Testimonial guidance

Word count

• Try to keep testimonials to no longer than 300 words. The average amount of time a person spends on a webpage is around 50 seconds. Even then, they tend to scan it in an F-shape. So, while the subject of your testimonial may have provided loads of good content and quotes, it’s better to keep it as succinct as possible.

Intro text

• Please use an intro text; no more than one or two sentences to spark curiosity and to give some basic background on the subject. The T4 Intro Text content type will also help boost your pages search engine optimisation.

Breaking up the text

• Avoid massive chunks of text. Use regular headings to break up the text into digestible sections. When writing for online, the more headings the better.
• Try to source and use photos and relevant imagery where possible.
• Break up the testimonial with quotes. T4 content types allow you to use a mix of loud and muted quotes. We recommend no more than two per testimonial. Don’t go overboard, especially if the testimonial you’re working on isn’t very long.

For testimonial round-ups 

• If you are putting together a round-up page of testimonials, they can be presented as muted quotes (with images where possible) and the word count should be no more than 200 words per person.

Other rules and tips

• Testimonials may be written in either the first or third person.
• If a student is the subject of the testimonial, include their name, what they are studying and year of study in this format: Sean, Actuarial Science, second year.
• You may want to give your audience the opportunity to enjoy further related material (for example, information around the opportunity that the person featured in the testimonial has studied. This you can do via the Related links content type.

Suggested testimonial questions

Students/recent alumni

• What influenced someone to either study or conduct the research they’ve undertaken?
• How was their journey to Queen Mary/what makes their journey to Queen Mary unique?
• What other challenges have they faced and how has the University supported them?
• What is their advice to others in the same position?
• In what capacity are they still involved with Queen Mary?

Staff

• What is their background and how has it fed into their work at Queen Mary?
• How has QM enabled their success/facilitated their achievements?
• What are their plans for the future?

Note:

The Content and Brand team can help you with your copywriting projects. We have a number of resources for you to use in the first instance on our toolkit page. If you need more in-depth assistance, email content@qmul.ac.uk.