How to Collect Testimonials on Your Website

Testimonials and reviews play a key role in establishing trust with new customers and showing that your business delivers a high-quality experience. While reviews on third-party sites are also important, collecting testimonials on your own website allows you to use these testimonials as you see fit. Let’s take a look at how to collect testimonials on your website, and how to create a landing page where customers can submit their reviews or testimonials directly to you.

Why Collect Testimonials on Your Website?

There are many different sites that collect testimonials and reviews, including Google, Yelp, and a variety of niche-focused websites. However, these reviews are owned by the website and the original poster, so businesses aren’t able to use them on their website or in their marketing materials.

Gathering testimonials on your own website allows you to use them in more valuable ways. There are many ways to use testimonials and reviews in your marketing strategy or on your website, from improving conversion rates on your product pages to boosting engagement on your social media pages to creating more trustworthy ads, and much more.

Collecting testimonials on your website also allows you to automate testimonial collection. You can ask for testimonials via email, social media, at an event, in your store, and much more. When you create a landing page to collect testimonials, your customers will be able to submit text or video testimonials directly on your site.

How to Collect Testimonials On Your Website

To collect testimonials on your website, you’ll need a few things. Let’s walk through each of them, and take a look at some templates that can help you design your page.

Landing Page

To collect testimonials on your website, you’ll first need a dedicated page to collect them. When you’re ready to publish the page, your customers should be able to find it easily. It’s also helpful to use a relatively short link, so your customers can input this easily if you put the link in writing.

Your landing page should include a way to submit testimonials and a release form, which we’ll discuss in more detail in the next paragraphs, but it should include a few other elements as well. Here are a few other elements your landing page should include. Remember that your customers are busy, and probably won’t read through very lengthy paragraphs. So, it’s best to include this information in a few short sentences.

• Thank your customers: First, show your appreciation! Thank your customer for taking time to leave a testimonial or review.
• Explain your uses: Tell your customers why their testimonials are important, and how you may use them. This will be further explained in the release form, so you don’t need to be very detailed.
• Provide instructions: Tell your customers how they can submit a testimonial or review, and any features of the system that they might need to know.
• Provide prompts: Many customers might not know what to say in their testimonials or reviews. Providing a few prompts about what to say can help.

Let’s take a look at some example text you might include on your landing page. You can customize this template to fit your business and your strategy.

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Testimonial Collection Page Template

Thank you for sharing your feedback! Your input helps other customers find our business, and helps us deliver a great experience! We share our customers’ testimonials on our site, on social media, and in our marketing materials, and your help means a lot to us!

You can share your review by creating a video, or submitting text. Simply hit record to start your video, or type in your text. You can use your smartphone, tablet, or computer! Tell us about your most recent experience, what you love most about our business, your favorite product, or anything that comes to mind!

Before you submit your feedback, we’ll need your permission to share your testimonial with other prospective customers. You’ll see this noted in the release form shown before you submit your feedback.

Thanks again for submitting your testimonial! We appreciate it!

Submission Form

Your customers should have an easy way to submit their feedback. For this, you’ll need a testimonial submission form. This form should be able to accept test-based reviews as a minimum, and ideally will be able to accept pictures and video testimonials as well. Video testimonials tend to get more engagement and views when they’re shared, so this is a critical media type to include.

Boast provides pre-made submission forms that you can put on your own landing page, or a landing page generated by Boast, which you can connect to your website. You can then connect this to a built-in storage space, where you can review the testimonials you receive, and post them to your site, social media, and more.

Release Form

It’s important to be transparent about why you are collecting testimonials, and how you plan to use them. Your customers took time out of their day to give your business a review, and they shouldn’t be surprised or misled about how you plan to use their contributions. It’s also important to get your customers’ permission to use their words, so you don’t end up in legal trouble. So, you’ll need a release form on your testimonial collection landing page, which outlines how you might use your customers’ testimonials.

As you craft your release form, consider how you might use your customers’ testimonials in the future. Using general terms can help here, so you don’t have to explicitly state exactly how you plan to use your customer’ testimonials in the future. However, keep in mind that you should never misrepresent your customers’ testimonials, regardless of the release form the customer agreed to. In general, if your customer was critical of your business or left a bad review, don’t misrepresent it to make it seem positive, or use this against the reviewer in some way. Misrepresentation or retaliation won’t serve your business, and it’s a bad tactic that makes your business look unprofessional and untrustworthy.

Testimonial Release Form Template

Here’s an example release form you might use and customize to suit your business. Remember that this is not made by legal professionals. If you have concerns about legal repercussions, always consult with a professional.

I understand the testimonial I provided, including all text, images, and video (hereinafter called “The Testimonial”), was made on behalf of [your business name] (hereinafter called “The Business”) and will be used in marketing and promoting The Business. I authorize The Business and its employees, contractors, partners and other representatives to use The Testimonial in marketing and promotional efforts, including, but not limited to, advertisements, social media posts, brochures, [other promotional materials]. I waive any claim to inspect, edit or approve of any materials where The Testimonial is used. I also waive any claim to copyright The Testimonial or materials where The Testimonial appears, and waive any claim to financial compensation or gain from using The Testimonial.

[By checking this box, I verify that I have read, understand and agree to the above statement]

Storage Space

One of the last key elements you’ll need to collect testimonials on your website is storage space to keep the testimonials you receive. You’ll need a space to store the testimonials and reviews, and also review them, and post them, as needed. The ideal storage space gives you plenty of room to store high-quality video testimonials, and also gives you features to review and edit the testimonials.

Dedicated tools for storing, editing and posting testimonials can help you save time and effort. You can store this data within your site hosting system, but this can add an extra layer of complexity. With that system, you’ll need to export these videos to edit them with a separate program. Boast allows you to store the videos you collect, edit the videos, and post the videos to your website or social media, all without leaving the platform.

Start Collecting Testimonials on Your Website

Collecting testimonials on your website doesn’t have to take a long time, or require any special knowledge or skills that you don’t already have. Start a free trial of Boast and you can make a landing page and add a submission form in just a few minutes. Then, you can collect videos, images, or text, edit the testimonials, and post them, all without leaving the platform. Start a free trial of Boast today to get started, no credit card required.

Posted in: Online Reviews