Want to collect testimonials on your WordPress site? Strong testimonials are powerful social proof that drives business. Join us and learn how!
Approximate read-time: 5 minutes
Customer testimonials are powerful. It feels great to know your hard work isn't going unrecognized.
Not only are testimonials good for your mood, but they're also good for business. In our article on customer reviews, we mentioned a recent report where 88% of customers say positive reviews influence their purchasing decisions.
That's good news. Because a strong testimonial is like a positive review on steroids.
A testimonial serves as an endorsement of your product or service. They are different than reviews in their flexibility. Reviews give a general sense of audience satisfaction, where reviews highlight prominent customer feedback.
Did some work for a huge industry player? Set it in stone with a testimonial!
Today, we're going to show you how a simple form builder plugin can add testimonials to your WordPress site.
Sure, you could use a dedicated testimonials plugin to do that, but a testimonial plugin is just a form builder in disguise!
Why not use a WordPress testimonials plugin?
As mentioned above, a dedicated WordPress testimonials plugin is an option. But before you look for one, check your plugin directory. How many plugins are installed? Can you remember what they all do?
If you have too many plugins on your WordPress site, there are some risks:
- Decreased Site Speed
- Security Vulnerabilities
- Reliability Issues & Site Crashes
- Difficulty Managing Your Site
So really, you should be trying to minimize the number of plugins on your site.
One solid form plugin can handle the job of several plugins, going a long way towards solving the above issues.
With that in mind, let's see how you can add testimonials to your WordPress site in just a few steps.
Step 1: Create a testimonials form
The first thing to do is create a form where people can input their testimonial.
Make it really easy for your website visitors to add new testimonials by keeping this form short and simple.
Let's include the following three fields:
- Name (text field)
- Photo (file upload)
- Testimonial (paragraph field)
A star rating may be worth adding too.
Once your form is built, perhaps modify your forms success message to say "Thank you for the testimonial–you've made our day!" or something similar.
Insert your testimonials form on a page
Next, create a new page on your site or choose a spot on an existing page. Insert your form shortcode to display your testimonials form for the world to see. Submit a few example testimonials to help set up the front-end display. These can be deleted later and replaced with new submissions.
Step 2: Create a testimonials page or widget
You'll need to set up a View to display your testimonials process. Go to Formidable → Views and select Add New.
Let's going to call this new View "Testimonials View". Select your testimonials submission form in the Use Entries from Form box.
In this example, select All Entries for the View Format.
Did You Know?Add the content to display your testimonials
Remember that anything in the Before content box will be used once before the main content. Anything in the Main content box will be repeated for every entry. Anything in the After content box will be used once after the repetitions of the main content box are complete.
This allows HTML elements like table structure and styling divs to be opened and closed in the before/after sections without unnecessary repetitions in the main content.
The ID of the image field is [499], the name field is [496], and the testimonial field is [498]. So adding this to the content box works perfectly. Just change the field IDs to suit your form.
<div class="[evenodd] single_testimonial">
[if 499]<img src="[499]" class="alignleft">[/if 499] [498]
<span class="right">- <i>[496]</i></span>
<div class="clear"></div>
</div>
Create a testimonials page on your website and insert your new View into the page. Check your page and make any styling or layout adjustments needed. This is where having a few dummy testimonials really helps!
The display keeps the uploaded photo to the left, the testimonial text to the right of the image, and the name below the main text. Depending on your theme and styling preferences, you may wish to modify the HTML slightly to suit your needs.
Bonus Option - Create a random testimonial widget
A page full of testimonials looks great. But not all of your visitors will go out of their way to visit that page. Sometimes testimonials inserted into your main pages have more impact, simply because they are seen more often.
For this example take what you did above and modify it slightly to display a single, randomly selected testimonial in a sidebar widget.
- Change your view format. Select Single Entry — display one entry instead.
- In the Advanced Settings box at the bottom of the View page, click on Order and select the Random option.
- Modify your view HTML slightly by changing the 'alignleft' image class to 'aligncenter'. It looks neater this way when displayed in a narrow sidebar.
- Save your changes and copy your view shortcode.
- Go to Appearance → Widgets, and add a new text widget to your sidebar. Add your View shortcode to this widget and save your changes.
That's it!
In just 2 or 3 minutes you've created a testimonials widget that displays a single testimonial. Each time the page is loaded a random testimonial appears. Now your visitors get to see a selection of the great feedback for your business.
Step 3: Ask for new testimonials!
Don't forget the most important step! Let your customers know you value their feedback & would love to have their testimonial displayed proudly on your website.
One of our favorite ways to do this is the simplest. Add a line to your email signature that includes a link to your testimonial form and says "Happy with our service? Show your appreciation by leaving a review!"
Now there's no need to even think about asking for testimonials! It happens automatically with a simple email reply.
Easy WordPress testimonials
Adding a testimonial widget or page to your WordPress website has never been easier. All the steps above can be completed in about 20 minutes, so stop procrastinating!
Read More: Reviews and Testimonials in WordPress
- 5 Best WordPress Customer Reviews Plugins for 2020
- How to Add Reviews to Your WordPress Website
- How to Calculate a 5 Star Ratings Average in WordPress
If you're not taking advantage of the powerful conversions boost that testimonials can provide, you may be loosing out! Schedule a few minutes today & add this simple feature to your online presence. You'll soon see the difference it can make!
The post How to Add Testimonials to Your WordPress Website appeared first on Formidable Forms.