How To Build Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews

Are you stuck in a cycle of doing what you’ve always done to attract and retain customers, and getting the exact same disappointing results? Most small business owners don’t need to be told that trying to generate new business can be extremely difficult. Just trying to remain in business takes a lot of your time, money and energy, and sometimes this can feel like it’s just not worth the effort.

In today’s web-based and social media-driven economy, ignoring what clients may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!

Ignoring what clients may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!

By the same token, you are also doing your business a disservice if you are not promoting the positive things your clients are saying about your services and products. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful when it comes to helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be an integral part of your content marketing.

In this article, we’ll show you how to convert more visitors into prospects using compelling user testimonials.

Customer Reviews And Testimonials

The great American showman and successful promoter Phineas Taylor (Aka “P.T.”) Barnum is often quoted as having stated that “Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.”

P.T. Barnum obviously understood the power of “social proof”. Social proof-based content is a powerful way of getting your business promoted effectively. Genuine testimonials quoted directly from existing clients are far more persuasive when it comes to attracting new clients than anything you say about your own products or services.

There is clearly an untapped source of opportunities for generating new business that most businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … user reviews!

Testimonials and reviews are fantastic for building credibility for your services and products.

Marketing studies conducted by many leading companies all seem to lead to the same conclusion: testimonials and user reviews help to eliminate doubts potential customers may have about buying a product, help users select products and increases the number of product sales.

Here are just some statistics that support this:

• According to research findings 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 web site if it has ratings and consumer reviews.”
• According to Reevoo.com, consumer reviews produce an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more customer reviews per product can mean a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
• Website visitors who interact with both consumer 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 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).

(Above figures sourced from eConsultancy.com)

Adding Consumer Testimonials And Reviews – Managing Online Reputation

You should be adding great reviews and testimonials from extremely satisfied customers to your website.

Customer reviews and testimonials, however, can work both ways and impact your business both positive and negative ways.

You see, people may not be saying bad things about your business, products or services directly to your face, but they could have posted updates on Facebook about an unpleasant encounter they’ve just had with one of your staff 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 online success.

Misconceptions about online reputation management, such as the process being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you really don’t need to worry about it) could be seriously hurting your business without you even being aware of it.

See this article to learn more about a simple tool for WordPress users that can help to avoid the escalation of problem reviews about your products through effective customer review management:

• Managing Your Online Reputation With Power Online Reviews Plugin

How To Create Client Testimonials – Useful Tips

Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are effective when it comes to helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be an integral part of your content. When you quote your own user responses in your content, you:

• Show others exactly what pains and problems your products and services can help solve for them and how easily it can do this.
• Help visitors identify and address their objections.
• Help prospects connect with their motivations and aspirations and facilitate moving them closer to a buying decision.

Here are some practical tips on improving your conversions with client testimonials:

• Avoid over-editing: You should try using the actual words used by your customers as much as possible. Leaving little grammatical errors and misspelt words in the content helps keep your testimonials sounding authentic.
• Use photos of real people: Marketing tests show that using images of people’s faces will draw the most attention of visitors on a web page. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews can help increase visitor engagement with your content.
• Use the power of storytelling: Stories are much more effective and memorable than just providing facts and statistics. The ability to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution saved the day will make a far longer-lasting impression on those reading your content than using generalized statements about excellent customer support and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
• Keep it in context: Add testimonials in your site copy where it best makes sense to place them, and where you believe these can most effectively help you sell your point. Think about the impact you will have on your visitor’s perception by adding a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution can be purchased for before posting product or service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before discussing the benefits of your products, or testimonials where clients are genuinely thrilled about your customer service before offering guarantees or providing content designed to help readers overcome their objections.
• Quantify the information: Which of the following statements is more powerful: “Since installing XYZ solution, we were able to increase our revenue by an additional $32,882 in the previous fiscal year,” or “XYZ software definitely helped us grow our business?” Whenever possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable results, like how much your solution helped to increase their profits 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, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
• Avoid using the same customer testimonial throughout your site: Although this can be a little difficult if you are just starting out or have very few clients, it’s best to avoid displaying the same testimonial throughout your site’s pages. Depending on the nature of your business, you could try to obtain more user testimonials by offering limited review copies of your product, or a special discount for existing clients in exchange for an honest review and permission to publish it if you decide 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 is a powerful motivator and influencer. People want to see and buy from “better versions” of themselves, so make sure to include testimonials targeted to your best audience demographic.
• Reprint content across different platforms. If someone publishes fantastic feedback on your Facebook wall praising your commitment to customer satisfaction, send them a message asking for their permission to reprint the content on your blog.
• Only use genuine client testimonials. Prospective clients need to believe that the testimonials provided on your site are real. Don’t compromise your integrity or reputation with a ”made up” testimonial.

