveness of Image Testimonials in Marketing
- Tips for Utilizing Image Testimonials Effectively
- Use High-Quality Images Only
- Showcase the Right Elements
- Don’t Forget the Overall Aesthetics of Your Marketing Tool a.k.a. Wall of Love
- Video Testimonials
- Advantages and Impact of Video Testimonials
- Video Testimonials Make You Look Authentic
- Video Testimonials Are More Relatable
- Video Testimonials Are Multipurpose
- Ways to Leverage Video Testimonials
- Tips for Creating Effective Video Testimonials
- Automate Your Email Outreach Efforts
- Guide Your Customers Before and Through the Video Recording Process
- Make the Video Recording Process Stupidly Simple
- Go From Recording to Showcasing in Two Minutes
- Other Testimonial Formats
- Use Testimonials Shared via Social Media
- Use a Combination of the Main Testimonial Formats
- Create Case Studies to Build Trust
- Choosing the Right Testimonial Format for Your Marketing Strategy
- Understand Who Is Your Ideal Customer
- Analyze Your Brand’s Image
- Benchmarking
- Simplify Your Life With the Help of Testimonial
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Title
Text vs Image vs Video Testimonials | What Is the Best Testimonial Format?
Date
Dec 16, 2024
Description
If leveling up your testimonial marketing game is one of your upcoming goals, this article is for you. Discover which are the main testimonial formats and choose the best for your business or project. See you inside.
Status
Current Column
Person
Writer
Customer testimonials are very powerful tools for both physical and digital businesses.
They are a must if you want to increase your most relevant marketing KPIs.
Not having testimonials will usually translate into less trust from potential customers. Consequently, you can have less sales and slower growth.
You don't want that. You don't want to miss profitable growth opportunities.
You want to be able to convert most of your website visitors into paying customers.
You want to build awareness and a solid business reputation online.
You want your company to have a relevant name and place on any platform or website where it has a presence.
Testimonials will help you achieve just that.
For them to work optimally, you will need to understand the different formats available and choose the one that best fits your purposes.
This article will give you all you need to know and set you on the way to success.
Without further delay, let's dive into explaining different types of testimonials and helping you choose the best one for your business.
Text-Based Customer Testimonials
Text-based testimonials are the most common form of testimonial.
They consist of a written recommendation, customer review, experience, or opinion given by a client, user, or supporter, of any kind.
Their purpose, in the same way as any piece of social proof, is that of verifying the authenticity, capability, quality, and type of service given by a company or professional.
This type of testimonial can be given anonymously, upon request, or by the initiative of the author, but should be, in all cases positive and focused on the benefits of such product or service to be considered a testimonial.
Benefits of Text Testimonials in Testimonial Marketing
If any awareness of the science of testimonial marketing exists in the mind of a founder or landing page creator, they will include text testimonials on the website of any existing or new product.
The primary purpose or goal will usually be that of influencing purchase decisions.
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Why are text testimonials good for this?
- Text testimonials are a very powerful marketing tool because they are easy to capture and share.
- They don't cost much, because you don't need to pay for any storage or streaming resources.
- These testimonials can be consumed fast (the user just has to read them).
- The fact that the potential buyers don't need to click any buttons or additional windows to read a text testimonial makes them very powerful when placed properly on a website or landing page.
Limitations of Text Testimonials
None of the formats explained in this article is perfect. All of them have pros and cons. It is your job to analyze them and weigh which option would be the most beneficial for your use case.
In the case of text testimonials, the following are a few of the limitations:
- Since fake reviews abound nowadays, text testimonials may fail to build the level of trust expected, in some cases, if the text testimonials are from unverifiable customers (they don’t have active social media channels or business websites).
- Unless you use specific visually enhancing tactics (that I will explain in the next section), text testimonials may fail at provoking the necessary emotions or catching your prospects’ attention.
How to Make Text-Based Customer Testimonials Engaging and Impactful
The following are some things you can do to make text testimonials even more effective in your sales and marketing efforts:
Customer Testimonials Should Be Concise
Your text testimonials can be rich in details (relevant keywords and information can have a positive impact on your SEO efforts) but just make sure your testimonial quotes aren't too long that your prospects won't read them.
Ask yourself, would I read this product review if I was the person interested?
Highlight Key Phrases
Some of the elements of your testimonial are more important than others. The ability to highlight the phrases that can make a difference in the minds of your potential clients when reading them will differentiate you from your competition.
Use this tactic to evoke emotions or show the value of your product.
Although doing this would probably require you to be able to design or code, using a tool like Testimonial, which already includes a feature to highlight keywords on your former testimony, is a great option to simplify your processes.
