How To Build Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract 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 quite hard, confusing and frustrating. Just trying to keep your business afloat takes 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, you just can’t ignore the effect of what potential customers are doing online, especially if they are posting negative comments about your business.
Don’t ignore what users may be saying online about your business!
You may also be doing your business a disservice if you aren’t publishing the positive things your customers are saying about your services or products. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive ways of helping you market your products and services online and should be added to your content marketing strategy.
In this article, you’ll discover how to achieve better results online with compelling customer testimonials.
Testimonials And User Reviews
Phineas Taylor (Aka “P.T.”) Barnum, legendary American showman, 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-driven content is a powerful and effective way of promoting your business. Quoting genuine testimonials from satisfied users is satisfied clients are far more persuasive when it comes to attracting new clients, customers or users than anything you have to say about your own products or services.
There is a source of untapped opportunities for generating new business that most small businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … reviews and testimonials from your clients!
User reviews and customer testimonials are fantastic for building credibility for your services and products.
Studies conducted by leading marketing research firms all lead to the same inevitable conclusion: testimonials and user reviews decrease doubts potential customers may have about purchasing particular products or services, help users select products and help increase conversions of visitors into sales.
Below are just some of the stats available to support this:
- According to research findings 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 site if it has ratings and reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, consumer reviews are responsible for producing an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more reviews per product can translate into a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- 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).
- 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).
(The figures above were sourced from eConsultancy.com)
Adding Customer Reviews – Managing Online Reputation
You should be adding positive testimonials and reviews from very happy clients who have experienced positive results with your business to your site.
Customer testimonials and customer reviews, however, can work both ways and impact your business both positive and negative ways.
You see, people may not be saying bad things about your services directly to your face, but they could be posting disparaging remarks on Facebook or a forum about an unpleasant experience they’ve just had with 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 vitally important to 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 to worry about it) could be harming your business without you even being aware of this.
See this article to learn more about a WordPress plugin that can help to avoid the escalation of problem reviews about your business, products or services through effective user review management:
Tips On Improving Your Sales Conversions With Testimonials
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive ways of helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be included as part of your content marketing. When you quote responses from customers in your content, you:
- Show prospects exactly what pains and problems your products and services can help to solve for them and how easily it can do this.
- Help visitors identify and address their objections.
- Help prospects connect with their motivations and aspirations and this facilitates moving them closer to a decision to purchase.
Here are some tips on improving your sales conversions with user testimonials:
- Avoid over-editing: Try using the actual words used by your customers as much as possible. Leave little grammatical or spelling errors in the content. This helps keep your testimonials ‘real’.
- Use photos of real people: Images of people’s faces draw the most attention to your content. 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 powerful 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 far longer-lasting impression on those reading your content than presenting generic statements about how “excellent” the customer support has been and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
- Keep it in context: Add customer testimonials in your site copy where it makes the most sense to place them, and where you believe these can most effectively help sell your point. 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 your service 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 customer service when offering guarantees or addressing objections.
- Quantify the information: Which of the following statements do you think your prospects would find more powerful… “XYZ solution was directly responsible for helping to increase our revenue by $84,506 during the previous fiscal year,” or “XYZ product definitely helped us grow our sales?” Whenever possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable results, like how much your solution helped to increase their market share or reduce their costs by 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 during a specific period, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
- Avoid using the same customer testimonial repeatedly throughout your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult if you are just starting out or don’t have many clients, it’s best to avoid using the same testimonial everywhere on your website. Depending on the nature of your business, you could try to obtain more user 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 target audience: 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 can be an extremely 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 publishes great feedback on your Facebook wall praising your commitment to customer satisfaction, send them a message asking for their permission to reprint the content on your blog.
- Only use real client testimonials. Most people can see through sites that employ copywriters to write content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your prospects need to believe that the testimonials you provide on your site are genuine. Don’t compromise your credibility or reputation with a ”made up” testimonial.
How To Get Testimonials From Clients
Always Ask For Testimonials
Getting a testimonial from a happy client can be as simple as just asking for it.
Follow these useful guidelines for requesting testimonials:
- Make it a part of your business processes to contact clients after 14 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you did not obtain one after completing a service.
- Add a field for entering testimonials in your client satisfaction surveys.
- Take out your phone when you next meet with a client or hand over a finished project and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a very short video testimonial/feedback interview. If they agree, while recording the video, explain to your viewers what you have done for your client and record their positive reactions and feedback.
- Make it easy 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 written – don’t put words into their mouth), and use these to create 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 let them know they are completely free to edit what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.
Offer To Post A Link To The Source
Offer to publish a link back to their website in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive for clients to provide a testimonial. It also makes an 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 a periodic newsletter message. This should be timed to reach subscribers just after your clients have had a chance to experience your solution. 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 clients to provide honest feedback, a testimonial, or a product review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature lets you solicit testimonials that become part of your profile. With LinkedIn, 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 (tip: offer to add a link back to their profile in exchange).
Create A Client Testimonials Page
Create a “Testimonials” page and add a “read more client testimonials …” link to this page wherever you display single testimonials on your site.
Tip: You can measure how effective testimonials are by how long visitors stay on the section of your pages or posts where you have added the testimonial content. ”Heatmapping” technology is a great way to monitoring visitor behaviour on your pages.
We have written an article about adding heatmap analytics to your site to observe visitor behaviour here:
Testimonial Plugins
If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to add, edit and display testimonials. Some plugins also allow you to add forms to your pages inviting users to submit testimonials.
Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), you then send users to your “Testimonials” section.
Check out the plugins below:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is a free WP plugin that lets you add client testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed them into a Page or Post using a shortcode. The plugin also lets you insert a list of all testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which is great to add a photo of the testimonial author, a business logo, etc.
The Easy Testimonials plugin also provides users with a “pro” version that offers additional features and technical support.
Go here for more information about the plugin:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free WordPress plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, or text with images or videos on your blog. You can insert testimonials content 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 provides extra features via a premium version, including built-in options for improved search engine results and developer support.
To learn more about the plugin, visit this site:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium WP plugin offers a range of great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes to display correctly on any device or browser.
- Display your testimonials in a widget or as sliders, slideshows, list layout, grid 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 colors, font types and more.
Visit this site for more information about the plugin:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Conclusion …
Customer reviews and client testimonials are great 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 clients or customers, and publish positive content about your business on your website.
Additional Info
The articles below are a great source of information on creating engaging testimonials and were also helpful in providing research and 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 teach you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating high-quality content for your visitors and grow your business online using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!
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