Build Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews
Are you stuck in a cycle of doing what you’ve always done to attract customers, and getting the exact same disappointing results? Most business owners don’t need to be told that trying to generate new customers can be difficult. Just trying to keep your business afloat requires a lot of time, money and energy, and sometimes this can feel like it’s just not worth the effort.
In today’s digital economy, ignoring what customers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
Don’t ignore what your clients may be saying online about your business!
By the same token, you may also be doing your business a great disservice if you don’t spread the positive things your clients say about your products, solutions, user training, support, etc. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are effective ways of helping you market your products and services online and should be an integral part of your content.
In this article, we’ll show you tips for turning more visitors into qualified prospects with compelling client testimonials.
Testimonials And User Reviews
Phineas Taylor 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-driven content is a powerful and effective way of getting your business promoted. Genuine reviews and testimonials from existing users are far more persuasive when it comes to drawing new customers 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 simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … customer reviews!
Reviews and customer testimonials are great for building credibility for your products and services.
Studies conducted by leading firms all seem to lead to the same inevitable conclusion: adding customer testimonials and consumer reviews to your site helps reduce doubts potential customers may have about buying a particular product, helps users select products and helps increase sales.
Below are just some of the statistics available to 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 customer reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, customer reviews can result in an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more reviews per product can mean a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Web site visitors who interact with both 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).
(The figures above were sourced from eConsultancy.com)
Adding Client Reviews – Managing Online Reputation
Adding positive reviews and testimonials to your website from clients who are thrilled with the results they’ve obtained by using your products or services is important for helping you grow your business online and creating a solid online reputation.
Customer testimonials and user reviews, however, are like double-edged swords; they can affect your business both positive and negative ways.
You see, people may not be saying bad things about your products directly to you, but they could post updates on Facebook, or a discussion thread or forum 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 a significant part of your online business success strategy.
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 it) may be harming your business without you even being aware of it.
See this article to learn more about a plugin for WordPress users that allows you to legally and ethically manage customer reviews:
How To Create Standout Testimonials – Useful Tips
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are powerful when it comes to helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be added to your content marketing strategy. When you include responses from users in your content, you:
- Show others exactly with similar problems and pains how your products and services can help them.
- Help site visitors identify their objections and address these.
- Help potential customers connect with their motivations and this facilitates moving them further along the sales process.
Here are some practical tips on creating client 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 keep your testimonials sounding authentic.
- Use photos: It’s a proven fact that using images of people’s faces draws the attention of visitors on a web page. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews can help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your content.
- Tell a powerful story: Stories are so much more powerful and captivating than simply providing facts and statistics. 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 how “excellent” the service was 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 testimonials in your web content where it best makes sense to place them, and where you believe these can most effectively help to sell your point. For example, think about the impact you will have on your visitor’s perception by adding a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution sells for before posting your service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before presenting the benefits of your products, or testimonials where clients are truly ecstatic about your support before offering guarantees or addressing objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements do you think is more powerful… “XYZ solution was directly responsible for helping us grow our profits by $88,523 in the previous fiscal year,” or “XYZ software has helped us grow our sales?” Whenever possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable results, like how much your solution helped to increase their market share 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.
- Vary the testimonials on your site: Although this can be a little difficult if you are just starting out or don’t have many clients, try to avoid using the same testimonial everywhere on your web pages. Depending on the nature of your business, you could try to obtain more 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 best customer: As every infomercial featuring a celebrity endorsement, subject expert or “busy mom” knows, if you know who your ideal customer is, providing testimonials from people who your prospects aspire to become is 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 across different platforms. If you get a great comment on your Facebook page praising your solution, contact them privately asking for their permission to reprint the comment or post on your blog.
- Never use fake testimonials. Many people can see through sites that employ copywriters to create their content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your prospects need to see that the testimonials provided on your site are real. Don’t compromise your credibility with ”made up” testimonials.
How To Get Client Testimonials
Always Ask For Testimonials
When you complete 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 tips for requesting testimonials from your customers:
- Make it a part of your business processes to contact customers after a specific period of time, e.g. 14 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you have not obtained one after completing your service.
- Include a field for entering testimonials in all your client satisfaction surveys.
- Pull out your phone when you next meet with clients or hand over a completed project and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they would be happy to record a very short video testimonial/feedback interview. During your video, describe to your viewers what you have done for your client and record the client’s positive reactions and feedback.
- Make it easy for them. If a client sends you positive written feedback 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 your client and ask them for permission to use it. Explain that you have already prepared something to save them time and invite them to change what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.
Offer To Publish A Link Back To Their Site Wherever You Publish Their Testimonial
Offer to post a link back to their website in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great 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 Testimonial Requests To Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a subscriber list, include requests for a testimonial in a scheduled auto responder message. This should be timed to reach subscribers just after your customers have had a chance to assess the results of using your products or services. 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 subscribers for feedback, a testimonial, or a review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature allows you to obtain testimonials from other members that become part of 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 website (and offer to publish a link back to their website or profile in exchange).
Create A Testimonials Section
Create a “Testimonials” page and add a “more customer testimonials …” link to this page whenever you display single testimonials on your content sections.
Practical Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of your customer testimonials by how long visitors stay on the section of your pages or posts where you have added the testimonial content. ”Heatmapping” technology is a great way to observing what visitors are doing on your pages.
We have written an article about a heatmap software you can add to your site to monitor visitor behavior here:
WordPress Plugins
If you use 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 testimonials.
Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), all you have to do is refer users to your “Testimonials” section.
Here are some plugins you can check out:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is a free WP plugin that lets you add customer testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into posts and pages using a shortcode. The plugin also lets you add a list of all testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include an image with each testimonial, which is great for adding a photo of the testimonial author, their company logo, etc.
Easy Testimonials also provides a “pro” version with additional features and plugin support.
To download and use the plugin, go here:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free WordPress plugin that lets you add random or 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 have multiple display options such as random or specific ordering.
The Testimonials Widget plugin makes plenty more features available via a premium version, including built-in options for improved search engine results and plugin support.
Visit this site to download and use the plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This is a premium plugin that offers a range of great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes for correct display on any device or browser.
- Display options for your testimonials in a widget or as slideshows, sliders, grid layout, list layout, etc. using a shortcode
- Styling options (display image at the top, bottom, or side of the testimonial, display testimonials in a speech bubble, customize font and background colours, font types and more.
For more information about 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 your clients or customers, and publish positive content about your business on your site.
Resources
For additional information about creating effective testimonials read 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 actionable information that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your web 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 100% FREE!
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