The brain concept being activated with testimonials (or reviews or other forms of word of mouth) is called social proof. It was first introduced by Robert Cialdini, professor of marketing and psychology at Arizona State University, in his 1984 book, Influence.
Because humans are a herding species, we have always been influenced by insight and advice from others–even when we don’t realize it.
Seeing or hearing that someone else likes something is incredibly influential when it comes to decision making.
This is why testimonials are useful. Unfortunately, now reviews and testimonials are everywhere. So it’s harder to create an effective one that stands out from the crowd.
If you want to have effective testimonials there are three easy things to do.
Treat it like a movie trailer.
Movies do a great job of including social proof through very short snips of a quote someone may have written or said. “Fantastic” “Epic” “Amazing”–it is unlikely that the full testimonial from the outlet was only a single word.
That means the people creating the trailer edited it down to its essence by using the most impactful word.
“Fantastic” may have come from a full line like, “This movie was fantastic. I loved it.”
Including the full quote makes the keyword get muddy. It is buried in unnecessary fluff that encourages many people to not read the full sentence or truly take it in. The human brain is lazy and has a lot going on.
Take the time to edit your testimonials down so they are as engaging as the trailer for the next Marvel movie.
Consider the platform.
One-word testimonials are great for videos, social or website headers, and anywhere else where you need to grab attention quickly.
In other cases, it is useful to include a testimonial with a little more meat. These can and should still be edited down to make them into manageable pieces. But when someone has gained some interest in what you are selling and is looking to see what others thought about working with you, they may need a little more detail.
How might a few words from another person help move them forward to the next step in the process.
Including a name or title can work against you.
Not every quote and testimonial needs to be attributed to a specific person. Keep a record for yourself in case anyone asks, but similar to not needing to show the testimonial in its entirety.
In some cases, including those details could be a negative thing.
The human brain is biased to be most influenced by people whom we believe are like us–part of our in-group.
When you can show the quote is from someone exactly like the person reading the testimonial (say, a CEO of a small manufacturing plant) it is useful to show that the quote came from someone like them. It properly triggers in-group bias and has more influence on the decision.
When there is no attribution of a name or business type, the brain sort of glosses over this detail. The testimonial is from a human person–a group we are all a member of.