Building Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews
Are you stuck in a cycle of doing what you’ve always done to attract customers, only to get the exact same results? Most small business owners don’t need to be told that trying to generate new business can be very hard and confusing. Just trying to survive in business takes up a lot of your time, money and energy, and sometimes this can feel like it’s just not worth the effort.
In today’s digital, mobile and social-driven economy, ignoring what consumers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
Ignoring what your customers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
You may also be doing your business a great disservice if you are not spreading the positive things your clients say about your services or products. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are persuasive when it comes to marketing your products and services online and should be an integral part of your content.
In this article, you’ll learn tips for turning more visitors into qualified leads using sales boosting client testimonials.
User Reviews
Legendary American showman P.T. Barnum once stated 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 and effective way of getting your business promoted. Genuine testimonials and reviews quoted directly from satisfied customers are far more persuasive when it comes to drawing new clients than anything you have to say about your own products or services.
There is an untapped source of opportunities for generating new business that most small businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … reviews from clients!
Customer testimonials and reviews are a great way to build credibility for your business.
Studies conducted by many leading companies all point to the same inevitable conclusion: adding customer testimonials and consumer reviews to your site eliminates doubts potential customers may have about buying products, helps with product selection and helps increase the number of product sales.
Below are just some of the findings available to support this:
- According to a study by eVoc Insights, a company that researches and measures user experience, “In general, 63% of users indicate they are more likely to purchase from a site if it has ratings and user reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, consumer reviews can result in an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more consumer reviews per product can translate into a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Site visitors who interact with both user 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).
(Source: eConsultancy.com)
Adding Consumer Testimonials And Reviews – Online Reputation Management
Adding reviews and testimonials to your site from existing customers is important for helping you grow your business online and creating a solid online reputation.
Testimonials and user reviews, however, are like double-edged swords; they can affect your business both positively or negatively.
You see, people may not be saying bad things about your business, products or services directly to your face, but they could have posted damaging words on Facebook or a forum about an unpleasant experience they’ve just had using your products 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 aspect of your business success.
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 seriously causing damage to your business without you even being aware of this.
See this article to learn more about a simple tool for WordPress users that lets you legally and ethically manage your customer feedback:
Tips For Creating Meaningful Customer Testimonials
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive when it comes to marketing your products and services online and should be added to your content. When you include responses from users in your content, you:
- Show other users exactly with similar problems and pains how your products and services can help them.
- Help prospects identify their objections and address these.
- Help potential customers connect with their motivations and this facilitates moving them closer to a buying decision.
Below are some tips on improving your sales with user testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: Try to use your customer’s actual words as much as possible. Leaving grammatical errors and misspelt words in the content helps preserve the authenticity of your testimonials.
- Use photos of real people: Images of people’s faces draw the most attention on a web page. Adding photos of your clients next to their testimonials and reviews will help increase visitor engagement with your content.
- Tell a story: Stories are so much more effective and memorable than just providing statistical facts. The ability to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution saved the day will make a far more lasting impression on those reading your content than using generalized statements about excellent customer support and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
- Use it in context: Add testimonials to your site copy where it best makes sense to place them, and where you believe these can most effectively help to 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 retails for before posting service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before discussing the benefits of your services, or testimonials where customers are genuinely thrilled about your support when offering a money-back guarantee or addressing objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements is more powerful… “XYZ solution was directly responsible for helping to increase our sales by $41,182 during the last financial quarter,” or “XYZ product has helped us grow our sales?” Whenever possible, ask clients to specify quantifiable results when submitting testimonials, like how much your solution helped to increase their market share or reduce their costs by in specific percentages or amounts, how many hours they have saved, how many new leads or new clients they were able to generate, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
- Vary the testimonials on your site: Although this can be a little difficult when you are just starting out or don’t have many clients, try to avoid using the same testimonial repeatedly throughout your site. Depending on the type of business you run, you could try to obtain more client testimonials by offering limited review copies of your product, or a special 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 can relate to is a powerful motivator and influencer. People want to see and buy from “better versions” of themselves, so make sure to include testimonials that appeal directly to your best audience demographic.
