Build Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews

Are you stuck in a cycle of doing what you’ve always done to attract and retain customers, only to get the exact same disappointing results? Most business owners don’t need to be told that finding effective ways of generating new customers can be confusing, frustrating and extremely difficult. Just trying to keep your business afloat takes up a lot of your time, money and energy, and sometimes this can feel like it’s just not worth the effort.

In today’s online and social media-driven economy, it’s foolish to ignore the impact of what your potential customers are doing online, especially if they are talking about your business.

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

By the same token, you may also be doing your business a great disservice if you are not boosting the positive things your clients are saying about your solutions, customer training, support, etc. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful ways of helping you market your products and services online and should be an integral part of your content marketing.

In this article, we’ll show you how to turn more visitors into qualified prospects with compelling user testimonials.

Client Reviews

P.T. Barnum, the great American showman and successful promoter, is often quoted as having 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. Quoting testimonials and reviews directly from satisfied users is satisfied clients are far more persuasive when it comes to drawing new customers, clients or users than anything you have to say about your own products or services.

There is clearly an untapped source of opportunities for generating new business that most businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … reviews from their previous clients!

Testimonials and customer reviews are a great way to build credibility for your business.

Studies conducted by many marketing companies all seem to point to the same inevitable conclusion: user reviews and testimonials decrease doubts potential customers may have about a certain product, help users select products and help increase conversions of visitors into sales.

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

• According to research findings by eVoc Insights, an organization known for researching and measuring 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, user reviews can produce an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more reviews per product can result in a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
• 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 user-generated content (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 Customer Reviews And Testimonials – Online Reputation Management

Adding positive reviews to your website from customers who are thrilled with your services is important for growing your business and creating a solid online reputation.

Testimonials and customer reviews, however, are like double-edged swords; they can affect your business both negatively and positively.

You see, people may not be saying bad things about your business directly to you, but they could be posting negative comments on Facebook 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 an important part of your online business success strategy.

Misconceptions about online reputation management, such as being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you just don’t need it) may be hurting your business without you even realizing this.

See this article to learn more about a simple WordPress plugin that lets you legally and ethically manage customer reviews:

• How To Manage Poor User Feedback In WordPress With Power Online Reviews Plugin

How To Create Powerful Testimonials – Useful Tips

User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive ways of marketing your products and services online and should be an integral part of your content. When you include responses from customers in your content, you:

• Show others exactly what pains and problems your products and services can solve for them and how easily it can do this.
• Help site visitors identify and address their objections.
• Help potential customers connect with their motivations and this facilitates moving them further along the sales process.

Here are some practical tips on creating testimonials:

• Don’t over edit: You should try to use the actual words used by your customers as much as possible. Leave little grammatical or spelling errors in the content. This helps keep your testimonials ‘real’.
• Use photos: Images of people’s faces draw attention on a web page. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews will help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your site’s content.
• Tell a story: Stories are much more powerful and captivating than simply providing facts and statistics. 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 generic statements about excellent service and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
• Use it in context: Add testimonials to your site copy where it best makes sense to place them, and where you believe these can most effectively help you sell your point. Think about the impact you will have on your visitor’s perception if you were to add a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution sells for before posting your product or service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before talking about the benefits of your products, or testimonials where customers are truly ecstatic about your support before offering guarantees or providing content that helps your readers overcome their objections.
• Quantify the information: Which of the following statements do you think is more powerful: “Since using your services, we have seen our sales increase by $99,839 in the last financial quarter,” or “XYZ software 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 sales or reduce their costs by in specific percentages or amounts, how many hours of work they have saved, how many new leads or new clients they were able to generate during a specific business quarter, 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 have very few clients, it’s best to avoid using the same testimonial throughout your site. 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 clients in exchange for an honest review and permission to publish it if you choose 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 can relate to 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 you get fantastic feedback on your Facebook wall praising your business, ask them for permission to reprint the comment or post on your site.
• Don’t use fake client testimonials. Most people can see through sites that employ copywriters to write content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your potential customers need to see that the testimonials you provide on your site are real. Don’t compromise your integrity or reputation with a ”made up” testimonial.

How To Get Testimonials From Your Customers

Ask

When you complete performing a service, or a customer says they are really happy with your product or service, ask them for a testimonial.

Here are some tips for soliciting testimonials from your clients:

• Contact your customers after 14 days with an email request for a testimonial if you have not obtained one immediately after completing your service.
• Add a field for testimonials in your client satisfaction 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 would be happy to record a very quick video testimonial/feedback interview. If they agree, while recording the video, explain to viewers what you have done for the client and make sure to record their positive reactions and feedback.
• Make it easy and write it for them. Whenever clients send 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 your client and ask them for permission to publish it. Explain that you have already prepared something to help them save time and invite them to edit what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.

Offer To Post A Link Back To Their Site Wherever You Publish Their Testimonial

Offer to publish a link back to their website in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive for clients to provide you with a testimonial. It also makes an 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 subscriber list, include a request for a testimonial in one of your newsletter messages. Preferably, this should be timed to reach subscribers just after your clients have had a chance to assess the results of using 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 honest feedback, a testimonial, or a review of your services.

Use LinkedIn

The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature lets you request testimonials that become part of your account. With LinkedIn, the process for requesting and providing recommendations is quite user-friendly and the person providing the recommendation receives a link to their profile. If you get a recommendation on LinkedIn, ask for permission to reprint it on your website (tip: offer to publish a link back to their website or profile in exchange).

Create A Testimonials Page On Your Site

Create a new section for customer testimonials and place a “read more testimonials …” link to this page wherever you have displayed single testimonials on your content sections.

Useful Tip: You can measure how useful client testimonials are 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 visitor behaviour on your site.

We have written an article about adding heatmap analytics to your website to observe visitor behavior here:

• How To Track Visitor Behaviour On Your WordPress Site With Heat Map Tools – HeatMapTracker Review

Using Testimonial Plugins

If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to display testimonials. Some plugins also let you add forms to your pages inviting users to submit reviews and testimonials.

Once your plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), all you have to do is send clients to your “Testimonials” section.

Check out the WordPress testimonial 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 them into posts and pages using a shortcode. Easy Testimonials also lets you publish a list of all your testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include an image with each testimonial, which is great for adding a photo of the testimonial author, a company logo, etc.

The Easy Testimonials plugin also can be upgraded to a “pro” version that has additional features and developer support.

To download and use the plugin, visit this site:

• 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 images or videos on your web site. You can insert user testimonials using a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and specify different display options such as random or specific ordering.

The plugin comes with added features via a premium version, including built-in options SEO functionality and developer support.

To learn more about using the plugin, go here:

• Testimonials Widget

Testimonials WordPress Plugin

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

• Responsive design that resizes to display correctly 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 at the top, bottom, or side of testimonials, display testimonials in a speech bubble, customize font and background colors, font types and more.

For more information about using the plugin, go here:

• Testimonials WordPress Plugin

To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:

• How To Add Testimonials In WordPress

In Summary …

Client testimonials and user reviews are powerful sources of content that 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 your customers or clients, and start publishing these on your site.

Additional Info

For additional information on creating engaging 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 easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your site 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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