Creating a website that can attract attention, look great, and sell your products or services, is essential for all small to medium sized businesses. Especially if you want your business to grow or expand. But convincing website visitors to part with their cash takes more than some well aimed call to action buttons, and a nice colour scheme. Trust is something that can be incredibly difficult to build with potential customers across the internet. But there are certain additions to your website that can make all the difference. One such addition includes client testimonials. But you cant just throw your testimonials on anywhere, and hope that they work. Instead, you should consider designing your testimonial section, page, or element specifically. And here at Pumpkin Web Design Manchester, we are Manchester’s leading web design experts. As a result, we have produced this guide to client testimonials and web design.
Advantages of client testimonials
There are many advantages to including product or service reviews, or client testimonials on your website. And these include:
- Proof of quality- It’s hard to prove the quality of your service, or products. But client testimonials can really prove that your company delivers on quality.
- Evidence of your credibility- Client testimonials can provide real life, real world evidence to support your credibility and reliability. And can make trusting your company seem a whole lot easier.
- Better than your competitors- By including testimonial content, you can out perform competing companies that are missing out
- Inspire visitors – your customer stories can inspire new customers to purchase your products or use your services, directly because of their documented experience.
Client testimonials and web design
So if you do get some good feedback from existing customers, how exactly should this be squeezed into your website? Well, typically there are three choices:
- Create a page for your reviews- If you have so many reviews that you don’t know what to do with, you might put them altogether in one place. This will make it easy for any potential customers to find existing reviews and testimonials. However, it also means that people that aren’t searching for your reviews, may not find them.
- Create a section on the landing page- A testimonial section in the landing page is a good way to show off to potential customers, as soon as they land on your website. And this can help to tackle any pre-existing doubts they might have had about choosing your company. However, once the user has navigated away from your landing page, there won’t be anymore reminders about your credibility, reliability, or quality. And this could cause some users to bounce.
- Create an element that can be repeated- Putting the same testimonials on each page is not the best idea. But developing a stylish element that fits in with the rest of your website, while also drawing attention to the reviews, can be a good idea. This element can then be repeated on each page, with different testimonials, to stop your website from becoming repetitive.
Designing a testimonial element
When designing your element to display client testimonials, you should consider:
- The readability of the font- While an interesting font or typography can draw attention to the element, it can also make it more difficult to read. So make sure you choose a typeface that fits with the rest of your website, and is also easy to read.
- The colours- You need your testimonial element to stand out. But you also need the colours to compliment the rest of your website. And this is important if you want users to actually read the content, and not be put off by the colour clash.
- Icons- Using icons to separate each testimonial can be a great idea. From a clipboard, to a tick, to a general “user” icon, you can add some visual interest to the element with a small illustration or icon. As long as this suits the tone and style of the website.
- Images- Some company websites use images of the clients, next to their testimonials. And this can be a great option for attracting attention, and for building trust. It is easier for people to trust others when they can associate their words with a face. Just make sure you have permission.
For more information or advice about professional web design, get in touch with the experts today, here at Pumpkin Web Design Manchester.