Build Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract and retain customers, only to get the exact same disappointing results? Most business owners don’t need to be told that generating new business can be very difficult. Just trying to survive in business takes up 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, it’s a mistake to ignore the effect of online consumer behavior, especially if they are talking about your business.
Don’t ignore what your clients may be saying online about your business!
By the same token, you may also be doing your business a disservice if you don’t spread the positive things your clients are saying about your products and services. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are effective when it comes to helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be included as part of your content.
In this article, you’ll discover ways to improve your sales conversions using sales boosting customer testimonials.
Customer Reviews And Testimonials
Phineas Taylor (Aka “P.T.”) Barnum, the great, legendary showman, once stated 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. Quoting genuine testimonials and reviews directly from existing clients is satisfied 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 business growth potential that most small businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … reviews from their previous customers!
Reviews and testimonials are fantastic for building credibility for your products or services.
Studies conducted by marketing firms all point to the same conclusion: adding reviews and customer testimonials to your sales pages reduces doubts potential customers may have about buying your products or services, helps users select products and increases conversions of visitors into sales.
Here are just some findings that support this:
- According to a study 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 site if it has ratings and user reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, user reviews can produce an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more customer reviews per product can translate into a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Web site visitors who interact with both 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 Customer Reviews And Testimonials – Managing Online Reputation
You should be adding testimonials and reviews from clients who have experienced positive results with your business to your site.
Testimonials and reviews, however, can work both ways and impact your business both in a negative as well as positive way.
People may not be saying bad things about your business, products or services directly to your face, but they could have posted disparaging remarks on Facebook, or a discussion thread or forum about a bad experience they’ve just had with your services and this could be costing you business.
This is where online reputation management becomes an important aspect of your business 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 it) could be seriously harming your business without you even realizing it.
See this article to learn more about a simple yet effective WordPress plugin that can help you avoid the escalation of problem reviews about your business, products or services through effective customer review management:
Tips On Improving Your Sales With Captivating Client Testimonials
Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are effective ways of helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be included as part of your content. When you include responses from users in your content, you:
- Show prospects exactly with similar problems and pains how your products and services can help them.
- Help potential customers identify and address their objections.
- Help potential customers connect with their motivations and facilitate moving them further along the sales process.
Below are some tips on improving your sales conversions with user testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: Try using the actual words used by your customers as much as you can. Leaving little grammatical errors and misspellings in the content helps to keep it ‘real’.
- Use photos: Images of people’s faces draw the most attention on a web page. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews will help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your site’s content.
- Use the power of storytelling: Stories are far more powerful and memorable than just providing facts and statistics. Being able to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution saved the day will make a far more lasting impression on those reading your content than using generic statements about how “excellent” the customer service was and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
- Keep it in context: Add testimonials to your web content where it best makes 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 display a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution can be purchased for before posting product pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before discussing the benefits of your products, or testimonials where clients are genuinely ecstatic about your customer service when offering a money-back guarantee or addressing objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements do you think your prospects would consider to be more powerful… “XYZ solution was directly responsible for increasing our net profit by $86,177 during the previous financial quarter,” or “XYZ software helped us grow our sales?” Whenever 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 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.
- Vary the customer testimonials throughout your site: Although this can be a little difficult when you are just starting out and don’t have many clients, try to avoid using the same testimonial everywhere on 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 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 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 targeted to your best audience demographic.
- Reprint testimonials across different platforms. If someone posts a great comment on your Facebook wall praising your products or services, contact them privately asking for permission to reprint the comment or post on your site.
- Never use fake testimonials. Your potential clients need to believe that the testimonials published on your site are real. Don’t compromise your integrity or reputation with ”made up” testimonials.
How To Get Testimonials From Your Customers
Always Ask For Testimonials
Getting a testimonial from a satisfied customer can be as simple as just asking for it.
Here are some useful guidelines for soliciting testimonials:
- Contact your clients after a specific period of time, e.g. 60 days with an email request for a testimonial if you did not obtain one after completing a service.
- Add a text box for testimonials in all your client satisfaction surveys.
- Take out your phone when you next visit a client or hand over a completed job and if they are delighted with the results, ask them if they would be happy to record a short video testimonial/feedback interview. While recording your video, describe to viewers what you have done for your client and make sure to record the 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 – don’t put words into their mouth), and use these to create a testimonial, then contact the client and ask them for permission to publish it. Explain that you have already prepared something to save them time and let them know they are completely free to modify what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.
Offer To Publish A Link Back To The Source Wherever You Quote 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 you with a testimonial. It also makes the 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 subscriber list, include a request for a testimonial in a scheduled auto responder broadcast. Preferably, this should be timed to reach subscribers just after your customers have had a chance to measure the impact of using 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 them to provide feedback, a testimonial, or a review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature helps you obtain testimonials that become part of your account. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is quite simple and user-friendly and the person who provides the recommendation gets 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 publish a link back to their website or profile in exchange).
Create A Customer Testimonials Page On Your Site
Create a “Testimonials” page and place a “more customer testimonials …” link to this section whenever you plan to add new testimonials on your site.
Useful Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of user testimonials by how long visitors remain 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 site.
We have written an article about a heatmap analytics software you can add to your website to analyze 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 allow you to add forms 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 clients to your “Testimonials” page.
Check out the WordPress testimonial plugins below:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use free plugin that lets you add user testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into your pages and posts using a shortcode. The Easy Testimonials plugin also lets you insert a list of all testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include an image with each testimonial, which you can use for adding a photo of the testimonial author, a business logo, etc.
The Easy Testimonials plugin also can be upgraded to a “pro” version that offers additional features and plugin support.
To download the plugin, visit this site:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, or text with images or videos 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 plugin has plenty of additional features available via a premium version, including built-in options for better search engine results and plugin support.
For more information about using this plugin, go here:
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 your testimonials in a widget or as sliders, slideshows, grid layout, list layout, etc. via a shortcode
- Styling options (display image at the top, bottom, or side of the testimonial, display testimonial in a speech bubble, customize font and background colours, font types and more.
Go here to download the plugin:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Summary …
Testimonials and user reviews are powerful sources of content that help your business add credibility, build authority, improve online reputation, and grow your sales funnel. Always ask for feedback, reviews, and testimonials from existing clients or customers, and start publishing these on your web site.
Resources
The articles below provide useful information about creating effective users 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 regular training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will show you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful content for 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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