If you’re not already using testimonials to help sell your product, try it today!

Thanks to the internet we’re all much savvier shoppers than we used to be and we like to know what other people think about a product before we buy it. Testimonials tell your potential customers what your regular customers already know: that your product is a winner.

There are three factors to remember when you’re assembling your customer testimonials:

Authentic: It may seem obvious, but do not make them up. Writing them yourself might seem easy, but your credibility will be hurt if (or better, when) someone notices.

Substantial: “I love this product,” or “Your product is great!” are both nice to hear, but won’t mean much to your potential customers. Choose testimonials that say something specific about your product, whether it’s the fit, the color, the feeling or how it’s change some aspect of their life.

Permission: Comments left on your Facebook page, or mentioned on Twitter, are already out in the world, but your email isn’t. It’s tempting to go through your old emails and look for comments to use on your testimonials page, but it’s polite to ask first.

Now that you know what your testimonials should look like, the next question is where to find them? The easiest way is to ask!

Make a list of your return customers, active Facebook fans, and go through those old emails to find the positive notes you’ve received. Contact your customers by phone, email or Facebook, whatever your usual method of contact is, and ask if they would submit a testimonial for your site.

To help them craft their answers try fill in the blank “I love your product because _______” or “I tell all of my friends about your product because _______” or offer a list of specific questions they can answer. Your question list can include:

Why did you choose our company?
What features do you like best about our products?
Which is your favorite product?
Who would you recommend our product to?
Is there anything else you’d like to say about our product?

Strive to create a testimonials page that’s more than a simple collection of blurbs. Invite your customers to submit photos, and video and audio testimonials. Media testimonials add a fun interactive element to your site and add authenticity. You can increase the number of media testimonials by hosting a contest and offering one entry for every testimonial your customers send in.

Once your testimonials page is up and running make sure to share it on your social media and post a link to it in on your site. When potential customers come knocking and see reviews from your happiest customers they won’t be able to resist joining them.

Testimonials tell your potential customers what your regular customers already know: that your product is a winner. Here's how to use testimonials to sell.