Building Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract customers, and getting the exact same disappointing results? As most business owners know, that generating new customers can be difficult. Just trying to remain 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, mobile and social-driven economy, it’s a mistake to ignore the significance of online consumer behavior, especially if they are posting negative comments about your business.
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 customers say about your products or services. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive when it comes to helping you market your products and services online and should be an integral part of your content.
In this article, you’ll discover how to improve your conversions with sales boosting client testimonials.
Client Reviews And Testimonials
Legendary American showman and businessman P.T. Barnum 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 way of getting your business promoted effectively. Genuine reviews from existing customers are far more persuasive for attracting new clients than anything you say about your own products or services.
There is an untapped source of business growth potential that most small businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … reviews and testimonials from satisfied customers!
Testimonials and reviews are a great way to build credibility for your products and services.
Marketing studies conducted by many leading research firms all lead to the same conclusion: testimonials and user reviews help to eliminate doubts potential customers may have about some products or services, help users select products and help increase the number of sales.
Here are just some of the stats available to support this:
- According to a study 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 reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, user reviews are responsible for producing an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more consumer reviews per product can result in a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Web site 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).
- 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).
(Above figures sourced from eConsultancy.com)
Adding User Testimonials And Reviews – Online Reputation Management
Adding reviews and testimonials to your website from customers is essential for growing your business online.
Customer testimonials and user reviews, however, can work both ways and impact your business both positively or negatively.
People may not be saying bad things about your services directly to you, but they could have posted negative comments on Facebook or a discussion thread about an unpleasant experience they’ve just had with your services and this could be costing you business.
This is where online reputation management becomes vital to your online 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) may be seriously causing damage to your business without you even being aware of it.
See this article to learn more about a simple WordPress plugin that allows you to legally and ethically manage user reviews:
How To Create Meaningful Customer Testimonials – Useful Tips
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive when it comes to helping you market your products and services online and should be used in your content marketing. When you quote your own user responses in your content, you:
- Show other users exactly with similar problems and pains what your products and services can do for them.
- Help your visitors identify their objections and address these.
- Help potential customers connect with their motivations and aspirations and this facilitates moving them closer to a decision to purchase.
Here are some useful tips on how to create testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: You should try using the actual words used by your customers as much as possible. Leave little grammatical or spelling errors in the content. This helps to keep it ‘real’.
- Use photos: Marketing tests show that using images of people’s faces will draw the attention of visitors on a web page. Adding photos of your clients next to their testimonials and reviews can help increase visitor engagement with your content.
- Tell a story: Stories are far more effective and memorable than providing mere statistical facts. The ability 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 presenting generalized statements about excellent service and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
- Use 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 sell your point. Think about the impact you will have on your visitor’s perception if you were to add a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution retails for before posting service 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 thrilled about your support when offering a money-back guarantee or providing content designed to help readers overcome their objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements do you think is more powerful… “XYZ solution was directly responsible for helping us grow our bottom line by $33,551 in the last financial quarter,” or “XYZ software has helped us grow our business?” Whenever possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable data, like how much your solution helped to increase their profits or reduce their costs in specific percentages or amounts, how many hours of work they have saved, how many new leads or new clients they were able to generate in a recent business quarter, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
- Use different customer testimonials throughout your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult when you are just starting out or have very few clients, it’s best to avoid displaying the same testimonial throughout your website. Depending on the type of business you run, you could try to obtain more customer testimonials by offering limited review copies of your product, or a special launch discount for 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 best customer 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 best audience demographic.
- Reprint testimonials across different platforms. If you get great feedback on your Facebook page praising your commitment to customer satisfaction, contact them privately asking for permission to reprint the content on your blog.
- Don’t use fake testimonials. Prospective clients need to believe that the testimonials you provide on your site are real. Don’t compromise your credibility or reputation with a ”made up” testimonial.
How To Get Customer Testimonials
Just Ask
When you complete performing a service, or a customer says they are really happy with your product or service, ask them for a testimonial.
Here are some tips for requesting testimonials from customers:
- Make a point of contacting customers after 14 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 client surveys.
- Take out your phone next time you meet with a client or hand over a completed 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. If they agree, while recording your video, describe to your viewers what you have done for the client and make sure to record their positive reactions and responses.
- Make it easy and write it 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 juiciest sections (only use what they have given you – 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 change what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.
Offer To Post A Link To The Source Wherever You Quote Their Testimonial
Offer to add a link back to their website in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive to get clients providing you with a testimonial. It also makes the implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are real and can be verified.
Add Testimonial Requests To Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a subscriber list, include a request for a testimonial in a regularly-spaced newsletter broadcast. Preferably, this should be timed to reach subscribers just after your clients have had a chance to experience your services. Use words like “I need your help” in your email subject and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking users for honest feedback, a testimonial, or a review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature lets you obtain testimonials that become part of your account. With LinkedIn, the process for requesting and providing recommendations is quite user-friendly and the person who provides the recommendation gets a link to their profile. If you get a positive recommendation on LinkedIn, ask for permission to reprint it on your website (tip: offer to add a link back to their website or profile in exchange).
Create A Customer Testimonials Section On Your Site
Create a “Testimonials” page and add a “more customer testimonials …” link pointing to this section throughout your site.
Useful Tip: You can measure how useful customer testimonials are by how long visitors remain 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 sites to track visitor behaviour here:
Using Testimonial Plugins
If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to display testimonials. Some plugins also allow you to add forms to your pages inviting users to submit testimonials.
Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), all you have to do is refer clients to your “Testimonials” section.
Below are some great plugins you can check out:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use free plugin that lets you add client testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed them into a Page or Post using a shortcode. The plugin also lets you publish a list of all testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which you can use to add a photo of the testimonial author, their business logo, etc.
The Easy Testimonials plugin also comes with a “pro” version that has additional features and developer support.
Visit this site to download this plugin:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with videos or images on your site. You can insert customer 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 plugin has plenty more features available via a premium version, including built-in functions for improved search engine results and technical support.
To download this plugin, visit this site:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This is a premium plugin that offers plenty of great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes for displaying correctly on any device or browser.
- Options to display your testimonials in a widget or as slideshows, sliders, 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 learn more about this plugin:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Summary …
User reviews and 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 feedback, reviews, and testimonials from existing customers, and start publishing these on your site.
Resources
The articles below are a great source of information about creating engaging 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 a comprehensive series of training emails with easy-to-digest information that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating useful content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your business online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!
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