Building Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract customers, and getting the exact same results? Most small business owners don’t need to be told that generating new customers can be extremely hard. Just trying to keep your business afloat requires a lot of your 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, you just can’t ignore the significance of what potential customers are doing online, especially if they are posting negative comments about your business.
Don’t ignore what consumers may be saying online about your business!
You could be doing your business a disservice if you aren’t publishing the positive things your clients say about your products, solutions, customer support, etc. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are effective when it comes to marketing your products and services online and should be added to your content.
In this article, you will learn how to improve your sales conversions with effective customer testimonials.
Customer Reviews
Phineas Taylor (Aka “P.T.”) Barnum, legendary American businessman and showman, 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 and effective way of getting your business promoted. Genuine reviews and testimonials quoted directly from satisfied clients are far more persuasive for attracting new customers than anything you have to say about your own products or services.
There is an untapped source of opportunities for generating new business that most businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … reviews and testimonials from happy users!
Testimonials and reviews are a terrific way to build credibility for your business.
Studies conducted by many marketing research companies all lead to the same inevitable conclusion: adding reviews and customer testimonials to your point of sale pages decreases doubts potential customers may have about buying products, helps users select products and helps increase the number of sales.
Here 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 consumer reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, customer reviews can produce an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more customer reviews per product can mean a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Web site 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).
- 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 Customer Testimonials And Reviews – Online Reputation Management
Adding great testimonials and reviews to your site from very happy clients is essential for creating a solid online reputation.
Testimonials and consumer reviews, however, can work both ways and impact your business both positive and negative ways.
People may not be saying bad things about your products directly to you, but they could be posting negative comments on Facebook, or a discussion group or forum about a bad encounter they’ve just had with you or 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 significant 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 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 plugin for WordPress users that can help to avoid the escalation of problem reviews about your business, products or services through effective user review management:
How To Create Testimonials – Useful Tips
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive when it comes to helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be included as part of your content marketing strategy. When you quote responses from clients in your content, you:
- Show prospects exactly with similar problems and pains how your products and services can help them.
- Help visitors identify their objections and address these.
- Help prospects connect with their motivations and aspirations and this facilitates moving them further along the sales process.
Below are some useful tips on improving your conversions with awesome customer testimonials:
- Avoid over-editing: You should try using the actual words used by your customers as much as possible. Leaving grammatical errors and misspelled words in the content helps to keep it ‘real’.
- Use photos of real people: It’s a proven fact 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 will help increase visitor engagement with your content.
- Tell a story: Stories are far more effective 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 presenting generalized statements about excellent service and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
- Keep it in context: Add customer testimonials in your web content where it makes the most sense to place them, and where they can most effectively help you sell your point. For example, think about the impact you can create on your visitor’s perception if you were to insert a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution can be purchased for before posting your pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before discussing the benefits of your products, or testimonials where clients are truly thrilled about your customer service when offering guarantees or providing content that helps readers overcome their objections.
- Quantify the information: Which of the following statements is more powerful… “XYZ solution was directly responsible for helping to increase our revenue by $48,276 during the last fiscal year,” or “XYZ software 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 sales or reduce their costs by 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 a little difficult when you are just starting out or don’t have many clients, it’s best to avoid using the same testimonial everywhere on your site. Depending on your business, you could try to obtain more client 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 really 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 across different platforms. If you get a great comment on your Facebook wall praising your products or services, ask them for permission to reprint the content on your blog.
- Never use fake client testimonials. Your potential customers need to believe that the testimonials displayed on your site are real. Don’t compromise your credibility with a false testimonial.
How To Get Testimonials From Your Clients
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.
Follow these useful tips for requesting testimonials from your customers:
- Make a point of contacting clients after 60 days with an email request for a testimonial if you have not obtained one immediately after completing your service.
- Add a field for testimonials in your client surveys.
- Pull out your phone when you next visit a client or hand over a finished job and if they are delighted with the results, ask them if they would be happy to record a very brief video testimonial/feedback interview. When recording your video, describe to your viewers what you have done for the client and try to capture the client’s positive reactions and responses.
- Make it easy for them. When clients send you a positive email thanking you for a great service 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 shape these into a testimonial, then contact the client and ask them for permission to use it. Explain that you have already prepared something to save them time and let them know they are completely free to edit what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.
Offer To Publish A Link To The Source Wherever You Quote Their Testimonial
Offer to publish a link to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an 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.
Add A Testimonial Request To Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a list of subscribers, include requests for a testimonial in a scheduled email broadcast. This should be timed to reach subscribers just after your customers have had a chance to assess the impact of using your services. Use words like “I need your help” in the subject of your email and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking them for honest feedback, a testimonial, or a review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature is a great way to solicit testimonials for your account. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is quite simple and user-friendly and the person providing the recommendation gets a link to their profile. If you get a recommendation on LinkedIn, ask their permission to reprint it on your site (tip: offer to add a link back to their website or profile in exchange).
Create A Testimonials Section
Create a “Testimonials” page and place a “more customer testimonials …” link to your main testimonials page throughout your site.
Tip: You can measure how effective user testimonials are by how long visitors remain on the section of your pages or posts where you have added your testimonial content. A great tool for understanding what visitors are doing on your pages are “heatmaps”.
We have written an article about a heatmap software you can add to your site to observe visitor behavior here:
Testimonial Plugins For WordPress
If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to add, edit and display testimonials. Some plugins also let you add forms to your pages inviting users to submit reviews and testimonials.
Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (make sure to provide simple instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), you can then send customers to your “Testimonials” section.
Check out the plugins below:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use free plugin that lets you add testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed them into posts and pages using a shortcode. The Easy Testimonials plugin also lets you insert a list of all testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which can be used to add a photo of the testimonial author, a logo, etc.
The Easy Testimonials plugin 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 WordPress plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with videos or images on your site. You can insert testimonials content via 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 options SEO functionality and developer support.
Go here to download and use this plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium plugin offers a range 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. via a shortcode
- Styling options (display image on top, bottom, or side of testimonials, display testimonial in a speech bubble, customize font and background colours, font types and more.
Visit this site to learn more about this plugin:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Summary …
Client testimonials and user reviews are great sources of content that help your business in terms of adding credibility, building authority, improving online reputation, and growing your sales funnel. Always ask for feedback, reviews, and testimonials from your customers or clients, and publish positive content about your business on your site.
Resources
The articles below provide useful information on creating effective 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 that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to 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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