Building Your Reputation With User Testimonials And 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 results? Most small business owners don’t need to be told that trying to generate new business can be very difficult and confusing. Just trying to keep your business afloat 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, mobile and social-driven 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!

You may also be doing your business a disservice if you don’t promote the positive things your clients are saying about your products and services. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are powerful when it comes to marketing your products and services online and should be used in your content.

In this article, you’ll discover tips for converting more visitors into prospects using sales boosting customer testimonials.

User Reviews And Testimonials

Phineas Taylor P.T. Barnum, legendary showman and businessman, once stated that “Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.”

P.T. Barnum understood the power of “social proof”. Social proof-driven content is a powerful way of getting your business promoted effectively. Genuine reviews and testimonials from satisfied clients are far more persuasive for drawing new clients, customers or users than anything you have to say about your own products or services.

There is a source of untapped business growth potential that most small businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … reviews and testimonials from customers!

Consumer reviews and customer testimonials are terrific for building credibility for your services and products.

Research conducted by many leading marketing research firms all seem to point to the same conclusion: adding reviews and customer testimonials to your sales pages reduces doubts potential customers may have about purchasing products, helps users select products and increases sales.

Below are just some findings that support this:

• According to research findings 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 web site if it has ratings and user reviews.”
• According to Reevoo.com, user reviews play a significant role in creating an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more customer reviews per product can mean 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 user-generated content (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).

(The figures above were sourced from eConsultancy.com)

Adding Consumer Reviews And Testimonials – Managing Online Reputation

Adding positive testimonials and reviews to your site from very satisfied clients is important for helping you grow your business online and creating a solid online reputation.

User reviews and testimonials, however, can work both ways and impact your business both negative and positive ways.

You see, people may not be saying bad things about your products directly to you, but they could be posting updates on Facebook, or a forum or discussion group about an unpleasant encounter they’ve just had with one of your staff 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 vital part of your business and content marketing strategy.

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

See this article to learn more about a tool for WordPress users that can help you avoid the escalation of negative reviews about your products through effective customer review management:

• Learn How To Easily Manage Negative Client Reviews On WordPress With Power Online Reviews

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 used in your content marketing strategy. When you include responses from clients in your content, you:

• Show potential customers exactly what pains and problems your products and services can help to solve for them and how easily this can be done.
• Help site visitors identify and address their objections.
• Help prospects connect with their aspirations and motivations and this facilitates moving them closer to a buying decision.

Below are some useful tips on how to create customer testimonials:

• Avoid over-editing: You should try to use the actual words used by your customers as much as you can. Leave grammatical or spelling errors in the content. This helps keep your testimonials ‘real’.
• Use photos of real people: Images of people’s faces draw attention on a web page. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews can help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your content.
• Tell a powerful story: Stories are far more effective and captivating than providing mere 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 generalized statements about how “excellent” the support has been and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
• Keep it in context: Add testimonials in your site copy where it best makes sense to place them, and where you believe these can most effectively help to sell your point. Think about the impact you will have on your visitor’s perception by adding a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution can be purchased for before posting your service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before discussing the benefits of your services, or testimonials where clients are genuinely ecstatic about your customer service when offering a money-back guarantee 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 increasing our net profit by $16,245 in the last fiscal year,” or “XYZ software definitely helped us grow our sales?” Whenever possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable results, like how much your solution helped to increase their profits 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 in a recent financial quarter, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
• Avoid using the same testimonial repeatedly throughout your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult if you are just starting out or don’t have many clients, try to avoid using the same testimonial repeatedly throughout your site. 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 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 across different platforms. If someone publishes a great comment on your Facebook wall praising your products or services, send them a message asking for permission to reprint the comment or post on your blog.
• Only use genuine client testimonials. Most people can tell if you are employing professional writers to write your content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your prospects need to believe that the testimonials you provide on your site are genuine. Don’t compromise your credibility with a ”made up” testimonial.

How To Get Testimonials From Clients

Just Ask

If you have just completed a service for someone, or a customer says they are really happy with your product or service, ask them for a testimonial.

Follow these tips for soliciting testimonials:

• Contact your clients after 30 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you have not obtained one after completing your service.
• Add a field for testimonials in client satisfaction surveys.
• Take out your phone when you next visit clients or hand over a completed job and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they would be happy to record a very brief video testimonial/feedback interview. When recording your video, explain to your viewers what you have done for your client and make sure to record the client’s positive reactions and responses.
• Make it easy and write the testimonial 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 juiciest sections (only use what they have given you – never put words into their mouth), and use these to create a testimonial, then contact your client and ask them for permission to publish it. Explain that you have done this to save them time and let them know they are completely free to edit what you have written however they see fit before replying with their approval.

Offer To Publish A Link 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 to get clients to provide you with a testimonial. It also makes the implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are real and can be verified.

Include A Testimonial Request In Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages

If you have a list of subscribers, include requests for a testimonial in one of your newsletter mailouts. This should be timed to reach subscribers just after your clients have had a chance to assess the results of using your services. Use words like “I need a quick favor” in the subject of your message and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking them for feedback, a testimonial, or a product review.

Use LinkedIn

The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature helps you obtain testimonials from other members that become part of your profile. With LinkedIn, the process for requesting and providing recommendations is simple and user-friendly and the person providing the recommendation receives a link to their profile. If you get a recommendation on LinkedIn, ask for permission to reprint it on your website (once again, you can offer to publish a link back to their profile in exchange).

Create A Testimonials Section

Create a new section for client testimonials and place a “read more client testimonials …” link pointing to your main testimonials page throughout your content sections.

Practical Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of testimonials by how long visitors remain on the section of your pages or posts where you have added your testimonial content. ”Heatmapping” technology is a great way to understanding visitor behavior on your site.

We have written an article about adding heatmap analytics to your sites to analyze visitor behavior here:

• Understanding User Behaviour On Your WordPress Site Using Heat Map Tools – HeatMapTracker Review

Using WordPress Plugins

If your site or blog is powered by 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 feedback and testimonials.

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

Check out the testimonial plugins below:

Easy Testimonials

Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use free plugin that lets you add user testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into a Page or Post using a shortcode. The plugin also lets you add a list of all testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include an image with each testimonial, which is great for adding a photo of the testimonial author, their logo, etc.

The plugin also can be upgraded to a “pro” version that has additional features and developer support.

Go here to download the plugin:

• Easy Testimonials

Testimonials Widget

Testimonials Widget is a free WordPress plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, or text with videos or images on your posts and pages. 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.

The Testimonials Widget plugin offers additional features via a premium version, including built-in options for improved search engine results and developer support.

Visit this site to download this plugin:

• Testimonials Widget

Testimonials WordPress Plugin

This premium plugin provides a range of 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 slideshows, sliders, list layout, grid layout, etc. by adding a shortcode
• Styling options (display image at the top, bottom, or side of the testimonial, display testimonial in a speech bubble, customized font and background colors, font types and more.

Visit this site to download the plugin:

• Testimonials Plugin

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

• How To Add Testimonials In WordPress

In Conclusion …

User reviews and client testimonials 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 existing customers, and publish positive content about your business on your site.

Additional Info

The articles below provide useful information about creating engaging clients 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

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 site visitors and grow your business online using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

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