Build Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract new customers, only to get the exact same disappointing results? Most business owners don’t need to be told that generating new customers can be difficult. Just trying to keep your business afloat takes a lot of time, money and energy, and sometimes this can feel like it’s just not worth the effort.
In today’s web-based and social-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!
You could be doing your business a disservice if you aren’t publishing the positive things your customers say about your products, services, client training, support, etc. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive ways of helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be included as part of your content.
In this article, you will learn ways to improve your sales conversions using awesome customer testimonials.
User Reviews And Testimonials
P.T. Barnum, legendary American showman, 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-driven content is a powerful way of getting your business promoted effectively. Quoting 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 simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … user reviews and testimonials!
Testimonials and user reviews are effective for building credibility for your products or services.
Research conducted by many marketing research companies all point to the same inevitable conclusion: testimonials and user reviews help reduce doubts potential customers may have about purchasing a product or service, help users select products and increases sales.
Here are just some of the statistics available to support this:
- According to research findings 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 web site if it has ratings and reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, customer reviews 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.
- 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).
(Source: eConsultancy.com)
Adding Client Testimonials And Reviews – Managing Online Reputation
Adding reviews to your site from delighted customers is important for growing your business and creating a solid online reputation.
Reviews and testimonials, however, are like double-edged swords; they can affect your business both in a negative or positive manner.
You see, people may not be saying bad things about your business, products or services directly to your face, but they could have posted unhelpful comments on a discussion thread 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 vitally important to your online business success.
Misconceptions about engaging in online reputation management practices, such as being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you just don’t need to worry about it) may be seriously causing damage to your business without you even being aware of it.
See this article to learn more about a tool for WordPress users that can help to avoid the escalation of negative reviews about your business, products or services through effective user review management:
Tips On How To Create Testimonials
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive when it comes to helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be included as part of your content marketing strategy. When you include responses from customers 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 facilitate the sales process.
Here are some useful tips on how to create testimonials:
- Avoid over-editing: You should try using the actual words used by your customers as much as possible. Leaving grammatical errors and misspelled words in the content helps preserve the authenticity of your testimonials.
- Use photos: Marketing tests show that using images of people’s faces draws the most attention of visitors browsing a web page. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews can help increase visitor engagement with your site’s content.
- Use the power of storytelling: Stories are much more powerful and memorable than providing mere statistical facts. Being able to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution saved the day will make a more lasting impression on those reading your content than presenting generalized statements about excellent support and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
- Use it in context: Add customer testimonials to your web content where it best makes sense to place them, and where you believe these can most effectively help sell your point. Think about the impact you can create on your visitor’s perception by adding a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution retails for before posting your price information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before discussing the benefits of your services, or testimonials where clients are truly thrilled about your customer service when offering a money-back guarantee or addressing objections.
- Quantify the information: Which of the following statements is more powerful: “As a direct result of using your XYZ services, we have noticed our profits grow by $52,063 in the previous financial quarter,” or “XYZ software definitely helped us grow our business?” Whenever possible, ask clients to specify quantifiable results when submitting testimonials, like how much your solution helped to increase their market share 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 during a specific 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 client testimonial repeatedly throughout your site: Although this can be a little difficult if you are just starting out or don’t have many clients, it’s best to avoid using the same testimonial repeatedly throughout 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 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 ideal 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 powerful motivator and influencer. People want to see and buy from “better versions” of themselves, so make sure to include testimonials targeted to your ideal customers.
- Reprint testimonials across different platforms. If someone posts a great comment on your Facebook page praising your commitment to customer satisfaction, contact them privately asking for permission to reprint the content on your site.
- Only use genuine testimonials. Prospective clients need to see that the testimonials you provide on your site are genuine. Don’t destroy your reputation with a false testimonial.
How To Get Testimonials From Clients
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.
Here are some useful tips for soliciting testimonials:
- Make a point of contacting clients after 60 days with an email request for a testimonial if you did not obtain one after performing a service.
- Add a field for testimonials in 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 would be happy to record a very brief video testimonial/feedback interview. If they agree, while recording your video, describe to your viewers what you have done for the client and try to capture the client’s positive reactions and feedback.
- Make it easy for them. When 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 – don’t 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 done this to save them 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 Post A Link To Their Site Wherever You Quote Their Testimonial
Offer to publish a link back to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great incentive to get clients providing a testimonial. It also makes an implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are not fake and can be verified.
Include Testimonial Requests In Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a list of subscribers, include a request for a testimonial in a scheduled newsletter message. This should be timed to reach subscribers just after your customers have had a chance to use your products. 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 them to provide feedback, a testimonial, or a review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature is a great way to solicit testimonials for your profile. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is simple and user-friendly and the person providing 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 (you can offer to publish a link back to their website or profile in exchange).
Create A Client Testimonials Page On Your Site
Create a new page for testimonials and place a “read more customer testimonials …” link pointing to this page throughout your site.
Tip: You can measure how effective testimonials are by how long visitors stay on the section of your pages or posts where you have added your testimonial content. A great tool for monitoring what visitors are doing on your pages are “heatmaps”.
We have written an article about a heatmap analytics software you can add to your site to measure visitor behaviour here:
Useful WordPress Plugins
If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to add 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 (make sure to provide simple instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), you then refer customers to your “Testimonials” section.
Check out the plugins below:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is a free WordPress plugin that lets you add client testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into a Page or Post using a shortcode. The plugin also lets you insert a list of all testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which can be used for adding a photo of the testimonial author, a logo, etc.
Easy Testimonials also provides users with a “pro” version that offers additional features and technical support.
To download and use the plugin, visit this site:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free WP plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, or text with videos or images on your WordPress site. You can insert customer testimonials using a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and have multiple display options such as random or specific ordering.
Testimonials Widget makes plenty more features available via a premium version, including built-in options for improved search engine results and developer support.
To download the plugin, go here:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This is a premium plugin that 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 your testimonials in a widget or as sliders, slideshows, list layout, grid layout, etc. via 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 this plugin:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Summary …
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 feedback, reviews, and testimonials from your customers or clients, and start publishing these on your web site.
Additional Info
The articles below are a great source of information about creating effective testimonials and were used when researching 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 regular training emails with easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to 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!
***
***
"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum