Build Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract customers, only to get the exact same results? As most small business owners know, that generating new business can be quite hard. Just trying to keep your business afloat requires a lot of time, money and energy, and sometimes this can feel like it’s just not worth the effort.
In today’s online economy, ignoring what consumers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
Don’t ignore what consumers may be saying online about your business!
You are also doing your business a disservice if you are not spreading the positive things your clients say about your products and services. 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 used in your content marketing strategy.
In this article, we’ll show you tips for converting more visitors into qualified leads with highly effective customer testimonials.
Client Reviews And Testimonials
The great American showman and successful promoter Phineas Taylor (Aka “P.T.”) Barnum once stated that “Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.”
P.T. Barnum understood the power of “social proof”. Social proof-driven content is a powerful way of getting your business promoted effectively. Reviews and testimonials quoted directly from satisfied users are far more persuasive for attracting new clients than anything you say about your own products or services.
There is an untapped source of opportunities for generating new business that most small businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … client reviews!
Testimonials and reviews are effective for building credibility for your business.
Research conducted by marketing companies all lead to the same inevitable conclusion: testimonials and user reviews help to eliminate doubts potential customers may have about buying products or services that you are trying to sell, help with product selection and help increase the number of sales.
Here are just some of the statistics 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 web site if it has ratings and customer reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, reviews can result in an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more customer reviews per product can translate into a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Site visitors who interact with both 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).
- Consumer 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 Customer Reviews – Online Reputation Management
Adding positive reviews to your website from very satisfied customers is essential for creating a solid online business reputation.
Testimonials and consumer reviews, however, are like double-edged swords; they can affect your business both negative and positive ways.
People may not be saying bad things about your products directly to you, but they could have posted negative comments on Facebook or a discussion group 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 vital to your online business success.
Misconceptions about online reputation management, such as being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you really don’t need it) may be harming your business without you even realizing it.
See this article to learn more about a simple yet effective WordPress plugin that can help to avoid the escalation of problem reviews about your business, products or services through effective user review management:
Creating Profit Boosting Testimonials – Useful Tips
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are effective when it comes to helping you market and promote your products and services online and should be added to your content. When you quote responses from clients in your content, you:
- Show other users exactly with similar problems and pains how your products and services can help them.
- Help your visitors identify their objections and address these.
- Help potential customers connect with their motivations and facilitate the sales process.
Here are some useful tips on how to create sales boosting testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: You should try using the actual words used by your customers 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: Marketing tests show that using images of people’s faces will draw the attention of visitors 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 content.
- Tell a story: Stories are much more effective and captivating than simply providing facts and statistics. The ability to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution came to the rescue will make a longer-lasting impression on those reading your content than using generalized statements about excellent support and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
- Use it in context: It’s good to add customer testimonials to your web content where it best makes sense to place them, and where they can most effectively help to sell your point. For example, 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 pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before presenting the benefits of your products, or testimonials where clients are genuinely ecstatic about your support before offering a money-back guarantee or addressing objections.
- Quantify the information: Which of the following statements do you think is more powerful… “XYZ solution was directly responsible for helping us grow our sales by $15,467 during the last fiscal year,” or “XYZ software has helped us grow our business?” Whenever possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable results, like how much your solution helped to increase their market share or reduce their costs in specific percentages or amounts, how many hours 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.
- Use different client testimonials on your site: Although this can be a little difficult when you are just starting out and don’t have many clients, it’s best to avoid displaying the same testimonial throughout your web pages. Depending on the nature of your business, you could try to obtain more customer 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 decide to use it.
- Appeal to your best customer: As every infomercial featuring a celebrity endorsement, subject expert or “busy mom” knows, if you know who your ideal customer is, providing testimonials from people who your prospects can relate to is a very 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 across different platforms. If someone publishes fantastic feedback on your Facebook page praising your products or services, contact them privately asking for permission to reprint the comment or post on your site.
- Only use real testimonials. Prospective clients need to see that the testimonials displayed on your site are real. Don’t destroy your reputation with a false testimonial.
How To Get Testimonials From Your Clients
Ask
When you complete a service for someone, 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:
- Make a point of contacting customers after 14 days with an email request for a testimonial if you did not obtain one immediately after performing a service.
- Include a field for testimonials in all client satisfaction surveys.
- Take out your phone when you next meet with a client or hand over a finished job and if they are delighted with the results, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a brief video testimonial/feedback interview. If they agree, while recording the video, explain to your viewers what you have done for the client and record your client’s positive reactions and feedback.
- Make it easy and write the testimonial for them. When clients send you a positive email thanking you for a great service that contains snippets of useful testimonial material interspersed with the rest of their message, grab the best sections (only use what they have given you – don’t 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 already prepared something to help them save time and let them know they are completely free to change what you have written however they see fit before replying with their approval.
Offer To Publish A Link To The Source
Offer to publish a link to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great 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 A Testimonial Request To Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a subscriber list, include a request for a testimonial in a scheduled email broadcast. This should be done after your clients 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 feedback, a testimonial, or a product review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature allows you to request testimonials from other members for your account. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is user-friendly and the person providing the recommendation receives a link to their profile. If you get a 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 Page On Your Site
Create a new page for customer testimonials and place a “more customer testimonials …” link to your main testimonials section throughout your site.
Practical Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of testimonials by how long visitors stay on the section of your pages or posts where you have added the testimonial content. A great tool for observing visitor behavior on your pages are “heatmaps”.
We have written an article about adding heatmap analytics to your website to analyze visitor behavior here:
- How To Predict User Behavior On Your WordPress Site Using Analytics Software – HeatMapTracker Review
Useful WordPress Plugins
If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to display testimonials. Some plugins also let you add forms to your pages where users can submit reviews and testimonials.
Once your plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), all you have to do is refer users to your “Testimonials” page.
Here are a few useful testimonial plugins you can check out:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use free plugin that lets you add testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed them into a Page or Post using a shortcode. The Easy Testimonials plugin also lets you add a list of all your testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include an image with each testimonial, which you can use for adding a photo of the testimonial author, a company logo, etc.
The Easy Testimonials plugin also can be upgraded to a “pro” version that offers additional features and plugin support.
To learn more about using this plugin, visit this site:
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 site. You can insert client testimonials via a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and have multiple display options such as random or specific ordering.
The Testimonials Widget plugin makes plenty more features available via a premium version, including built-in functions for improved search engine results and developer support.
Go here to download and use this plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This is a premium WP plugin that offers a range of 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 sliders, slideshows, list layout, grid layout, etc. using a shortcode
- Styling options (display image at the top, bottom, or side of the testimonial, display testimonials in a speech bubble, customize font and background colours, font types and more.
To download and use the plugin, go here:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Summary …
Testimonials and customer reviews are powerful 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 existing customers, and publish positive content about your business on your web site.
Resources
The articles below provide useful information on creating effective clients testimonials and were also 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 and practical tips that will show you how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality content for your visitors and grow your business online using content marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!
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