Build Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews

Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract new customers, and getting the exact same results? Most small business owners don’t need to be told that finding effective ways of generating new customers can be difficult. Just trying to keep your business afloat 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 online and social-driven economy, ignoring what your clients may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!

Don’t ignore what users may be saying online about your business!

You could be doing your business a great disservice if you don’t publish the positive things your clients are saying about your products or services. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are effective ways of helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be included in your content marketing strategy.

In this article, you will learn ways to improve your visitor-to-lead conversions using knockout user testimonials.

Testimonials And Client Reviews

P.T. Barnum, the great American showman and successful promoter, once 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 promoting your business. Genuine reviews from your satisfied clients are far more persuasive for drawing new clients than anything you say about your own products or services.

There is clearly a source of untapped business growth potential that most small businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … reviews and testimonials from their customers!

Reviews and customer testimonials are great for building credibility for your business.

Studies conducted by leading marketing companies all lead to the same conclusion: testimonials and user reviews help to eliminate doubts potential customers may have about your product, help users select products and help increase sales.

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

• According to research findings 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 web site if it has ratings and customer reviews.”
• According to Reevoo.com, user reviews can result in 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 consumer 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 Customer Reviews – Managing Online Reputation

Adding reviews to your website from customers who are delighted with the results they’ve obtained by using your products or services is important for growing your business online and creating a solid online reputation.

User reviews and testimonials, however, are like double-edged swords; they can impact your business both in a positive or negative way.

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 or a discussion thread about a bad encounter they’ve just had with one of your staff members and this could be costing you business.

This is where online reputation management becomes an important aspect of your online success.

Misconceptions about online reputation management, such as the process 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 WordPress plugin that can help to avoid the escalation of negative reviews about your products through effective customer review management:

• Easily Manage Bad User Feedback On WordPress With Power Online Reviews

Tips On Improving Your Sales Conversions With Standout Testimonials

Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are persuasive ways of helping you market your products and services online and should be included in your content marketing. When you quote responses from users in your content, you:

• Show other users exactly what problems and pains your products and services can help to 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 facilitate the sales process.

Here are some useful tips on improving your conversions with awesome testimonials:

• Avoid over-editing: You should 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 to keep it ‘real’.
• Use photos of real people: It’s a proven fact that using images of people’s faces will draw the most attention of visitors browsing a web page. 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 far more effective and memorable than simply providing statistical facts. The ability to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution saved the day will make a longer-lasting impression on those reading your content than presenting generic statements about excellent customer service and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
• Keep it in context: Add testimonials to your web content where it makes the most sense to place them, and where you believe these can most effectively help sell your point. For example, think about the impact you will have on your visitor’s mind if you were to present a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution retails for before posting product or service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before talking about the benefits of your services, or testimonials where customers are genuinely 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: “XYZ solution was directly responsible for helping us grow our sales by $59,164 during the previous fiscal year,” or “XYZ product has 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 they have saved, 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 using the same testimonial throughout your site’s pages. Depending on your business, you could try to obtain more 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 target audience: 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 aspire to become can be a really powerful motivator and influencer. People want to see and buy from “better versions” of themselves, so make sure to include testimonials targeted to your best audience demographic.
• Reprint content across different platforms. If someone posts a great comment on your Facebook wall praising your customer service, ask them permission to reprint the comment or post on your blog.
• Only use genuine testimonials. Most people can see through sites that employ copywriters to write content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your prospects need to see that the testimonials displayed on your site are real. Don’t destroy your reputation with a ”made up” testimonial.

How To Get Testimonials From Customers

Just Ask

If you have just completed a service for someone, or a customer says they are really happy with your product or service, ask them for a testimonial.

Here are some useful tips for requesting testimonials:

• Contact your clients after 14 days with an email request for a testimonial if you have not obtained one after completing your service.
• Add a text box for entering testimonials in all client satisfaction surveys.
• Take 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. While recording the video, describe to your viewers what you have done for the client and capture the client’s positive reactions and responses.
• Make it easy 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 shape these into a testimonial, then contact the client and ask them for permission to publish it. Explain that you have done this to help them save time and invite them to modify what you have written however they see fit before replying with their approval.

Offer To Post A Link To The Source

Offer to publish a link to their website in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great incentive to get clients to provide a testimonial. It also makes the implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are real and can be verified.

Include A Testimonial Request In Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages

If you have a subscriber list, 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 use your products or services. 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 subscribers for feedback, a testimonial, or a review.

Use LinkedIn

The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature lets you obtain testimonials for your account. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is simple and user-friendly and the person who provides the recommendation receives a link to their profile. If you get a positive recommendation on LinkedIn, ask for permission to reprint it on your site (once again, you can offer to add a link back to their website in exchange).

Create A Customer Testimonials Page

Create a “Testimonials” page and place a “read more client testimonials …” link to your main testimonials page throughout your content sections.

Practical Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of testimonials 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 monitoring what visitors are doing on your site.

We have written an article about a heatmap software you can add to your site to track visitor behavior here:

• How To Spy On Your WordPress Site Users With Analytics Software – HeatMap Tracker Review

Using Testimonial Plugins For WordPress

If your site or blog is built using WordPress, you can use a plugin to display testimonials. Some plugins also allow you to add a form to your pages inviting users to submit feedback and testimonials.

Once your plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), you can then refer customers to your “Testimonials” page.

Below are a few useful testimonial plugins you can check out:

Easy Testimonials

Easy Testimonials is a free plugin that lets you add user 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 an image with each testimonial, which can be used for adding a photo of the testimonial author, a company logo, etc.

The Easy Testimonials plugin also comes with a “pro” version that offers additional features and developer support.

Visit this site for more information about the plugin:

• Easy Testimonials – WordPress Plugin

Testimonials Widget

Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, or text with images or videos on your posts and pages. You can insert user 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 provides added features via a premium version, including built-in options for improved search engine results and plugin support.

To learn more about using this plugin, visit this site:

• Testimonials Widget

Testimonials WordPress Plugin

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

• Responsive design that resizes for displaying correctly on any device or browser.
• Options to display your testimonials in a widget or as sliders, slideshows, grid layout, list layout, etc. via a shortcode
• Styling options (display image on top, bottom, or side of the testimonial, display testimonial in a speech bubble, customize font and background colours, font types and more.

Visit this site to learn more about using this plugin:

• Testimonials WordPress Plugin

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

• How To Add Testimonials In WordPress

In Conclusion …

Client testimonials and user reviews are powerful 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 existing customers, and start publishing these on your website.

Resources

The articles below provide useful information about creating engaging customer 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 exactly how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your visitors and grow your business online using content marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

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