- Reprint content across different platforms. If you get fantastic feedback on your Facebook page praising your products or services, send them a message asking for permission to reprint the content on your blog.
- Don’t use fake client testimonials. Your prospects need to see that the testimonials provided on your site are genuine. Don’t compromise your integrity or reputation with a false testimonial.
How To Get Client Testimonials
Just Ask
When you complete performing a service, or a customer says they are really happy with your product or service, ask them for a testimonial.
Here are some useful guidelines for requesting testimonials from customers:
- Contact your clients after 30 days with an email request for a testimonial if you have not obtained one immediately after performing a service.
- Add a text box for entering testimonials in your client satisfaction surveys.
- Pull out your phone next time you meet with clients or hand over a completed job and if they are delighted with the results, ask them if they would be happy to record a very short video testimonial/feedback interview. While recording your video, explain to your viewers what you have done for your client and capture your client’s positive reactions and responses.
- Make it easy for them. When a client sends you positive written feedback that contains snippets of useful testimonial material interspersed with the rest of their message, grab the best sections (only use what they have written – never put words into their mouth), and shape these into a testimonial, then contact your client and ask them for permission to quote them on your site. Explain that you have done this to save them time and let them know they are completely free to change what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.
Offer To Publish A Link To The Source Wherever You Quote Their Testimonial
Offer to add a link back to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great incentive for clients to provide a testimonial. It also makes an implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are not fake and can be verified.
Add Testimonial Requests To Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a subscriber list, include requests for a testimonial in a regularly-spaced email broadcast. Preferably, this should be timed to reach subscribers just after your customers have had a chance to assess the results of using your products. Use words like “I need your help” in your email subject and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking clients for honest feedback, a testimonial, or a product review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature is a great way to request testimonials from other members that become part of your profile. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is quite simple and user-friendly and the person who provides the recommendation gets a link to their profile. If you get a positive recommendation on LinkedIn, ask their permission to reprint it on your website (and offer to add a link back to their website or profile in exchange).
Create A Client Testimonials Section On Your Site
Create a “Testimonials” page and add a “more customer testimonials …” link pointing to this page throughout your site.
Tip: You can measure how useful testimonials are by how long visitors stay on the section of your pages or posts where you have added your testimonial content. A great tool for measuring what visitors are doing on your pages are “heatmaps”.
We have written an article about a heatmap technology you can add to your site to analyze visitor behavior here:
WordPress Testimonial Plugins
If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to add, edit and display testimonials. Some plugins also allow you to add forms to your pages inviting users to submit feedback and testimonials.
Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (remember to provide simple instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), all you have to do is refer clients to your “Testimonials” section.
Check out the plugins below:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use free plugin that lets you add customer testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed them into a Page or Post using a shortcode. The plugin also lets you insert a list of all your testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which you can use to add a photo of the testimonial author, their logo, etc.
Easy Testimonials also provides users with a “pro” version that offers additional features and plugin support.
Visit this site to download this plugin:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with images or videos on your website. You can insert testimonials content using a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and specify different display options such as random or specific ordering.
Testimonials Widget makes loads more features available via a premium version, including built-in functions SEO functionality and technical support.
Go here for more information about this plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium WP plugin offers many great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes for displaying correctly on any device or browser.
- Options to display your testimonials in a widget or as slideshows, sliders, grid layout, list layout, etc. via a shortcode
- Styling options (display image at the top, bottom, or side of the testimonial, display testimonial in a speech bubble, customized font and background colors, font types and more.
To learn more about the plugin, visit this site:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Summary …
Client testimonials and customer reviews are powerful sources of content that 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 clients, and start publishing these on your website.
Additional Info
The articles below provide useful information on creating engaging testimonials and were used when researching information for sections of this article:
- 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 that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful content that will add value to your visitors and grow your business online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!
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