How To Build Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract customers, and getting the exact same results? As most business owners know, that finding effective ways of generating new business can be very hard, time consuming and frustrating. Just trying to remain in business takes up 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, you simply can’t afford to ignore the significance of online consumer behavior, especially if they are posting comments about your business.
Don’t ignore what your customers may be saying online about your business!
By the same token, you are also doing your business a great disservice if you don’t spread the positive things your clients say about your solutions, client support, etc. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are effective when it comes to helping you market and promote your products and services online and should be included as part of your content.
In this article, you’ll discover how to improve your visitor-to-sales conversions with meaningful client testimonials.
Testimonials And Consumer Reviews
The great, legendary showman P.T. Barnum is often quoted as having stated 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 and effective way of getting your business promoted. Genuine testimonials and reviews from satisfied 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 small businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … reviews from users!
Customer reviews and customer testimonials are terrific for building credibility for your products and services.
Marketing studies conducted by many leading research companies all seem to point to the same conclusion: testimonials and user reviews decrease doubts potential customers may have about your products or services, help users select products and help increase the number of product sales.
Here are just some statistics that 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 web site if it has ratings and customer reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, consumer reviews are responsible for producing an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more reviews per product can translate into a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Web site visitors who interact with both consumer 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 Testimonials And Reviews – Online Reputation Management
Adding great reviews and testimonials to your website from customers who are thrilled with your products or services is essential for growing your business online.
Testimonials and 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 business, products or services directly to your face, but they could post updates on Facebook, or a forum or discussion thread about an unpleasant experience they’ve just had with your services and this could be costing you business.
This is where online reputation management becomes a vital aspect of your online success.
Misconceptions about engaging in online reputation management practices, 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 hurting your business without you even realizing it.
See this article to learn more about a simple yet effective WordPress plugin that can help to avoid the escalation of problem reviews about your business through effective user review management:
Creating Captivating Client Testimonials – Useful Tips
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are powerful ways of helping you market your products and services online and should be used in your content marketing. When you include responses from clients in your content, you:
- Show prospects exactly what pains and problems your products and services can help solve for them and how easily this can be done.
- Help potential customers identify and address their objections.
- Help prospects connect with their motivations and this facilitates moving them closer to a decision to purchase.
Here are some tips on creating engaging customer testimonials:
- Avoid over-editing: You should try using your customer’s actual words as much as possible. Leaving little grammatical errors and misspelled words in the content helps keep your testimonials sounding authentic.
- Use real photos: Images of people’s faces draw attention on a web page. Adding photos of your clients next to their testimonials and reviews can help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your content.
- Tell a powerful story: Stories are far more effective 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 longer-lasting impression on those reading your content than using generic statements about excellent customer support and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
- Use it in context: Add testimonials to your web content where it best makes 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 by adding a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution sells for before posting pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before discussing the benefits of your services, or testimonials where customers are truly ecstatic about your support 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: “XYZ solution was directly responsible for helping us grow our profits by $24,015 during the previous financial quarter,” or “XYZ solution has helped us grow our business?” Whenever possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable results, like how much your solution helped to increase their profits 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.
- Avoid using the same customer testimonial repeatedly throughout your site: Although this can be a little difficult when you are just starting out and have very few clients, it’s best to avoid displaying the same testimonial repeatedly throughout your website. 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 discount for existing 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 best customer is, providing testimonials from people who your prospects aspire to become can be 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 someone posts a great comment on your Facebook wall praising your business, send them a message asking permission to reprint the comment or post on your site.
- Only use real testimonials. Most people can tell if you are employing professional writers to write your content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your potential clients need to see that the testimonials provided on your site are genuine. Don’t compromise your integrity or reputation with false testimonials.
How To Get Testimonials From Your Customers
Ask
If you have just completed performing a service, or a customer says they are really happy with your product or service, ask them for a testimonial.
Follow these tips for soliciting testimonials:
- Make a point of contacting customers after a specific period of time, e.g. 30 days with an email request for a testimonial if you did not obtain one after completing a service.
- Add a field for entering testimonials in your client satisfaction surveys.
- Pull out your phone when you next meet with a client or hand over a finished job and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a brief video testimonial/feedback interview. If they agree, while recording your video, describe to viewers what you have done for your client and record your client’s positive reactions and feedback.
- Make it easy and write the testimonial for them. Whenever a client sends 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 written – never put words into their mouth), and shape these into a testimonial, then contact the client and ask them for permission to quote them on your site. Explain that you have already prepared something to save them time and invite them to change 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 back to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great incentive to get clients to provide you with a testimonial. It also makes the implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are real 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 a scheduled email message. Preferably, this should be done after your customers have had a chance to assess the results of using 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 subscribers 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 quite user-friendly and the person providing the recommendation receives a link to their profile. If you get a recommendation on LinkedIn, ask their permission to reprint it on your website (you can offer to publish a link back to their website or profile in exchange).
Create A Testimonials Page
Create a “Testimonials” page and place a “more testimonials …” link pointing to this page whenever you have displayed new testimonials on your content sections.
Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of customer testimonials 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 measuring visitor behavior on your pages.
We have written an article about a heatmap software you can add to your site to monitor visitor behavior here:
Useful Testimonial Plugins For WordPress
If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to display testimonials. Some plugins also let you add a form to your pages inviting users to submit feedback and testimonials.
Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), you can then refer clients to your “Testimonials” section.
Below are some WordPress testimonial plugins you can check out:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is a free WordPress plugin that lets you add customer testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed them 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 you can use to add a photo of the testimonial author, their company logo, etc.
The Easy Testimonials plugin also comes with a “pro” version that offers additional features and technical support.
For more information about this plugin, visit this site:
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 blog. You can insert testimonials content via a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and have multiple display options such as random or specific ordering.
The Testimonials Widget plugin provides added features via a premium version, including built-in options for better search engine results and developer support.
To download and use the plugin, go here:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium plugin 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, 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.
Go here to download and use the plugin:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Conclusion …
User reviews and client testimonials 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 existing clients, and publish positive content about your business on your site.
Additional Info
For additional information on creating effective testimonials read 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 that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful content for your site 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 completely FREE!
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