Build Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews
Are you stuck in a cycle of doing what you’ve always done to attract and retain new customers, only to get the exact same results? Most business owners don’t need to be told that trying to generate new customers can be quite 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 online and social-driven economy, it’s foolish to ignore the effect of what potential customers are doing online, especially if they are posting negative comments about your business.
Don’t ignore what clients may be saying online about your business!
You could be doing your business a disservice if you are not promoting the positive things your customers say about your products and services. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are effective when it comes to helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be used in your content.
In this article, we’ll show you how to improve your conversions with compelling customer testimonials.
Testimonials And Client Reviews
Legendary showman 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 and effective way of getting your business promoted. Reviews from existing users are far more persuasive for attracting new clients, customers or users than anything you say about your own products or services.
There is clearly a source of untapped business growth potential that most small businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … reviews from their previous users!
Customer reviews and customer testimonials are effective for building credibility for your business.
Research conducted by leading marketing companies all seem to lead to the same conclusion: user reviews and testimonials eliminate doubts potential customers may have about buying your product, help with product selection and increases conversions of visitors into sales.
Here are just some findings that 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 customer reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, customer reviews result in an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more reviews per product can result in a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Website 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).
(Source: eConsultancy.com)
Adding Client Reviews – Managing Online Reputation
Adding reviews to your site from existing clients is essential for creating a solid online reputation.
Customer testimonials and user reviews, however, can work both ways and impact your business both negatively or positively.
People may not be saying bad things about your business, products or services directly to you, but they could be posting updates on Facebook about a bad 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 a vital part of your business and content marketing strategy.
Misconceptions about engaging in online reputation management practices, such as the process being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you just don’t need to worry about it) may be seriously hurting your business without you even realizing this.
See this article to learn more about a simple plugin for WordPress users that lets you legally and ethically manage your customer feedback:
Improving Your Sales With Compelling Testimonials – Useful Tips
Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are effective ways of marketing your products and services online and should be included in your content marketing strategy. When you include your own client responses in your content, you:
- Show other users exactly what pains and problems your products and services can solve for them and how easily it can do this.
- Help your visitors identify their objections and address these.
- Help prospects connect with their motivations and facilitate the sales process.
Below are some practical tips on creating client 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 to keep it ‘real’.
- Use photos: Marketing studies show that using images of people’s faces will draw the attention of visitors on a web page. Adding photos of your clients next to their testimonials and reviews will help increase visitor engagement with your site’s content.
- Tell a story: Stories are so much more effective and captivating than providing mere facts and statistics. The ability 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 presenting generic statements about excellent customer service and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
- Keep it in context: Add testimonials to your site copy where it best makes 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 mind by adding a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution sells for before posting service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before discussing the benefits of your products, or testimonials where customers are truly thrilled about your support when offering a money-back guarantee or providing content designed to help your readers overcome their objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements is more powerful… “As a direct result of installing your XYZ solution, we have seen an additional sales increase of $12,578 in the previous financial quarter,” or “XYZ solution 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 by in specific percentages or amounts, how many hours they have saved, 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.
- Vary the customer testimonials throughout your site: Although this can be a little difficult if you are just starting out or don’t have many clients, try to avoid using the same testimonial everywhere on your website. Depending on the nature of your business, you could try to obtain more client 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 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 ideal customer is, providing testimonials from people who your prospects can relate to is a really 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 best audience demographic.
- Reprint across different platforms. If someone publishes fantastic feedback on your Facebook page praising your solution, ask them for permission to reprint the comment or post on your site.
- Don’t use fake testimonials. Many people can see through sites that employ copywriters to write content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your prospects need to believe that the testimonials you provide on your site are real. Don’t destroy your reputation with a false testimonial.
How To Get Testimonials From Your Customers
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 14 days with an email request for a testimonial if you have not obtained one immediately after performing a service.
- Include a field for testimonials in client surveys.
- Pull out your phone next time you meet with 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 short video testimonial/feedback interview. If they agree, while recording the video, explain to viewers what you have done for the client and record your client’s positive reactions and responses.
- Make it easy and write it for them. If 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 – don’t 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 done this to save them time and let them know they are completely free to edit what you have written however they see fit before replying with their approval.
Offer To Post A Link Back 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 to provide you with 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 a request for a testimonial in one of your newsletter broadcasts. 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 the subject of your email and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking clients to provide honest feedback, a testimonial, or a review of your services.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature helps you request testimonials from other members that become part of your profile. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is quite 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 publish a link back to their website or profile in exchange).
Create A Customer Testimonials Page
Create a “Testimonials” page and add a “read more client testimonials …” link pointing to your main testimonials page throughout your site.
Useful Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of testimonials by how long visitors remain on the section of your pages or posts where you have added the testimonial content. A great tool for understanding visitor behavior on your site are “heatmaps”.
We have written an article about a heatmap analytics technology you can add to your site to observe visitor behaviour here:
Testimonial Plugins For WordPress
If your site or blog is powered by WordPress, you can use a plugin to display testimonials. Some plugins also let you add a form to your pages where users can submit feedback and testimonials.
Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), all you have to do is refer clients to your “Testimonials” page.
Check out the plugins below:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use free plugin that lets you add testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed them into posts and pages using a shortcode. Easy Testimonials also lets you publish a list of all your testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include an image with each testimonial, which is great for adding a photo of the testimonial author, a logo, etc.
The Easy Testimonials plugin also provides a “pro” version that offers additional features and technical support.
To download and use the plugin, go here:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free WordPress plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with images or videos on your blog. You can insert customer testimonials using a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and have multiple display options such as random or specific ordering.
Testimonials Widget has loads more features available via a premium version, including built-in options SEO functionality and plugin support.
For more information about this plugin, visit this site:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium WP plugin provides plenty of great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes for correct display on any device or browser.
- Display options for your testimonials in a widget or as slideshows, sliders, list layout, grid layout, etc. via a shortcode
- Styling options (display image on top, bottom, or side of testimonials, display testimonials in a speech bubble, customized font and background colours, font types and more.
To download and use the plugin, go here:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Conclusion …
Client 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 testimonials, reviews, and feedback from existing customers or clients, and start publishing these on your website.
Additional Info
The articles below are a great source of information about creating engaging 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 a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable information that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your business online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!
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