Building 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 results? As most small business owners know, that finding effective ways of generating new business can be quite difficult. Just trying to remain in business takes up 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 and social-driven economy, ignoring what customers 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!
You may also be doing your business a great disservice if you are not boosting the positive things your customers are saying about your products or services. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are effective ways of marketing your products and services online and should be included as part of your content.
In this article, you’ll discover how to achieve better results online using knockout user testimonials.
Testimonials And Consumer Reviews
The great, legendary businessman and showman P.T. Barnum once stated 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 way of getting your business promoted effectively. Testimonials and reviews from your satisfied clients are far more persuasive for drawing new clients, customers or users than anything you say about your own products or services.
There is clearly a source of untapped business growth potential that most businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … testimonials and reviews from your clients!
Customer testimonials and reviews are a powerful way to build credibility for your business.
Marketing studies conducted by leading firms all lead to the same conclusion: adding testimonials and consumer reviews to your sales information pages eliminates doubts potential customers may have about purchasing your products, helps users select products and increases sales.
Here are just some statistics that support this:
- According to research findings by eVoc Insights, an organization that researches and measures user experience, “In general, 63% of users indicate they are more likely to purchase from a site if it has ratings and reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, consumer reviews are responsible for producing an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more user reviews per product can translate into 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 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 Client Reviews And Testimonials – Managing Online Reputation
Clearly, you should be adding positive reviews from clients who have experienced positive results with your business to your site.
Customer testimonials and reviews, however, are like double-edged swords; they can impact your business both positively and negatively.
You see, people may not be saying bad things about your products directly to your face, but they could post damaging words on Facebook or a user group about a bad encounter they’ve just had with one of your sales or customer support 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 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) may be causing damage to your business without you even being aware of this.
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:
Creating Testimonials – Useful Tips
Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are persuasive when it comes to helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be added to your content marketing. When you quote responses from clients in your content, you:
- Show other users exactly what problems and pains your products and services can help solve for them and how easily it can do this.
- Help prospects identify their objections and address these.
- Help prospects connect with their aspirations and motivations and facilitate moving them closer to a buying decision.
Below are some tips on creating user testimonials:
- Avoid over-editing: Try to use your customer’s actual words as much as you can. Leaving grammatical errors and misspelled words in the content helps preserve the authenticity of your testimonials.
- Use photos of real people: Images of people’s faces draw attention to your content. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews can help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your content.
- Tell a story: Stories are far more powerful and captivating than providing mere statistical facts. Being able to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution came to the rescue will make a far longer-lasting impression on those reading your content than using generalized statements about excellent customer service and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that all of us have 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 you believe these can most effectively help you sell your point. For example, think about the impact you can create on your visitor’s mind if you were to display 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 services, or testimonials where clients are genuinely ecstatic 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 is more powerful… “XYZ solution was directly responsible for helping us grow our sales by $49,468 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 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, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
- Avoid using the same customer testimonial throughout your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult if you are just starting out or don’t have many clients, try to avoid displaying the same testimonial repeatedly throughout your web pages. Depending on the nature of 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 choose 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 ideal customer is, providing testimonials from people who your prospects can relate to is an extremely 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 best audience demographic.
- Reprint testimonials across different platforms. If you get fantastic feedback on your Facebook page praising your business, ask them for permission to reprint the comment or post on your site.
- Don’t use fake testimonials. Your prospects need to see that the testimonials displayed on your site are genuine. Don’t compromise your credibility or reputation with a ”made up” testimonial.
How To Get Testimonials From Clients
Ask
Getting a testimonial from a happy customer can be as simple as just asking for it.
Follow these useful guidelines for requesting testimonials from your clients:
- 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 testimonials in all your client surveys.
- Pull out your phone when you next meet with clients or hand over a finished project and if they are delighted with the results, ask them if they would be happy to record a very quick video testimonial/feedback interview. When recording the video, describe to your viewers what you have done for your client and try to record your client’s positive reactions and responses.
- Make it easy for them. When 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 – never put words into their mouth), and shape these into a testimonial, then contact your client and ask them for permission to quote them on your site. Explain that you have done this to help them save time and invite them to change what you have written however they see fit before replying with their approval.
Offer To Publish A Link Back To Their Site Wherever You Publish Their Testimonial
Offer to publish a link back to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive for clients to provide a testimonial. It also makes the 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 list of subscribers, include requests for a testimonial in one of your newsletter messages. Preferably, this should be timed to reach subscribers just after your clients have had a chance to experience your products. Use words like “I need a quick favor” in the subject of your email and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking users for honest feedback, a testimonial, or a product review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature helps you request testimonials from other members that become part of your profile. With LinkedIn, 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 (and offer to publish a link back to their website or profile in exchange).
Create A Customer Testimonials Section
Create a “Testimonials” page and add a “more customer testimonials …” link pointing to your main testimonials section wherever you have added new testimonials on your content sections.
Tip: You can measure how effective customer testimonials are 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 monitoring what visitors are doing on your pages.
We have written an article about adding heatmap analytics to your site to measure visitor behavior here:
WordPress Testimonial Plugins
If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to add, edit and display testimonials. Some plugins also allow you to add forms to your pages inviting users to submit testimonials.
Once your plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), all you have to do is send clients to your “Testimonials” page.
Check out the WordPress testimonial plugins below:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is a free WP plugin that lets you add client testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into posts and pages using a shortcode. The plugin also lets you insert a list of all your testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include an image with each testimonial, which is great to add a photo of the testimonial author, a logo, etc.
The Easy Testimonials plugin also provides a “pro” version that has additional features and developer 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 images or videos on your WordPress site. 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 has plenty more features available via a premium version, including built-in options for improved search engine results and technical support.
To learn more about using this plugin, visit this site:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium plugin provides a range of great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes for correct display on any device or browser.
- Options to display your testimonials in a widget or as sliders, slideshows, list layout, grid layout, etc. using a shortcode
- Styling options (display image on top, bottom, or side of testimonials, display testimonial in a speech bubble, customize font and background colors, 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 great 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 customers or clients, and publish positive content about your business on your website.
Resources
The articles below provide useful information about creating effective testimonials and were also 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
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