These guys must know what they’re doing

I often advocate the use of testimonials on any selling page, which includes product overviews. But to generalise slightly, what I really mean is that you need to establish credibility. It’s just that testimonials are probably the easiest way to do this. However, they’re not the only way, and I do know that many companies miss an opportunity because, for one reason or another, they don’t have testimonials to use.

If I visited 100 product pages online at random, I’d be prepared to bet that 80 or 90 of them would give no indication whatsoever that anyone had ever bought the product before. And nobody except the guy at the head of the Apple Store queue wants to be the first person to buy a product. Sure, a testimonial is a great way to tell people that what you’ve got is tried, tested and approved. But it’s not the only way. It’s not essential to name names. You can give examples of applications without making them identifiable. You can mention any awards or recognition the product has received. Or you can simply show your experience in a creative way. I defy anyone to visit the website of sensor supplier Applied Measurements and not think: “these guys must know what they’re doing”.