Reviews vs. Testimonials: Your Insurance Agency Needs Both But They Aren't the Same

First, what's the difference between a review and a testimonial? Potato, potato. Aren't they about the same thing? Not really.

Reviews posted on Google may not include any text or reference about the experience for which a star rating was bestowed. Many reviews contain nothing but star ratings.

Testimonials, on the other hand, by definition consist of a narrative of a customer's experience, short or long. A good testimonial usually takes the form of a case study in the problem-solution-benefit format.

Here's a quick cheat sheet highlighting the differences between the two.

*BOTF = Bottom Of The Funnel (sales funnel); TOTF = Top Of The Funnel.

Where do insurance agencies fall down?

We see this with YouTube videos as well - it isn't enough to create content or get a review or testimonial - if a tree falls in the forest but nobody hears it, does it make a sound? Similarly with video content or reviews, do they really matter if nobody sees them? They need to be 'distributed'. And distributed means placing them in the right places on various platforms like your insurance agency website, social media, in digital display ads or in emails (see the table above).

Building Trust at the Top and Bottom of the Funnel

Reviews make a difference at various phases of the consumer sales journey but are especially useful at the earlier stages - the awareness and consideration phases. According to a 2023 survey conducted by Bright Local, 76% of consumers check reviews for local businesses 'regularly'.

One of the reasons reviews are more impactful in the early stage of the consumer sales journey is that they are posted and hosted on third party websites like Google. Google reviews can be displayed on your website, as long as you abide by Google's terms of service. That means you can't edit reviews and have limited options for filtering out unfavorable reviews. Consumers know this and it's why Google reviews are usually the first place where trust between your agency and a potential client is forged.

Similarly, testimonials can be helpful to moving a prospect along and into your sales funnel but are more useful in the late phase, decision making step of the consumer sales journey.

Consider a data point from a WYZOWL: two out of three people are likely to buy a product after seeing a testimonial from an actual customer. But... also from WYZOWL: 9 out of 10 people say they trust what a customer says about a business more than what that business says about itself.

If someone reads your insurance agency's reviews on Google or on your website, and as we have established, most consumers will do just that, they will get a firehose of reviews covering all kinds of (hopefully) great insurance service experiences.

But just because you solved a client's homeowner insurance problem doesn't mean you can solve the business insurance problem a restaurant has. And because there are a lot more car and home insurance interactions, just by dint of the number of those kinds of policies sold, reviews related to those products are going to dwarf reviews for service related to say, insurance for restaurants or contractors.

There is a case to be made for being more deliberate in how you share feedback about lower volume products and that means including testimonials on product pages and in emails leading up to and including quotes and proposals.

Review vs. Testimonial Formats

Reviews come in two flavors: star graphics and star graphics with text. That's it. Testimonials can take the same forms, but for even more effective testimonials, consider using video. According to a 2020 Forbes article video viewers retain 95% of a video's content compared to just 10% for text. For occupying mind-share, you can't beat video. Video testimonials can also be hosted on (and distributed through) YouTube, giving your agency an SEO boost for a little lagniappe.

If you simply must display testimonials (as opposed to actual reviews) on your insurance agency website, here's a few things to consider...

Why?

Why would someone look at testimonials on your insurance agency website? Let's consider two scenarios.

Scenario 1: A consumer is Googling insurance and fortunately your agency pops up in search results. Strong anecdotal evidence suggests the next stop for that consumer is with Google reviews (we are at the TOTF, in the awareness phase). After that the person might contact you or perhaps visit your website. If the latter, generic reviews - testimonials - are not going to further the trust already established with your Google reviews and may even erode some of that trust.

Scenario 2: A consumer is referred to your insurance agency by a friend. In this case the first stop for this person might be your insurance agency website and they might look at your testimonials. But because testimonials are not strong trust signals most consumers will seek out Google reviews before contacting you. Again, strong anecdotal evidence bears out this behavior.

Authenticity

By definition testimonials, though they may superficially resemble reviews, are not trusted the way actual reviews are; testimonials are assumed to be cherry picked and possibly even fabricated. When you display testimonials on your website try to include information that makes them more authentic like complete customer names, photos, and more detail in the write up. Video testimonials, if you have them, are particularly effective in overcoming the authenticity hurdle.

Recency

Consumers believe reviews older than 3 months aren't relevant to the experience they will have. Be sure to include dates on testimonials displayed on your website.

Crowding and Detail

Since testimonials are regarded skeptically, be judicious in choosing how many to display and why you choose them to appear on your website. If you have 10 testimonials on a web page but only two Google reviews it is more likely that the Google reviews, which are more impactful TOTF trust signals, won't be seen at all. When you do display testimonials on your website, pick those that are more detailed than your run-of-the-mill Google review. Choose testimonials that tell a story and are specific to solving a particular customer's problem.