Using Audio Testimonials

By Brian McElroy

Using audio on your website is no longer cutting edge, but it still works! Allowing visitors to hear your own voice is a powerful way to build trust and confidence in your brand.

There are many ways to incorporate audio files into your website or landing page. You can create an audio greeting to welcome your new visitors, which can either play automatically or after the visitor pushes a play button. This will depend on the type of visitor you expect. If people are browsing your website at work, automatic audio can be quite annoying! You can also make an audio recording of your guarantee, which drives home the point that you really mean what you wrote and will honor your guarantee no matter what. Audio doesn't have to be just voice, either- you can easily set up a background music that flows with your page's content and objectives.

One of the most effective uses of audio on your website is audio testimonials. When your current customers are willing to take the extra step and record an audio testimonial, that makes a statement to visitors. Include a photo and contact information and you’ve got yourself a winner! This just further affirms that your past customers are real people and don't mind being associated with your business.

It’s helpful to put a transcription or summary of the audio testimonial right next to the person’s picture. Most people won’t even bother to listen to the audios... but it still adds credibility! Simply going the extra step of transcribing a bit of text adds a great deal in the eyes of your visitor. Who would you rather do business with, someone who goes half way or a professional that goes all out?

There is a great freeware program that you (and your customers) can use to create audio files in .wav or .mp3 format on Macs or PCs. It’s called Audacity, and is available for free at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ I use this program for all of my audio recording because it allows for easy editing of ums and ahs and lets you save files in either .wav or .mp3 format.

To put audio files on your website, I suggest Web Audio Plus, the program I use, because it lets you easily create professional-looking audio controls for your messages and insert them into your web pages.

With these simple tools you can both add polish and build trust in your websites.

Brian D. McElroy is the author of Testimonials Unleashed!, the web's premier resource for how to build your business by harnessing the awesome power of social proof. Sign up for a free 5 day e-course by visiting http://www.TestimonialsUnleashed.com You can find WebAudioPlus for half price by visiting http://www.TestimonialsUnleashed.com/WebAudioPlus