How To Build Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract new customers, only to get the exact same disappointing results? As most small business owners know, that generating new customers can be difficult. Just trying to survive in business takes up a lot of time, money and energy, and sometimes this can feel like it’s just not worth the effort.
In today’s web-based economy, you just can’t ignore the significance of what your potential customers are doing online, especially if they are posting negative comments about your business.
Don’t ignore what users may be saying online about your business!
You may also be doing your business a disservice if you don’t spread the positive things your clients are saying about your products or services. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful when it comes to helping you market your products and services online and should be used in your content marketing.
In this article, you’ll learn tips for turning more visitors into prospects with more effective customer testimonials.
Consumer Reviews And Testimonials
P.T. Barnum, legendary showman and businessman, once said that “Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.”
P.T. Barnum obviously understood the power of “social proof”. Social proof-driven content is a powerful way of getting your business promoted effectively. Quoting reviews from satisfied customers is satisfied customers are far more persuasive for attracting new customers, clients or users than anything you have to say about your own products or services.
There is a source of untapped business growth potential that most businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … client reviews and testimonials!
Reviews and customer testimonials are great for building credibility for your products and services.
Tests conducted by leading firms all seem to lead to the same conclusion: testimonials and user reviews decrease doubts potential customers may have about products and services, help users select products and help increase sales conversions.
Below are just some of the stats available to support this:
- According to research by eVoc Insights, an organization known for researching and measuring user experience, “In general, 63% of users indicate they are more likely to purchase from a site if it has ratings and reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, reviews result in an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more reviews per product can result in a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Website visitors who interact with both customer reviews and customer questions and answers are 105% more likely to purchase while visiting and spend 11% more than visitors who don’t interact with user-generated content (UGC). (Bazaarvoice, Conversation Index, Q2 2011).
- Customer reviews are significantly more trusted (nearly 12 times more) than descriptions that come from manufacturers, according to a survey of US internet users by online video review site EXPO. (eMarketer, February 2010).
(The figures above were sourced from eConsultancy.com)
Adding User Reviews – Managing Online Reputation
Adding great testimonials and reviews to your website from very satisfied customers is important for growing your business online and creating a solid online reputation.
Reviews and testimonials, however, are like double-edged swords; they can affect your business both negative and positive ways.
You see, people may not be saying bad things about your services directly to you, but they could have posted updates on Facebook, or a discussion group or forum about a bad encounter they’ve just had with one of your sales or customer support representatives and this could be doing far more damage to your business than all the good work you’ve been putting into building it.
This is where online reputation management becomes an important part of your business and content marketing strategy.
Misconceptions about engaging in online reputation management practices, such as the process being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you just don’t need to worry about it) may be causing damage to your business without you even being aware of this.
See this article to learn more about a simple yet effective WordPress plugin that lets you legally and ethically manage user feedback:
Tips For Creating Profit Boosting Testimonials
Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are persuasive ways of helping you market your products and services online and should be an integral part of your content marketing. When you quote your own client responses in your content, you:
- Show prospects exactly with similar problems and pains how your products and services can help them.
- Help prospects identify and address their objections.
- Help potential customers connect with their motivations and this facilitates moving them closer to a decision to purchase.
Here are some useful tips on how to create meaningful user testimonials:
- Avoid over-editing: Try using the actual words used by your customers as much as possible. Leaving little grammatical errors and misspelled words in the content helps to keep it ‘real’.
- Use photos: Images of people’s faces draw attention on a web page. Adding photos of your clients next to their testimonials and reviews will help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your site’s content.
- Tell a powerful story: Stories are so much more effective and memorable than providing mere statistical facts. The ability to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution saved the day will make a more lasting impression on those reading your content than presenting generalized statements about how “excellent” your support has been and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
- Keep it in context: Add testimonials to your web content where it makes the most sense to place them, and where they can most effectively help you sell your point. For example, think about the impact you can create on your visitor’s mind by adding a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution sells for before posting product or service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before presenting the benefits of your services, or testimonials where clients are truly thrilled about your support when offering guarantees or addressing objections.
- Quantify the information: Which of the following statements is more powerful: “XYZ solution was directly responsible for growing our revenue by $23,623 in the previous fiscal year,” or “XYZ software definitely helped us grow our sales?” Whenever possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable results, like how much your solution helped to increase their sales or reduce their costs by in specific percentages or amounts, how many hours of work you have helped them save, how many new leads or new clients they were able to generate in a recent period, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
- Avoid using the same client testimonial throughout your site: Although this can be a little difficult when you are just starting out or have very few clients, try to avoid displaying the same testimonial throughout your web pages. Depending on the type of business you run, you could try to obtain more testimonials by offering limited review copies of your product, or a special launch discount for clients in exchange for an honest review and permission to publish it if you choose to use it.
