Testimonials vs. User-generated Content: Does one work better than the other?

Do testimonials work for businesses?

Trying to determine if customer testimonials work for all businesses is hard. There are many factors that will dictate if a business will have success with testimonials. However, businesses that found testimonials to provide beneficial outcomes made sure those testimonials are authentic. Customer testimonials should showcase an unbiased review by previous consumers of the product. If done right, this will help establish credibility of the brand, as long as the customer provides hard evidence of a favorable outcome from the product.

Does it attract customers to do business with you?

Yes, it will attract customers as long as it is done right as mentioned above. Using images and graphics, as well as accurate and hard-hitting statements about the success of the product in use will drive new clients to your business.

Make sure the customer testimonials correspond with your different buyer personas while showcasing a diverse set of customer reviews. Testimonials are primarily hosted on your business’s website and can be reposted to social media to gain additional attraction.

Do they seem phony or genuine?

Consumers may view a testimonial as phony for various reasons. If the statements given by the “customer” seem scripted or have any tone of inaccuracy, customers will most likely turn away. Having an employee pose as a “customer” or paying someone to give a scripted testimonial will certainly hurt your business if consumers see right through it.

Make sure to use real customers who have used your product more than once. Ask them questions in a casual, interview-style video or audio recording. These questions should encourage the customer to describe how well the product or service worked and how it impacted their lives, while refraining from asking biased questions.

Do people prefer to see user-generated content?

User-generated content is booming with businesses utilizing social media to increase their brand awareness and draw viewers to their website. User-generated content is content that is created by customers and not the brand. Images, videos, comments, previous posts, reviews etc. are all types of content that customers have created. Now more than ever, people like to see others using a product and see their genuine reactions and thoughts about it. However, user-generated content is usually the forefront of brand awareness and attraction, which then leads consumers to do additional research, such as looking at reviews, searching for a website, and thus finding customer testimonials on that site. But this all depends on the attractiveness of the user-generated content.

What are methods to get user-generated content?

Typically, brands who monitor their social feeds will typically see what they have been tagged in or content that is being posted about their brand, product, or service. Most of the time, brands should ask for permission to use someone’s content before posting it on their own accounts. Consumers will respect your brand and will usually accept because they, too, are getting attention. Brands tend to give a “shoutout” or tag the person’s account in the post to increase their credibility by showcasing an actual user.

Should companies focus on one over the other?

Well, that depends on the type of product or service you’re selling or offering. Most businesses should consider using both, but those that are selling a physical product or some type of service should definitely use testimonials on their website and then post out to their social accounts. Keep in mind, testimonials often call for some type of video production, so it's important to budget those costs when determining if that's the route you want to go in. If the business or organization has a high pattern of users posting content of their brand or products, they should consider posting user-generated content on top of those few testimonials.

An example of a business using one, but not the other is a brand that provides a service, such as landscaping. The landscaping company may ask their clients to record a customer testimonial about the quality of work or the friendliness of the workers, but the client probably wouldn’t make a post about their experience or landscape to their personal social media.

On the other hand, a museum might choose to post user-generated content of visitors who posted photos having a good time, but may add a few customer quotes as their "customer testimonials" about their experience on their website. In this case, viewers like to “see” the visitors having a good time versus hearing about it. If you find that your business is receiving a lot of user-generated content, your marketing strategy should focus more on that content rather than creating customer testimonials.

So, choosing between customer testimonials or user-generated content depends on the business and your target audience. By diving deep into your buyer personas and what business goals you want (more website clicks, more sold tickets, more product reviews, new clients, etc.) can help determine which route to go, or if you should utilize both. Finding the right content to speak to your customers will help you make the ultimate decision of how to create your content marketing strategy.