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 new customers, and getting the exact same results? Most business owners don’t need to be told that generating new business can be extremely hard. Just trying to stay 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 and social media-driven economy, you cannot afford to ignore the effect of online consumer behavior, especially if they are posting comments about your business.
Ignoring what clients may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
You could be doing your business a great disservice if you are not boosting the positive things your clients say about your products and services. 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.
In this article, you’ll discover how to improve your visitor-to-sales conversions with knockout user testimonials.
Testimonials And Consumer Reviews
Legendary showman and successful promoter Phineas Taylor P.T. Barnum once stated that “Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.”
P.T. Barnum understood the power of “social proof”. Social proof-driven content is a powerful and effective way of promoting your business. Quoting reviews directly from satisfied clients is existing clients are far more persuasive for drawing new clients, customers or users than anything you can say about your own products or services.
There is clearly a source of untapped opportunities for generating new business that most small businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … testimonials and reviews from happy users!
Consumer reviews and customer testimonials are a fantastic way to build credibility for your business.
Research conducted by marketing companies all lead to the same inevitable conclusion: adding user reviews and testimonials to your site helps decrease doubts potential customers may have about products or solutions that you are trying to sell, helps with product selection and increases sales.
Below are just some statistics that 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 site if it has ratings and consumer reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, consumer reviews are responsible for producing an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more user 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).
- 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).
(The figures above were sourced from eConsultancy.com)
Adding User Reviews And Testimonials – Managing Online Reputation
Adding reviews and testimonials to your site from customers is essential for creating a solid online business reputation.
Reviews and customer testimonials, however, can work both ways and impact your business both in a negative as well as positive way.
People may not be saying bad things about your products directly to your face, but they could have posted unhelpful words on a forum about an unpleasant 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 managing your reputation online, such as being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you just don’t need it) may be harming your business without you even realizing this.
See this article to learn more about a WordPress plugin that lets you legally and ethically manage customer feedback:
Tips On How To Create Compelling User Testimonials
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive when it comes to helping you 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 help to solve for them and how easily it can do this.
- Help prospects identify their objections and address these.
- Help potential customers connect with their aspirations and motivations and facilitate moving them further along the sales process.
Below are some tips on how to create user testimonials:
- Avoid over-editing: Try using the actual words used by your customers as much as possible. Leaving grammatical errors and misspelled words in the content helps keep your testimonials sounding authentic.
- Use photos: Images of people’s faces draw attention to your content. Adding photos of your clients next to their testimonials and reviews can help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your content.
- Tell a story: Stories are much more powerful 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 far more lasting impression on those reading your content than using generalized statements about how “excellent” your support has been and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
- Keep it in context: Add customer testimonials in your site copy where it makes the most sense to place them, and where they 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 display a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution sells for before posting product pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before discussing the benefits of your products, or testimonials where customers are genuinely thrilled about your customer service when offering a money-back guarantee or providing content that helps your readers overcome their objections.
- Quantify the information: Which of the following statements is more powerful: “Since using your XYZ product, we were able to grow our sales by $11,303 in the last fiscal year,” or “XYZ solution helped us grow our sales?” Whenever possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable results, like how much your solution helped to increase their profits 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 during a specific period, 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 a little difficult if you are just starting out or have very few 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 client testimonials by offering limited review copies of your product, or a special launch discount for clients in exchange for an honest review and permission to publish it if you choose to use it.
- Appeal to your best customer: 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 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 content across different platforms. If someone publishes a great comment on your Facebook wall praising your commitment to customer satisfaction, ask them permission to reprint the comment or post on your site.
- Don’t use fake testimonials. Prospective clients need to see that the testimonials you provide on your site are genuine. Don’t destroy your reputation with a ”made up” testimonial.
How To Get Testimonials From Your Clients
Ask
Getting a testimonial from a happy client can be as simple as just asking for it.
Follow these tips for requesting testimonials from your customers:
- Contact your clients after 90 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you did not obtain one after performing a service.
- Add a text box for testimonials in your client surveys.
- Take out your phone when you next meet with clients or hand over a completed job and if they are delighted with the results, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a very brief video testimonial/feedback interview. During the video, explain to your viewers what you have done for the client and record your client’s positive reactions and responses.
- Make it easy for them. Whenever a client sends 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 use it. Explain that you have already prepared something to help them save 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 Publish A Link To Their Site Wherever You Quote Their Testimonial
Offer to post a link to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive to get clients providing 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 subscriber list, include requests for a testimonial in one of your newsletter mailouts. This should be done as soon as your clients have had a chance to assess the results of using your product, service or solution. Use words like “I need a quick favor” in the subject of your message and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking clients to provide honest feedback, a testimonial, or a review of your services.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature lets you obtain testimonials from other members that become part of 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 for permission to reprint it on your site (tip: offer to publish a link back to their website in exchange).
Create A Client Testimonials Page
Create a “Testimonials” page and place a “read more client testimonials …” link to your main testimonials page throughout your site.
Useful Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of your client 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 site are “heatmaps”.
We have written an article about adding heatmaps to your website to track visitor behaviour here:
Testimonial Plugins For WordPress
If you use 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 testimonials.
Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (remember to provide simple instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), all you have to do is send clients to your “Testimonials” page.
Here are a few useful testimonial plugins you can check out:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is a free WP plugin that lets you add customer testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into posts and pages using a shortcode. The Easy Testimonials plugin also lets you publish a list of all testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include an image with each testimonial, which you can use for adding a photo of the testimonial author, a company logo, etc.
Easy Testimonials also can be upgraded to a “pro” version with additional features and plugin support.
For more information about the plugin, visit this site:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free WordPress plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with images or videos on your blog. 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.
The plugin makes loads of additional features available via a premium version, including built-in options SEO functionality and plugin support.
Go here to download this plugin:
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 displaying correctly on any device or browser.
- Display options for your testimonials in a widget or as sliders, slideshows, list layout, grid layout, etc. via a shortcode
- Styling options (display image on top, bottom, or side of testimonials, display testimonial in a speech bubble, customized font and background colors, font types and more.
To learn more about using the plugin, visit this site:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Summary …
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 clients, and start publishing these on your site.
Additional Info
The articles below are a great source of information about creating effective testimonials and were 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 a comprehensive series of training emails with easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality content for 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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