Building Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract new customers, only to get the exact same results? Most 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 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 your clients may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
Ignoring what your customers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
By the same token, you are also doing your business a great disservice if you aren’t publishing the positive things your customers say about your products, solutions, user support, etc. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are powerful when it comes to helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be included throughout your content.
In this article, you’ll learn how to achieve better results online using captivating client testimonials.
Testimonials And Client Reviews
Legendary American showman and successful promoter P.T. Barnum once 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 and effective way of promoting your business. Quoting genuine reviews and testimonials directly from existing users is satisfied customers are far more persuasive for drawing new customers than anything you have to say about your own products or services.
There is an untapped source of business growth potential that most businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … reviews from your clients!
Reviews and testimonials are a terrific way to build credibility for your services or products.
Studies conducted by leading marketing companies all lead to the same inevitable conclusion: adding testimonials and reviews to your point of sale pages eliminates doubts potential customers may have about buying products and services, helps with product selection and helps increase sales conversions.
Below are just some findings that support this:
- According to research 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 web site if it has ratings and reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, reviews play a significant role in creating an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more consumer reviews per product can translate into a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Website 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 Client Reviews And Testimonials – Online Reputation Management
Adding positive testimonials and reviews to your website from happy customers is essential for growing your business online.
Testimonials and reviews, however, are like double-edged swords; they can affect your business both in a negative as well as positive way.
People may not be saying bad things about your business directly to your face, but they could be posting negative feedback on a discussion group 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 a vitally important aspect of 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 really don’t need to worry about it) could be seriously hurting your business without you even being aware of this.
See this article to learn more about a simple yet effective plugin for WordPress users that allows you to legally and ethically manage customer feedback:
Tips On How To Create Client Testimonials
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are effective when it comes to helping you market your products and services online and should be included as part of your content marketing. When you quote responses from customers in your content, you:
- Show other users exactly with similar problems and pains what your products and services can do for them.
- Help prospects identify their objections and address these.
- Help prospects connect with their motivations and aspirations and this facilitates the sales process.
Here are some useful tips on how to create compelling user testimonials:
- Avoid over-editing: Try using the actual words used by your customers as much as possible. Leaving grammatical errors and misspelled words in the content helps preserve the authenticity of your testimonials.
- Use photos: Research shows 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 will help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your site’s content.
- Tell a powerful story: Stories are much more effective and captivating than providing mere 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 generalized statements about excellent service and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
- Keep it in context: It’s good to add testimonials to 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 mind if you were to present a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution can be purchased for before posting product or service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before presenting the benefits of your products, or testimonials where customers are truly ecstatic about your customer service before offering guarantees or addressing objections.
- Quantify the information: Which of the following statements is more powerful: “XYZ solution was directly responsible for growing our net profit by $60,903 in the last financial quarter,” or “XYZ solution has helped us grow our sales?” If possible, ask clients to specify quantifiable results when submitting testimonials, like how much your solution helped to increase their profits 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 somewhat difficult when you are just starting out and 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 testimonials by offering limited review copies of your product, or a special discount for 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 best 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 targeted to your best audience demographic.
- Reprint across different platforms. If someone publishes a great comment on your Facebook wall praising your business, contact them privately asking for permission to reprint the comment or post on your blog.
- Don’t use fake testimonials. Your prospects need to believe that the testimonials you provide on your site are genuine. Don’t compromise your integrity with ”made up” testimonials.
How To Get Client Testimonials
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.
Here are some useful tips for soliciting testimonials from your customers:
- Contact clients after 90 days with an email request for a testimonial if you did not obtain one immediately after completing a service.
- Add a field for testimonials in all client satisfaction surveys.
- Pull out your phone when you next visit a client or hand over a finished job and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they would be happy to record a brief video testimonial/feedback interview. When recording the video, explain to your viewers what you have done for the client and record the client’s positive reactions and responses.
- Make it easy for them. When 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 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 publish it. Explain that you have already prepared something to help them save 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 To Their Site
Offer to publish a link to their website in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great incentive for clients to provide a testimonial. It also makes the implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are not fake and can be verified.
Include A Testimonial Request In Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a subscriber list, include requests for a testimonial in one of your newsletter mailouts. This should be done after your customers have had a chance to experience your products. Use words like “I need a quick favor” 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 review of your services.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature lets you 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 gets a link to their profile. If you get a recommendation on LinkedIn, ask their permission to reprint it on your site (and offer to publish a link back to their profile in exchange).
Create A Client Testimonials Section
Create a “Testimonials” page and add a “read more client testimonials …” link pointing to your main testimonials page throughout your content sections.
Useful Tip: You can measure how useful testimonials are by how long visitors stay on the section of your pages or posts where you have added your testimonial content. ”Heatmapping” technology is a great way to measuring what visitors are doing on your site.
We have written an article about adding heatmap analytics to your website to monitor 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 testimonials.
Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (remember to provide simple instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), you can then send customers to your “Testimonials” page.
Check out the testimonial plugins below:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use free plugin that lets you add client testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed them into your pages and posts using a shortcode. The plugin also lets you publish a list of all your testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include an image with each testimonial, which can be used to add a photo of the testimonial author, their logo, etc.
Easy Testimonials also can be upgraded to a “pro” version that offers additional features and technical support.
Go here to download this plugin:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free WordPress plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with videos or images on your site. You can insert client testimonials using 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 provides additional features via a premium version, including built-in options for better search engine results and technical support.
To learn more about using this plugin, go here:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium WordPress plugin provides plenty of great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes for correct display on any device or browser.
- Options to display your testimonials in a widget or as slideshows, sliders, grid layout, list layout, etc. using a shortcode
- Styling options (display image on top, bottom, or side of testimonials, display testimonial in a speech bubble, customize font and background colours, font types and more.
To download and use the plugin, visit this site:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Conclusion …
User reviews and client testimonials are great 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 clients, and start publishing these on your website.
Additional Info
For additional resources about creating effective clients testimonials read 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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