Build Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract and retain new customers, and getting the exact same disappointing results? Most small business owners don’t need to be told that finding effective ways of generating new customers can be hard, time consuming and frustrating. 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, mobile and social-driven economy, it’s a mistake to ignore the effect of what your potential customers are doing online, especially if they are talking about your business.
Ignoring what users may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
You could be doing your business a great disservice if you are not boosting the positive things your clients are saying about your services or products. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive ways of helping you market and promote your products and services online and should be added to your content.
In this article, we’ll show you how to improve your sales conversions using engaging client testimonials.
Testimonials And Consumer Reviews
Legendary American showman Phineas Taylor (Aka “P.T.”) Barnum once said that “Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.”
P.T. Barnum understood the power of “social proof”. Using social proof as content is a powerful way of getting your business promoted effectively. Quoting reviews from satisfied customers is existing customers are far more persuasive when it comes to attracting new customers than anything you can say about your own products or services.
There is clearly a source of untapped business growth potential that most small businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … consumer testimonials and reviews!
Customer testimonials and reviews are terrific for building credibility for your products and services.
Studies conducted by leading research firms all point to the same conclusion: user reviews and testimonials eliminate doubts potential customers may have about your product, help with product selection and increases conversions of visitors into sales.
Below are just some of the statistics 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 web site if it has ratings and customer 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 mean 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).
- 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 User Reviews – Online Reputation Management
You should be adding reviews and testimonials from really happy clients who have experienced positive results with your business to your website.
Customer testimonials and consumer reviews, however, can work both ways and impact your business both negatively and positively.
You see, people may not be saying bad things about your products directly to you, but they could post unhelpful comments on a discussion thread about an unpleasant experience they’ve just had with your business and this could be costing you business.
This is where online reputation management becomes vitally important to your business success.
Misconceptions about managing your reputation online, such as being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you really don’t need to worry about it) may be seriously harming your business without you even being aware of this.
See this article to learn more about a WordPress plugin that can help you avoid the escalation of negative reviews about your business through effective customer review management:
Creating Customer Testimonials – Useful Tips
Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are effective ways of helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be an integral part of your content. When you include your own client responses in your content, you:
- Show other users exactly with similar problems and pains what your products and services can do for them.
- Help potential customers identify and address their objections.
- Help potential customers connect with their motivations and this facilitates moving them closer to a decision to purchase.
Here are some practical tips on how to create testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: You should try to use your customer’s actual words as much as you can. Leave grammatical or spelling errors in the content. This helps to keep it ‘real’.
- Use photos: Research shows that using images of people’s faces draws the attention of visitors on 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 much more powerful and memorable than simply providing facts and statistics. The ability 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 how “excellent” your support was and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
- Keep it in context: Add customer testimonials in your web content where it makes the most 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 add a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution retails for before posting price information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before talking about the benefits of your products, or testimonials where clients are truly ecstatic about your customer service before offering guarantees or addressing objections.
- Quantify the information: Which of the following statements do you think your prospects would consider to be more powerful… “As a direct result of using your XYZ services, we were able to grow our profits by $68,935 during the previous fiscal year,” or “XYZ software definitely 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 they have saved, 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 when you are just starting out or have very few clients, try to avoid displaying the same testimonial repeatedly throughout your site’s pages. Depending on your business, 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 ideal customer: 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 very 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 a great comment on your Facebook wall praising your commitment to customer satisfaction, send them a message asking for their permission to reprint the content on your blog.
- Don’t use fake testimonials. Your potential customers need to believe that the testimonials published on your site are genuine. Don’t compromise your credibility or reputation with a false testimonial.
How To Get Testimonials From Your Customers
Always Ask For Testimonials
Getting a testimonial from a happy customer can be as simple as just asking for it.
Follow these useful guidelines for soliciting testimonials from customers:
- Make it a part of your business processes to contact clients after a specific period of time, e.g. 60 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you did not obtain one after completing a service.
- Add a field for testimonials in all client satisfaction surveys.
- Take out your phone when you next visit clients or hand over a finished job and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a very short video testimonial/feedback interview. While recording your video, describe to your viewers what you have done for the client and record your client’s positive reactions and responses.
- Make it easy for them. If 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 – don’t put words into their mouth), and shape these into a testimonial, then contact your client and ask them for permission to use it. Explain that you have done this 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
Offer to add a link to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive to get clients providing you with a testimonial. It also makes an implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are real and can be verified.
Add A Testimonial Request To Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a list of subscribers, include requests for a testimonial in one of your autoresponder messages. This should be done after your clients have had a chance to experience your products. Use words like “I need your help” in the subject of your message and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking users to provide 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 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 their permission to reprint it on your website (and offer to publish a link back to their profile in exchange).
Create A Client Testimonials Page
Create a “Testimonials” page and add a “read more testimonials …” link pointing to your main testimonials section whenever you plan to add small blocks of testimonials on your site.
Practical Tip: You can measure how useful customer 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 measuring visitor behaviour on your pages are “heatmaps”.
We have written an article about a heatmap software you can add to your website to analyze visitor behavior here:
Useful Testimonial Plugins
If your website or blog is powered by WordPress, you can use a plugin to display testimonials. Some plugins also allow you to add forms to your pages where users can submit reviews and testimonials.
Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (remember to provide simple instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), you then send users to your “Testimonials” page.
Below are some great plugins you can check out:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use free plugin that lets you add testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into your pages and posts using a shortcode. Easy Testimonials also lets you insert a list of all testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include an image with each testimonial, which is great to add a photo of the testimonial author, their logo, etc.
Easy Testimonials also provides users with a “pro” version with additional features and developer support.
Visit this site to download this 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 web site. You can insert testimonials content via a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and specify different display options such as random or specific ordering.
Testimonials Widget makes plenty more 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 WordPress plugin offers many great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes for correct display on any device or browser.
- Options to display your testimonials in a widget or as slideshows, sliders, grid layout, list layout, etc. via a shortcode
- Styling options (display image at the top, bottom, or side of the testimonial, display testimonials in a speech bubble, customize font and background colours, font types and more.
Visit this site to download and use the plugin:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Conclusion …
Testimonials and customer 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 feedback, reviews, and testimonials from existing clients or customers, and start publishing these on your site.
Resources
For additional information on creating engaging testimonials refer to 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 web site, save money creating high-quality content for your visitors and grow your business online using content marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!
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