Prioritize the Best Testimonials
Your goal should be to get many testimonials. Naturally, some will be better than others. One thing you can do to get the most out of your text testimonials placing the best ones strategically on your pages.
If you have a Testimonial Wall of Love, pin or highlight your best main customer stories at the top.
Which are the best ones? Those whose content:
- Helps resolve objections or frequently asked questions
- Discusses the most relevant benefits of your product
- Shares authentic customer experiences from famous or influential individuals
The Text in Your Testimonial Pages Can Help Your SEO
This is all about the keywords.
As we just mentioned above, you can highlight the most important keywords on a testimonial to make it stick in the mind of your potential client and thus help you make a sale or support the message you want to convey.
Well, in the same way, search engines can index the testimonials on your site (based on keywords and key phrases from their text) to help people who search for solutions or have questions about your business.
This is great for your business because it can help you expand the reach of your message and get leads and organic exposure for free.
Image Testimonials
When we say "image testimonial" we are referring to the format, mainly.
It can be a text testimonial but if it is a photo or screenshot of the text or a social media comment, a Slack, Telegram, or WhatsApp conversation, or something similar, it will be considered an image testimonial.
Effectiveness of Image Testimonials in Marketing
It is very normal for people to find opportunities to capture these types of testimonials because not all customer feedback is given upon request or captured directly by us.
Many times our clients give us feedback wherever we communicate with them, so it can be very useful to just take a good-quality screenshot of the conversation or their feedback and add it to our Wall of Love or dedicated testimonial website.
These testimonials help the feedback look more realistic and many people like this because to build trust they must think that the content is generated by users and not manipulated by companies.
In the meantime, you want to be able to use customer testimonials with versatility and creativity.
Tips for Utilizing Image Testimonials Effectively
The following guidelines will help you capture image testimonials that truly help your product or brand.
Use High-Quality Images Only
Everything related to testimonials of any format is highly visual, so if your images are blurry, poorly cropped, or have elements that make them look bad or unattractive, the user's perception will not be the best. Strive to use high-quality image testimonials only, while maintaining their authenticity and originality.
Showcase the Right Elements
If you are going to use screenshots from a communication channel like Slack or Messenger, try to show who was the person who left you the feedback (unless you don't feel it is appropriate to do so). This way, you will avoid people thinking that it is a fake message.
If you are going to take the image from places like a forum or social media post, try to leave out those elements that have nothing to do with the testimonial, for example, other unrelated comments or things that could distract the attention of your end user. This will ensure that the testimonial has the greatest impact possible.
Don’t Forget the Overall Aesthetics of Your Marketing Tool a.k.a. Wall of Love
A very common challenge that you can face is that when you start adding images, even if they are well-cut and of good quality, they can look uneven among themselves.
In other words, some may have larger text, different colors that do not match, etc.
I understand that the main thing for you may be the practical use of the image testimonials. However, in some cases, it does not hurt to order your images in a way that they look better.
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You could also highlight the main ones at the top and those that are not so aesthetically combinable can be left a little lower in the Wall of Love.
Of course, this will all be determined by you, depending on your strategy. My main comment is that the page must look attractive, neat, and clean so that users do not get stressed by the mess and leave your page.
Video Testimonials
Video is the most popular content format today.
The statistics speak for themselves. Users watch over one billion hours of video on YouTube daily.
Social media platforms that favor video (like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok) are the most used worldwide.
There is no doubt that video has become the most popular and engaging form of content.
But what makes video so powerful? The fact that it provides an immersive experience.
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Video combines visual, auditory, and emotional elements to deliver a message in a memorable way.
The same characteristics apply to video testimonials.
Video is always the best way to leave a lasting impression on your prospects.
Let’s explore the reasoning behind this affirmation in more detail.
Advantages and Impact of Video Testimonials
Video Testimonials Make You Look Authentic
We humans have a deep-rooted innate need to connect with other human beings.
We are social beings. The need for connection is very hard-wired in our DNA.
If you analyze those truths briefly, you will understand why testimonials are such effective marketing tools.
Testimonials help us look at services and products through the eyes of other human beings who have had direct experiences with the companies we are learning about.
That is true to some extent for any type of testimonial.
When we take this to the realm of video, the level of connection is even more profound.
While watching a video testimonial, we have the opportunity to look at the person who had that experience. We can see their face, eyes, and gestures and hear their voice and tone.
Just see how video testimonials work for my client and friend Justin Welsh.
This upgraded version of a testimonial will always have a more profound influence on how we perceive the reality of the experience (and thus be a great tool to generate sales).
