Building Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract and retain new customers, and getting the exact same results? As most business owners know, that finding new ways of generating new business can be very hard. Just trying to keep your business afloat requires a lot of time, money and energy, and sometimes this can feel like it’s just not worth the effort.
In today’s web-based and social-driven economy, you cannot afford to ignore the significance of online consumer behavior, especially if they are posting negative comments about your business.
Ignoring what customers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
You are also doing your business a disservice if you aren’t publishing the positive things your clients are saying about your services and products. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful when it comes to helping you market and promote your products and services online and should be included throughout your content.
In this article, you will learn how to create better results online using compelling user testimonials.
Testimonials And User Reviews
Legendary showman and successful promoter Phineas Taylor 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 and effective way of getting your business promoted. Quoting reviews from your satisfied clients is satisfied users are far more persuasive when it comes to drawing new clients, customers or users than anything you have to say about your own products or services.
There is an untapped source of business growth potential that most businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … consumer reviews!
Consumer reviews and customer testimonials are a powerful way to build credibility for your products or services.
Studies conducted by many leading marketing research companies all point to the same inevitable conclusion: testimonials and user reviews help decrease doubts potential customers may have about buying your products or services, help users select products and increases sales.
Here are just some findings that support this:
- According to research by eVoc Insights, an organization 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 reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, reviews produce an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more consumer reviews per product can translate into a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Web site visitors who interact with both user 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).
(Above figures sourced from eConsultancy.com)
Adding Consumer Reviews And Testimonials – Online Reputation Management
Adding reviews and testimonials to your website from very satisfied customers is important for growing your business and creating a solid online reputation.
Customer testimonials and user reviews, however, can work both ways and impact your business both in a negative as well as positive manner.
You see, people may not be saying bad things about your business, products or services directly to you, but they could be posting negative comments on Facebook about an unpleasant experience they’ve just had using your products and this could be costing you business.
This is where online reputation management becomes a vitally important aspect of your business success.
Misconceptions about online reputation management, 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 plugin for WordPress users that can help to avoid the escalation of problem reviews about your services through effective user review management:
Tips On Improving Your Conversions With Client Testimonials
User reviews, testimonials, 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 quote responses from users in your content, you:
- Show other users exactly what pains and problems your products and services can help to solve for them and how easily it can do this.
- Help prospects identify their objections and address these.
- Help potential customers connect with their motivations and facilitate moving them further along the sales process.
Below are some tips on improving your sales with client testimonials:
- Avoid over-editing: You should try to use the actual words used by your customers as much as you can. Leave little grammatical or spelling errors in the content. This helps to keep it ‘real’.
- Use photos of real people: Images of people’s faces draw the most attention on a web page. Adding photos of your clients next to their testimonials and reviews will help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your content.
- Tell a story: Stories are much more powerful and captivating than providing mere statistical facts. Being able 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 support has been and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
- Use it in context: Add testimonials to your site copy where it best makes sense to place them, and where they can most effectively help 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 product pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before talking about the benefits of your services, or testimonials where customers are truly ecstatic about your customer service when offering a money-back guarantee or addressing objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements do you think is more powerful… “XYZ solution was directly responsible for growing our sales by $74,956 during the last 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 sales or reduce their costs by in specific percentages or amounts, how many hours of work they have saved, how many new leads or new clients they were able to generate during a specific period, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
- Use different testimonials throughout your site: Although this can be a little difficult if you are just starting out or have very few clients, try to avoid using the same testimonial repeatedly throughout your site’s 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 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 can relate to can be a 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 great feedback on your Facebook page praising your business, send them a message asking permission to reprint the comment or post on your blog.
- Only use genuine testimonials. Prospective clients need to see that the testimonials you provide on your site are real. Don’t compromise your credibility with false testimonials.
How To Get Client Testimonials
Just Ask
Getting a testimonial from a satisfied customer can be as simple as just asking for it.
Follow these useful guidelines for requesting testimonials:
- Contact customers after a specific period of time, e.g. 30 days with an email request for a testimonial if you did not obtain one immediately after completing your service.
- Include a field for entering testimonials in all your client satisfaction surveys.
- Take out your phone next time you visit a client or hand over a finished project and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a quick video testimonial/feedback interview. When recording your video, explain to your viewers what you have done for the client and record your client’s positive reactions and responses.
- Make it easy and write the testimonial for them. Whenever clients send you positive written feedback that contains snippets of useful testimonial material interspersed with the rest of their message, grab the best 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 save them time and let them know they are completely free to modify what you have written however they see fit before replying with their approval.
Offer To Publish A Link Back To The Source Wherever You Publish Their Testimonial
Offer to publish a link to their website in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive to get clients providing a testimonial. It also makes an 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 a scheduled email broadcast. Preferably, this should be timed to reach subscribers just after your customers have had a chance to experience your product, service or solution. Use words like “I need your help” in your email subject and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking customers to provide feedback, a testimonial, or a review of your services.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature allows you to solicit testimonials from other members for your account. With LinkedIn, 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 recommendation on LinkedIn, ask for permission to reprint it on your website (you can offer to publish a link back to their website in exchange).
Create A Client Testimonials Page
Create a “Testimonials” page and place a “more customer testimonials …” link to your main testimonials page whenever you add small blocks of testimonials on your content sections.
Useful Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of client 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 understanding visitor behavior on your pages.
We have written an article about a heatmap software you can add to your site to measure visitor behaviour here:
Useful WordPress Plugins
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 inviting users to submit testimonials.
Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), you can then refer customers to your “Testimonials” page.
Check out the testimonial plugins below:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is a free plugin that lets you add client testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into posts and pages using a shortcode. The plugin also lets you publish a list of all 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, their business logo, etc.
Easy Testimonials also can be upgraded to a “pro” version with additional features and technical support.
Go here to download this plugin:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, or text with images or videos on your site. You can insert client testimonials using 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 has loads more features available via a premium version, including built-in options SEO functionality and plugin support.
Go here to learn more about using this plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium plugin offers plenty of great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes for displaying 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 at the top, bottom, or side of testimonials, display testimonials in a speech bubble, customize font and background colours, font types and more.
To download and use the plugin, visit this site:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Summary …
Testimonials and user reviews 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 your customers or clients, and publish positive content about your business on your website or blog.
Additional Info
For additional resources on creating engaging testimonials read 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 regular training emails with actionable information that will teach 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 marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!
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