Building Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews
Are you stuck in a cycle of doing what you’ve always done to attract and retain new customers, only to get the exact same disappointing results? Most business owners don’t need to be told that trying to generate new business can be extremely hard. Just trying to survive 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 media-driven economy, ignoring what your clients may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
Don’t ignore what your customers may be saying online about your business!
By the same token, you could be doing your business a great disservice if you aren’t publishing the positive things your customers say about your services and products. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are effective ways of helping you market your products and services online and should be added to your content.
In this article, you’ll learn all you need to know to get better results online using standout user testimonials.
Testimonials And User Reviews
The great, legendary showman P.T. Barnum is often quoted as having said that “Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.”
P.T. Barnum obviously understood the power of “social proof”. Using social proof as content is a powerful and effective way of getting your business promoted. Reviews quoted directly from existing users are far more persuasive for drawing new clients than anything you can say about your own products or services.
There is a source of untapped opportunities for generating new business that most small businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … customer reviews and testimonials!
Customer testimonials and consumer reviews are a powerful way to build credibility for your products or services.
Research conducted by many marketing research firms all point to the same inevitable conclusion: user reviews and testimonials help decrease doubts potential customers may have about products, help with product selection and help increase the number of sales.
Below are just some of the stats available to support this:
- According to a study 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 site if it has ratings and reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, customer reviews can produce an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more reviews per product can result in a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Website 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).
(Above figures sourced from eConsultancy.com)
Adding User Reviews – Managing Online Reputation
Adding great testimonials and reviews to your website from customers is important for helping you grow your business online and creating a solid online reputation.
Reviews and testimonials, however, can work both ways and impact your business both positive and negative ways.
People may not be saying bad things about your business, products or services directly to you, but they could post damaging feedback on a discussion thread about a bad encounter they’ve just had with you or your business 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 success.
Misconceptions about online reputation management, such as being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you really don’t need to worry about it) may be seriously hurting your business without you even realizing it.
See this article to learn more about a plugin for WordPress users that can help to avoid the escalation of negative reviews about your business, products or services through effective customer review management:
Tips On Improving Your Conversions With Testimonials
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive when it comes to helping you market and promote your products and services online and should be an integral part of your content marketing. When you include your own customer responses in your content, you:
- Show others exactly with similar problems and pains how your products and services can help them.
- Help prospects identify their objections and address these.
- Help potential customers connect with their motivations and aspirations and this facilitates moving them further along the sales process.
Below are some useful tips on how to create testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: Try to use the actual words used by your customers as much as you can. Leaving little grammatical errors and misspellings in the content helps preserve your testimonials’ authenticity.
- Use photos of real people: It’s a proven fact 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 increase visitor engagement with your site’s content.
- Use the power of storytelling: Stories are far more powerful and memorable than simply providing facts and statistics. Being able 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 presenting generalized statements about excellent service and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
- Keep it in context: It’s good to add testimonials to your web content where it makes the most sense to place them, and where you believe these can most effectively help you 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 ecstatic about your customer service before offering a risk-free guarantee or addressing objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements do you think your prospects would consider to be more powerful: “Since using your XYZ software, we were able to increase our bottom line by $65,963 during the last fiscal year,” or “XYZ solution definitely 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 market share 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.
- Vary the customer testimonials on your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult when you are just starting out or have very few clients, it’s best to avoid displaying the same testimonial everywhere on your web pages. Depending on the type of business you run, you could try to obtain more client testimonials by offering limited review copies of your product, or a special launch discount for existing 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 best customer is, providing testimonials from people who your prospects can relate to is a powerful motivator and influencer. People want to see and buy from “better versions” of themselves, so make sure to include testimonials that speak directly to your best audience demographic.
- Reprint across different platforms. If someone publishes a great comment on your Facebook wall praising your solution, contact them privately asking for permission to reprint the comment or post on your blog.
- Don’t use fake client testimonials. Most people can tell if you are employing copy writers to produce your content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your potential clients need to see that the testimonials displayed on your site are real. Don’t compromise your credibility or reputation with a false testimonial.
How To Get Testimonials From Your Clients
Ask For Testimonials
Getting a testimonial from a happy customer can be as simple as just asking for it.
Follow these useful tips for soliciting testimonials:
- Make it a part of your business processes to contact customers after 60 days with an email request for a testimonial if you did not obtain one immediately after performing a service.
- Add a text box for testimonials in your client surveys.
- Take out your phone next time you visit clients or hand over a completed project and if they are delighted with the results, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a brief video testimonial/feedback interview. While recording your video, explain to your viewers what you have done for your client and record their 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 – never put words into their mouth), and use these to create a testimonial, then contact the client and ask them for permission to quote them on your site. Explain that you have done this to save them 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 Post A Link To The Source Wherever You Publish Their Testimonial
Offer to publish a link 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.
Include A Testimonial Request In Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a subscriber list, include requests for a testimonial in a periodic auto responder message. This should be done as soon as your clients have had a chance to measure the results of using your product, service or solution. Use words like “I need your help” in your email subject and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking users for feedback, a testimonial, or a product review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature is a great way to solicit testimonials from other members for your account. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is simple and user-friendly and the person who provides the recommendation gets a link to their profile. If you get a positive recommendation on LinkedIn, ask their permission to reprint it on your site (tip: offer to add a link back to their website in exchange).
Create A Customer Testimonials Section
Create a “Testimonials” page and add a “more customer testimonials …” link to this section whenever you are adding new testimonials on your site.
Useful Tip: You can measure how useful testimonials are by how long visitors remain on the section of your pages or posts where you have added your testimonial content. ”Heatmapping” technology is a great way to understanding what visitors are doing on your site.
We have written an article about a heatmap software you can add to your sites to monitor visitor behavior here:
Useful Testimonial Plugins For WordPress
If your website or blog is built using WordPress, you can use a plugin to add and display testimonials. Some plugins also let you add a form to your pages where users can submit reviews and testimonials.
Once your plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), you then send customers 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 them into a Page or Post using a shortcode. The Easy Testimonials plugin also lets you insert a list of all testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which is great for adding a photo of the testimonial author, a logo, etc.
The Easy Testimonials plugin also comes with a “pro” version that offers additional features and technical support.
To download the plugin, visit this site:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free WP plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, or text with videos or images on your WordPress site. You can insert user testimonials using 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 has plenty more features available via a premium version, including built-in functions SEO functionality and developer support.
Go here to download and use the plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium WordPress plugin offers many great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes to display correctly on any device or browser.
- Options to display your testimonials in a widget or as sliders, slideshows, grid layout, list layout, etc. by adding 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.
Visit this site to download and use the plugin:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Summary …
Testimonials and customer 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 testimonials, reviews, and feedback from your customers or clients, and publish positive content about your business on your web site.
Resources
The articles below provide useful information about creating engaging customer 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 exactly 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. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!
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