Build Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract and retain customers, and getting the exact same results? Most small business owners don’t need to be told that finding new ways of generating new business can be confusing, time-consuming and extremely difficult. Just trying to stay in business 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-driven economy, ignoring what your customers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
Don’t ignore what customers may be saying online about your business!
By the same token, you are also doing your business a disservice if you don’t publish the positive things your customers are saying about your products, solutions, user support, training, etc. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are effective when it comes to marketing your products and services online and should be used in your content marketing strategy.
In this article, you will learn how to improve your visitor-to-lead conversions with powerful user testimonials.
Client Reviews
Phineas Taylor P.T. Barnum, legendary showman and successful promoter, 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 way of getting your business promoted effectively. Testimonials from your existing customers are far more persuasive for drawing new customers, clients or users than anything you can say about your own products or services.
There is a source of untapped business growth potential that most businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … reviews from their happy users!
Testimonials and reviews are terrific for building credibility for your business.
Studies conducted by many leading research firms all point to the same conclusion: adding customer testimonials and consumer reviews to your sales information helps to eliminate doubts potential customers may have about buying your products or services, helps with product selection and helps increase sales conversions.
Below are just some findings that support this:
- According to research findings by eVoc Insights, a company known for researching and measuring user experience, “In general, 63% of users indicate they are more likely to purchase from a web site if it has ratings and user reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, user reviews are responsible for producing an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more user reviews per product can result in 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 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).
(Source: eConsultancy.com)
Adding User Testimonials And Reviews – Online Reputation Management
You should be adding great reviews and testimonials from delighted clients to your site.
Consumer reviews and testimonials, however, are like double-edged swords; they can impact your business both in a positive as well as negative manner.
You see, people may not be saying bad things about your services directly to you, but they could be posting damaging comments on Facebook, or a forum or discussion group about an unpleasant encounter they’ve just had with one of your representatives 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 success.
Misconceptions about online reputation management, such as the process being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you just don’t need to worry about it) could be seriously harming your business without you even being aware of it.
See this article to learn more about a simple tool for WordPress users that can help you avoid the escalation of problem reviews about your services through effective customer review management:
How To Create Awesome User Testimonials – Useful Tips
Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are effective ways of helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be used in your content marketing. When you quote your own customer responses in your content, you:
- Show other users exactly with similar problems and pains what your products and services can do for them.
- Help potential customers identify their objections and address these.
- Help prospects connect with their aspirations and motivations and facilitate moving them further along the sales process.
Below are some tips on how to create compelling user testimonials:
- Avoid over-editing: You should try using your customer’s actual words as much as possible. Leave little grammatical or spelling errors in the content. This helps to keep things ‘real’.
- Use photos: Marketing tests show 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 can help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your content.
- Tell a powerful story: Stories are far more powerful and memorable than simply providing facts and statistics. The ability to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution saved the day will make a more lasting impression on those reading your content than presenting generalized statements about how “excellent” your customer support has been and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
- Keep it in context: It’s good to add customer testimonials to 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 by adding 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 clients solve before presenting the benefits of your products, or testimonials where customers are truly thrilled about your customer service when offering guarantees or providing content that helps your readers overcome their objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements do you think your prospects would consider to be more powerful… “Since using your XYZ services, we were able to increase our bottom line by $92,692 during the last fiscal year,” 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 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 client testimonial repeatedly throughout your site: Although this can be a little difficult if you are just starting out and don’t have many clients, try to avoid displaying the same testimonial repeatedly throughout your website. Depending on the type of business you run, you could try to obtain more customer 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 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 aspire to become can be a 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 best audience demographic.
- Reprint across different platforms. If you get a great comment on your Facebook page praising your customer service, send them a message asking for permission to reprint the comment or post on your blog.
- Only use real client testimonials. Your potential customers need to see that the testimonials published on your site are genuine. Don’t destroy your reputation with ”made up” testimonials.
How To Get Testimonials
Ask
When you complete a service for someone, or a customer says they are really happy with your product or service, ask them for a testimonial.
Here are some useful guidelines for soliciting testimonials from your clients:
- Contact your clients after a specific period of time, e.g. 60 days with an email request for a testimonial if you have not obtained one immediately after performing a service.
- Add a text box for entering testimonials in client surveys.
- Take out your phone next time you meet with clients or hand over a finished project and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a brief video testimonial/feedback interview. If they agree, while recording your video, describe to your viewers what you have done for the client and record the client’s positive reactions and responses.
- 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 written – don’t put words into their mouth), and shape these into a testimonial, then contact your client and ask them for permission to use it. Explain that you have done this to save them time and invite them to modify what you have written however they see fit 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 a great 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.
Include A Testimonial Request In Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a subscriber list, include a request for a testimonial in one of your autoresponder mailouts. This should be done after your customers have had a chance to assess the results of using your services. 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 subscribers for honest feedback, a testimonial, or a review of your services.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature is a great way to solicit testimonials for your profile. 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 recommendation on LinkedIn, ask for permission to reprint it on your website (once again, you can offer to add a link back to their website in exchange).
Create A Customer Testimonials Page
Create a new section for testimonials and add a “read more client testimonials …” link pointing to your main testimonials page wherever you add single testimonials on your site.
Practical Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of your 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 measuring what visitors are doing on your pages.
We have written an article about adding heatmaps to your sites to analyze visitor behavior here:
WordPress Plugins
If your site or blog is powered by WordPress, you can use a plugin to add and display testimonials. Some plugins also allow you to add a form to your pages where users can submit testimonials.
Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (make sure to provide simple instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), you then refer clients to your “Testimonials” page.
Here are a few useful testimonial plugins you can check out:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is a free plugin that lets you add customer testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed them into your pages and posts using a shortcode. The plugin also lets you add a list of all your testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include an image with each testimonial, which you can use to add a photo of the testimonial author, a logo, etc.
The plugin also provides a “pro” version that has additional features and developer support.
For more information about this plugin, go here:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, 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 specify different display options such as random or specific ordering.
Testimonials Widget has loads of additional features available via a premium version, including built-in options for improved search engine results and developer support.
Visit this site to learn more about the plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This is a premium 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 your testimonials in a widget or as sliders, slideshows, list layout, grid layout, etc. by adding a shortcode
- Styling options (display image at the top, bottom, or side of testimonials, 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 Summary …
Client testimonials and customer reviews are powerful 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 your clients, and publish positive content about your business on your website or blog.
Additional Info
For additional resources on creating engaging testimonials refer to 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
We also recommend subscribing to our Free Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with easy-to-digest information that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your website, 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 completely FREE!
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