How To Build Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews

Are you stuck in a cycle of doing what you’ve always done to attract customers, and getting the exact same disappointing results? As most business owners know, that trying to generate new customers can be difficult. Just trying to stay in business requires 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-driven economy, ignoring what your clients may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!

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

You could be doing your business a disservice if you are not boosting the positive things your clients are saying about your products or services. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are effective when it comes to helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be included as part of your content marketing.

In this article, you’ll learn tips for creating better results online using effective client testimonials.

Testimonials And Customer Reviews

The great, legendary showman Phineas Taylor (Aka “P.T.”) Barnum once stated that “Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.”

P.T. Barnum understood the power of “social proof”. Social proof-driven content is a powerful way of getting your business promoted effectively. Genuine reviews and testimonials quoted directly from satisfied customers are far more persuasive for attracting new clients, customers or users than anything you have to say about your own products or services.

There is clearly an untapped source of opportunities for generating new business that most small businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … reviews from their users!

Reviews and testimonials are effective for building credibility for your business.

Tests conducted by leading research firms all point to the same inevitable conclusion: user reviews and testimonials help decrease doubts potential customers may have about purchasing your products or services, help with product selection and help increase the number of product sales.

Here are just some of the findings available to support this:

• According to research findings 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 customer reviews.”
• According to Reevoo.com, reviews produce an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more customer reviews per product can mean a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
• 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 user-generated content (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).

(The figures above were sourced from eConsultancy.com)

Adding Customer Testimonials And Reviews – Online Reputation Management

Adding positive reviews and testimonials to your website from delighted clients is important for growing your business online and creating a solid online reputation.

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

People may not be saying bad things about your services directly to you, but they could have posted disparaging remarks on Facebook about an unpleasant experience they’ve just had using your products 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 important to your business success.

Misconceptions about engaging in online reputation management practices, 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 realizing it.

See this article to learn more about a tool for WordPress users that can help to avoid the escalation of problem reviews about your business, products or services through effective user review management:

• Managing Your Online Reputation Easily With Power Online Reviews Plugin

Improving Your Conversions With Testimonials – Useful Tips

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. When you quote your own user responses in your content, you:

• Show potential customers exactly with similar problems and pains how your products and services can help them.
• Help your visitors identify and address their objections.
• Help potential customers connect with their aspirations and motivations and this facilitates moving them closer to a buying decision.

Here are some tips on creating customer testimonials:

• Avoid over-editing: Try using the actual words used by your customers as much as you can. Leaving grammatical errors and misspellings in the content helps to keep it ‘real’.
• Use photos of real people: It’s a proven fact that using images of people’s faces will draw the attention of visitors on a web page. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews will help increase visitor engagement with your content.
• Use the power of storytelling: Stories are so much more powerful and captivating than providing mere statistical facts. Being able 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 generic statements about how “excellent” the support was and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
• Keep it in context: Add testimonials in your web content where it best makes sense to place them, and where you believe these 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 retails for before posting product pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before talking about the benefits of your products, or testimonials where clients are genuinely thrilled about your support when offering a risk-free guarantee or addressing objections.
• Quantify the information: Which of the following statements do you think your prospects would find more powerful… “Since implementing your XYZ solution, our profits have grown by an additional $84,467 in 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 by in specific percentages or amounts, how many hours you have helped them save, how many new leads or new clients they were able to generate during a specific financial quarter, 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 a little difficult if you are just starting out and don’t have many clients, try to avoid displaying the same testimonial repeatedly throughout your web pages. Depending on the type of business you run, you could try to obtain more user testimonials by offering limited review copies of your product, or a special launch discount for existing clients in exchange for an honest review and permission to publish it if you choose to use it.
• Appeal to your best customer: As every infomercial featuring a celebrity endorsement, subject expert or “busy mom” knows, if you know who your ideal customer is, providing testimonials from people who your prospects aspire to become is a really 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 best audience demographic.
• Reprint across different platforms. If you get great feedback on your Facebook wall praising your solution, ask them for permission to reprint the comment or post on your blog.
• Don’t use fake client testimonials. Your prospects need to believe that the testimonials you provide on your site are real. Don’t compromise your integrity or reputation with false testimonials.

How To Get Testimonials

Ask

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

Here are some tips for requesting testimonials from clients:

• 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 have not obtained one immediately after performing a service.
• Add a field for testimonials in client satisfaction surveys.
• Pull out your phone when you next visit a client or hand over a completed job and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they would be happy to record a very short video testimonial/feedback interview. If they agree, while recording your video, explain to your viewers what you have done for the client and try to capture your client’s positive reactions and responses.
• Make it easy and write it for them. If a client sends 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 given you – never put words into their mouth), and use these to create a testimonial, then contact your client and ask them for permission to use it. Explain that you have done this 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 To Their Site

Offer to publish 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 real and can be verified.

Include Testimonial Requests In Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages

If you have a subscriber list, include requests for a testimonial in one of your autoresponder mailouts. This should be done as soon as your clients have had a chance to measure the effect of using your services. Use words like “I need your help” in the subject of your email and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking subscribers to provide feedback, a testimonial, or a product review.

Use LinkedIn

The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature is a great way to request testimonials for your profile. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is quite simple and user-friendly and the person who provides 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 add a link back to their website or profile in exchange).

Create A Testimonials Page

Create a “Testimonials” page and add a “read more client testimonials …” link pointing to your main testimonials section whenever you have displayed blocks of testimonials on your site.

Useful Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of your user 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 measuring visitor behaviour on your site.

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

• How To Spy On Your WordPress Site Visitors Using Heat Mapping Tools – Heat Map Tracker Review

Useful 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 allow you to add a form to your pages where users can submit reviews and testimonials.

Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), all you have to do is refer clients to your “Testimonials” section.

Here are a few useful plugins you can check out:

Easy Testimonials

Easy Testimonials is a free WP plugin that lets you add customer testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed them into your pages and posts using a shortcode. The plugin also lets you add a list of all your testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which can be used to add a photo of the testimonial author, a company logo, etc.

The Easy Testimonials plugin also provides users with a “pro” version that has additional features and technical support.

Go here to download the plugin:

• 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 blog. 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.

Testimonials Widget comes with a range of additional features via a premium version, including built-in functions for better search engine results and plugin support.

Visit this site to download this plugin:

• Testimonials Widget

Testimonials WordPress Plugin

This premium WP plugin offers plenty of great features right out of the box, including:

• Responsive design that resizes to display correctly on any device or browser.
• Display your testimonials in a widget or as slideshows, sliders, list layout, grid layout, etc. using 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.

To learn more about the plugin, visit this site:

• Testimonials WordPress Plugin

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

• How To Add Testimonials In WordPress

In Summary …

User reviews and testimonials are powerful 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 publish positive content about your business on your site.

Resources

For additional resources on creating engaging testimonials refer to 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 web site, save money creating useful content for your site visitors and grow your business online using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

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