How To Build Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews

Are you stuck in a cycle of doing what you’ve always done to attract customers, only to get the exact same results? As most business owners know, that generating new customers can be hard. 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 digital, mobile and social media-driven economy, ignoring what users may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!

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

By the same token, you could be doing your business a great disservice if you aren’t publishing the positive things your clients are saying about your products or services. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are effective when it comes to helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be added throughout your content.

In this article, we’ll show you ways to improve your conversions with more effective customer testimonials.

User Reviews And Testimonials

Legendary showman Phineas Taylor P.T. Barnum 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 and effective way of promoting your business. Quoting genuine testimonials and reviews from your satisfied users is satisfied customers are far more persuasive for drawing new customers, clients or users than anything you can say about your own products or services.

There is a source of untapped opportunities for generating new business that most businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … testimonials and reviews from their users!

Reviews and testimonials are fantastic for building credibility for your business.

Studies conducted by leading firms all seem to lead to the same inevitable conclusion: adding testimonials and reviews to your site helps decrease doubts potential customers may have about products, helps users select products and helps increase sales conversions.

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

• According to a study by eVoc Insights, an organization 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 user reviews.”
• According to Reevoo.com, user reviews can result in an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more consumer reviews per product can result in a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
• Web site 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).
• 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).

(Above figures sourced from eConsultancy.com)

Adding Consumer Testimonials And Reviews – Managing Online Reputation

Adding positive testimonials and reviews to your site from people who are delighted with your products or services is essential for creating a solid online business reputation.

Customer testimonials and reviews, however, are like double-edged swords; they can impact your business both negatively and positively.

You see, people may not be saying bad things about your business, products or services directly to your face, but they could post disparaging remarks on Facebook, or a forum or discussion group about an unpleasant experience they’ve just had using your products 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 a vital aspect of your 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 hurting your business without you even realizing it.

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

• Manage Poor Client Feedback With Power Online Reviews

Tips On Improving Your Sales With Testimonials

Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful ways of helping you market and promote your products and services online and should be included as part of your content marketing strategy. When you include your own user responses in your content, you:

• Show prospects exactly with similar problems and pains how your products and services can help them.
• Help potential customers identify and address their objections.
• Help prospects connect with their aspirations and motivations and facilitate the sales process.

Here are some tips on creating customer testimonials:

• Don’t over edit: Try to use the actual words used by your customers as much as possible. Leaving grammatical errors and misspelt words in the content helps to keep it ‘real’.
• Use photos of real people: Marketing studies show 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 increase visitor engagement with your content.
• Use the power of storytelling: Stories are far more effective and captivating than just providing facts and statistics. Being able to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution came to the rescue will make a more lasting impression on those reading your content than presenting generic statements about excellent customer service and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
• Keep it in context: It’s good to add customer testimonials to your site copy where it best makes sense to place them, and where they can most effectively help sell your point. Think about the impact you will have on your visitor’s perception if you were to display a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution sells for before posting price information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before talking about the benefits of your services, or testimonials where clients are truly ecstatic about your support before offering a risk-free guarantee or addressing objections.
• Quantify the information: Which of the following statements do you think your prospects would find more powerful… “Since using your XYZ services, we have seen a profit growth of $20,781 in the previous financial quarter,” or “XYZ software 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 of work you have helped them save, how many new leads or new clients they were able to generate in a recent financial period, 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 when you are just starting out and have very few clients, it’s best to avoid displaying the same testimonial everywhere on your site’s pages. Depending on your business, you could try to obtain more user 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 target audience 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 you get great feedback on your Facebook page praising your customer service, send them a message asking for permission to reprint the content on your blog.
• Don’t use fake client testimonials. Prospective clients need to see that the testimonials displayed on your site are real. Don’t compromise your integrity with ”made up” testimonials.

How To Get Testimonials From Customers

Ask

Getting a testimonial from a satisfied customer can be as simple as just asking for it.

Follow these useful tips for requesting testimonials:

• Contact clients after a specific period of time, e.g. 14 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you did not obtain one immediately after completing your service.
• Add a field for entering testimonials in all your client surveys.
• Take out your phone when you next meet with a client or hand over a completed project and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a quick video testimonial/feedback interview. If they agree, while recording the video, describe to viewers what you have done for your client and make sure to capture your client’s positive reactions and responses.
• Make it easy for them. If a client sends 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 written – don’t put words into their mouth), and use these to create a testimonial, then contact the client and ask them for permission to quote them on your site. Explain that you have done this to help them save time and let them know they are completely free to modify what you have written however they see fit before replying with their approval.

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

Offer to publish a link to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great incentive for 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 requests for a testimonial in a regularly-spaced email message. Preferably, this should be timed to reach subscribers just after your clients have had a chance to experience your solution. Use words like “I need a quick favor” in the subject of your email and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking them to provide honest feedback, a testimonial, or a review.

Use LinkedIn

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

Create A Client Testimonials Section

Create a new page for customer testimonials and add a “more customer testimonials …” link to this page throughout your site.

Useful Tip: You can measure how useful testimonials are by how long visitors remain on the section of your pages or posts where you have added your testimonial content. A great tool for observing visitor behavior on your site are “heatmaps”.

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

• How To Track Visitor Behavior On Your WordPress Site Using HeatMap Software – HeatMap Tracker Review

Using Testimonial Plugins

If your site or blog is powered by WordPress, you can use a plugin to add, edit and display testimonials. Some plugins also let you add a form to your pages inviting users to submit reviews and testimonials.

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

Below are some testimonial plugins you can check out:

Easy Testimonials

Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use free plugin that lets you add user testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed them into your pages and posts using a shortcode. The plugin also lets you insert a list of all your testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which you can use to add a photo of the testimonial author, their company logo, etc.

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

For more information about this plugin, go here:

• Easy Testimonials

Testimonials Widget

Testimonials Widget is a free WP plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with videos or images on your site. You can insert testimonials content via a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and specify different display options such as random or specific ordering.

Testimonials Widget provides additional features via a premium version, including built-in functions for better search engine results and technical support.

Visit this site to download this plugin:

• Testimonials Widget

Testimonials WordPress Plugin

This is a premium WP plugin that offers plenty of great features right out of the box, including:

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

Visit this site to download and use the 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 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 customers or clients, and start publishing these on your website or blog.

Resources

For additional resources about creating effective testimonials see 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 a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable information that will teach 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 strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

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