- Appeal to your target audience: As every infomercial featuring a celebrity endorsement, subject expert or “busy mom” knows, if you know who your target audience is, providing testimonials from people who your prospects aspire to become can be a really powerful motivator and influencer. People want to see and buy from “better versions” of themselves, so make sure to include testimonials targeted to your ideal customers.
- Reprint testimonials across different platforms. If someone posts great feedback on your Facebook page praising your solution, ask them permission to reprint the comment or post on your site.
- Never use fake client testimonials. Your potential customers need to see that the testimonials displayed on your site are genuine. Don’t compromise your integrity or reputation with ”made up” testimonials.
How To Get Testimonials From Customers
Just Ask
Getting a testimonial from a happy client can be as simple as just asking for it.
Here are some useful tips for soliciting testimonials:
- Make it a part of your business processes to contact customers after a specific period of time, e.g. 30 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you have not obtained one immediately after performing a service.
- Include a text box for testimonials in client satisfaction surveys.
- Take out your phone next time you meet with clients or hand over a finished project and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a very short video testimonial/feedback interview. If they agree, while recording your video, explain to viewers what you have done for the client and make sure to capture the client’s positive reactions and responses.
- Make it easy for them. When clients send you positive written feedback that contains snippets of useful testimonial material interspersed with the rest of their message, grab the juiciest sections (only use what they have given you – don’t put words into their mouth), and use these to create a testimonial, then contact your client and ask them for permission to quote them on your site. Explain that you have done this to help them save time and invite them to edit what you have written however they see fit before replying with their approval.
Offer To Publish A Link Back To Their Site
Offer to publish a link back to their website in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great incentive for clients to provide you with a testimonial. It also makes an implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are not fake and can be verified.
Include A Testimonial Request In Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a subscriber list, include a request for a testimonial in one of your newsletter mailouts. Preferably, this should be timed to reach subscribers just after your customers have had a chance to assess the results of using your solution. Use words like “I need a quick favor” in your email subject and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking subscribers for honest feedback, a testimonial, or a product review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature lets you request testimonials for your account. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is user-friendly and the person providing the recommendation gets a link to their profile. If you get a positive recommendation on LinkedIn, ask for permission to reprint it on your site (tip: offer to publish a link back to their website in exchange).
Create A Testimonials Section
Create a new page on your website or blog for customer testimonials and add a “read more client testimonials …” link to your main testimonials section throughout your content sections.
Tip: You can measure how effective client testimonials are by how long visitors remain on the section of your pages or posts where you have added your testimonial content. ”Heatmapping” technology is a great way to understanding what visitors are doing on your site.
We have written an article about a heatmap analytics technology you can add to your sites to understand visitor behavior here:
Using Testimonial Plugins For WordPress
If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to display testimonials. Some plugins also let you add a form to your pages where users can submit testimonials.
Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), you then send clients to your “Testimonials” page.
Below are a few useful WordPress testimonial plugins you can check out:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is a free WP plugin that lets you add client testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed them into your pages and posts using a shortcode. Easy Testimonials also lets you add a list of all your testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include an image with each testimonial, which is great for adding a photo of the testimonial author, their business logo, etc.
The plugin also provides a “pro” version that offers additional features and plugin support.
Visit this site to download this plugin:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free WordPress plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, or text with images or videos on your site. You can insert testimonials using a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and specify different display options such as random or specific ordering.
The Testimonials Widget plugin comes with added features via a premium version, including built-in options for better search engine results and technical support.
Visit this site to download and use this plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium plugin provides many great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes for correct display on any device or browser.
- Display options for your testimonials in a widget or as sliders, slideshows, grid layout, list layout, etc. by adding a shortcode
- Styling options (display image at the top, bottom, or side of testimonials, display testimonials in a speech bubble, customize font and background colors, font types and more.
Visit this site for more information about using this plugin:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Summary …
Client testimonials and customer reviews are great sources of content that can help your business in terms of adding credibility, building authority, improving online reputation, and growing your sales funnel. Always ask for feedback, reviews, and testimonials from your customers, and publish positive content about your business on your website or blog.
Resources
For additional information about creating effective clients testimonials read the articles below:
- Ecommerce Consumer Reviews: Why You Need Them And How To Use Them
- How To Create Captivating Customer Testimonials
- 5 Tips For Knockout Testimonials
- Make Customer Testimonials Meaningful
- 7 Simple But Powerful Customer Testimonial Examples You Can Steal
- Your 5-Minute Guide To Writing an Amazing LinkedIn Recommendation
- How To Get Great LinkedIn Recommendations
We also recommend subscribing to our Free Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your business online using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!
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