Building Your Reputation With Testimonials And User 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? Most small business owners don’t need to be told that trying to generate new business can be quite difficult. 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, it’s foolish to ignore the impact of online consumer behavior, especially if they are talking about your business.
Don’t ignore what your clients may be saying online about your business!
You could be doing your business a great disservice if you are not promoting the positive things your clients say about your products or services. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful when it comes to helping you market your products and services online and should be added to your content marketing.
In this article, you’ll learn tips for converting more visitors into qualified prospects using awesome client testimonials.
Testimonials And User Reviews
The great American businessman and showman 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”. Using social proof as content is a powerful way of getting your business promoted effectively. Quoting genuine reviews from satisfied users is satisfied clients are far more persuasive when it comes to drawing new clients, customers or users than anything you can say about your own products or services.
There is clearly an untapped source of opportunities for generating new business that most businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … testimonials and reviews from their customers!
Customer testimonials and reviews are a fantastic way to build credibility for your products and services.
Marketing studies conducted by many leading companies all point to the same conclusion: testimonials and user reviews help reduce doubts potential customers may have about buying products and services, help users select products and help increase the number of product sales.
Here are just some of the statistics available to support this:
- According to a study 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 reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, customer reviews are responsible for producing an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more customer reviews per product can result in 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).
(Source: eConsultancy.com)
Adding Client Reviews – Managing Online Reputation
Adding testimonials and reviews to your website from people who are delighted with the results they’ve obtained by using your services is important for helping you grow your business online and creating a solid online reputation.
Testimonials and reviews, however, can work both ways and impact your business both in a positive or negative way.
People may not be saying bad things about your products directly to your face, but they could have posted disparaging remarks on Facebook or a forum thread about a bad encounter they’ve just had with one of your team members and this could be costing you business.
This is where online reputation management becomes important to your business success.
Misconceptions about online reputation management, such as being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you really don’t need to worry about it) could be hurting your business without you even being aware of it.
See this article to learn more about a simple tool for WordPress users that allows you to legally and ethically manage customer reviews:
Creating Profit Boosting Customer Testimonials – Useful Tips
Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are effective ways of helping you market your products and services online and should be used in your content marketing strategy. When you quote responses from clients in your content, you:
- Show others exactly with similar problems and pains how your products and services can help them.
- Help site visitors identify and address their objections.
- Help potential customers connect with their motivations and this facilitates moving them further along the sales process.
Below are some useful tips on how to create awesome testimonials:
- Avoid over-editing: Try to use the actual words used by your customers as much as possible. Leave little grammatical or spelling errors in the content. This helps keep your testimonials ‘real’.
- Use photos of real people: Images of people’s faces draw attention to your content. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews will help increase visitor engagement with your content.
- Tell a powerful story: Stories are so much more powerful and captivating than providing mere statistical facts. The ability to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution saved the day will make a far more lasting impression on those reading your content than using generic statements about how “excellent” the support was and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
- Keep it in context: It’s good to add testimonials in your web content where it best makes sense to place them, and where they can most effectively help sell your point. For example, think about the impact you can create on your visitor’s mind if you were to display a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution can be purchased for before posting price information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before talking about the benefits of your services, or testimonials where clients are truly thrilled about your support before offering a risk-free guarantee or addressing objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements do you think your prospects would consider to be more powerful: “Since installing XYZ solution, we were able to grow our bottom line by $95,054 during the last financial quarter,” or “XYZ software 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 market share 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 in a recent business quarter, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
- Vary the testimonials on your site: Although this can be a little difficult when you are just starting out or don’t have many clients, try to avoid using the same testimonial everywhere on your site’s pages. Depending on the nature of your business, 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 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 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 speak directly to your best audience demographic.
- Reprint testimonials across different platforms. If someone publishes great feedback on your Facebook wall praising your products or services, contact them privately asking for permission to reprint the content on your blog.
- Don’t use fake client testimonials. Prospective customers need to believe that the testimonials you provide on your site are real. Don’t compromise your credibility with a false testimonial.
How To Get Client Testimonials
Ask
Getting a testimonial from a satisfied customer can be as simple as just asking for it.
Follow these useful guidelines for soliciting testimonials from your clients:
- Make it a part of your business processes to contact clients after 90 days with an email request for a testimonial if you did not obtain one after performing a service.
- Include a text box for entering testimonials in all client satisfaction surveys.
- Take out your phone next time you visit a client or hand over a finished project and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they would be happy to record a very short video testimonial/feedback interview. If they agree, while recording the video, explain to your viewers what you have done for the client and make sure to record their positive reactions and responses.
- Make it easy for them. Whenever clients send you a positive email thanking you for a great job that contains snippets of useful testimonial material interspersed with the rest of their message, grab the best sections (only use what they have written – never put words into their mouth), and use these to create a testimonial, then contact your client and ask them for permission to use it. Explain that you have done this to help them save time and let them know they are completely free to change 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 back to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive for clients to provide a testimonial. It also makes an implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are not fake and can be verified.
Add Testimonial Requests To Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a list of subscribers, include a request for a testimonial in a periodic email message. This should be done as soon as your clients have had a chance to use 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 of your services.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature allows you to obtain testimonials from other members that become part of your account. With LinkedIn, the process for requesting and providing recommendations is simple and 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 website (tip: offer to add a link back to their profile in exchange).
Create A Client Testimonials Section
Create a “Testimonials” page and place a “read more testimonials …” link to this page throughout your site.
Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of user testimonials 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 monitoring what visitors are doing on your pages.
We have written an article about a heatmap software you can add to your website to monitor visitor behaviour here:
WordPress Testimonial Plugins
If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to add and display testimonials. Some plugins also let you add forms to your pages where users can submit feedback and testimonials.
Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), all you have to do is send customers to your “Testimonials” section.
Here are some great plugins you can check out:
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 your pages and posts using a shortcode. The plugin also lets you publish a list of all testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include an image with each testimonial, which you can use for adding a photo of the testimonial author, their logo, etc.
The Easy Testimonials plugin also comes with a “pro” version with additional features and developer support.
For more information about using the plugin, go here:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with videos or images on your pages and posts. 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 provides extra features via a premium version, including built-in options SEO functionality and technical support.
To learn more about the plugin, visit this site:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This is a premium plugin that provides many great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes for correct display on any device or browser.
- Display your testimonials in a widget or as sliders, slideshows, 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, customize font and background colours, font types and more.
Go here to download the plugin:
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 help your business add credibility, build authority, improve online reputation, and grow your sales funnel. Always ask for testimonials, reviews, and feedback from your clients, and publish positive content about your business on your website.
Resources
For additional information about creating effective testimonials refer to the articles below:
- 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 and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful content for your site visitors and grow your business online using content marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!
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