Build Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews

Are you stuck in a cycle of doing what you’ve always done to attract customers, and getting the exact same disappointing results? As most small business owners know, that finding new ways of generating new business can be confusing, time-consuming and really 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, ignoring what your clients may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!

Ignoring what consumers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!

By the same token, you could be doing your business a disservice if you don’t publish the positive things your clients say about your products and services. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are powerful when it comes to helping you market your products and services online and should be included in your content marketing.

In this article, you’ll discover ways to improve your sales using powerful client testimonials.

Testimonials And User Reviews

Legendary showman and businessman Phineas Taylor P.T. Barnum once said that “Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.”

P.T. Barnum obviously understood the power of “social proof”. Social proof-based content is a powerful and effective way of getting your business promoted. Testimonials quoted directly from existing clients are far more persuasive for attracting new clients than anything you can say about your own products or services.

There is clearly a source of untapped opportunities for generating new business that most small businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … reviews from your previous clients!

Testimonials and reviews are a great way to build credibility for your products or services.

Marketing studies conducted by leading companies all point to the same conclusion: user reviews and testimonials decrease doubts potential customers may have about purchasing your product, help with product selection and increases sales conversions.

Below are just some of the stats available to support this:

• According to research 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 customer reviews.”
• According to Reevoo.com, customer reviews can result in 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 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 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 Customer Reviews – Managing Online Reputation

Adding positive reviews and testimonials to your site from very satisfied customers is essential for creating a solid online reputation.

Customer testimonials and reviews, however, can work both ways and affect your business both negatively and positively.

You see, people may not be saying bad things about your business directly to your face, but they could have posted 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 costing you business.

This is where online reputation management becomes vitally important to your success.

Misconceptions about online reputation management, such as the process being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you really don’t need to worry about it) may be seriously hurting your business without you even realizing it.

See this article to learn more about a simple yet effective tool for WordPress users that allows you to legally and ethically manage customer reviews:

• Now You Can Easily Manage Poor User Feedback On WordPress With Power Online Reviews Plugin

Tips For Creating Customer Testimonials

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 in your content. When you quote your own client 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 this can be done.
• Help visitors identify their objections and address these.
• Help prospects connect with their motivations and aspirations and this facilitates moving them closer to a buying decision.

Here are some tips on how to create captivating user testimonials:

• Don’t over edit: Try using the actual words used by your customers 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 most attention of visitors on a web page. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews can help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your site’s content.
• Tell a story: Stories are far more effective and memorable than simply providing facts and statistics. Being able to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution saved the day will make a longer-lasting impression on those reading your content than presenting generalized statements about excellent 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 customer testimonials to your site copy where it makes the most sense to place them, and where they can most effectively help 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 can be purchased for before posting price information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before talking about the benefits of your services, or testimonials where clients are genuinely thrilled about your customer service when offering guarantees or addressing objections.
• Quantify your information: Which of the following statements do you think is more powerful… “XYZ solution was directly responsible for helping to increase our profits by $54,232 in the previous financial quarter,” or “XYZ solution helped us grow our sales?” Whenever possible, ask clients to specify quantifiable results when submitting testimonials, like how much your solution helped to increase their market share or reduce their costs by in specific percentages or amounts, how many hours of work you have helped them save, how many new leads or new clients they were able to generate during a specific financial quarter, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
• Use different customer testimonials on your site: Although this can be a little difficult if you are just starting out and have very few clients, try to avoid using the same testimonial everywhere on your website. 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 clients in exchange for an honest review and permission to publish it if you decide 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 target audience is, providing testimonials from people who your prospects aspire to become is a very 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 fantastic feedback on your Facebook wall praising your solution, contact them privately asking for permission to reprint the comment or post on your site.
• Only use real testimonials. Your prospects need to believe that the testimonials published on your site are genuine. Don’t compromise your integrity or reputation with a ”made up” testimonial.

How To Get Testimonials From Clients

Ask

Getting a testimonial from a happy client can be as simple as just asking for it.

Here are some useful tips for soliciting testimonials:

• Contact clients after 90 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you did not obtain one after performing a service.
• Add a text box for entering testimonials in all client surveys.
• Take out your phone next time you visit 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 short video testimonial/feedback interview. During the video, describe to viewers what you have done for your client and try to record the client’s positive reactions and feedback.
• Make it easy for them. Whenever 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 juiciest 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 quote them on your site. Explain that you have done this to save them time and invite them to modify 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 add a link back to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great incentive for clients to provide a testimonial. It also makes an implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are real and can be verified.

Add Testimonial Requests To Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages

If you have a subscriber list, include a request for a testimonial in a scheduled email broadcast. Preferably, this should be done after your customers have had a chance to use your product, service or solution. Use words like “I need your help” in your email subject and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking customers to provide feedback, a testimonial, or a review of your services.

Use LinkedIn

The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature allows you to solicit testimonials from other members for your profile. With LinkedIn, the process for requesting and providing recommendations is simple and user-friendly and the person who provides the recommendation gets a link to their profile. If you get a recommendation on LinkedIn, ask for permission to reprint it on your website (you can offer to publish a link back to their profile in exchange).

Create A Client Testimonials Section On Your Site

Create a new section on your website or blog for client testimonials and add a “read more client testimonials …” link to this section whenever you plan to display new testimonials on your content sections.

Tip: You can measure how effective testimonials are by how long visitors remain on the section of your pages or posts where you have added the testimonial content. A great tool for measuring visitor behaviour on your pages are “heatmaps”.

We have written an article about a heatmap technology you can add to your site to measure visitor behavior here:

• How To Analyze User Behavior On Your WordPress Site With Analytics Software – HeatMap Tracker Review

Using Testimonial Plugins For WordPress

If your website or blog is powered by WordPress, you can use a plugin to add and display testimonials. Some plugins also let you add forms to your pages where users can submit testimonials.

Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), you can then send clients to your “Testimonials” page.

Below are a few useful plugins you can check out:

Easy Testimonials

Easy Testimonials is a free plugin that lets you add testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into a Page or Post 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 you can use for adding a photo of the testimonial author, their logo, etc.

The Easy Testimonials plugin also provides a “pro” version with additional features and developer support.

To download the plugin, go here:

• Easy Testimonials

Testimonials Widget

Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with images or videos on your posts and pages. You can insert testimonials via a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and specify different display options such as random or specific ordering.

The Testimonials Widget plugin provides a range of additional features via a premium version, including built-in functions SEO functionality and developer support.

Visit this site for more information about using the plugin:

• Testimonials Widget

Testimonials WordPress Plugin

This is a premium WP plugin that provides many great features right out of the box, including:

• Responsive design that resizes to display correctly on any device or browser.
• Options to display your testimonials in a widget or as sliders, slideshows, grid layout, list layout, etc. using a shortcode
• Styling options (display image on top, bottom, or side of testimonials, display testimonials in a speech bubble, customize font and background colors, font types and more.

Go here to download the plugin:

• Testimonials WordPress Plugin

To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:

• How To Add Testimonials In WordPress

In Conclusion …

Testimonials and user reviews are great 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 your customers or clients, and publish positive content about your business on your website or blog.

Additional Info

The articles below provide useful information about creating effective customer testimonials and were used when researching 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 exactly 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. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

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