Build Your Reputation With User Testimonials And 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 new ways of generating new business can be confusing, frustrating and quite hard. Just trying to stay 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 online and social media-driven economy, ignoring what users may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!

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

By the same token, you may also be doing your business a disservice if you are not promoting the positive things your clients say about your services and products. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are powerful when it comes to helping you market your products and services online and should be included as part of your content marketing.

In this article, you’ll discover all you need to know to start getting better results online with more effective customer testimonials.

Testimonials And Consumer Reviews

Legendary 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”. Social proof-based content is a powerful and effective way of promoting your business. Genuine reviews from existing clients are far more persuasive for attracting new customers, clients or users than anything you say about your own products or services.

There is clearly a source of untapped opportunities for generating new business that most businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … customer reviews and testimonials!

Customer testimonials and reviews are a terrific way to build credibility for your services and products.

Research conducted by leading marketing research firms all point to the same conclusion: adding customer testimonials and reviews to your site decreases doubts potential customers may have about purchasing products or services, helps users select products and increases sales.

Below are just some statistics that support this:

• According to a study 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 site if it has ratings and consumer reviews.”
• According to Reevoo.com, consumer reviews play a significant role in creating an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more user reviews per product can translate into a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
• 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).

(The figures above were sourced from eConsultancy.com)

Adding Client Reviews And Testimonials – Managing Online Reputation

Adding great reviews to your website from customers who are delighted with the results they’ve obtained by using your services is essential for creating a solid online business reputation.

Reviews and customer testimonials, however, can work both ways and affect your business both in a negative and positive manner.

People may not be saying bad things about your products directly to you, but they could be posting damaging comments 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 an important aspect of your online success.

Misconceptions about managing your reputation online, such as the process being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you really don’t need to worry about it) could be seriously harming your business without you even being aware of this.

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

• Manage Bad User Reviews In WordPress With Power Online Reviews

Tips On Improving Your Conversions With Client Testimonials

Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful ways of helping you market your products and services online and should be included in your content marketing. When you quote your own user responses in your content, you:

• Show others exactly with similar problems and pains what your products and services can do for them.
• Help potential customers identify and address their objections.
• Help prospects connect with their motivations and aspirations and facilitate moving them closer to a buying decision.

Here are some useful tips on improving your conversions with customer testimonials:

• Don’t over edit: Try to use your customer’s actual words as much as you can. Leave little grammatical or spelling errors in the content. This helps to keep things ‘real’.
• Use photos: It’s a proven fact that using images of people’s faces will draw the most attention of visitors browsing a web page. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews will help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your content.
• Tell a powerful story: Stories are much more powerful and memorable than providing mere facts and statistics. The ability to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution saved the day will make a far longer-lasting impression on those reading your content than using generalized statements about how “excellent” the customer service was and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
• Keep it in context: It’s good to add testimonials to your web content where it best makes sense to place them, and where you believe these can most effectively help sell your point. For example, think about the impact you can create on your visitor’s perception if you were to insert a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution sells for before posting price information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before discussing the benefits of your products, or testimonials where clients are truly ecstatic about your support before offering a risk-free guarantee 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 services, our net profits grew by $21,925 during the previous fiscal year,” or “XYZ solution definitely helped us grow our business?” If possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable data, like how much your solution helped to increase their sales 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 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 everywhere on your web pages. Depending on the type of business you run, you could try to obtain more customer 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 target audience is, providing testimonials from people who your prospects aspire to become can be an extremely powerful motivator and influencer. People want to see and buy from “better versions” of themselves, so make sure to include testimonials targeted to your best audience demographic.
• Reprint testimonials across different platforms. If you get fantastic feedback on your Facebook wall praising your commitment to customer satisfaction, ask them for permission to reprint the comment or post on your site.
• Never use fake client testimonials. Prospective customers need to believe that the testimonials displayed on your site are real. Don’t compromise your integrity or reputation with a false testimonial.

How To Get Client Testimonials

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.

Here are some useful guidelines for soliciting testimonials:

• Contact your clients after 14 days with an email request for a testimonial if you did not obtain one after performing a service.
• Add a field for testimonials in all your client surveys.
• Take out your phone when you next visit a client or hand over a finished job and if they are delighted with the results, ask them if they would be happy to record a very short video testimonial/feedback interview. If they agree, while recording your video, describe to your viewers what you have done for the client and make sure to capture the client’s positive reactions and feedback.
• Make it easy for them. Whenever clients send 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 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 the 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 Publish Their Testimonial

Offer to add a link to their website 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 not fake and can be verified.

Add A Testimonial Request To 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 use your solution. 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 feedback, a testimonial, or a product review.

Use LinkedIn

The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature is a great way to request testimonials that become part of your profile. 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 site (tip: offer to publish a link back to their website or profile in exchange).

Create A Client Testimonials Page

Create a “Testimonials” page and place a “read more customer testimonials …” link pointing to your main testimonials page throughout your content sections.

Practical 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 the testimonial content. ”Heatmapping” technology is a great way to understanding visitor behaviour on your pages.

We have written an article about a heatmap software you can add to your sites to track visitor behaviour here:

• Measuring User Behaviour On Your WordPress Site With Heat Mapping Tools – HeatMapTracker Review

Testimonial Plugins For WordPress

If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to add and display testimonials. Some plugins also let you 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), all you have to do is send clients to your “Testimonials” section.

Here are some great plugins you can check out:

Easy Testimonials

Easy Testimonials is a free WP plugin that lets you add testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed them into posts and pages using a shortcode. The Easy Testimonials plugin also lets you insert a list of all your testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include an image with each testimonial, which you can use for adding a photo of the testimonial author, a business logo, etc.

The plugin also comes with a “pro” version that offers additional features and developer support.

To learn more about using this plugin, go here:

• Easy Testimonials – WordPress Testimonials Plugin

Testimonials Widget

Testimonials Widget is a free WP plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, or text with images or videos on your blog. You can insert testimonials content using a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and have multiple display options such as random or specific ordering.

The plugin offers extra features via a premium version, including built-in options SEO functionality and technical support.

Go here to learn more about this plugin:

• Testimonials Widget

Testimonials WordPress Plugin

This premium plugin provides many great features right out of the box, including:

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

For more information about using this plugin, go here:

• Testimonials Plugin

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

• How To Add Testimonials In WordPress

In Summary …

User reviews and client 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 or clients, and start publishing these on your website or blog.

Additional Info

For additional sources of information and resources on creating engaging clients 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 show you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your visitors and grow your business online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

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