Build Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews

Are you stuck in a cycle of doing what you’ve always done to attract new customers, only to get the exact same disappointing results? Most small business owners don’t need to be told that finding effective ways of generating new customers 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 digital, mobile and social-driven economy, you simply can’t afford to 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 clients may be saying online about your business!

By the same token, you may also be doing your business a disservice if you don’t spread the positive things your customers say about your products or services. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are persuasive ways of helping you market your products and services online and should be included in your content marketing.

In this article, you’ll learn tips for turning more visitors into prospects using more effective client testimonials.

Testimonials And Consumer Reviews

Legendary American showman and businessman P.T. Barnum 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 and testimonials from existing clients is existing users are far more persuasive for drawing new customers than anything you have to say about your own products or services.

There is clearly an untapped source of opportunities for generating new business that most businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … client reviews and testimonials!

Customer testimonials and reviews are a fantastic way to build credibility for your services or products.

Studies conducted by many leading companies all seem to lead to the same conclusion: user reviews and testimonials help reduce doubts potential customers may have about purchasing products, help users select products and increases conversions of visitors into sales.

Below are just some findings that support this:

• According to research by eVoc Insights, an organization 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 customer reviews.”
• According to Reevoo.com, consumer reviews can produce an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more user reviews per product can translate into a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
• Web site 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 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 Consumer Reviews And Testimonials – Managing Online Reputation

Adding testimonials and reviews to your site from people who are thrilled with your products or services is important for helping you grow your business and creating a solid online reputation.

Customer testimonials and reviews, however, are like double-edged swords; they can affect your business both in a negative and positive manner.

You see, people may not be saying bad things about your business directly to you, but they could have posted negative comments on Facebook or a discussion thread about an unpleasant encounter they’ve just had with one of your staff and this could be costing you business.

This is where online reputation management becomes an integral part of your business and content marketing strategy.

Misconceptions about managing your reputation online, such as being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you just don’t need 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 yet effective WordPress plugin that can help to avoid the escalation of negative reviews about your business through effective customer review management:

• Manage Negative User Feedback With Power Online Reviews

How To Create Awesome Client 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 added to your content marketing. When you quote responses from clients in your content, you:

• Show prospects exactly what pains and problems your products and services can solve for them and how easily this can be done.
• Help prospects identify their objections and address these.
• Help prospects connect with their motivations and aspirations and this facilitates moving them further along the sales process.

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

• Avoid over-editing: You should try to use the actual words used by your customers as much as you can. Leave grammatical or spelling errors in the content. This helps to keep it ‘real’.
• Use real photos: Marketing tests show that using images of people’s faces draws the attention of visitors on a web page. Adding photos of your clients next to their testimonials and reviews will help increase visitor engagement with your site’s content.
• Use the power of storytelling: Stories are far more powerful and memorable than just providing statistical facts. Being able to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution came to the rescue will make a more lasting impression on those reading your content than presenting generic statements about how “excellent” your support has been and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
• Use it in context: Add testimonials in your site copy where it best makes sense to place them, and where they can most effectively help sell your point. Think about the impact you can create on your visitor’s mind by adding a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution can be purchased for before posting product pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before talking about the benefits of your products, or testimonials where clients are truly thrilled about your support before offering guarantees or providing content that helps your readers overcome their objections.
• Quantify the information: Which of the following statements is more powerful… “XYZ solution was directly responsible for growing our bottom line by $53,386 during the previous financial quarter,” or “XYZ product definitely helped us grow our sales?” If possible, ask clients to specify quantifiable results when submitting testimonials, 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 they have saved, how many new leads or new clients they were able to generate during a specific period, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
• Use different testimonials throughout your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult when you are just starting out and don’t have many clients, try to avoid using the same testimonial repeatedly throughout your site’s 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 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 best customer is, providing testimonials from people who your prospects aspire to become can be 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 great feedback on your Facebook wall praising your customer service, contact them privately asking for their permission to reprint the comment or post on your site.
• Only use genuine client testimonials. Your prospects need to see that the testimonials you provide on your site are genuine. Don’t compromise your integrity with false testimonials.

How To Get Customer Testimonials

Ask

Getting a testimonial from a satisfied client can be as simple as just asking for it.

Follow these useful tips for requesting testimonials from customers:

• Contact customers after 14 days with an email request for a testimonial if you did not obtain one after completing a service.
• Add a field for testimonials in your client satisfaction surveys.
• Pull out your phone when you next visit clients or hand over a finished project and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they would be happy to record a quick video testimonial/feedback interview. If they agree, while recording your video, explain to your viewers what you have done for your client and capture their 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 best sections (only use what they have written – 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 edit what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.

Offer To Publish A Link Back To The Source Wherever You Quote Their Testimonial

Offer to add a link to their site 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.

Include Testimonial Requests In Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages

If you have a list of subscribers, include requests for a testimonial in one of your newsletter mailouts. This should be done as soon as your customers have had a chance to assess the results of using your products. Use words like “I need your help” in the subject of your message and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking them to provide feedback, a testimonial, or a review.

Use LinkedIn

The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature is a great way to solicit testimonials for your account. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is quite 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 add a link back to their profile in exchange).

Create A Testimonials Section

Create a “Testimonials” page and place a “read more testimonials …” link pointing to this page wherever you add small blocks of testimonials on your content sections.

Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of your 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 understanding what visitors are doing on your site are “heatmaps”.

We have written an article about adding heatmap analytics to your website to track visitor behavior here:

• Analyzing User Behaviour On Your WordPress Site With Heat Map Software – HeatMapTracker Review

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 inviting users to submit reviews and testimonials.

Once your plugin is installed and set up (remember to provide simple instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), you then refer clients to your “Testimonials” section.

Below are some great 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 testimonials into your pages and posts using a shortcode. The Easy Testimonials plugin also lets you publish a list of all testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which you can use for adding a photo of the testimonial author, a logo, etc.

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

To download this plugin, visit this site:

• Easy Testimonials

Testimonials Widget

Testimonials Widget is a free WordPress plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, or text with videos or images on your site. You can insert testimonials via 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 makes plenty of additional features available via a premium version, including built-in functions SEO functionality and plugin support.

Visit this site for more information about this plugin:

• Testimonials Widget

Testimonials WordPress Plugin

This is a premium plugin that provides plenty 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 testimonials, display testimonials in a speech bubble, customized font and background colours, font types and more.

To download and use this 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 customer reviews are great 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 testimonials, reviews, and feedback from your clients or customers, and start publishing these on your site.

Additional Info

For additional information on creating effective clients 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 actionable information that will teach 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 marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

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