Building Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract customers, only to get the exact same disappointing results? As most business owners know, that finding new ways of generating new business can be very difficult, time consuming and frustrating. Just trying to keep your business afloat takes up a lot of time, money and energy, and sometimes this can feel like it’s just not worth the effort.
In today’s digital, mobile and social media-driven economy, you just can’t ignore the impact of what potential customers are doing online, especially if they are posting comments about your business.
Ignoring what consumers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
You are also doing your business a great disservice if you are not spreading the positive things your clients say about your products and services. 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.
In this article, we’ll show you how to achieve better results online with engaging customer testimonials.
Consumer Reviews
The great American showman and successful promoter Phineas Taylor 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-based content is a powerful way of getting your business promoted effectively. Quoting genuine reviews from existing users is satisfied customers are far more persuasive when it comes to attracting new customers than anything you have to say about your own products or services.
There is a source of untapped business growth potential that most small businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … testimonials and reviews from customers!
Testimonials and consumer reviews are a powerful way to build credibility for your business.
Tests conducted by many leading firms all point to the same conclusion: testimonials and user reviews help to eliminate doubts potential customers may have about buying your products or services, help users select products and increases sales.
Below are just some of the findings available to support this:
- According to research findings by eVoc Insights, an organization known for researching and measuring user experience, “In general, 63% of users indicate they are more likely to purchase from a site if it has ratings and consumer reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, consumer reviews play a significant role in creating an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more reviews per product can translate into a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Site visitors who interact with both customer 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).
- Customer 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 User Testimonials And Reviews – Managing Online Reputation
Adding positive reviews and testimonials to your website from people who are delighted with your products or services is essential for creating a solid online reputation.
Customer testimonials and user reviews, however, are like double-edged swords; they can affect your business both negative and positive ways.
People may not be saying bad things about your business, products or services directly to your face, but they could post updates on Facebook about an unpleasant encounter they’ve just had with you or your business and this could be costing you business.
This is where online reputation management becomes important to your online business success.
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 harming your business without you even realizing this.
See this article to learn more about a simple WordPress plugin that can help to avoid the escalation of negative reviews about your products through effective customer review management:
Tips On Improving Your Conversions With Captivating Customer Testimonials
Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are persuasive ways of helping you market and promote your products and services online and should be used in your content marketing. When you include responses from clients in your content, you:
- Show prospects exactly what pains and problems your products and services can help to solve for them and how easily this can be done.
- Help prospects identify and address their objections.
- Help prospects connect with their motivations and aspirations and facilitate moving them closer to a buying decision.
Below are some useful tips on improving your conversions with testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: Try using your customer’s actual words as much as possible. Leaving little grammatical errors and misspelt words in the content helps preserve your testimonials’ authenticity.
- Use photos: Images of people’s faces draw the most attention on a web page. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews can help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your content.
- Tell a powerful story: Stories are so much more effective and memorable than providing mere facts and statistics. Being able to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution saved the day will make a longer-lasting impression on those reading your content than using generalized statements about excellent service and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
- Keep it in context: Add customer 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. For example, 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 product pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before talking about the benefits of your products, or testimonials where clients are truly thrilled about your customer service before offering guarantees or providing content that helps your readers overcome their objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements is more powerful: “XYZ solution was directly responsible for helping to increase our net profit by $57,214 in the last fiscal year,” or “XYZ software helped us grow our business?” Whenever 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 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 customer testimonials on your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult if you are just starting out and have very few clients, it’s best to avoid using the same testimonial repeatedly throughout your site. Depending on the type of business you run, you could try to obtain more user 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 decide 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 ideal customer is, providing testimonials from people who your prospects aspire to become can be 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 posts a great comment on your Facebook wall praising your products or services, send them a message asking for their permission to reprint the comment or post on your blog.
- Only use real client testimonials. Most people can see through sites that employ copywriters to write content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your potential clients need to believe that the testimonials published on your site are real. Don’t compromise your credibility or reputation with a false testimonial.
How To Get Testimonials From Your Clients
Always Ask For Testimonials
Getting a testimonial from a satisfied client can be as simple as just asking for it.
Here are some useful guidelines for requesting testimonials:
- Make it a part of your business processes to contact clients after 90 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you did not obtain one immediately after completing your service.
- Include a field for testimonials in all client surveys.
- Take out your phone next time you meet with a client or hand over a finished project and if they are delighted with the results, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a brief video testimonial/feedback interview. While recording your video, describe to viewers what you have done for the client and try to record your client’s positive reactions and feedback.
- Make it easy and write the testimonial 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 – never put words into their mouth), and shape these into a testimonial, then contact your 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 edit what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.
Offer To Publish A Link To The Source Wherever You Quote Their Testimonial
Offer to publish a link back to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive to get clients providing a testimonial. It also makes the 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 list of subscribers, include requests for a testimonial in one of your autoresponder messages. Preferably, this should be timed to reach subscribers just after your clients have had a chance to assess the results of using your products. 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 to provide feedback, a testimonial, or a review of your services.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature is a great way to request testimonials from other members for 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 positive recommendation on LinkedIn, ask their permission to reprint it on your site (you can offer to publish a link back to their profile in exchange).
Create A Client Testimonials Section
Create a “Testimonials” page and place a “read more client testimonials …” link to your main testimonials page throughout your site.
Tip: You can measure how useful testimonials are by how long visitors remain on the section of your pages or posts where you have added the testimonial content. A great tool for observing visitor behavior on your pages are “heatmaps”.
We have written an article about adding heatmap analytics to your sites to observe visitor behavior here:
WordPress Testimonial Plugins
If your website or blog is built using WordPress, you can use a plugin to add, edit and display testimonials. Some plugins also allow you to add forms to your pages inviting users to submit testimonials.
Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (remember to provide simple instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), you then send customers 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 your sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into your pages and posts using a shortcode. The plugin also lets you insert a list of all your testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which you can use to add a photo of the testimonial author, a business logo, etc.
The plugin also provides users with a “pro” version that offers additional features and developer support.
To download this plugin, go here:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, or text with videos or images on your web site. 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.
The plugin comes with added features via a premium version, including built-in functions SEO functionality and developer support.
To download and use this plugin, go here:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This is a premium WordPress plugin that provides plenty of great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes for displaying 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 on top, bottom, or side of the testimonial, display testimonials in a speech bubble, customized font and background colours, font types and more.
Visit this site for more information about the plugin:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Summary …
Client testimonials and user reviews are great 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 clients or customers, and start publishing these on your site.
Additional Info
The articles below provide useful information on creating engaging customer testimonials and were also 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 easy-to-digest information that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful content for your 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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