Building Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews

Are you stuck in a cycle of doing what you’ve always done to attract new customers, and getting the exact same disappointing results? Most business owners don’t need to be told that finding new ways of generating new customers can be very hard, confusing and frustrating. Just trying to stay 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 digital, mobile and social-driven economy, ignoring what consumers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!

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

You may also be doing your business a great disservice if you don’t promote the positive things your clients are saying about your products and services. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive ways of helping you market your products and services online and should be added throughout your content.

In this article, you’ll learn how to turn more visitors into qualified leads with sales boosting user testimonials.

Testimonials And Consumer Reviews

The great, legendary 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 and effective way of getting your business promoted. Quoting reviews and testimonials from your satisfied customers is existing customers are far more persuasive when it comes to drawing new clients than anything you say about your own products or services.

There is a source of untapped business growth potential that most small businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … client testimonials and reviews!

User reviews and testimonials are great for building credibility for your services or products.

Marketing studies conducted by leading companies all lead to the same conclusion: testimonials and user reviews decrease doubts potential customers may have about buying products or services, help with product selection and help increase sales conversions.

Below are just some of the stats available to support this:

• According to research findings by eVoc Insights, a company known for researching and measuring user experience, “In general, 63% of users indicate they are more likely to purchase from a site if it has ratings and customer reviews.”
• According to Reevoo.com, customer reviews can produce an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more user reviews per product can result in a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
• Web 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 Customer Testimonials And Reviews – Managing Online Reputation

Adding great testimonials and reviews to your website from clients who are delighted with your services is essential for helping you grow your business online.

Reviews and testimonials, however, are like double-edged swords; they can affect your business both negatively or positively.

You see, people may not be saying bad things about your products directly to your face, but they could have posted disparaging remarks on Facebook about a bad 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 online business success.

Misconceptions about online reputation management, such as being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you just don’t need it) could 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 user review management:

• How To Easily Manage Your Online Reputation On WordPress With Power Online Reviews Plugin

How To Create Client Testimonials – Useful Tips

Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful when it comes to marketing your products and services online and should be included in your content marketing strategy. When you quote your own customer responses in your content, you:

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

Below are some tips on creating captivating testimonials:

• Avoid over-editing: You should try using 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 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 can help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your site’s content.
• Tell a powerful story: Stories are much more effective and captivating than simply providing statistical facts. The ability to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution came to the rescue will make a far longer-lasting impression on those reading your content than using generic statements about excellent support and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
• Use it in context: Add customer testimonials to your site copy where it best makes sense to place them, and where you believe these can most effectively help you sell your point. For example, think about the impact you will have on your visitor’s mind by adding a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution can be purchased for before posting your price information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before talking about the benefits of your services, or testimonials where customers are truly thrilled about your customer service before offering a money-back guarantee or providing content designed to help 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 to increase our revenue by $12,211 during the previous fiscal year,” or “XYZ product 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 profits or reduce their costs 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.
• Use different testimonials throughout your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult when you are just starting out or have very few clients, it’s best to avoid using the same testimonial throughout your website. 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 discount for existing clients in exchange for an honest review and permission to publish it if you choose 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 ideal 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 testimonials across different platforms. If someone posts a great comment on your Facebook wall praising your business, ask them for permission to reprint the comment or post on your site.
• Only use genuine client testimonials. Many people can tell if you are employing copywriters to create your content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your potential clients need to see that the testimonials published on your site are real. Don’t destroy your credibility with false testimonials.

How To Get Client Testimonials

Always Ask For Testimonials

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

Here are some tips for requesting testimonials from customers:

• Make a point of contacting clients after 60 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you have not obtained one after completing your service.
• Add a field for entering testimonials in all client surveys.
• Pull out your phone next time you visit a client or hand over a completed project and if they are delighted with the results, ask them if they would be happy to record a quick video testimonial/feedback interview. If they agree, while recording your video, describe to viewers what you have done for the client and make sure to record the client’s positive reactions and feedback.
• Make it easy and write it for them. If a client sends 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 quote them on your site. Explain that you have already prepared something to save them time and invite them to change what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.

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

Offer to publish a link back to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive to get clients providing you with a testimonial. It also makes the implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are real and can be verified.

Include Testimonial Requests In Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages

If you have a subscriber list, include a request for a testimonial in a scheduled auto responder message. Preferably, this should be done after your customers have had a chance to experience your services. Use words like “I need your help” in the subject of your email and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking subscribers to provide honest feedback, a testimonial, or a review of your services.

Use LinkedIn

The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature is a great way to request testimonials for your profile. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is user-friendly and the person who provides the recommendation gets a link to their profile. If you get a recommendation on LinkedIn, ask for permission to reprint it on your site (and offer to add a link back to their website or profile in exchange).

Create A Customer Testimonials Section

Create a “Testimonials” page and add a “read more client testimonials …” link to this section wherever you have displayed new testimonials on your site.

Useful Tip: You can measure how effective testimonials are by how long visitors remain on the section of your pages or posts where you have added the testimonial content. ”Heatmapping” technology is a great way to understanding what visitors are doing on your pages.

We have written an article about a heatmap analytics software you can add to your sites to analyze visitor behavior here:

• How To Spy On Your WordPress Site Visitors Using Heat Map Tools – Heat Map Tracker Review

WordPress Testimonial Plugins

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

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

Check out the WordPress testimonial plugins below:

Easy Testimonials

Easy Testimonials is a free WordPress plugin that lets you add client testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into a Page or Post using a shortcode. Easy Testimonials also lets you publish a list of all testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include an image with each testimonial, which can be used for adding a photo of the testimonial author, their logo, etc.

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

To download and use the plugin, visit this site:

• Easy Testimonials

Testimonials Widget

Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, or text with images or videos on your website. You can insert client testimonials using 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 loads of additional features available via a premium version, including built-in options SEO functionality and technical support.

Visit this site to download this plugin:

• Testimonials Widget

Testimonials WordPress Plugin

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

• Responsive design that resizes for displaying correctly 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 on top, bottom, or side of the testimonial, display testimonial in a speech bubble, customize font and background colors, font types and more.

For more information about using the plugin, visit this site:

• Testimonials WordPress Plugin

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

• How To Add Testimonials In WordPress

In Summary …

Client testimonials and user 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 feedback, reviews, and testimonials from your clients, and start publishing these on your web site.

Additional Info

For additional information about creating effective testimonials refer to 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 a comprehensive series of training emails with easy-to-digest information that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating useful content for your site visitors and grow your business online using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

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