How To Get Client Testimonials

Ask For Testimonials

If you have just completed 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 soliciting testimonials:

• Contact clients after a specific period of time, e.g. 30 days with an email request for a testimonial if you did not obtain one immediately after completing a service.
• Add a field for entering testimonials in client surveys.
• Take out your phone when you next meet with clients or hand over a finished project and if they are delighted with the results, ask them if they would be happy to record a brief video testimonial/feedback interview. When recording the video, explain to viewers what you have done for the client and capture the client’s positive reactions and responses.
• Make it easy and write the testimonial for them. Whenever a client sends 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 written – don’t put words into their mouth), and use these to create a testimonial, then contact the client and ask them for permission to publish it. Explain that you have done this to help them save time and let them know they are completely free to modify what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.

Offer To Publish A Link Back To The Source

Offer to publish a link back to their website in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive for clients to provide you with a testimonial. It also makes the 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 a request for a testimonial in one of your autoresponder messages. Preferably, this should be done as soon as your clients have had a chance to assess the results of using your product, service or 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 them to provide honest feedback, a testimonial, or a product review.

Use LinkedIn

The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature helps you obtain testimonials from other members that become part of your account. With LinkedIn, the process for requesting and providing recommendations is quite user-friendly and the person who provides the recommendation receives a link to their profile. If you get a positive recommendation on LinkedIn, ask for permission to reprint it on your site (once again, you can offer to publish a link back to their website in exchange).

Create A Customer Testimonials Section

Create a “Testimonials” page and add a “more client testimonials …” link to this page throughout your site.

Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of testimonials by how long visitors remain on the section of your pages or posts where you have added the testimonial content. A great tool for monitoring visitor behaviour on your pages are “heatmaps”.

We have written an article about a heatmap analytics technology you can add to your sites to track visitor behaviour here:

• How To Predict Visitor Behavior On Your WordPress Site With Analytics Software – HeatMapTracker Review

Testimonial Plugins

If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to display testimonials. Some plugins also allow you to add forms to your pages where users can submit feedback and testimonials.

Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), you can then send users to your “Testimonials” section.

Check out the testimonial plugins below:

Easy Testimonials

Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use free plugin that lets you add user testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into your pages and posts using a shortcode. The plugin 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 to add a photo of the testimonial author, their company logo, etc.

The plugin also provides users with a “pro” version with additional features and developer support.

To download the plugin, visit this site:

• Easy Testimonials – WordPress Plugin

Testimonials Widget

Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, or text with videos or images on your posts and pages. You can insert testimonials using a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and have multiple display options such as random or specific ordering.

Testimonials Widget makes plenty more features available via a premium version, including built-in options for better search engine results and developer support.

Go here to download the plugin:

• Testimonials Widget

Testimonials WordPress Plugin

This is a premium plugin that offers plenty of great features right out of the box, including:

• Responsive design that resizes for correct display on any device or browser.
• Display your testimonials in a widget or as sliders, slideshows, grid layout, list layout, etc. using a shortcode
• Styling options (display image at the top, bottom, or side of the testimonial, display testimonials in a speech bubble, customized font and background colours, font types and more.

To download the plugin, go here:

• Testimonials WordPress Plugin

To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:

• How To Add Testimonials In WordPress

In Conclusion …

Client testimonials and user reviews are powerful sources of content that help your business add credibility, build authority, improve online reputation, and grow your sales funnel. Always ask for feedback, reviews, and testimonials from your customers, and start publishing these on your website.

Resources

The articles below provide useful information on creating effective users testimonials and were also helpful in providing research and 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 actionable information and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating high-quality 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 completely FREE!

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