Building 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? As most small business owners know, that trying to generate new business can be 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 digital, mobile and social media-driven economy, it’s foolish to ignore the effect of what your potential customers are doing online, especially if they are talking about your business.

Don’t ignore what consumers may be saying online about your business!

You could be doing your business a disservice if you are not spreading the positive things your customers say about your products and services. 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 will learn ways to achieve better results online with awesome customer testimonials.

User Reviews And Testimonials

Legendary American showman and successful promoter Phineas Taylor 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-based content is a powerful way of getting your business promoted effectively. Reviews quoted directly from existing customers are far more persuasive when it comes to attracting new clients than anything you have to 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 … reviews and testimonials from satisfied users!

Testimonials and reviews are a fantastic way to build credibility for your services and products.

Research conducted by marketing research companies all lead to the same conclusion: testimonials and user reviews eliminate doubts potential customers may have about your products, 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 findings by eVoc Insights, an organization 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 user reviews.”
• According to Reevoo.com, consumer reviews can produce an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more customer reviews per product can result in 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 Customer Reviews And Testimonials – Online Reputation Management

You should be adding great reviews from satisfied customers to your website.

Customer testimonials and reviews, however, can work both ways and affect your business both in a positive as well as negative manner.

You see, people may not be saying bad things about your products directly to you, but they could be posting unhelpful comments on Facebook or a forum group about an unpleasant encounter they’ve just had with you or your business and this could be costing you business.

This is where online reputation management becomes a vitally important aspect of your online success.

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

See this article to learn more about a simple plugin for WordPress users that can help to avoid the escalation of negative reviews about your services through effective customer review management:

• How To Easily Manage Your Online Reputation On WordPress With Power Online Reviews Plugin

Tips On Improving Your Sales With Powerful Client Testimonials

User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are powerful ways of marketing your products and services online and should be used in your content marketing strategy. When you quote responses from customers in your content, you:

• Show other users exactly what problems and pains your products and services can solve for them and how easily this can be done.
• Help visitors identify their objections and address these.
• Help prospects connect with their motivations and aspirations and facilitate the sales process.

Below are some tips on how to create testimonials:

• Avoid over-editing: Try to use your customer’s actual words as much as possible. Leaving grammatical errors and misspellings in the content helps preserve your testimonials’ authenticity.
• Use photos of real people: Research shows that using images of people’s faces will draw the most attention of visitors on a web page. Adding photos of your clients next to their testimonials and reviews will help increase visitor engagement with your site’s content.
• Tell a story: Stories are far more effective and captivating 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 longer-lasting impression on those reading your content than using generic statements about how “excellent” your customer support was and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
• Use 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. Think about the impact you will have on your visitor’s perception by adding a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution sells for before posting service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before discussing the benefits of your services, or testimonials where clients are truly ecstatic about your support when offering guarantees or addressing objections.
• Quantify your information: Which of the following statements do you think is more powerful… “XYZ solution was directly responsible for helping us grow our profits by $87,903 in the last fiscal year,” or “XYZ product definitely 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 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.
• 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, try to avoid displaying the same testimonial throughout your web pages. 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 target audience is, providing testimonials from people who your prospects can relate to is an extremely powerful motivator and influencer. People want to see and buy from “better versions” of themselves, so make sure to include testimonials that appeal directly to your ideal customers.
• Reprint testimonials across different platforms. If someone publishes a great comment on your Facebook page praising your business, contact them privately asking for permission to reprint the comment or post on your site.
• Only use genuine client testimonials. Most people can see through sites that employ copywriters to write their content. Outsourcing content is fine, but prospective clients need to believe that the testimonials provided on your site are genuine. Don’t compromise your integrity with ”made up” testimonials.

How To Get Testimonials From Your Customers

Just Ask

When you complete a service for someone, or a customer says they are really happy with your product or service, ask them for a testimonial.

Here are some tips for soliciting testimonials from your clients:

• Make it a part of your business processes to contact clients after a specific period of time, e.g. 30 days with an email request for a testimonial if you have not obtained one after completing a service.
• Add a text box for entering testimonials in your client surveys.
• Pull out your phone when you next meet with clients or hand over a completed project and if they are delighted with the results, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a very quick video testimonial/feedback interview. When recording the video, explain to viewers what you have done for your client and make sure to record 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 best 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 quote them on your site. Explain that you have already prepared something to save them time and let them know they are completely free to change what you have written however they see fit before replying with their approval.

Offer To Post A Link Back To Their Site Wherever You Quote Their Testimonial

Offer to add a link back to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great incentive to get clients providing 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 a request for a testimonial in a periodic email broadcast. This should be done as soon as your customers have had a chance to assess the impact of using your 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 them to provide honest feedback, a testimonial, or a review of your services.

Use LinkedIn

The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature allows you to obtain testimonials from other members that become part of your account. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is user-friendly and the person who provides the recommendation receives a link to their profile. If you get a positive recommendation on LinkedIn, ask for permission to reprint it on your website (once again, you can offer to publish a link back to their website or profile in exchange).

Create A Customer Testimonials Section

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

Useful Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of your testimonials by how long visitors remain on the section of your pages or posts where you have added the testimonial content. ”Heatmapping” technology is a great way to observing what visitors are doing on your pages.

We have written an article about adding heatmap analytics to your website to monitor visitor behaviour here:

• How To Understand Visitor Behaviour On Your WordPress Site With Analytics Software – HeatMapTracker Review

Using Testimonial Plugins For WordPress

If your website or blog is powered by WordPress, you can use a plugin to add, edit and 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 using the testimonials submission form – if available), you then refer users to your “Testimonials” section.

Below are some great testimonial plugins you can check out:

Easy Testimonials

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

The Easy Testimonials plugin also can be upgraded to a “pro” version that offers additional features and developer support.

For more information about using this plugin, go here:

• Easy Testimonials

Testimonials Widget

Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, or text with videos or images on your website. You can insert user testimonials 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 a range of additional features via a premium version, including built-in functions for improved search engine results and developer support.

Visit this site for more information about using the plugin:

• Testimonials Widget

Testimonials WordPress Plugin

This is a premium WordPress plugin that provides 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. using a shortcode
• Styling options (display image on top, bottom, or side of testimonials, display testimonials in a speech bubble, customized font and background colors, font types and more.

For more information about using the plugin, visit this site:

• Testimonials Plugin

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

• How To Add Testimonials In WordPress

In Conclusion …

Customer reviews and client testimonials are great sources of content that 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 publish positive content about your business on your web site.

Resources

For additional information 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 actionable information that will show you how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to 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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