Build Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract and retain customers, only to get the exact same disappointing results? Most small business owners don’t need to be told that generating new customers can be extremely difficult. 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 online economy, ignoring what customers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
Ignoring what your clients may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
You may also be doing your business a disservice if you are not promoting the positive things your customers are saying about your solutions, user support, etc. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are effective ways of marketing your products and services online and should be added to your content.
In this article, you’ll discover how to improve your sales with captivating customer testimonials.
Customer Reviews And Testimonials
The great American showman and successful promoter P.T. Barnum is often quoted as having said 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. Testimonials quoted directly from satisfied customers are far more persuasive for drawing new clients than anything you have to say about your own products or services.
There is clearly a source of untapped opportunities for generating new business that most businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … reviews and testimonials from your clients!
Customer testimonials and customer reviews are a great way to build credibility for your services and products.
Research conducted by many leading marketing companies all seem to lead to the same conclusion: adding customer testimonials and reviews to your sales pages decreases doubts potential customers may have about products or solutions that you are trying to sell, helps users select products and helps increase sales.
Below are just some findings that support this:
- According to research 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 web site if it has ratings and consumer reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, consumer reviews produce an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more reviews per product can mean 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).
- 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 Consumer Reviews And Testimonials – Managing Online Reputation
You should be adding great reviews and testimonials from customers to your website.
Testimonials and reviews, however, can work both ways and impact your business both negative and positive ways.
People may not be saying bad things about your business directly to you, but they could post updates on a forum about a bad encounter they’ve just had with one of your sales or customer support representatives and this could be costing you business.
This is where online reputation management becomes vitally important to your business success.
Misconceptions about managing your reputation online, 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 this.
See this article to learn more about a simple plugin for WordPress users that allows you to legally and ethically manage user reviews:
How To Create User Testimonials – Useful Tips
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are effective when it comes to helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be included in your content marketing. When you quote your own customer responses in your content, you:
- Show potential customers 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 closer to a decision to purchase.
Below are some useful tips on how to create captivating user testimonials:
- Avoid over-editing: Try using your customer’s actual words as much as possible. Leaving grammatical errors and misspellings in the content helps keep your testimonials sounding authentic.
- Use photos of real people: Marketing studies show that using images of people’s faces draws the most attention of visitors on a web page. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews can help increase visitor engagement with your site’s content.
- Tell a powerful story: Stories are so much more powerful and captivating than just providing statistical facts. The ability to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution came to the rescue will make a longer-lasting impression on those reading your content than presenting generic statements about excellent service and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
- Use 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 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 price information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before presenting the benefits of your products, or testimonials where clients are genuinely ecstatic about your support when offering a risk-free guarantee or addressing objections.
- Quantify the information: Which of the following statements is more powerful… “Since installing your XYZ software, we have noticed our profits increase by $96,634 during the previous financial quarter,” or “XYZ software has 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 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 testimonial repeatedly throughout 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 using the same testimonial everywhere on your site’s pages. Depending on the type of business you run, you could try to obtain more 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 ideal customer: 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 very 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 publishes a great comment on your Facebook page praising your products or services, send them a message asking for permission to reprint the comment or post on your site.
- Don’t use fake testimonials. Prospective clients need to believe that the testimonials provided on your site are real. Don’t compromise your integrity or reputation with ”made up” testimonials.
How To Get Client Testimonials
Just 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:
- 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 did not obtain one after performing a service.
- Include a text box for testimonials in all client surveys.
- Take out your phone next time you visit a client or hand over a finished job and if they are delighted with the results, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a very brief video testimonial/feedback interview. If they agree, while recording the video, explain to your viewers what you have done for your client and make sure to capture the client’s positive reactions and responses.
- Make it easy and write it for them. When a client sends 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 – never put words into their mouth), and shape these into a testimonial, then contact your 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 modify what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.
Offer To Post A Link To Their Site Wherever You Publish Their Testimonial
Offer to add a link back to their website in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great incentive to get clients to provide you with a testimonial. It also makes an 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 subscriber list, include requests for a testimonial in one of your autoresponder mailouts. Preferably, this should be done after your customers have had a chance to use your product, service or solution. 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 customers to provide feedback, a testimonial, or a product review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature is a great way to solicit testimonials from other members that become part of your account. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is quite simple and 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 (once again, you can offer to add a link back to their website or profile in exchange).
Create A Client Testimonials Page On Your Site
Create a “Testimonials” page and place a “read more customer testimonials …” link pointing to your main testimonials section throughout your content sections.
Useful Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of your client testimonials 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 observing what visitors are doing on your site.
We have written an article about adding heatmaps to your website to track visitor behaviour here:
Testimonial Plugins For WordPress
If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to display testimonials. Some plugins also let you add a form to your pages inviting users to submit feedback and testimonials.
Once your plugin is installed and set up (remember to provide simple instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), you then send users to your “Testimonials” page.
Below are some testimonial plugins you can check out:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is a free WordPress plugin that lets you add testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into your pages and posts using a shortcode. Easy Testimonials also lets you add a list of all testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which is great to add a photo of the testimonial author, a logo, etc.
Easy Testimonials also provides a “pro” version that has additional features and plugin support.
To download the plugin, visit this site:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with images or videos on your blog. You can insert testimonials via a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and have multiple display options such as random or specific ordering.
Testimonials Widget makes loads more features available via a premium version, including built-in options for improved search engine results and technical support.
To download and use the plugin, visit this site:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium WordPress plugin offers 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. using a shortcode
- Styling options (display image at the top, bottom, or side of testimonials, display testimonial in a speech bubble, customized font and background colours, font types and more.
Go here to learn more about the plugin:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Conclusion …
Customer 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 clients, and publish positive content about your business on your web site.
Additional Info
For additional sources of information and resources on creating engaging testimonials see these 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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