How To Build Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews
Are you stuck in a cycle of doing what you’ve always done to attract and retain new customers, only to get the exact same disappointing results? As most business owners know, that generating new customers can be quite difficult, confusing and frustrating. Just trying to remain in business takes a lot of time, money and energy, and sometimes this can feel like it’s just not worth the effort.
In today’s digital economy, ignoring what your clients may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
Don’t ignore what customers may be saying online about your business!
You may also be doing your business a disservice if you are not spreading the positive things your clients are saying about your services and products. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive when it comes to helping you market your products and services online and should be used throughout your content.
In this article, you’ll discover ways to achieve better results online using profit-boosting client testimonials.
Consumer Reviews
Phineas Taylor P.T. Barnum, legendary American showman and businessman, is often quoted as having 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 and effective way of promoting your business. Genuine testimonials from existing customers are far more persuasive for drawing new customers than anything you have to say about your own products or services.
There is clearly an untapped source of opportunities for generating new business that most small businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … testimonials and reviews from their previous clients!
User reviews and testimonials are a fantastic way to build credibility for your products and services.
Marketing studies conducted by many leading research firms all lead to the same conclusion: adding consumer reviews and testimonials to your site decreases doubts potential customers may have about a particular product or service, helps users select products and helps increase sales.
Below are just some of the stats available to support this:
- According to a study 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 user reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, consumer reviews result in an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more user reviews per product can mean a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Site visitors who interact with both consumer 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).
(The figures above were sourced from eConsultancy.com)
Adding Consumer Reviews And Testimonials – Managing Online Reputation
You should be adding testimonials and reviews from existing clients to your site.
Testimonials and customer reviews, however, can work both ways and impact your business both negatively and positively.
People may not be saying bad things about your business directly to you, but they could be posting updates on Facebook or a forum about a bad encounter they’ve just had with one of your employees and this could be costing you business.
This is where online reputation management becomes a vitally important aspect of your online business 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 it) may be seriously causing damage to your business without you even being aware of it.
See this article to learn more about a simple yet effective plugin for WordPress users that allows you to legally and ethically manage user reviews:
How To Create Testimonials – Useful Tips
Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are persuasive ways of helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be an integral part of your content marketing strategy. When you include your own client responses in your content, you:
- Show others exactly what pains and problems your products and services can solve for them and how easily this can be done.
- Help potential customers identify their objections and address these.
- Help prospects connect with their aspirations and motivations and facilitate moving them closer to a decision to purchase.
Below are some practical tips on improving your sales conversions with awesome testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: Try to use the actual words used by your customers as much as possible. Leave grammatical or spelling errors in the content. This helps to keep it ‘real’.
- Use photos: Marketing tests show that using images of people’s faces draws the attention of visitors on a web page. Adding photos of your clients next to their testimonials and reviews will help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your content.
- Tell a powerful story: Stories are so much more powerful and memorable than simply providing facts and statistics. Being able 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 generic statements about excellent customer service and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
- Keep it in context: It’s good to add testimonials in your site copy 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 can create on your visitor’s perception by adding a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution retails for before posting service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before talking about the benefits of your services, or testimonials where customers are genuinely thrilled about your support when offering a money-back guarantee or providing content designed to help readers overcome their objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements is more powerful: “XYZ solution was directly responsible for growing our net profit by $40,672 during the last financial quarter,” or “XYZ solution has helped us grow our sales?” If possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable results, like how much your solution helped to increase their sales or reduce their costs in specific percentages or amounts, how many hours 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.
- Avoid using the same client testimonial throughout your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult when you are just starting out and have very few clients, it’s best to avoid displaying the same testimonial repeatedly throughout your site’s pages. Depending on your business, you could try to obtain more 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 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 ideal customers.
- Reprint testimonials across different platforms. If you get great feedback on your Facebook wall praising your customer service, send them a message asking for permission to reprint the comment or post on your site.
- Never use fake client testimonials. Your prospects need to believe that the testimonials displayed on your site are genuine. Don’t compromise your integrity with false testimonials.
How To Get Testimonials
Ask
Getting a testimonial from a happy customer can be as simple as just asking for it.
Follow these tips for requesting testimonials from customers:
- Contact clients after a specific period of time, e.g. 30 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you did not obtain one immediately after completing a service.
- Add a text box for entering testimonials in all client surveys.
- Take out your phone next time you meet with a client or hand over a completed 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. During the video, describe to your viewers what you have done for the client and record their 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 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 save them time and invite them to change what you have written however they like 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 site in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great incentive to get clients providing you with a testimonial. It also makes the implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are not fake and can be verified.
Include Testimonial Requests In Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a list of subscribers, include a request for a testimonial in one of your autoresponder messages. This should be timed to reach subscribers just after your customers have had a chance to assess the results of using your products. Use words like “I need your help” in the subject of your message and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking users for feedback, a testimonial, or a review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature helps you solicit testimonials that become part of your account. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is quite user-friendly and the person who provides the recommendation receives a link to their profile. If you get a positive recommendation on LinkedIn, ask their permission to reprint it on your website (once again, you can offer to add a link back to their website in exchange).
Create A Testimonials Section On Your Site
Create a new page on your web site for customer testimonials and place a “more customer testimonials …” link pointing to your main testimonials section wherever you add single testimonials on your site.
Practical 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 the testimonial content. ”Heatmapping” technology is a great way to understanding visitor behavior on your pages.
We have written an article about a heatmap software you can add to your sites to predict visitor behaviour here:
Useful Testimonial Plugins For WordPress
If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to add, edit and display testimonials. Some plugins also allow you to add a form to your pages where users can submit testimonials.
Once your plugin is installed and set up (make sure to provide simple instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), you then send customers to your “Testimonials” section.
Below are some testimonial plugins you can check out:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is a free plugin that lets you add testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into a Page or Post using a shortcode. The plugin also lets you insert a list of all testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which is great for adding a photo of the testimonial author, their business logo, etc.
The plugin also provides users with a “pro” version that offers additional features and technical support.
Visit this site to download this plugin:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free WP 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 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 Testimonials Widget plugin comes with a range of additional features via a premium version, including built-in options SEO functionality and technical support.
Visit this site to download and use this plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium WordPress plugin offers many great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes to display 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 testimonial in a speech bubble, customize font and background colors, font types and more.
Go here to learn more about using this 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 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 or customers, and publish positive content about your business on your website or blog.
Resources
The articles below provide useful information on creating engaging 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
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