Build Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract and retain new customers, and getting the exact same results? As most small business owners know, that trying to generate new business can be hard, time consuming and frustrating. Just trying to stay in business 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 and social media-driven economy, ignoring what users may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
Don’t ignore what consumers may be saying online about your business!
By the same token, you are also doing your business a disservice if you are not spreading the positive things your customers say about your products or services. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are effective when it comes to marketing your products and services online and should be included as part of your content marketing strategy.
In this article, you will learn how to achieve better results online with standout user testimonials.
Client Reviews
Legendary American showman and successful promoter Phineas Taylor (Aka “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 way of getting your business promoted effectively. Genuine testimonials and reviews quoted directly from satisfied users are far more persuasive for attracting new clients, customers or users than anything you have to say about your own products or services.
There is clearly a source of untapped opportunities for generating new business that most small businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … consumer testimonials and reviews!
Reviews and testimonials are fantastic for building credibility for your services or products.
Studies conducted by many leading marketing research firms all lead to the same conclusion: user reviews and testimonials help reduce doubts potential customers may have about buying products, help with product selection and help increase conversions of visitors into sales.
Here are just some of the stats available to support this:
- According to research 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 site if it has ratings and reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, user reviews play a significant role in creating 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 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 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 Client Reviews And Testimonials – Managing Online Reputation
You should be adding great testimonials and reviews from clients who have experienced positive results with your business to your website.
Reviews and customer testimonials, however, can work both ways and impact your business both positively or negatively.
People may not be saying bad things about your services directly to your face, but they could post disparaging remarks on a discussion group about a bad encounter they’ve just had with one of your sales or customer support representatives 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 business success.
Misconceptions about online reputation management, 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 harming your business without you even realizing it.
See this article to learn more about a plugin for WordPress users that can help you avoid the escalation of negative reviews about your products through effective user review management:
Tips On How To Create Profit Boosting Testimonials
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are powerful when it comes to helping you market your products and services online and should be added to your content. When you quote your own customer responses in your content, you:
- Show prospects exactly with similar problems and pains what your products and services can do for them.
- Help prospects identify their objections and address these.
- Help prospects connect with their motivations and aspirations and facilitate moving them closer to a buying decision.
Below are some practical tips on improving your conversions with testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: You should try to use the actual words used by your customers as much as you can. Leaving grammatical errors and misspellings in the content helps to keep it ‘real’.
- Use real photos: Images of people’s faces draw attention on 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 site’s content.
- Use the power of storytelling: Stories are far more powerful and captivating than just providing statistical facts. Being able to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution came to the rescue will make a far longer-lasting impression on those reading your content than presenting generalized statements about excellent service and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
- Use it in context: It’s good to add testimonials to your web content where it makes the most sense to place them, and where you believe these can most effectively help you sell your point. For example, think about the impact you can create on your visitor’s perception if you were to add a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution sells for before posting your pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before presenting the benefits of your products, or testimonials where clients are truly thrilled about your support before offering a money-back 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 bottom line by $26,338 in the last financial quarter,” or “XYZ software has helped us grow our business?” If possible, ask clients to specify quantifiable results when submitting testimonials, like how much your solution helped to increase their profits or reduce their costs by in specific percentages or amounts, how many hours you have helped them save, how many new leads or new clients they were able to generate in a recent 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 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’s pages. 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 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 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 someone publishes fantastic feedback on your Facebook wall praising your commitment to customer satisfaction, contact them privately asking for permission to reprint the content on your blog.
- Never use fake client testimonials. Most people can tell if you are employing copy writers to create your content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your prospects need to see that the testimonials published on your site are genuine. Don’t compromise your credibility or reputation with false testimonials.
How To Get Testimonials
Ask
If you have just completed performing a service, or a customer says they are really happy with your product or service, ask them for a testimonial.
Follow these tips for soliciting testimonials:
- Contact customers after 90 days with an email request for a testimonial if you have not obtained one immediately after completing a service.
- Include a field for testimonials in client satisfaction surveys.
- Pull out your phone when you next visit a client or hand over a finished job and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a short video testimonial/feedback interview. When recording the video, explain to your viewers what you have done for the client and try to capture their positive reactions and feedback.
- Make it easy for them. If a client sends you a positive email thanking you for a great service that contains snippets of useful testimonial material interspersed with the rest of their message, grab the juiciest sections (only use what they have given you – don’t put words into their mouth), and shape these into a testimonial, then contact your client and ask them for permission to quote them on your site. Explain that you have done this to save them time and let them know they are completely free to edit what you have written however they see fit before replying with their approval.
Offer To Post A Link To Their Site Wherever You Publish Their Testimonial
Offer to add a link back to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive for clients to provide a testimonial. It also makes the implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are not fake and can be verified.
Include A Testimonial Request In Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a list of subscribers, include requests for a testimonial in a regularly-spaced auto responder message. Preferably, this should be done after your customers have had a chance to assess the results of using your 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 subscribers for honest feedback, a testimonial, or a review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature allows you to obtain testimonials from other members for your account. 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 (and offer to add a link back to their website or profile in exchange).
Create A Customer Testimonials Page
Create a new page for client testimonials and add a “more client testimonials …” link pointing to your main testimonials page whenever you plan to display new testimonials on your site.
Practical Tip: You can measure how effective customer testimonials are by how long visitors remain on the section of your pages or posts where you have added the testimonial content. A great tool for observing visitor behaviour on your site are “heatmaps”.
We have written an article about a heatmap technology you can add to your website to predict visitor behaviour here:
Testimonial Plugins For WordPress
If your website or blog is built using WordPress, you can use a plugin to add, edit and display testimonials. Some plugins also allow you to add forms to your pages inviting users to submit feedback and testimonials.
Once your plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), you then send customers to your “Testimonials” section.
Here are some great 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 a Page or Post using a shortcode. Easy Testimonials also lets you add 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 business logo, etc.
Easy Testimonials also comes with a “pro” version that has additional features and plugin support.
Go here to download the plugin:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free WP plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with videos or images on your website. 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 Testimonials Widget plugin has plenty more features available via a premium version, including built-in options for improved search engine results and developer support.
To download this plugin, go here:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium plugin provides 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 sliders, slideshows, grid layout, list layout, etc. using a shortcode
- Styling options (display image on top, bottom, or side of testimonials, display testimonials in a speech bubble, customized font and background colours, font types and more.
Visit this site to download and use this plugin:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Summary …
Testimonials and customer reviews are powerful sources of content that can 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 publish positive content about your business on your website or blog.
Resources
For additional sources of information and resources about creating effective customer testimonials see these 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 show you how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating useful content for 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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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now