Build Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews

Are you stuck in a cycle of doing what you’ve always done to attract and retain customers, and getting the exact same results? Most business owners don’t need to be told that finding effective ways to generate new customers can be quite difficult. Just trying to stay in business takes up 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 and social media-driven economy, ignoring what consumers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!

Ignoring what customers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!

You are also doing your business a disservice if you don’t publish the positive things your customers say about your products or services. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful ways of marketing your products and services online and should be included as part of your content.

In this article, you’ll learn how to achieve better results online using awesome customer testimonials.

Testimonials And Consumer Reviews

Phineas Taylor (Aka “P.T.”) Barnum, the great, legendary showman and successful promoter, is often quoted as having said 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 reviews and testimonials directly from satisfied customers is satisfied users are far more persuasive when it comes to attracting 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 businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … user testimonials and reviews!

Reviews and customer testimonials are a terrific way to build credibility for your products or services.

Marketing studies conducted by many leading companies all lead to the same inevitable conclusion: user reviews and testimonials eliminate doubts potential customers may have about your products or services, help with product selection and help increase conversions of visitors into sales.

Below are just some statistics that 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 web site if it has ratings and customer reviews.”
• According to Reevoo.com, customer reviews can result in an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more consumer 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 user-generated content (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 Customer Reviews And Testimonials – Managing Online Reputation

Clearly, you should be adding great testimonials and reviews from really happy clients who have experienced positive results with your business to your website.

Customer testimonials and reviews, however, can work both ways and impact your business both in a negative as well as positive manner.

You see, people may not be saying bad things about your products directly to you, but they could have posted unhelpful words on a discussion group 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 engaging in online reputation management practices, such as the process 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 being aware of this.

See this article to learn more about a simple yet effective WordPress plugin that can help you avoid the escalation of negative reviews about your business through effective user review management:

• Managing Your Online Reputation Easily With Power Online Reviews Plugin

How To Create Standout Testimonials – Useful Tips

User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive ways of helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be added to your content. When you quote your own user responses in your content, you:

• Show others exactly with similar problems and pains what your products and services can do for them.
• Help prospects identify and address their objections.
• Help prospects connect with their aspirations and motivations and this facilitates moving them closer to a buying decision.

Below are some useful tips on how to create captivating testimonials:

• Avoid over-editing: You should try to use 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 real photos: 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 site’s content.
• Tell a story: Stories are far more powerful and captivating 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 more lasting impression on those reading your content than presenting generalized statements about how “excellent” the customer service has been and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
• Use it in context: It’s good to add testimonials in your web content 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 if you were to add a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution sells for before posting pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before discussing the benefits of your services, or testimonials where customers are truly ecstatic about your support before offering guarantees or addressing objections.
• Quantify the information: Which of the following statements do you think is more powerful… “XYZ solution was directly responsible for helping to increase our net profit by $84,826 in the previous fiscal year,” or “XYZ solution definitely helped us grow our business?” Whenever possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable results, like how much your solution helped to increase their sales or reduce their costs by 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.
• Avoid using the same testimonial throughout your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult if you are just starting out and don’t have many clients, it’s best to avoid displaying the same testimonial throughout your site. Depending on the type of business you run, 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 testimonials across different platforms. If someone posts fantastic feedback on your Facebook wall praising your customer service, send them a message asking for permission to reprint the content on your blog.
• Only use genuine client testimonials. Many people can see through sites that employ copywriters to create content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your prospects need to believe that the testimonials displayed on your site are real. Don’t compromise your integrity or reputation with a ”made up” testimonial.

How To Get Testimonials

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.

Follow these useful guidelines for soliciting testimonials:

• Make a point of contacting clients after a specific period of time, e.g. 30 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you did not obtain one immediately after performing 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 the results, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a short video testimonial/feedback interview. If they agree, while recording the video, describe to viewers what you have done for the client and capture the client’s positive reactions and responses.
• Make it easy and write it for them. Whenever clients send you a positive email thanking you for a great job 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 your client and ask them for permission to publish it. Explain that you have already prepared something to help them save time and invite them to edit what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.

Offer To Post A Link To The Source Wherever You Quote Their Testimonial

Offer to add a link to their site 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 real 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 one of your newsletter broadcasts. Preferably, this should be timed to reach subscribers just after your clients have had a chance to measure the results of using your products. Use words like “I need your help” in your email subject and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking subscribers for honest feedback, a testimonial, or a review of your services.

Use LinkedIn

The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature is a great way to request testimonials from other members for your account. With LinkedIn, 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 site (you can offer to add a link back to their profile in exchange).

Create A Testimonials Page

Create a new section on your website or blog for customer testimonials and add a “read more client testimonials …” link pointing to your main testimonials section whenever you are displaying new testimonials on your site.

Tip: You can measure how effective testimonials are 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 measuring what visitors are doing on your pages.

We have written an article about a heatmap analytics software you can add to your sites to understand visitor behavior here:

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

Testimonial Plugins

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 (with instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), you can then refer customers to your “Testimonials” page.

Below are some plugins you can check out:

Easy Testimonials

Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use free plugin that lets you add testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed them into a Page or Post using a shortcode. Easy Testimonials also lets you insert a list of all testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include an image with each testimonial, which is great to add a photo of the testimonial author, their business logo, etc.

Easy Testimonials also provides a “pro” version that has additional features and developer support.

To learn more about this plugin, visit this site:

• Easy Testimonials – WordPress Plugin

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 pages and posts. You can insert testimonials content using 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 extra features via a premium version, including built-in options SEO functionality and developer support.

To download and use this plugin, visit this site:

• Testimonials Widget

Testimonials WordPress Plugin

This is a premium WP plugin that provides plenty of 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 slideshows, sliders, grid layout, list layout, etc. using a shortcode
• Styling options (display image on top, bottom, or side of the testimonial, display testimonials in a speech bubble, customize font and background colors, font types and more.

Visit this site to download this plugin:

• Testimonials Plugin

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

• How To Add Testimonials In WordPress

In Conclusion …

Customer reviews and testimonials 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 clients or customers, and publish positive content about your business on your web site.

Additional Info

For additional resources about creating engaging clients testimonials refer to these useful articles:

• 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 you how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating useful content that will add value to 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 completely FREE!

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