Build Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract and retain customers, only to get the exact same results? Most business owners don’t need to be told that finding new ways of generating new customers can be difficult. Just trying to remain in business takes a lot of time, money and energy, and sometimes this can feel like it’s just not worth the effort.
In today’s online and social media-driven economy, ignoring what customers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
Ignoring what customers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
By the same token, you could be doing your business a disservice if you aren’t publishing the positive things your clients say about your services and products. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are effective when it comes to helping you market your products and services online and should be used in your content.
In this article, you will learn ways to improve your sales using more effective user testimonials.
Client Reviews
The great, legendary showman and businessman Phineas Taylor P.T. Barnum is often quoted as having 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. Quoting reviews from existing clients is existing clients are far more persuasive for attracting new customers, clients or users than anything you have to say about your own products or services.
There is a source of untapped opportunities for generating new business that most businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … reviews from their customers!
Customer testimonials and reviews are effective for building credibility for your products and services.
Marketing studies conducted by leading firms all seem to lead to the same inevitable conclusion: testimonials and user reviews eliminate doubts potential customers may have about purchasing products, help with product selection and help increase sales.
Below are just some of the findings 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, reviews result in an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more user reviews per product can mean a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Site visitors who interact with both consumer 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).
(Source: eConsultancy.com)
Adding Client Testimonials And Reviews – Online Reputation Management
Adding testimonials and reviews to your website from people who are thrilled with your products or services is important for growing your business and creating a solid online reputation.
Testimonials and user reviews, however, can work both ways and impact your business both in a negative and positive way.
You see, people may not be saying bad things about your business directly to you, but they could post damaging words on Facebook, or a discussion thread or forum about an unpleasant experience they’ve just had with your business 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 a significant part of your success strategy.
Misconceptions about engaging in online reputation management practices, such as being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you just don’t need to worry about it) could be seriously causing damage to your business without you even being aware of it.
See this article to learn more about a simple yet effective WordPress plugin that allows you to legally and ethically manage user reviews:
Tips On How To Create Testimonials
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are powerful ways of helping you market your products and services online and should be added to your content. When you include responses from customers 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 potential customers identify and address their objections.
- Help prospects connect with their motivations and aspirations and this facilitates moving them closer to a buying decision.
Here are some tips on improving your sales conversions with testimonials:
- Avoid over-editing: You should try to use the actual words used by your customers as much as possible. Leaving little grammatical errors and misspelt words in the content helps preserve your testimonials’ authenticity.
- Use photos: Marketing studies show that using images of people’s faces draws the attention of visitors browsing a web page. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews will help increase visitor engagement with your site’s content.
- Use the power of storytelling: Stories are far more effective and captivating 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 more lasting impression on those reading your content than using generalized statements about how “excellent” your support has been and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
- Keep it in context: It’s good to add testimonials to your site copy where it makes the most sense to place them, and where they can most effectively help to sell your point. Think about the impact you will have on your visitor’s perception if you were to display a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution can be purchased for before posting your price information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before talking about the benefits of your services, or testimonials where clients are truly ecstatic about your support when offering a risk-free guarantee or providing content designed to help readers overcome their objections.
- Quantify the information: Which of the following statements do you think your prospects would consider to be more powerful: “XYZ solution was directly responsible for helping us grow our net profit by $32,753 in the last fiscal year,” or “XYZ software helped us grow our sales?” 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 they have saved, 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.
- Avoid using the same testimonial throughout your site: Although this can be a little difficult when you are just starting out and don’t have many clients, it’s best to avoid displaying the same testimonial throughout your web 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 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 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 targeted to your ideal customers.
- Reprint across different platforms. If you get a great comment on your Facebook wall praising your products or services, contact them privately asking for their permission to reprint the content on your blog.
- Only use genuine client testimonials. Your potential customers need to see that the testimonials displayed on your site are genuine. Don’t compromise your integrity with ”made up” testimonials.
How To Get Testimonials From Customers
Just Ask
If you have just completed performing a service, or a customer says they are really happy with your product or service, ask them for a testimonial.
Follow these tips for requesting testimonials from clients:
- Make it a part of your business processes to contact clients after a specific period of time, e.g. 14 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you have not obtained one immediately after completing a service.
- Add a field for testimonials in your client surveys.
- Pull out your phone next time you visit a client or hand over a finished job and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a very quick video testimonial/feedback interview. During the video, explain to your viewers what you have done for the client and record their positive reactions and feedback.
- Make it easy 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 written – 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 help them save time and let them know they are completely free to modify what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.
Offer To Publish A Link To Their Site
Offer to publish a link back to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive to get clients to provide a testimonial. It also makes the implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are real and can be verified.
Add A Testimonial Request To Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a list of subscribers, include a request for a testimonial in a regularly-spaced newsletter message. This should be done after your clients have had a chance to experience your services. Use words like “I need your help” in the subject of your message and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking customers for feedback, a testimonial, or a product review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature helps you obtain testimonials for your account. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is simple and user-friendly and the person who provides the recommendation receives a link to their profile. If you get a positive recommendation on LinkedIn, ask their permission to reprint it on your website (once again, you can offer to publish a link back to their profile in exchange).
Create A Customer Testimonials Section
Create a “Testimonials” page and place a “read more testimonials …” link to your main testimonials section throughout your content sections.
Practical Tip: You can measure how effective client testimonials are by how long visitors remain on the section of your pages or posts where you have added your testimonial content. A great tool for observing visitor behavior on your pages are “heatmaps”.
We have written an article about adding heatmaps to your sites to analyze visitor behavior here:
Using Testimonial Plugins For WordPress
If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to add, edit and display testimonials. Some plugins also allow you to add forms to your pages where users can submit testimonials.
Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (remember to provide simple instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), all you have to do is send users to your “Testimonials” page.
Check out the WordPress testimonial plugins below:
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. Easy Testimonials also lets you insert a list of all your testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which is great for adding a photo of the testimonial author, their company logo, etc.
The Easy Testimonials plugin also comes with a “pro” version that offers additional features and technical support.
Visit this site for more information about using the plugin:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, or text with images or videos on your WordPress site. 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.
The Testimonials Widget plugin makes plenty more features available via a premium version, including built-in functions for improved search engine results and technical support.
To download this plugin, visit this site:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium WP plugin provides many 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 slideshows, sliders, list layout, grid layout, etc. by adding a shortcode
- Styling options (display image at the top, bottom, or side of testimonials, display testimonial in a speech bubble, customize font and background colours, font types and more.
To download this plugin, visit this site:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Conclusion …
User reviews and testimonials are powerful sources of content that 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 customers, and publish positive content about your business on your site.
Additional Info
For additional sources of information and resources on creating effective testimonials refer to 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
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