How To Build Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews
Are you stuck in a cycle of doing what you’ve always done to attract and retain customers, only to get the exact same disappointing results? As most business owners know, that finding new ways of generating new business can be quite difficult and frustrating. Just trying to keep your business afloat takes 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, it’s a mistake to ignore the effect of what your potential customers are doing online, especially if they are posting negative comments about your business.
Don’t ignore what customers may be saying online about your business!
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 promote and market your products and services online and should be an integral part of your content.
In this article, you’ll discover how to convert more visitors into prospects using highly effective user testimonials.
Testimonials And Consumer Reviews
The great American showman 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”. Using social proof as content is a powerful and effective way of getting your business promoted. Genuine testimonials quoted directly from satisfied customers are far more persuasive for attracting new customers than anything you say about your own products or services.
There is clearly a source of untapped opportunities for generating new business that most businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … testimonials and reviews from their happy users!
Testimonials and user reviews are great for building credibility for your services or products.
Tests conducted by leading research firms all seem to lead to the same inevitable conclusion: testimonials and user reviews help decrease doubts potential customers may have about purchasing your products or services, help users select products and help increase sales conversions.
Here are just some statistics that support this:
- According to a study 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 site if it has ratings and reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, consumer reviews are responsible for producing 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 Customer Reviews And Testimonials – Managing Online Reputation
Adding reviews and testimonials to your site from existing customers is important for growing your business online and creating a solid online reputation.
Consumer reviews and testimonials, however, can work both ways and impact your business both negatively and positively.
You see, people may not be saying bad things about your business directly to your face, but they could post damaging feedback on Facebook or a forum about a bad encounter they’ve just had with one of your staff members and this could be costing you business.
This is where online reputation management becomes an integral part of your online business success strategy.
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) may be seriously hurting your business without you even realizing this.
See this article to learn more about a simple yet effective tool for WordPress users that allows you to legally and ethically manage customer feedback:
Improving Your Sales Conversions With Engaging Testimonials – Useful Tips
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive when it comes to helping you market your products and services online and should be included as part of your content marketing. When you include responses from users in your content, you:
- Show prospects exactly with similar problems and pains how your products and services can help them.
- Help potential customers identify their objections and address these.
- Help prospects connect with their motivations and this facilitates moving them closer to a decision to purchase.
Here are some tips on improving your sales conversions with client testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: You should try to use the actual words used by your customers as much as possible. Leaving little grammatical errors and misspelled words in the content helps preserve your testimonials’ authenticity.
- Use photos: Research shows that using images of people’s faces will draw the attention of visitors browsing a web page. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews can help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your site’s content.
- Tell a powerful story: Stories are far more powerful and memorable than providing mere statistical facts. The ability to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution came to the rescue will make a far more lasting impression on those reading your content than using generalized statements about how “excellent” your service has been and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
- Use it in context: It’s good to add customer testimonials in 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. For example, 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 your product or service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before talking about the benefits of your products, or testimonials where clients are genuinely ecstatic about your support before offering a money-back guarantee or addressing 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 growing our bottom line by $66,588 in the last financial quarter,” or “XYZ solution definitely helped us grow our business?” 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 of work 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.
- Use different client testimonials on your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult if you are just starting out and have very few 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 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 can be 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 best audience demographic.
- Reprint across different platforms. If you get great feedback on your Facebook page praising your customer service, contact them privately asking for their permission to reprint the comment or post on your site.
- Don’t use fake testimonials. Your potential customers need to see that the testimonials published on your site are real. Don’t destroy your credibility with false testimonials.
How To Get Testimonials From Customers
Ask
Getting a testimonial from a satisfied client can be as simple as just asking for it.
Follow these useful guidelines for soliciting testimonials:
- Contact your customers after 60 days with an email request for a testimonial if you have not obtained one after completing a service.
- Add a field for testimonials in all your client surveys.
- Pull out your phone next time you meet with clients or hand over a completed job and if they are delighted with the results, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a very short video testimonial/feedback interview. If they agree, while recording the video, describe to your viewers what you have done for your client and try to record their positive reactions and feedback.
- Make it easy and write it for them. If clients send you positive written feedback that contains snippets of useful testimonial material interspersed with the rest of their message, grab the juiciest sections (only use what they have given you – don’t put words into their mouth), and shape these into 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 see fit before replying with their approval.
Offer To Publish A Link Back To Their Site Wherever You Quote Their Testimonial
Offer to add a link to their website in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive to get clients providing you with a testimonial. It also makes an implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are not fake and can be verified.
Include Testimonial Requests In Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a list of subscribers, include a request for a testimonial in one of your newsletter messages. Preferably, this should be timed to reach subscribers just after your customers have had a chance to assess the effect 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 clients for feedback, a testimonial, or a review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature is a great way to request 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 (once again, you can offer to add a link back to their website or profile in exchange).
Create A Customer Testimonials Section On Your Site
Create a “Testimonials” page and place a “more client testimonials …” link to this section wherever you display blocks of testimonials on your site.
Practical Tip: You can measure how useful customer 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 observing visitor behavior on your site.
We have written an article about adding heatmap analytics to your sites to measure visitor behavior here:
Testimonial Plugins For WordPress
If your website or blog is powered by WordPress, you can use a plugin to add and display testimonials. Some plugins also let you add a form to your pages where users can submit reviews and testimonials.
Once your plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), you can then refer users to your “Testimonials” page.
Below are some great plugins you can check out:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use free plugin that lets you add user testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed them into posts and pages using a shortcode. The plugin also lets you insert 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 business logo, etc.
Easy Testimonials also provides users with a “pro” version that offers additional features and developer support.
Go here to download this 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 pages and posts. You can insert 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 offers a range of additional features via a premium version, including built-in options for better search engine results and technical support.
Visit this site to download and use this plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium plugin provides a range of great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes to display correctly on any device or browser.
- Options to display your testimonials in a widget or as sliders, slideshows, list layout, grid layout, etc. via a shortcode
- Styling options (display image on top, bottom, or side of testimonials, display testimonial in a speech bubble, customized font and background colors, font types and more.
Go here to download the plugin:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Conclusion …
Customer reviews and client 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 existing customers or clients, and publish positive content about your business on your website.
Resources
For additional resources on creating engaging testimonials refer to 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
We also recommend subscribing to our Free Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful content for 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 100% FREE!
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