Build Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews
Are you stuck in a cycle of doing what you’ve always done to attract new customers, only to get the exact same disappointing results? Most business owners don’t need to be told that finding effective ways to generate new customers can be difficult. Just trying to keep your business afloat 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, mobile and social media-driven economy, ignoring what users may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
Ignoring what your customers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
By the same token, you are also doing your business a great disservice if you are not boosting the positive things your clients say about your products and services. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are effective ways of 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 creating better results online using highly effective client testimonials.
Testimonials And User Reviews
P.T. Barnum, legendary American showman and successful promoter, 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 way of getting your business promoted effectively. Quoting testimonials and reviews from your satisfied customers is satisfied clients are far more persuasive when it comes to drawing new clients than anything you say about your own products or services.
There is an untapped source of opportunities for generating new business that most small businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … user reviews and testimonials!
Reviews and testimonials are a fantastic way to build credibility for your services and products.
Research conducted by marketing firms all lead to the same conclusion: testimonials and user reviews decrease doubts potential customers may have about purchasing products and services, help users select products and increases the number of product sales.
Below are just some of the findings available to 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 customer reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, user reviews play a significant role in creating an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more user reviews per product can translate into a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Website 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).
(Source: eConsultancy.com)
Adding Client Reviews And Testimonials – Managing Online Reputation
Clearly, you should be adding positive reviews and testimonials from delighted customers to your site.
User reviews and testimonials, however, are like double-edged swords; they can impact your business both in a positive and negative manner.
You see, people may not be saying bad things about your business directly to your face, but they could be posting updates on a discussion thread about an unpleasant encounter they’ve just had with one of your staff members 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 vitally important aspect of your success.
Misconceptions about managing your reputation online, such as 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 being aware of it.
See this article to learn more about a simple WordPress plugin that can help to avoid the escalation of negative reviews about your business, products or services through effective customer review management:
Creating Awesome User Testimonials – Useful Tips
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive ways of marketing your products and services online and should be an integral part of your content. When you include your own client responses in your content, you:
- Show prospects exactly what problems and pains your products and services can help to solve for them and how easily it can do this.
- Help potential customers identify their objections and address these.
- Help potential customers connect with their motivations and facilitate moving them closer to a decision to purchase.
Below are some tips on improving your sales with awesome user testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: Try to use your customer’s actual words as much as you can. Leaving grammatical errors and misspelt words in the content helps preserve the authenticity of your testimonials.
- Use photos of real people: Research shows that using images of people’s faces draws the attention of visitors browsing a web page. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews will help increase visitor engagement with your site’s content.
- Tell a story: Stories are so much more effective and captivating than just providing statistical facts. The ability 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 all of us have heard a “million times” before.
- Keep it in context: Add customer testimonials to your web content where it best makes sense to place them, and where they can most effectively help to sell your point. For example, think about the impact you can create on your visitor’s perception if you were to add a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution sells for before posting price information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before presenting the benefits of your services, or testimonials where clients are truly thrilled about your support when offering guarantees or providing content designed to help readers overcome their objections.
- Quantify the information: Which of the following statements do you think is more powerful… “XYZ solution was directly responsible for helping to increase our net profit by $45,476 during the previous fiscal year,” or “XYZ solution definitely helped us grow our business?” If possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable data, like how much your solution helped to increase their market share or reduce their costs in specific percentages or amounts, how many hours you have helped them save, how many new leads or new clients they were able to generate in a recent financial period, 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 or have very few clients, it’s best to avoid displaying the same testimonial throughout your site. Depending on the nature of your business, you could try to obtain more user testimonials by offering limited review copies of your product, or a special discount for existing 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 can relate to can be 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 ideal customers.
- Reprint testimonials across different platforms. If you get great feedback on your Facebook wall praising your solution, ask them permission to reprint the comment or post on your site.
- Don’t use fake client testimonials. Your prospects need to see that the testimonials you provide on your site are genuine. Don’t compromise your credibility or reputation with false testimonials.
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 requesting testimonials from your clients:
- Contact clients after a specific period of time, e.g. 90 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you did not obtain one immediately after completing your service.
- Include a field for entering testimonials in all your client surveys.
- Take out your phone next time you 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. During the video, explain to your viewers what you have done for the client and record your client’s positive reactions and feedback.
- Make it easy for them. Whenever a client sends you positive written feedback that contains snippets of useful testimonial material interspersed with the rest of their message, grab the juiciest sections (only use what they have written – don’t put words into their mouth), and shape these into a testimonial, then contact your 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 edit what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.
Offer To Publish A Link To The Source
Offer to add a link back to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great incentive to get clients to provide a testimonial. It also makes the implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are not fake and can be verified.
Include A Testimonial Request In Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a subscriber list, include requests for a testimonial in one of your newsletter messages. This should be done as soon as your clients have had a chance to use your products. Use words like “I need your help” in the subject of your email and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking subscribers for honest feedback, a testimonial, or a review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature helps you request testimonials from other members for your account. 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 their permission to reprint it on your website (and offer to publish a link back to their website in exchange).
Create A Testimonials Section On Your Site
Create a new section for customer testimonials and place a “more client testimonials …” link to this page whenever you add new testimonials on your content sections.
Practical Tip: You can measure how effective testimonials are by how long visitors stay on the section of your pages or posts where you have added the testimonial content. A great tool for monitoring what visitors are doing on your pages are “heatmaps”.
We have written an article about a heatmap software you can add to your site to measure visitor behavior here:
Using Testimonial Plugins For WordPress
If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to add and display testimonials. Some plugins also allow you to add forms to your pages where users can submit testimonials.
Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (remember to provide simple instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), you then refer clients to your “Testimonials” section.
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 the sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into a Page or Post using a shortcode. The Easy Testimonials plugin also lets you publish a list of all your 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 logo, etc.
Easy Testimonials also comes with a “pro” version with additional features and plugin support.
Go here to learn more about using this plugin:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with images or videos on your posts and pages. You can insert client testimonials using a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and specify different display options such as random or specific ordering.
The plugin provides additional features via a premium version, including built-in options for better search engine results and technical support.
To download the plugin, visit this site:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This is a premium WP plugin that offers many great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes for displaying correctly on any device or browser.
- Display options for your testimonials in a widget or as sliders, slideshows, grid layout, list layout, etc. by adding a shortcode
- Styling options (display image on top, bottom, or side of the testimonial, display testimonial in a speech bubble, customize font and background colours, font types and more.
Visit this site to download this plugin:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Conclusion …
Customer reviews and testimonials are great sources of content that help your business in terms of adding credibility, building authority, improving online reputation, and growing your sales funnel. Always ask for feedback, reviews, and testimonials from existing clients, and start publishing these on your website or blog.
Additional Info
For additional information about creating engaging testimonials read the articles below:
- 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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