Building Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract and retain new customers, and getting the exact same disappointing results? Most small business owners don’t need to be told that trying to generate new customers can be difficult. Just trying to survive in business takes up a lot of your time, money and energy, and sometimes this can feel like it’s just not worth the effort.
In today’s web-based and social-driven economy, ignoring what customers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
Don’t ignore what your clients may be saying online about your business!
By the same token, you are also doing your business a disservice if you don’t spread the positive things your clients say about your products or services. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are powerful ways of helping you market your products and services online and should be added to your content.
In this article, you’ll learn tips for creating better results online using sales boosting client testimonials.
Testimonials And User Reviews
The great American showman P.T. Barnum is often quoted as having stated 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. Genuine testimonials and reviews from your satisfied users are far more persuasive for attracting new clients than anything you say about your own products or services.
There is clearly an untapped source of opportunities for generating new business that most small businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … reviews and testimonials from your customers!
Testimonials and reviews are a terrific way to build credibility for your business.
Studies conducted by many leading research companies all point to the same conclusion: user reviews and testimonials eliminate doubts potential customers may have about purchasing products, help with product selection and help increase conversions of visitors into sales.
Here are just some of the statistics available to support this:
- According to research 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 reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, consumer reviews can produce an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more user reviews per product can translate into a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Website 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).
(Above figures sourced from eConsultancy.com)
Adding User Reviews – Managing Online Reputation
Adding positive reviews and testimonials to your website from people who are thrilled with your services is essential for creating a solid online business reputation.
Testimonials and user reviews, however, are like double-edged swords; they can impact your business both in a negative or positive manner.
People may not be saying bad things about your business, products or services directly to your face, but they could post updates on Facebook, or a discussion group or forum about a bad experience they’ve just had with your business 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 online success 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 it) may be hurting your business without you even realizing it.
See this article to learn more about a plugin for WordPress users that lets you legally and ethically manage user feedback:
Improving Your Sales With Testimonials – Useful Tips
User reviews, testimonials, 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. When you quote your own customer responses in your content, you:
- Show other users exactly what pains and problems your products and services can help to solve for them and how easily it can do this.
- Help prospects identify their objections and address these.
- Help prospects connect with their motivations and aspirations and this facilitates the sales process.
Below are some useful tips on creating testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: You should try using the actual words used by your customers as much as possible. Leave grammatical or spelling errors in the content. This helps keep your testimonials ‘real’.
- Use photos: Research shows that using images of people’s faces draws the most attention of visitors on a web page. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews can help increase visitor engagement with your site’s content.
- Tell a story: Stories are far more powerful and memorable than just providing facts and statistics. Being able to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution came to the rescue will make a more lasting impression on those reading your content than using generic statements about excellent support 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 testimonials in your web content where it makes the most sense to place them, and where you believe these can most effectively help to sell your point. Think about the impact you will have on your visitor’s perception by adding a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution sells for before posting pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before discussing the benefits of your products, or testimonials where clients are truly thrilled about your customer service when offering a risk-free guarantee or addressing objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements is more powerful: “XYZ solution was directly responsible for growing our revenue by $54,349 during the last financial quarter,” or “XYZ product definitely 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 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 in a recent business quarter, 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 throughout your site: Although this can be a little 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’s pages. Depending on the type of business you run, you could try to obtain more testimonials by offering limited review copies of your product, or a special launch 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 target audience is, providing testimonials from people who your prospects aspire to become is an extremely 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 ideal customers.
- Reprint content across different platforms. If you get fantastic feedback on your Facebook page praising your solution, ask them for permission to reprint the comment or post on your blog.
- Never use fake testimonials. Your potential customers need to believe that the testimonials provided on your site are real. Don’t compromise your credibility with a ”made up” testimonial.
How To Get Testimonials
Ask For Testimonials
Getting a testimonial from a happy client can be as simple as just asking for it.
Follow these useful guidelines for requesting testimonials:
- Make it a part of your business processes to contact clients after a specific period of time, e.g. 60 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you have not obtained one immediately after performing a service.
- Add a field for testimonials in all client satisfaction surveys.
- Take out your phone when you next visit a client or hand over a completed project and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a quick video testimonial/feedback interview. While recording your video, explain to your viewers what you have done for the client and capture their positive reactions and feedback.
- Make it easy for them. If a client sends 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 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 change what you have written however they see fit before replying with their approval.
Offer To Post A Link Back To Their Site Wherever You Publish Their Testimonial
Offer to post a link to their website in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great 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 Testimonial Requests To Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a list of subscribers, include a request for a testimonial in a scheduled email message. Preferably, this should be timed to reach subscribers just after your clients have had a chance to use your 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 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 receives a link to their profile. If you get a recommendation on LinkedIn, ask for permission to reprint it on your site (you can offer to add a link back to their profile in exchange).
Create A Testimonials Section On Your Site
Create a new section for customer testimonials and add a “more testimonials …” link pointing to your main testimonials page wherever you are adding small blocks of testimonials on your content sections.
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 what visitors are doing on your pages are “heatmaps”.
We have written an article about adding heatmaps to your site to track visitor behavior here:
Using Testimonial Plugins
If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to add and display testimonials. Some plugins also allow you to add forms to your pages where users can 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 can then refer clients to your “Testimonials” section.
Here are a few useful WordPress testimonial plugins you can check out:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is a free WP plugin that lets you add customer testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed them into posts and pages using a shortcode. Easy Testimonials 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 business logo, etc.
The Easy Testimonials plugin also provides a “pro” version that offers additional features and developer support.
To download this plugin, visit this site:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free WordPress plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with videos or images on your posts and pages. You can insert user testimonials using a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and specify different display options such as random or specific ordering.
Testimonials Widget makes plenty more features available via a premium version, including built-in options SEO functionality and plugin support.
Visit this site to download and use this plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium plugin provides plenty of great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes to display correctly on any device or browser.
- Display options for your testimonials in a widget or as sliders, slideshows, grid layout, list layout, etc. by adding a shortcode
- Styling options (display image on top, bottom, or side of the testimonial, display testimonials in a speech bubble, customize font and background colors, font types and more.
To download this plugin, go here:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Conclusion …
User reviews and client testimonials are powerful sources of content that can help your business add credibility, build authority, improve online reputation, and grow your sales funnel. Always ask for testimonials, reviews, and feedback from existing customers or clients, and publish positive content about your business on your web site.
Additional Info
The articles below are a great source of information about creating effective clients 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 easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will show you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful content that will add value to your visitors and grow your business online using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!
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