Building Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract customers, only to get the exact same results? Most business owners don’t need to be told that generating new customers can be quite hard. Just trying to survive in business 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 and social media-driven economy, it’s foolish to ignore the significance of what your potential customers are doing online, especially if they are talking about your business.
Ignoring what your customers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
You are also doing your business a great disservice if you are not boosting the positive things your customers say about your products, solutions, customer support, etc. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are persuasive when it comes to marketing your products and services online and should be used in your content.
In this article, you will learn tips for converting more visitors into prospects with highly effective customer testimonials.
Consumer Reviews And Testimonials
The great American showman and businessman 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”. Social proof-based content is a powerful and effective way of getting your business promoted. Quoting genuine testimonials and reviews from existing customers is satisfied clients are far more persuasive when it comes to drawing new customers, clients or users than anything you have to say about your own products or services.
There is clearly an untapped source of business growth potential that most small businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … reviews and testimonials from your customers!
Reviews and testimonials are a powerful way to build credibility for your products and services.
Research conducted by marketing companies all lead to the same inevitable conclusion: adding consumer reviews and customer testimonials to your site eliminates doubts potential customers may have about purchasing products that you are trying to sell, helps with product selection and helps increase sales.
Below are just some statistics that support this:
- According to a study 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 customer 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 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 Consumer Testimonials And Reviews – Managing Online Reputation
Clearly, you should be adding positive reviews from existing clients to your website.
Reviews and testimonials, however, can work both ways and impact your business both positively or negatively.
People may not be saying bad things about your business, products or services directly to your face, but they could have posted updates on Facebook about a bad encounter they’ve just had with you or your business and this could be costing you business.
This is where online reputation management becomes a vital part of your business and content marketing strategy.
Misconceptions about engaging in online reputation management practices, such as being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you just don’t need to worry about it) may be hurting your business without you even being aware of it.
See this article to learn more about a simple yet effective plugin for WordPress users that can help to avoid the escalation of negative reviews about your business through effective customer review management:
Tips On How To Create Effective Testimonials
Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful 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 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 site visitors identify their objections and address these.
- Help prospects connect with their motivations and facilitate moving them closer to a buying decision.
Here are some practical tips on improving your sales with captivating testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: Try using the actual words used by your customers as much as possible. Leaving little grammatical errors and misspellings in the content helps preserve the authenticity of your testimonials.
- Use real photos: It’s a proven fact that using images of people’s faces draws the most attention of visitors browsing 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 so much more powerful and memorable than just 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 how “excellent” the service has been and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
- Keep it in context: Add testimonials to your site copy where it makes the most sense to place them, and where you believe these can most effectively help to sell your point. 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 service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before discussing the benefits of your services, or testimonials where clients are truly thrilled about your customer service before offering guarantees or addressing objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements do you think your prospects would consider to be more powerful… “XYZ solution was directly responsible for helping us grow our sales by $15,112 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 profits or reduce their costs in specific percentages or amounts, how many hours they have saved, how many new leads or new clients they were able to generate during a specific financial 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 a little difficult if you are just starting out and don’t have many clients, try to avoid using the same testimonial repeatedly throughout your website. Depending on your business, you could try to obtain more client 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 target audience is, providing testimonials from people who your prospects can relate to is an extremely 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 someone posts great feedback on your Facebook wall praising your products or services, ask them permission to reprint the comment or post on your blog.
- Only use real client testimonials. Your potential customers need to see that the testimonials displayed on your site are genuine. Don’t compromise your integrity or reputation with a false testimonial.
How To Get Customer Testimonials
Always Ask For Testimonials
Getting a testimonial from a satisfied customer can be as simple as just asking for it.
Here are some useful guidelines for requesting testimonials from your clients:
- Make a point of contacting clients after a specific period of time, e.g. 30 days with an email request for a testimonial if you have not obtained one immediately after performing a service.
- Include a field for entering testimonials in all client surveys.
- Take out your phone when you next meet with a client or hand over a finished job and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a very brief video testimonial/feedback interview. While recording the video, explain to your viewers what you have done for your client and capture your client’s positive reactions and feedback.
- Make it easy and write the testimonial 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 juiciest sections (only use what they have written – never put words into their mouth), and use these to create a testimonial, then contact your client and ask them for permission to publish it. Explain that you have done this to save them time and let them know they are completely free to change what you have written however they see fit before replying with their approval.
Offer To Publish A Link Back To Their Site
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 an implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are not fake and can be verified.
Add A Testimonial Request To Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a list of subscribers, include a request for a testimonial in one of your newsletter broadcasts. Preferably, this should be timed to reach subscribers just after your clients have had a chance to assess the effect of using your products or services. 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 review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature helps you solicit testimonials that become part of your account. With LinkedIn, 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 positive recommendation on LinkedIn, ask their permission to reprint it on your website (you can offer to add a link back to their website or profile in exchange).
Create A Customer Testimonials Section
Create a “Testimonials” page and place a “read more testimonials …” link to your main testimonials page wherever you are displaying new testimonials on your content sections.
Useful Tip: You can measure how useful customer testimonials are by how long visitors stay on the section of your pages or posts where you have added the testimonial content. A great tool for observing what visitors are doing on your pages are “heatmaps”.
We have written an article about adding heatmaps to your site to predict visitor behavior here:
WordPress Plugins
If your site or blog is powered by WordPress, you can use a plugin to display testimonials. Some plugins also let you add a form to your pages where users can submit feedback and testimonials.
Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (make sure to provide simple instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), you can then refer users 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 your sidebar as a widget, or embed them into posts and pages using a shortcode. Easy Testimonials 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 plugin also provides users with a “pro” version that offers additional features and plugin support.
Go here to download and use this 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 website. 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 plugin makes loads of additional features available via a premium version, including built-in functions for better search engine results and technical support.
Go here to download this plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium WordPress plugin provides many 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. using a shortcode
- Styling options (display image on top, bottom, or side of the testimonial, display testimonial in a speech bubble, customized font and background colors, font types and more.
To download and use this plugin, go here:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Summary …
Testimonials and user reviews are powerful sources of content that can help your business add credibility, build authority, improve online reputation, and grow your sales funnel. Always ask for testimonials, reviews, and feedback from existing customers or clients, and publish positive content about your business on your web site.
Resources
For additional information about creating engaging testimonials see the articles below:
- 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 and practical tips that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful content that will add value to 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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