Building Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews

Are you stuck in a cycle of doing what you’ve always done to attract and retain new customers, and getting the exact same disappointing results? As most small business owners know, that finding new ways of generating new customers can be hard. Just trying to stay in business takes 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, you simply can’t afford to ignore the significance of what your potential customers are doing online, especially if they are talking about your business.

Don’t ignore what your customers may be saying online about your business!

You are also doing your business a disservice if you are not spreading the positive things your clients say about your products or services. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful when it comes to helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be added to your content.

In this article, you’ll learn tips for turning more visitors into qualified leads using profit-boosting client testimonials.

Testimonials And User Reviews

Legendary showman and successful promoter Phineas Taylor P.T. Barnum once stated that “Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.”

P.T. Barnum understood the power of “social proof”. Using social proof as content is a powerful and effective way of promoting your business. Genuine testimonials from your existing clients are far more persuasive for attracting new clients than anything you have to 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 … customer reviews and testimonials!

Reviews and testimonials are a fantastic way to build credibility for your business.

Tests conducted by leading research firms all lead to the same conclusion: adding customer testimonials and customer reviews to your sales information reduces doubts potential customers may have about buying products and services, helps users select products and helps increase sales conversions.

Here are just some of the statistics available to support this:

• According to a study 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 web site if it has ratings and customer reviews.”
• According to Reevoo.com, reviews produce an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more consumer reviews per product can translate into a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
• 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 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).

(Source: eConsultancy.com)

Adding User Reviews And Testimonials – Online Reputation Management

You should be adding reviews and testimonials from customers to your website.

Reviews and customer testimonials, however, can work both ways and affect your business both positively and negatively.

You see, people may not be saying bad things about your business directly to you, but they could have posted updates on Facebook or a discussion group about an unpleasant experience they’ve just had using your products 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 vitally important to your online business success.

Misconceptions about managing your reputation online, such as the process being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you just don’t need it) could be seriously causing damage to your business without you even being aware of this.

See this article to learn more about a simple yet effective WordPress plugin that allows you to legally and ethically manage user feedback:

• Manage Your Online Reputation With Power Online Reviews

How To Create Client Testimonials – Useful Tips

Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are persuasive when it comes to helping you market your products and services online and should be included in your content marketing strategy. When you quote your own customer responses 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 visitors identify their objections and address these.
• Help prospects connect with their motivations and aspirations and this facilitates moving them closer to a decision to purchase.

Below are some tips on how to create testimonials:

• Avoid over-editing: You should try to use the actual words used by your customers as much as possible. Leaving little grammatical errors and misspelled words in the content helps preserve your testimonials’ authenticity.
• Use photos of real people: Marketing tests show that using images of people’s faces will draw the most attention of visitors browsing a web page. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews can help increase visitor engagement with your content.
• Tell a powerful story: Stories are so much more powerful and captivating 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 more lasting impression on those reading your content than using generalized statements about excellent customer support 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 site copy where it best makes sense to place them, and where they can most effectively help to sell your point. Think about the impact you will have on your visitor’s perception if you were to insert a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution sells for before posting your service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before discussing the benefits of your products, or testimonials where customers are genuinely thrilled about your customer service when offering guarantees or providing content that helps readers overcome their objections.
• Quantify your information: Which of the following statements do you think is more powerful… “XYZ solution was directly responsible for growing our net profit by $19,578 in the previous fiscal year,” or “XYZ software 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 sales or reduce their costs in specific percentages or amounts, how many hours they have saved, how many new leads or new clients they were able to generate during a specific period, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
• Use different client 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 throughout your site. Depending on the type of business you run, 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 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 can be 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 page praising your business, contact them privately asking for their permission to reprint the comment or post on your blog.
• Never use fake client testimonials. Most people can tell if you are employing copywriters to write your content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your prospects need to see that the testimonials published on your site are genuine. Don’t destroy your credibility with a ”made up” testimonial.

How To Get Testimonials From Customers

Ask

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

Follow these useful guidelines for soliciting testimonials:

• Make it a part of your business processes to contact clients after a specific period of time, e.g. 60 days with an email request for a testimonial if you did not obtain one immediately after completing your service.
• Include a text box for testimonials in client surveys.
• Pull out your phone when you next visit clients or hand over a completed project and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they would be happy to record a very quick video testimonial/feedback interview. While recording your video, explain to viewers what you have done for the client and record the client’s positive reactions and feedback.
• Make it easy and write the testimonial for them. If 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 use these to create a testimonial, then contact the client and ask them for permission to quote them on your site. Explain that you have already prepared something to save them time and invite them to edit what you have written however they see fit before replying with their approval.

Offer To Post A Link To The Source Wherever You Quote Their Testimonial

Offer to publish a link back to their website in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great incentive for clients to provide you with a testimonial. It also makes the implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are not fake and can be verified.

Add Testimonial Requests To Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages

If you have a subscriber list, include requests for a testimonial in one of your newsletter broadcasts. Preferably, this should be done as soon as your clients have had a chance to experience your products or services. Use words like “I need your help” in your email subject and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking clients to provide honest feedback, a testimonial, or a review of your services.

Use LinkedIn

The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature lets you request testimonials from other members that become part of your account. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is quite user-friendly and the person who provides the recommendation receives a link to their profile. If you get a positive recommendation on LinkedIn, ask their permission to reprint it on your website (and offer to add a link back to their profile in exchange).

Create A Customer Testimonials Section

Create a “Testimonials” page and add a “read more testimonials …” link to your main testimonials page whenever you add single testimonials on your content sections.

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

We have written an article about adding heatmap analytics to your website to predict visitor behaviour here:

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

Using WordPress Plugins

If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to display testimonials. Some plugins also let you add forms to your pages inviting users to submit testimonials.

Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (remember to provide simple instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), all you have to do is send users to your “Testimonials” page.

Below are a few useful WordPress testimonial plugins you can check out:

Easy Testimonials

Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use free plugin that lets you add customer testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed them into posts and pages using a shortcode. The plugin also lets you publish a list of all testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include an image with each testimonial, which can be used for adding a photo of the testimonial author, a logo, etc.

The plugin also comes with a “pro” version with additional features and developer support.

Visit this site to download this plugin:

• Easy Testimonials

Testimonials Widget

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

Testimonials Widget has loads more features available via a premium version, including built-in options SEO functionality and technical support.

To learn more about using this plugin, go here:

• Testimonials Widget

Testimonials WordPress Plugin

This premium WordPress 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.
• Display options for 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 colours, font types and more.

To learn more about using this plugin, go here:

• Testimonials WordPress Plugin

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

• How To Add Testimonials In WordPress

In Summary …

User reviews and testimonials are great 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 your customers or clients, and start publishing these on your website.

Additional Info

The articles below provide useful information on creating effective customer 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 exactly how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating high-quality content for your visitors and grow your business online using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

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