Building Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews

Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract and retain customers, only to get the exact same results? Most small business owners don’t need to be told that finding effective ways of generating new business can be very difficult. Just trying to survive in business requires 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 and social-driven economy, it’s a mistake to ignore the effect of online consumer behavior, especially if they are talking about your business.

Don’t ignore what users may be saying online about your business!

You are also doing your business a disservice if you don’t spread the positive things your customers say about your services and products. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are powerful ways of helping you market and promote your products and services online and should be included as part of your content marketing.

In this article, you’ll learn how to improve your sales conversions using standout customer testimonials.

Customer Reviews And Testimonials

The great, legendary showman 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 and effective way of getting your business promoted. Quoting reviews from existing users is satisfied clients are far more persuasive when it comes to attracting 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 businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … testimonials and reviews from your existing clients!

Testimonials and consumer reviews are effective for building credibility for your services and products.

Studies conducted by marketing firms all point to the same conclusion: testimonials and user reviews reduce doubts potential customers may have about some products or services, help with product selection and help increase 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 user reviews.”
• According to Reevoo.com, reviews are responsible for producing an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more consumer reviews per product can result in a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
• Web site 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 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).

(Source: eConsultancy.com)

Adding Consumer Reviews And Testimonials – Managing Online Reputation

You should be adding positive reviews and testimonials from existing customers to your site.

Reviews and customer testimonials, however, are like double-edged swords; they can impact your business both in a positive as well as negative manner.

You see, people may not be saying bad things about your business directly to you, but they could be posting updates on a discussion group about an unpleasant encounter they’ve just had with you or your business and this could be costing you business.

This is where online reputation management becomes a vital aspect of your online 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) could be causing damage to your business without you even realizing this.

See this article to learn more about a simple yet effective WordPress plugin that allows you to legally and ethically manage user reviews:

• Managing Your Online Reputation With Power Online Reviews Plugin For WordPress

Improving Your Conversions With Awesome Testimonials – Useful Tips

Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are persuasive ways of helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be an integral part of your content. When you include responses from customers in your content, you:

• Show others exactly what pains and problems your products and services can solve for them and how easily it can do this.
• Help site visitors identify their objections and address these.
• Help potential customers connect with their aspirations and motivations and this facilitates moving them further along the sales process.

Below are some tips on improving your sales with knockout user testimonials:

• Don’t over edit: You should try using the actual words used by your customers as much as you can. Leaving little grammatical errors and misspelled words in the content helps keep your testimonials sounding authentic.
• Use photos of real people: Marketing studies show that using images of people’s faces will draw the attention of visitors browsing a web page. Adding photos of your clients next to their testimonials and reviews can help increase visitor engagement with your content.
• Tell a story: Stories are far more effective and memorable than providing mere statistical facts. Being able to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution saved the day will make a longer-lasting impression on those reading your content than presenting generalized statements about excellent support and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
• Use it in context: Add customer testimonials to your web content where it best makes sense to place them, and where you believe these can most effectively help to sell your point. Think about the impact you can create on your visitor’s perception by adding a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution retails for before posting your pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before discussing the benefits of your products, or testimonials where clients are truly ecstatic about your customer service when offering a risk-free guarantee or providing content designed to help your readers overcome their objections.
• Quantify your information: Which of the following statements do you think is more powerful: “XYZ solution was directly responsible for helping us grow our bottom line by $28,645 during the previous financial quarter,” or “XYZ product has helped us grow our sales?” Whenever possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable results, like how much your solution helped to increase their profits or reduce their costs 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.
• Avoid using the same testimonial repeatedly throughout your site: Although this can be a little difficult if you are just starting out and don’t have many clients, try to avoid using the same testimonial everywhere on your site’s pages. Depending on your business, you could try to obtain more 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 ideal customer: 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 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 best audience demographic.
• Reprint across different platforms. If you get a great comment on your Facebook wall praising your products or services, send them a message asking permission to reprint the content on your site.
• Don’t use fake testimonials. Your potential customers need to believe that the testimonials displayed on your site are real. Don’t compromise your credibility or reputation with a false testimonial.

How To Get Customer Testimonials

Just Ask

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.

Follow these tips for requesting testimonials:

• Contact your clients after 30 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you did not obtain one after completing a service.
• Include a field for entering testimonials in all your client satisfaction surveys.
• Pull out your phone next time you visit clients or hand over a completed job and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a short video testimonial/feedback interview. When recording the video, describe to viewers what you have done for the client and try to record their positive reactions and feedback.
• Make it easy for them. When clients send you a positive email thanking you for a great job 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 use it. 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 Post A Link To Their Site Wherever You Publish Their Testimonial

Offer to add a link to their website in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great incentive to get clients providing a testimonial. It also makes the implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are real 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 a periodic auto responder message. Preferably, this should be done as soon as your clients have had a chance to assess the effect of using your services. Use words like “I need your help” in your email subject and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking customers for feedback, a testimonial, or a product review.

Use LinkedIn

The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature lets you solicit testimonials that become part of your account. With LinkedIn, the process for requesting and providing recommendations is quite simple and user-friendly and the person providing 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 (tip: offer to publish a link back to their website in exchange).

Create A Testimonials Section On Your Site

Create a new page for testimonials and add a “more customer testimonials …” link pointing to this page throughout your content sections.

Practical Tip: You can measure how effective user testimonials are by how long visitors stay on the section of your pages or posts where you have added the testimonial content. A great tool for understanding visitor behavior on your site are “heatmaps”.

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

• Analyzing Visitor Behaviour On Your WordPress Site With Analytics Software – Heat Map Tracker Review

Testimonial Plugins For WordPress

If your site or blog is built using WordPress, you can use a plugin to display testimonials. Some plugins also allow you to add a form to your pages where users can submit testimonials.

Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (make sure to provide simple instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), all you have to do is send clients to your “Testimonials” page.

Check out the WordPress testimonial plugins below:

Easy Testimonials

Easy Testimonials is a free plugin that lets you add testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials 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 you can use to add a photo of the testimonial author, their company logo, etc.

The Easy Testimonials plugin also comes with a “pro” version that has additional features and developer support.

To download the plugin, visit this site:

• Easy Testimonials – WordPress Plugin

Testimonials Widget

Testimonials Widget is a free WP plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with videos or images on your site. You can insert user testimonials 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 comes with a range of additional features via a premium version, including built-in functions for better search engine results and developer support.

To download and use the plugin, go here:

• Testimonials Widget

Testimonials WordPress Plugin

This premium plugin offers a range of great features right out of the box, including:

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

Visit this site to download and use this plugin:

• Testimonials Plugin

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

• How To Add Testimonials In WordPress

In Conclusion …

Testimonials and customer reviews are great sources of content that can help your business add credibility, build authority, improve online reputation, and grow your sales funnel. Always ask for feedback, reviews, and testimonials from your clients or customers, and start publishing these on your website or blog.

Resources

For additional sources of information and resources on creating engaging customer testimonials read these useful articles:

• 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 site, save money creating useful content that will add value to your site 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 completely FREE!

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