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? Most business owners don’t need to be told that finding new ways of generating new customers can be very hard. Just trying to keep your business afloat 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 and social media-driven economy, you simply can’t afford to ignore the significance of what potential customers are doing online, especially if they are posting negative comments about your business.
Don’t ignore what your 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 say about your products or services. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are powerful when it comes to helping you market your products and services online and should be added throughout your content.
In this article, you’ll discover how to achieve better results online with highly effective customer testimonials.
Testimonials And Client Reviews
The great American 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 way of getting your business promoted effectively. Testimonials and reviews quoted directly from satisfied 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 clearly an untapped source of opportunities for generating new business that most small businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … testimonials and reviews from your satisfied customers!
User reviews and testimonials are a powerful way to build credibility for your business.
Marketing studies conducted by leading firms all lead to the same conclusion: adding testimonials and reviews to your sales information pages eliminates doubts potential customers may have about buying products, helps with product selection and increases sales.
Below are just some of the statistics 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 consumer reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, reviews produce an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more customer reviews per product can translate into 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).
(Above figures sourced from eConsultancy.com)
Adding User Reviews – Managing Online Reputation
Adding testimonials and reviews to your website from people who are delighted with your services is essential for creating a solid online business reputation.
Customer testimonials and reviews, however, can work both ways and impact your business both positively or negatively.
People may not be saying bad things about your business directly to your face, but they could be posting disparaging remarks on Facebook or a forum about an unpleasant 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 vital to your success.
Misconceptions about online reputation management, such as being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you just don’t need to worry about it) could be causing damage to your business without you even realizing it.
See this article to learn more about a simple yet effective WordPress plugin that allows you to legally and ethically manage customer reviews:
How To Create Sales Boosting User Testimonials – Useful Tips
Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are effective when it comes to marketing your products and services online and should be an integral part of your content. When you include your own client responses in your content, you:
- Show prospects exactly what problems and pains your products and services can solve for them and how easily this can be done.
- Help visitors identify and address their objections.
- Help potential customers connect with their aspirations and motivations and this facilitates moving them further along the sales process.
Here are some practical tips on creating effective user testimonials:
- Avoid over-editing: 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 things ‘real’.
- Use photos of real people: Marketing tests show that using images of people’s faces will draw the attention of visitors browsing a web page. Adding photos of your clients next to their testimonials and reviews can help increase visitor engagement with your content.
- Use the power of storytelling: Stories are far more powerful and captivating than just providing facts and statistics. The ability to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution came to the rescue will make a more lasting impression on those reading your content than using generic statements about excellent service and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
- Use it in context: Add testimonials in your site copy where it best makes sense to place them, and where you believe these can most effectively help to sell your point. For example, think about the impact you can create on your visitor’s perception by adding a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution can be purchased for before posting pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before discussing the benefits of your products, or testimonials where customers are truly ecstatic about your support before offering guarantees or addressing objections.
- Quantify the information: Which of the following statements do you think your prospects would find more powerful: “Since using your services, we have noticed our sales grow by $43,989 during the previous fiscal year,” or “XYZ solution helped us grow our business?” If 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 you have helped them save, 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 if you are just starting out or don’t have many clients, it’s best to avoid using the same testimonial throughout your site. Depending on your business, you could try to obtain more user 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 decide 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 best customer is, providing testimonials from people who your prospects can relate to 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 ideal customers.
- Reprint across different platforms. If someone posts fantastic feedback on your Facebook page praising your commitment to customer satisfaction, send them a message asking permission to reprint the comment or post on your blog.
- Don’t use fake client testimonials. Most people can see through sites that employ copywriters to create content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your prospects need to believe that the testimonials published on your site are real. Don’t compromise your integrity or reputation with a ”made up” testimonial.
How To Get Client Testimonials
Always Ask For Testimonials
When you complete performing a service, or a customer says they are really happy with your product or service, ask them for a testimonial.
Follow these useful guidelines for soliciting testimonials:
- Contact your customers after 60 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you did not obtain one after completing your service.
- Include a text box for testimonials in all your client surveys.
- Pull out your phone next time you 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 brief video testimonial/feedback interview. When recording your video, describe to viewers what you have done for the client and make sure to record the client’s positive reactions and feedback.
- Make it easy and write it for them. If clients send 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 given you – never put words into their mouth), and shape these into a testimonial, then contact the client and ask them for permission to use it. Explain that you have done this 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 Publish A Link To The Source
Offer to add a link to their site 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 real and can be verified.
Include A Testimonial Request In Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a subscriber list, include a request for a testimonial in one of your autoresponder messages. This should be timed to reach subscribers just after your customers have had a chance to assess the results of using your product, service or 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 users to provide honest feedback, a testimonial, or a product review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature lets you solicit testimonials from other members that become part of your account. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is simple and user-friendly and the person who provides the recommendation gets a link to their profile. If you get a recommendation on LinkedIn, ask their permission to reprint it on your website (you can offer to add a link back to their profile in exchange).
Create A Testimonials Page
Create a new page for client testimonials and place a “more testimonials …” link to this page throughout your content sections.
Useful Tip: You can measure how effective customer testimonials are by how long visitors stay on the section of your pages or posts where you have added the testimonial content. A great tool for monitoring visitor behaviour on your site are “heatmaps”.
We have written an article about a heatmap analytics software you can add to your website to understand visitor behaviour here:
Testimonial Plugins
If you use 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 feedback and 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 users to your “Testimonials” page.
Here are some great plugins you can check out:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is a free plugin that lets you add testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into your pages and posts using a shortcode. The Easy Testimonials plugin also lets you publish 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 logo, etc.
Easy Testimonials also provides users with a “pro” version with additional features and developer support.
To download this plugin, visit this site:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, or text with videos or images on your web site. You can insert testimonials content 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 has loads more features available via a premium version, including built-in options SEO functionality and technical support.
Go here to download and use this plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This is a premium WordPress plugin that offers plenty of great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes to display correctly on any device or browser.
- Display options for your testimonials in a widget or as sliders, slideshows, list layout, grid layout, etc. using a shortcode
- Styling options (display image on top, bottom, or side of the testimonial, display testimonials in a speech bubble, customize font and background colors, font types and more.
Go here to download and use this plugin:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Summary …
User reviews and client testimonials are powerful sources of content that can help your business add credibility, build authority, improve online reputation, and grow your sales funnel. Always ask for feedback, reviews, and testimonials from existing customers or clients, and start publishing these on your site.
Resources
The articles below provide useful information about creating effective testimonials and were 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 exactly how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating high-quality content for 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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