The fact that a serious person makes a video praising your service or product means a lot to your prospective clients.
Firstly, because not every client leaves a text testimonial or review. Showcasing video testimonials demonstrates a seal of authenticity that is almost impossible to diminish or question.
Furthermore, if an influential or powerful person records the video, the power of both variables (the format and the influence) will stack, and its ability to convert new clients will skyrocket.
This should be making you think a lot.
Any B2B founders looking to increase the conversion power of their landing pages should consider highlighting video testimonials as one of the central elements.
Founders and marketers running different sets of ads should include video testimonials (or segments from them) on their A/B testing and analyze their performance.
They will find out that I am not kidding.
Video Testimonials Are More Relatable
The following truth may sound too obvious, but many people don’t apply this in marketing: you need to humanize your brand to make it successful.
Humans don’t connect with logos, ideas, images, or animated cartoons in the same way as they connect with other humans.
That is why Vayner Media has only 262,000 followers on Instagram, and its founder, Gary Vee, has over 10 million followers.
You can humanize your brand by using faces your prospects and customers can relate to.
Video testimonials are a perfect way to achieve this.
The faces, voices, personalities, body language, and other elements presented in your video will make your testimonials relatable and pleasant.
The best is that you don’t have to limit yourself to a single face; you can capture as many testimonials as you need to.
Then, you can use those videos in different settings, such as ads, checkout pages, pop-up windows, website banners, social media posts, and inside your blog content.
Doing precisely that can help you build great rapport with your target audience and indelibly ink the idea of your solution in their minds.
Video Testimonials Are Multipurpose
While it is true that all testimonials and reviews are high-value assets, video testimonials are the ultimate asset.
This is because you can use them in many different ways and formats.
Let me show you some of them.
Ways to Leverage Video Testimonials
- Showcase them on your websites and landing pages individually, as a slider, or as a Wall of Love.
- Include them on your checkout pages.
- Add them to your newsletter content.
- Add them to your product updates and marketing emails.
- Include them inside your blog’s content.
- Use them on your YouTube video’s closing or CTAs.
- Use them on social media posts or paid ads.
That is why I refer to them as assets. Your client records a video once; you can use it unlimitedly to improve your brand’s reputation and perception to sell more.
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By providing good service and selling great products (and asking for video testimonials, of course), you will be able to access a marketing power that can hardly be priced.
Tips for Creating Effective Video Testimonials
As you can imagine, the success of your testimonial videos will depend a lot on whether you have the right process to capture them and display them on your website.
These are a few best practices you can follow to get video testimonials that will convert like crazy.
Automate Your Email Outreach Efforts
Collecting new testimonials is a crucial marketing task for your business.
These customer experiences provide essential social proof, affirmation, and increased trust to prospective buyers. While important, your testimonial collection process should remain manageable.
Unfortunately, some founders and their teams burden themselves by manually handling all testimonial collection tasks. This manual approach, especially without a strategy, often results in more work, fewer testimonials, and lower-quality feedback.
If you're still requesting testimonials manually, there's a better way.
Testimonial Email Assistant takes the hassle out of following up with customers and ensures you never miss an opportunity to gather valuable feedback. With the workflow now complete, you can streamline your testimonial collection process.
The team behind Testimonial focused on creating a solution that automates testimonial requests, helping you accomplish more.
Now, you can request, collect, and showcase your testimonials using a single tool: Testimonial.to.
Focus entirely on delivering excellent products or services while T.E.A. handles the testimonial requests and follow-ups.
Guide Your Customers Before and Through the Video Recording Process
It is super important that you guide your customer during the video recording process.
You can achieve this with one of the following paths:
- Recording a video in which you briefly explain why you need the testimonial, what it would mean to you, and above all, what type of topics you should cover and/or avoid during it, and add it to your collection page.
- Setting up the same information as the text of your collection page and adding guiding questions that the user can review before clicking “record.”
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Make the Video Recording Process Stupidly Simple
Your testimonial collection page is not just a regular landing page or a widget that helps you record, it's a simplified and optimized page that allows your client to give you the feedback you need in seconds without any time-consuming or stressful interfaces or multiple steps.
This approach increases your success rates and gives you an integrated system that sends the videos to your Testimonial account without any additional effort on your end.
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Go From Recording to Showcasing in Two Minutes
The best thing of all is that if you use Testimonial.to, all of the steps after the recording process will be very simple or even 100% automated depending on your needs.
To start, Testimonial can send the videos directly to your Wall of Love.
With just a few clicks you can embed the Wall of Love on any website builder without any previous coding or design experience.
