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? As most business owners know, that finding effective ways of generating new business can be hard. Just trying to survive 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-driven economy, ignoring what your customers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
Don’t ignore what clients 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 are saying about your products, solutions, client training, support, etc. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are effective when it comes to helping you market your products and services online and should be added throughout your content.
In this article, you’ll discover ways to improve your conversions using more effective customer testimonials.
Client Reviews And Testimonials
Legendary American showman Phineas Taylor (Aka “P.T.”) Barnum 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. Reviews and testimonials from your satisfied clients are far more persuasive when it comes to attracting new customers, clients or users than anything you have to say about your own products or services.
There is clearly an untapped source of business growth potential that most small businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … user testimonials and reviews!
Testimonials and reviews are a fantastic way to build credibility for your business.
Marketing studies conducted by leading research firms all point to the same inevitable conclusion: user reviews and testimonials eliminate doubts potential customers may have about purchasing your products or services, help users select products and increases conversions of visitors into sales.
Below are just some of the stats available to support this:
- According to research 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 site if it has ratings and consumer reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, reviews result in an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more user reviews per product can translate into 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 User Reviews – Online Reputation Management
Adding testimonials and reviews to your site from existing customers is important for growing your business and creating a solid online reputation.
Testimonials and consumer reviews, however, can work both ways and impact your business both positive and negative ways.
People may not be saying bad things about your business, products or services directly to your face, but they could post updates on Facebook about a bad experience they’ve just had with your services 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 vital to your business success.
Misconceptions about managing your reputation online, such as the process being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you just don’t need to worry about it) could be seriously causing damage to your business without you even realizing this.
See this article to learn more about a simple yet effective WordPress plugin that can help you avoid the escalation of negative reviews about your business, products or services through effective user review management:
Tips For Creating Profit Boosting Testimonials
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are effective when it comes to helping you market your products and services online and should be included as part of your content. When you quote your own client responses in your content, you:
- Show prospects exactly what pains and problems your products and services can help solve for them and how easily it can do this.
- Help site visitors identify their objections and address these.
- Help prospects connect with their motivations and facilitate moving them closer to a buying decision.
Below are some useful tips on creating effective testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: You should try to use the actual words used by your customers as much as possible. Leaving little grammatical errors and misspellings in the content helps to keep it ‘real’.
- Use real photos: It’s a proven fact that using images of people’s faces draws the most attention of visitors browsing a web page. Adding photos of your clients next to their testimonials and reviews can help increase visitor engagement with your content.
- Use the power of storytelling: Stories are so much more powerful and captivating than just providing statistical facts. The ability to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution came to the rescue will make a far more lasting impression on those reading your content than using generalized statements about how “excellent” your support was 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 makes the most sense to place them, and where they can most effectively help you sell your point. Think about the impact you can create on your visitor’s mind if you were to add a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution can be purchased for before posting your pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before presenting the benefits of your services, or testimonials where customers are genuinely thrilled about your support when offering guarantees or addressing objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements do you think your prospects would find more powerful… “As a direct result of using your services, we we were able to grow our revenue by $28,606 in the last fiscal year,” or “XYZ product 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 market share or reduce their costs 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, 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 or don’t have many clients, it’s best to avoid using the same testimonial repeatedly throughout your site’s pages. 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 discount for clients in exchange for an honest review and permission to publish it if you choose 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 ideal customer is, providing testimonials from people who your prospects can relate to can be 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 best audience demographic.
- Reprint across different platforms. If someone posts great feedback on your Facebook page praising your business, contact them privately asking for permission to reprint the content on your site.
- Only use real testimonials. Prospective clients need to believe that the testimonials provided on your site are real. Don’t destroy your reputation with a false testimonial.
How To Get Testimonials From Your Customers
Ask For Testimonials
Getting a testimonial from a satisfied customer can be as simple as just asking for it.
Follow these useful guidelines for soliciting testimonials from your customers:
- Contact your customers after 60 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you have not obtained one immediately after performing a service.
- Add a field for testimonials in client satisfaction surveys.
- Take out your phone next time you meet with clients or hand over a completed project and if they are delighted with the results, ask them if they would be happy to record a very quick video testimonial/feedback interview. While recording the video, explain to your viewers what you have done for your client and record your client’s positive reactions and feedback.
- Make it easy and write it 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 juiciest sections (only use what they have given you – don’t put words into their mouth), and use these to create a testimonial, then contact your client and ask them for permission to quote them on your site. Explain that you have done this to help them save time and invite them to change what you have written however they see fit before replying with their approval.
Offer To Post A Link Back To Their Site
Offer to post a link back to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive for clients to provide you with a testimonial. It also makes the 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 list of subscribers, include a request for a testimonial in one of your newsletter mailouts. This should be timed to reach subscribers just after your customers have had a chance to experience your product, service or solution. Use words like “I need a quick favor” in your email subject and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking customers to provide feedback, a testimonial, or a product review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature is a great way to obtain testimonials for your account. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is quite simple and user-friendly and the person who provides the recommendation receives a link to their profile. If you get a recommendation on LinkedIn, ask for permission to reprint it on your site (once again, you can offer to publish a link back to their profile in exchange).
Create A Customer Testimonials Page
Create a new page on your website or blog for customer testimonials and place a “more customer testimonials …” link pointing to this section wherever you are displaying new testimonials on your site.
Tip: You can measure how useful 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 measuring visitor behaviour on your pages.
We have written an article about adding heatmap analytics to your website to predict visitor behaviour here:
Using Testimonial Plugins For WordPress
If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to add and display testimonials. Some plugins also allow you to add forms to your pages inviting users to submit testimonials.
Once your plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), you can then refer customers to your “Testimonials” page.
Check out the WordPress testimonial plugins below:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use free plugin that lets you add customer testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed them into posts and pages using a shortcode. The plugin also lets you publish a list of all your testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include an image with each testimonial, which can be used for adding a photo of the testimonial author, a logo, etc.
The plugin also can be upgraded to a “pro” version that offers additional features and technical support.
Go here for more information about the plugin:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with videos or images on your posts and pages. 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 plugin has plenty of additional features available via a premium version, including built-in functions SEO functionality and plugin support.
Visit this site to download and use the plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium WP plugin provides a range 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. by adding a shortcode
- Styling options (display image at the top, bottom, or side of testimonials, display testimonial in a speech bubble, customize font and background colours, font types and more.
To download and use this plugin, go here:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Summary …
Customer reviews and testimonials are great 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 customers, and start publishing these on your website or blog.
Additional Info
For additional sources of information and resources about creating engaging testimonials see the articles below:
- 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 web site, save money creating high-quality content for your site 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