Build Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract new customers, only to get the exact same disappointing results? As most small business owners know, that finding effective ways of generating new business can be quite hard. Just trying to survive in business requires 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, you simply can’t afford to ignore the effect of what your potential customers are doing online, especially if they are posting negative comments about your business.
Ignoring what users may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
By the same token, you may also be doing your business a disservice if you are not boosting the positive things your clients say about your products, solutions, client training, support, etc. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are effective when it comes to helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be an integral part of your content marketing strategy.
In this article, we’ll show you ways to improve your sales using knockout client testimonials.
Consumer Reviews
P.T. Barnum, legendary showman, once stated that “Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.”
P.T. Barnum understood the power of “social proof”. Social proof-based content is a powerful way of getting your business promoted effectively. Quoting genuine reviews from your existing clients is existing clients are far more persuasive for drawing new customers, clients or users than anything you say about your own products or services.
There is a source of untapped business growth potential that most businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … reviews from customers!
Reviews and testimonials are a fantastic way to build credibility for your business.
Marketing studies conducted by leading research firms all point to the same inevitable conclusion: adding reviews and customer testimonials to your sales information decreases doubts potential customers may have about purchasing some products, helps with product selection and increases conversions of visitors into sales.
Here are just some findings that support this:
- According to research 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 web site if it has ratings and reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, user reviews can produce an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more reviews per product can mean a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Website visitors who interact with both 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).
(Source: eConsultancy.com)
Adding Consumer Reviews – Online Reputation Management
Adding positive reviews and testimonials to your site from clients who are delighted with the results they’ve obtained by using your products or services is essential for creating a solid online business reputation.
Reviews and customer testimonials, however, can work both ways and affect your business both positive and negative ways.
You see, people may not be saying bad things about your business directly to you, but they could have posted negative comments on a forum about a bad experience they’ve just had with your business and this could be costing you business.
This is where online reputation management becomes vital to your online success.
Misconceptions about engaging in online reputation management practices, such as being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you really don’t need to worry about it) could be seriously causing damage to your business without you even realizing this.
See this article to learn more about a simple tool for WordPress users that lets you legally and ethically manage customer feedback:
Tips On Improving Your Conversions With User Testimonials
Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful when it comes to marketing your products and services online and should be included as part of your content. When you include responses from users in your content, you:
- Show potential customers exactly with similar problems and pains how your products and services can help them.
- Help visitors identify their objections and address these.
- Help potential customers connect with their aspirations and motivations and this facilitates moving them closer to a buying decision.
Below are some tips on improving your sales conversions with compelling user testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: Try to use your customer’s actual words as much as you can. Leaving little grammatical errors and misspelled words in the content helps keep your testimonials sounding authentic.
- Use photos: Research shows that using images of people’s faces will draw the most attention of visitors on a web page. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews will help increase visitor engagement with your content.
- Use the power of storytelling: Stories are far more powerful and memorable than providing mere facts and statistics. Being able to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution came to the rescue will make a longer-lasting impression on those reading your content than using generic statements about excellent customer service and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
- Keep it in context: Add customer testimonials to your site copy where it makes the most sense to place them, and where they can most effectively help you sell your point. For example, 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 talking about the benefits of your services, or testimonials where customers are genuinely ecstatic about your customer service when offering guarantees 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 us grow our bottom line by $39,632 in the previous 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 profits or reduce their costs 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 in a recent business quarter, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
- Use different testimonials on your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult when you are just starting out or have very few clients, try to avoid using the same testimonial everywhere on your site. 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 discount for 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 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 ideal customers.
- Reprint testimonials across different platforms. If you get great feedback on your Facebook wall praising your solution, send them a message asking permission to reprint the comment or post on your blog.
- Only use real testimonials. Most people can tell if you are employing copy writers to create your content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your potential customers need to believe that the testimonials you provide on your site are real. Don’t compromise your integrity with a false testimonial.
How To Get Testimonials From Your Customers
Ask
When you complete performing a service, or a customer says they are really happy with your product or service, ask them for a testimonial.
Here are some tips for soliciting testimonials:
- Make a point of contacting customers after 30 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you have not obtained one immediately after completing your service.
- Add a field for testimonials in all your client satisfaction surveys.
- Pull out your phone when you next visit clients or hand over a finished job and if they are delighted with the results, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a very quick video testimonial/feedback interview. During the video, describe to your viewers what you have done for the client and capture your client’s positive reactions and feedback.
- Make it easy for them. If 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 given you – never put words into their mouth), and shape these into a testimonial, then contact the client and ask them for permission to use it. 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 Their Site
Offer to add a link to their website in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive to get clients providing a testimonial. It also makes an 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 list of subscribers, include requests for a testimonial in a scheduled newsletter message. Preferably, this should be done as soon as your clients have had a chance to assess the results of using your products or 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 product review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature allows you to request testimonials that become part of your account. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is user-friendly and the person who provides the recommendation receives a link to their profile. If you get a positive recommendation on LinkedIn, ask their permission to reprint it on your website (once again, you can offer to add a link back to their website in exchange).
Create A Testimonials Page
Create a “Testimonials” page and add a “more client testimonials …” link to your main testimonials section throughout your site.
Practical Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of your testimonials by how long visitors stay on the section of your pages or posts where you have added the testimonial content. A great tool for monitoring visitor behaviour on your pages are “heatmaps”.
We have written an article about a heatmap software you can add to your sites to monitor visitor behaviour here:
Testimonial Plugins For WordPress
If your site or blog is powered by WordPress, you can use a plugin to add and display testimonials. Some plugins also let you add forms to your pages inviting users to submit reviews and testimonials.
Once your 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 refer customers to your “Testimonials” page.
Here are a few useful WordPress testimonial plugins you can check out:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use free plugin that lets you add user testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed them into posts and pages using a shortcode. Easy Testimonials also lets you add a list of all 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, a logo, etc.
The Easy Testimonials plugin also can be upgraded to a “pro” version that has additional features and technical support.
Visit this site to download the plugin:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free WP plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with images or videos on your site. You can insert customer 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 makes loads more features available via a premium version, including built-in functions for better search engine results and plugin support.
For more information about this plugin, go here:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium WordPress plugin 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 sliders, slideshows, list layout, grid layout, etc. by adding a shortcode
- Styling options (display image on top, bottom, or side of the testimonial, display testimonials in a speech bubble, customize font and background colours, font types and more.
To learn more about the plugin, go here:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Conclusion …
Client testimonials and user 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 start publishing these on your site.
Resources
The articles below provide useful information on creating effective clients testimonials and were 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
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