Building Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews
Are you stuck in a cycle of 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 finding new ways of generating new business can be very difficult and confusing. Just trying to stay in business 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-driven economy, ignoring what your clients may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
Ignoring what consumers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
By the same token, you are also doing your business a disservice if you are not promoting the positive things your clients say about your products and services. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are persuasive when it comes to helping you market and promote your products and services online and should be included as part of your content marketing.
In this article, you will learn how to convert more visitors into prospects using knockout client testimonials.
User Reviews
P.T. Barnum, legendary American showman and businessman, 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 way of getting your business promoted effectively. Quoting genuine reviews from existing customers is existing clients are far more persuasive for attracting new customers, clients or users than anything you can say about your own products or services.
There is an untapped source of opportunities for generating new business that most small businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … client testimonials and reviews!
Reviews and customer testimonials are terrific for building credibility for your products or services.
Tests conducted by many leading firms all seem to lead to the same inevitable conclusion: user reviews and testimonials help to eliminate doubts potential customers may have about your product, help users select products and increases 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 can result in an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more reviews per product can translate into a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Website visitors who interact with both customer 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 Client Reviews And Testimonials – Managing Online Reputation
Clearly, you should be adding positive reviews and testimonials from satisfied clients to your website.
Customer reviews and customer testimonials, however, can work both ways and impact your business both negatively or positively.
People may not be saying bad things about your business directly to your face, but they could be posting updates on Facebook about a bad experience they’ve just had with your services and this could be costing you business.
This is where online reputation management becomes vitally important to 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 just don’t need it) may be causing damage to your business without you even realizing it.
See this article to learn more about a plugin for WordPress users that lets you legally and ethically manage user reviews:
Tips On How To Create Client Testimonials
Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are persuasive ways of helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be an integral part of your content marketing strategy. When you include your own client responses in your content, you:
- Show potential customers exactly what problems and pains your products and services can solve for them and how easily it can do this.
- Help visitors identify their objections and address these.
- Help prospects connect with their motivations and facilitate the sales process.
Below are some tips on improving your sales conversions with testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: Try using the actual words used by your customers 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 client photos next to their testimonials and reviews can help increase visitor engagement with your content.
- Tell a story: Stories are so much more powerful and memorable than just providing 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 generic statements about how “excellent” the support has been and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
- Keep it in context: It’s good to add customer testimonials to your site copy 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 mind by adding a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution sells for before posting your service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before presenting the benefits of your products, or testimonials where clients are genuinely thrilled about your customer service when offering a money-back guarantee or addressing objections.
- Quantify the information: Which of the following statements do you think is more powerful: “Since using your XYZ services, we have noticed an additional profit growth of $85,643 in the previous financial quarter,” or “XYZ solution 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 profits or reduce their costs 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 in a recent financial period, 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 somewhat difficult when you are just starting out or don’t have many clients, it’s best to avoid displaying the same testimonial throughout your website. Depending on the nature of your business, 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 target audience: 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 very 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 across different platforms. If you get a great comment on your Facebook page praising your business, ask them permission to reprint the content on your blog.
- Only use real testimonials. Your potential customers need to see that the testimonials displayed on your site are genuine. Don’t compromise your integrity or reputation with a false testimonial.
How To Get Testimonials From Clients
Always Ask For Testimonials
Getting a testimonial from a satisfied client can be as simple as just asking for it.
Follow these tips for soliciting testimonials from clients:
- Make a point of contacting clients after a specific period of time, e.g. 30 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you have not obtained one after completing a service.
- Include a text box for entering testimonials in client satisfaction surveys.
- Take out your phone when you next meet with clients or hand over a finished project and if they are delighted with the results, ask them if they would be happy to record a quick video testimonial/feedback interview. If they agree, while recording your video, explain to viewers what you have done for the client and capture your client’s positive reactions and feedback.
- Make it easy and write the testimonial for them. When 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 given you – never put words into their mouth), and use these to create a testimonial, then contact the client and ask them for permission to use it. Explain that you have already prepared something to help them save time and invite them to edit what you have written however they see fit before replying with their approval.
Offer To Publish A Link To Their Site
Offer to add a link to their website in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive to get clients providing 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 a request for a testimonial in a periodic email broadcast. This should be done after your clients have had a chance to assess the results of using 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 subscribers for feedback, a testimonial, or a review of your services.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature is a great way to obtain testimonials that become part of your profile. With LinkedIn, the process for requesting and providing recommendations is user-friendly and the person providing the recommendation receives a link to their profile. If you get a positive recommendation on LinkedIn, ask their permission to reprint it on your site (you can offer to add a link back to their profile in exchange).
Create A Client Testimonials Section
Create a “Testimonials” page and add a “more customer testimonials …” link to your main testimonials page wherever you are adding small blocks of testimonials on your content sections.
Practical Tip: You can measure how useful client testimonials are 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 measuring what visitors are doing on your pages.
We have written an article about adding heatmaps to your website to predict visitor behavior here:
Testimonial Plugins
If your site or blog is powered by WordPress, you can use a plugin to display testimonials. Some plugins also allow you to 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 customers to your “Testimonials” section.
Check out the WordPress testimonial plugins below:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is a free WordPress plugin that lets you add testimonials to the 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 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, a company logo, etc.
The Easy Testimonials plugin also comes with a “pro” version with additional features and developer support.
To learn more about using this plugin, visit this site:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with images or videos on your WordPress site. You can insert client 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 plugin offers extra features via a premium version, including built-in options SEO functionality and developer support.
To download the plugin, visit this site:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium WordPress plugin offers a range of great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes for displaying correctly on any device or browser.
- Options to display your testimonials in a widget or as sliders, slideshows, grid layout, list layout, etc. via a shortcode
- Styling options (display image on top, bottom, or side of the testimonial, display testimonials in a speech bubble, customized font and background colors, font types and more.
To learn more about using the plugin, go here:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Conclusion …
Testimonials and customer 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 testimonials, reviews, and feedback from your clients or customers, and start publishing these on your website.
Additional Info
The articles below provide useful information about creating effective testimonials and were also helpful in providing research and information for sections of this article:
- 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 that will show you how to drive more traffic to your website, 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 100% FREE!
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