Build Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract 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 very 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 economy, ignoring what consumers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
Don’t ignore what customers may be saying online about your business!
You may also be doing your business a great disservice if you are not boosting the positive things your customers are saying about your products, services, customer support, etc. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are persuasive ways of helping you market and promote your products and services online and should be added to your content marketing strategy.
In this article, you will learn how to convert more visitors into prospects using powerful customer testimonials.
Testimonials And User Reviews
The great American showman and successful promoter P.T. Barnum once said that “Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.”
P.T. Barnum obviously understood the power of “social proof”. Using social proof as content is a powerful and effective way of promoting your business. Quoting genuine reviews and testimonials directly from satisfied users is existing customers are far more persuasive when it comes to attracting new customers, clients or users than anything you can say about your own products or services.
There is clearly a source of untapped business growth potential that most businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … testimonials and reviews from existing clients!
User reviews and customer testimonials are a great way to build credibility for your business.
Tests conducted by many leading firms all lead to the same conclusion: testimonials and user reviews help to eliminate doubts potential customers may have about products, help users select products and help increase sales conversions.
Below are just some findings that support this:
- According to a study 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 reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, consumer reviews are responsible for producing an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more consumer reviews per product can result in a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Website 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 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).
(The figures above were sourced from eConsultancy.com)
Adding Consumer Reviews – Online Reputation Management
Adding positive reviews to your site from customers who are thrilled with the results they’ve obtained by using your services is essential for creating a solid online reputation.
Testimonials and consumer reviews, however, are like double-edged swords; they can affect your business both positively and negatively.
You see, people may not be saying bad things about your products directly to you, but they could post negative comments on a forum about an unpleasant experience they’ve just had using your products and this could be costing you business.
This is where online reputation management becomes a vital aspect of your business success.
Misconceptions about managing your reputation online, such as being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you just don’t need it) could be harming your business without you even being aware of this.
See this article to learn more about a plugin for WordPress users that can help to avoid the escalation of problem reviews about your business through effective user review management:
Tips On Improving Your Conversions With Client Testimonials
Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful ways of marketing your products and services online and should be included in your content marketing strategy. When you quote responses from customers in your content, you:
- Show prospects exactly with similar problems and pains what your products and services can do for them.
- Help site visitors identify their objections and address these.
- Help potential customers connect with their motivations and facilitate the sales process.
Below are some practical tips on improving your conversions with user testimonials:
- Avoid over-editing: You should try to use the actual words used by your customers as much as you can. Leaving little grammatical errors and misspelt words 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 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.
- Use the power of storytelling: Stories are much more powerful and captivating than providing mere facts and statistics. The ability to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution came to the rescue will make a more lasting impression on those reading your content than presenting generalized statements about how “excellent” your support was and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
- Keep 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 to sell your point. For example, think about the impact you can create on your visitor’s perception if you were to present a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution sells for before posting pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before talking about the benefits of your services, or testimonials where clients are genuinely thrilled about your support when offering a money-back guarantee or providing content that helps readers overcome their 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 were able to grow our net profit by an additional $98,432 during the previous fiscal year,” or “XYZ product 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 you have helped them save, how many new leads or new clients they were able to generate during a specific period, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
- Avoid using the same testimonial throughout your site: Although this can be a little difficult if you are just starting out and have very few clients, try to avoid displaying the same testimonial everywhere on 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 launch discount for 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 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 across different platforms. If someone posts great feedback on your Facebook wall praising your commitment to customer satisfaction, send them a message asking for permission to reprint the content on your site.
- Only use genuine client testimonials. Most people can tell if you are employing professional writers to produce your content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your prospects need to believe that the testimonials provided on your site are genuine. Don’t compromise your integrity or reputation with false testimonials.
How To Get Testimonials
Just Ask
Getting a testimonial from a satisfied client can be as simple as just asking for it.
Here are some useful tips for soliciting testimonials from your customers:
- Contact your clients after a specific period of time, e.g. 14 days with an email request for a testimonial if you have not obtained one immediately after performing a service.
- Include a field for testimonials in all client surveys.
- Take 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 wouldn’t mind recording a quick video testimonial/feedback interview. During the video, explain to viewers what you have done for your client and make sure to capture your client’s positive reactions and responses.
- Make it easy for them. When 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 already prepared something to help them save time and invite them 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 post a link to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great 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.
Include A Testimonial Request In Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a subscriber list, include requests for a testimonial in one of your autoresponder messages. This should be timed to reach subscribers just after your clients 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 email and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking clients for honest feedback, a testimonial, or a review of your services.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature helps you request testimonials that become part of your profile. With LinkedIn, the process for requesting and providing recommendations is simple and user-friendly and the person providing the recommendation gets a link to their profile. If you get a positive recommendation on LinkedIn, ask for permission to reprint it on your website (you can offer to publish a link back to their website in exchange).
Create A Testimonials Section
Create a “Testimonials” page and place a “more testimonials …” link to this page throughout 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 your testimonial content. ”Heatmapping” technology is a great way to observing what visitors are doing on your pages.
We have written an article about adding heatmaps to your website to observe visitor behaviour here:
Useful WordPress Plugins
If your site or blog is powered by WordPress, you can use a plugin to display testimonials. Some plugins also let you add a form to your pages where users can submit feedback and testimonials.
Once your plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), all you have to do is refer customers to your “Testimonials” section.
Check out the plugins below:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use free plugin that lets you add testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed them into posts and pages using a shortcode. The plugin also lets you publish a list of all testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which you can use for adding a photo of the testimonial author, a logo, etc.
The plugin also provides a “pro” version that offers additional features and developer support.
To download and use the plugin, go here:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, or text with images or videos on your site. You can insert testimonials via 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 loads more features available via a premium version, including built-in functions for improved search engine results and technical support.
Visit this site to learn more about the plugin:
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 slideshows, sliders, grid layout, list layout, etc. by adding 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.
To download and use this plugin, visit this site:
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 can help your business in terms of adding credibility, building authority, improving online reputation, and growing your sales funnel. Always ask for testimonials, reviews, and feedback from your customers, and publish positive content about your business on your web site.
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 a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful content that will add value to 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!
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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