How To Build Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract new customers, only to get the exact same disappointing results? Most business owners don’t need to be told that finding effective ways to generate new business can be difficult. Just trying to keep your business afloat requires 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, you cannot afford to ignore the impact of what your potential customers are doing online, especially if they are talking about your business.
Ignoring what your clients may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
You are also doing your business a great disservice if you don’t spread the positive things your customers say about your services and products. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are effective when it comes to marketing your products and services online and should be included in your content marketing.
In this article, you will learn how to achieve better results online with powerful client testimonials.
Consumer Reviews
Phineas Taylor P.T. Barnum, legendary American businessman and showman, 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 and effective way of promoting your business. Quoting genuine reviews from existing customers is satisfied clients are far more persuasive when it comes to attracting new clients than anything you have to say about your own products or services.
There is clearly an untapped source of business growth potential that most small businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … customer reviews!
Customer testimonials and consumer reviews are a terrific way to build credibility for your business.
Studies conducted by many marketing companies all seem to point to the same conclusion: adding customer testimonials and reviews to your sales information pages reduces doubts potential customers may have about products that you are trying to sell, helps with product selection and increases sales conversions.
Below are just some findings that support this:
- According to research findings 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 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 reviews per product can mean a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Site 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 User Reviews And Testimonials – Online Reputation Management
Clearly, you should be adding testimonials and reviews from happy clients to your website.
Customer testimonials and consumer reviews, however, can work both ways and impact your business both in a negative as well as positive way.
You see, people may not be saying bad things about your business, products or services directly to you, but they could be posting damaging feedback on Facebook or a discussion group about an unpleasant experience they’ve just had using your products and this could be costing you business.
This is where online reputation management becomes an important aspect of your business success.
Misconceptions about engaging in online reputation management practices, such as being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you really don’t need to worry about it) may be causing damage to your business without you even realizing this.
See this article to learn more about a simple yet effective tool for WordPress users that can help you avoid the escalation of problem reviews about your business through effective user review management:
How To Create Engaging User Testimonials – Useful Tips
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 quote your own client responses 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 prospects connect with their motivations and aspirations and facilitate the sales process.
Here are some useful tips on improving your sales with testimonials:
- Avoid over-editing: You should try using your customer’s actual words as much as you can. Leaving grammatical errors and misspelt words in the content helps keep your testimonials sounding authentic.
- Use photos: 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 site’s content.
- Tell a powerful story: Stories are far more powerful and memorable than simply providing 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 excellent support and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
- Use it in context: It’s good to add customer testimonials in your web content where it makes the most sense to place them, and where you believe these can most effectively help you sell your point. Think about the impact you will have on your visitor’s mind if you were to add a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution can be purchased 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 customers are genuinely thrilled about your support when offering guarantees or providing content designed to help readers overcome their objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements do you think your prospects would find more powerful: “As a direct result of using your services, we have grown our revenue by $22,643 during the last financial quarter,” or “XYZ software definitely helped us grow our sales?” Whenever possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable data, like how much your solution helped to increase their sales or reduce their costs by 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 testimonial repeatedly throughout your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult if you are just starting out and don’t have many clients, it’s best to avoid displaying the same testimonial everywhere on your web 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 launch discount for existing clients in exchange for an honest review and permission to publish it if you choose to use it.
- Appeal to your best customer: 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 powerful motivator and influencer. People want to see and buy from “better versions” of themselves, so make sure to include testimonials targeted to your ideal customers.
- Reprint content across different platforms. If you get great feedback on your Facebook page praising your business, ask them permission to reprint the content on your blog.
- Don’t use fake client testimonials. Your prospects need to see that the testimonials published on your site are real. Don’t compromise your credibility or reputation with false testimonials.
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 requesting testimonials:
- Make it a part of your business processes to contact customers after 90 days with an email request for a testimonial if you have not obtained one after performing a service.
- Include a text box for entering testimonials in your client satisfaction surveys.
- Pull out your phone when you next 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. During your video, describe to your viewers what you have done for the client and make sure to record the client’s positive reactions and feedback.
- Make it easy for them. If 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 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 publish it. Explain that you have done this to help them save time and invite them to change what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.
Offer To Publish A Link To Their Site
Offer to publish a link back to their site 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 real and can be verified.
Include Testimonial Requests In Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a subscriber list, include a request for a testimonial in a scheduled auto responder message. This should be done after your clients have had a chance to use 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 subscribers for feedback, a testimonial, or a product review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature allows you to obtain testimonials for your profile. 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 site (and offer to publish a link back to their website or profile in exchange).
Create A Customer Testimonials Section On Your Site
Create a new section for client testimonials and add a “more testimonials …” link pointing to your main testimonials page wherever you are adding single testimonials on your site.
Useful Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of testimonials by how long visitors stay on the section of your pages or posts where you have added your testimonial content. A great tool for observing visitor behaviour on your pages are “heatmaps”.
We have written an article about adding heatmap analytics to your sites to understand visitor behaviour here:
Testimonial Plugins For WordPress
If your site or blog is built using WordPress, you can use a plugin to add and display testimonials. Some plugins also allow you to add a form to your pages inviting users to submit testimonials.
Once your plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), all you have to do is send users to your “Testimonials” page.
Here are some great testimonial plugins you can check out:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is a free plugin that lets you add customer testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed them into your pages and posts using a shortcode. Easy Testimonials also lets you publish a list of all your testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which is great to add a photo of the testimonial author, a logo, etc.
Easy Testimonials also can be upgraded to a “pro” version with additional features and technical support.
To download and use 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 site. You can insert testimonials content 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 loads of additional features available via a premium version, including built-in functions for improved search engine results and technical support.
Visit this site to learn more about using this plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This is a premium WordPress plugin that offers a range 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, grid layout, list layout, etc. via 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.
Visit this site for more information about using this plugin:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Summary …
Customer reviews and testimonials 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 existing clients, and start publishing these on your web site.
Additional Info
The articles below provide useful information about creating engaging users 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 actionable information and practical tips that will show you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your 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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