You have other options like the following:
- Add or remove tags to show the given video on different Wall of Love embeds
- Get a link to your video testimonial
- Embed your video testimonial individually on a website
- Edit the testimonial
- Change the reviewer’s name
- Pick a thumbnail or upload one
- Add an excerpt (will be shown as a one-line text with your video preview)
- Edit your customers’ information (company, title, URLs, etc)
- Customize the subtitles that were automatically generated by our service
Other Testimonial Formats
Although in this article I have focused mainly on the three most popular types of testimonials, it would be unwise to ignore there are more format options that you can leverage to impulse your business.
The following are some alternative forms of social proof that should be considered too when building your testimonial strategy.
Use Testimonials Shared via Social Media
Mentions on social media, comments, shares/reposts, direct messages, tags in stories, and many other interactions that happen in forums and social media channels can help your business stand out as a provider of high-quality services or products.
What will make the difference here is that you take action and ensure these social proof opportunities aren’t lost or ignored.
You can:
- Take a screenshot or capture the text from a post using the Testimonial Chrome Extension, which will send the social proof directly to your testimonial dashboard and even to your Wall of Love if you want it to be automatic.
- Manually add your assets or links to your Testimonial dashboard or Wall of Love.
Remember that everything related to testimonial marketing is deeply rooted in social psychology foundations, so social media-related content is a very powerful way to add strength to your social proof strategy.
Use a Combination of the Main Testimonial Formats
I mentioned three types of testimonials as the main ones for this article, but the option to showcase a combination of two or more of them is also available.
- Showcase testimonials that combine text and images. You can upload text testimonials to your Wall of Love and attach supporting images, and links.
- Showcase testimonials that combine video and text. Add videos to your Wall of Love and highlight a one-liner phrase to create more impact.
- Hyperlink your image testimonials. You can increase the effectiveness of your image testimonials by adding a link to them. Users who click your image testimonials can be directed to specific landing pages, blog articles, or resources as needed.
These types of combinations are very easy to set up with a tool like Testimonial.to and can be a good way to level up your social proof game.
Create Case Studies to Build Trust
An average case study is quite formal and rigid, always including sections like summary, problem statement, implementation, analysis, and lessons learned.
As you can imagine, this format looks repetitive and even boring in the eyes of most readers.
Logically, this will not attract your target audience’s attention at all.
This aspect has notable advantages if you use a tool like Testimonial to generate case studies.
First, you would skip more of the research work.
The AI case study generator tool gets the basis to create a case study from your client’s testimonial.
Or using our free tool:
Add as much information as needed - to make it better and more customized.
Finally, the tool will allow you to play with different tones or even custom tones.
That way, you can create a case study that is original and that your prospects will perceive as highly valuable.
You can add images with a link to your Wall of Love to highlight your case studies or add them as individual elements to your website.
Choosing the Right Testimonial Format for Your Marketing Strategy
According to a study, 90% of customers searched the internet for solutions in the past year, and 82% made it through online reviews.
So, it doesn't matter if you are a SaaS, B2B, e-commerce, direct-to-consumer products business, or a professional selling service - testimonials will help you.
It’s simple.
People want to buy from other people. People want to buy from companies they trust.
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While there are no right or wrong answers about how to choose the best testimonial formats for your website, we have reviewed the main types, and with the following guidelines you will able to choose the best path.
Understand Who Is Your Ideal Customer
No one should know your ideal customer better than you.
Based on that, you could ask yourself questions like:
- What type of testimonial format would catch your potential customer’s attention?
- Would they take the time to watch a video testimonial or not?
- What format would allow your prospects to connect better with the reviewers?
- Would third-party reviews add value to your Wall of Love or cause distraction?
Analyze Your Brand’s Image
You should also consider what format would match your brand’s image best.
What I mean by that, is that you should think about what type of testimonials would enhance your website experience the most.
This shouldn’t be your first focus, as you’d better put effectiveness over aesthetics, however, the difference isn’t always that crystal clear.
In some industries, what looks best will work best.
Benchmarking
You could also consider what leaders in your industry are doing.
Don’t be a copycat, but there is nothing wrong with getting ideas and inspiration from other businesses in your industry who are crushing it.
What format are they using the most?
What are they doing to get their testimonials?
What technology are they using to showcase them?
Simplify Your Life With the Help of Testimonial
Those are just some ideas.
Run some analyses like these and start testing. Remember, there are no perfect answers, just founders who take action and iterate along the way.
Testimonial is always here to make things easier for you. If you are ready to level up your testimonial marketing game, consider using Testimonial to help you.
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