Build Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews
Are you stuck in a cycle of doing what you’ve always done to attract and retain customers, and getting the exact same disappointing results? As most business owners know, that trying to generate new customers can be hard. Just trying to keep your business afloat takes a lot of time, money and energy, and sometimes this can feel like it’s just not worth the effort.
In today’s web-based and social-driven economy, ignoring what users may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
Don’t ignore what your customers may be saying online about your business!
You may also be doing your business a great disservice if you are not promoting the positive things your clients say about your services and products. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are effective ways of helping you market and promote your products and services online and should be included as part of your content.
In this article, we’ll show you how to turn more visitors into prospects with more effective user testimonials.
Testimonials And Client Reviews
P.T. Barnum, the great American 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 way of getting your business promoted effectively. Reviews quoted directly from satisfied users are far more persuasive for drawing new clients than anything you 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 … consumer reviews!
Reviews and testimonials are terrific for building credibility for your services and products.
Studies conducted by marketing firms all point to the same inevitable conclusion: user reviews and testimonials help to eliminate doubts potential customers may have about purchasing 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 research 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, consumer reviews result in 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).
- 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 – Managing Online Reputation
Clearly, you should be adding positive reviews and testimonials from very happy customers to your site.
Reviews and testimonials, however, can work both ways and affect your business both negatively or positively.
You see, people may not be saying bad things about your business directly to you, but they could have posted disparaging remarks on Facebook, or a forum or discussion thread about an unpleasant experience they’ve just had with your business and this could be costing you business.
This is where online reputation management becomes a vitally important aspect of your online success.
Misconceptions about engaging in online reputation management practices, such as the process being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you really don’t need it) could be seriously causing damage to your business without you even realizing it.
See this article to learn more about a WordPress plugin that lets you legally and ethically manage customer reviews:
Tips For Creating Testimonials
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 marketing. When you quote your own client responses in your content, you:
- Show other users exactly with similar problems and pains how your products and services can help them.
- Help prospects identify their objections and address these.
- Help potential customers connect with their motivations and aspirations and facilitate the sales process.
Here are some practical tips on improving your conversions with captivating testimonials:
- Avoid over-editing: You should try to use the actual words used by your customers as much as you can. Leave little grammatical or spelling errors in the content. This helps to keep things ‘real’.
- Use photos: Images of people’s faces draw attention to your content. Adding photos of your clients next to their testimonials and reviews will help increase visitor engagement with your site’s content.
- Tell a story: Stories are far more effective and memorable 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 more lasting impression on those reading your content than presenting generic statements about excellent customer support and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
- Keep it in context: It’s good to add testimonials in your web content where it best makes sense to place them, and where they can most effectively help you sell your point. For example, think about the impact you will have on your visitor’s mind by adding a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution can be purchased for before posting product or service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before discussing the benefits of your products, or testimonials where clients are truly thrilled about your customer service when offering guarantees or addressing objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements do you think is more powerful: “Since using your XYZ services, we have noticed a revenue growth of $44,286 during the previous financial quarter,” or “XYZ software has helped us grow our business?” If possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable results, like how much your solution helped to increase their market share 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 financial period, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
- Avoid using the same client testimonial throughout your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult when you are just starting out or have very few clients, try to avoid displaying the same testimonial everywhere on your web pages. Depending on the type of business you run, you could try to obtain more user testimonials by offering limited review copies of your product, or a special discount for clients in exchange for an honest review and permission to publish it if you choose 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 is a 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 content across different platforms. If you get great feedback on your Facebook wall praising your solution, ask them for permission to reprint the comment or post on your blog.
- Only use real testimonials. Your potential clients need to believe that the testimonials provided on your site are genuine. Don’t compromise your credibility or reputation with a ”made up” testimonial.
How To Get Client Testimonials
Just Ask
If you have just completed performing a service, or a customer says they are really happy with your product or service, ask them for a testimonial.
Here are some useful guidelines for soliciting testimonials from clients:
- Make a point of contacting clients after a specific period of time, e.g. 60 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you have not obtained one after completing a service.
- Include a text box for testimonials in all your client surveys.
- Take out your phone next time you visit a client or hand over a finished job and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a quick video testimonial/feedback interview. If they agree, while recording the video, explain to viewers what you have done for your client and make sure to record your client’s positive reactions and responses.
- Make it easy for them. If a client sends 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 – don’t 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 done this to save them time and invite them to edit what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.
Offer To Post A Link Back To Their Site
Offer to post a link back to their website in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great incentive to get clients to provide you with a testimonial. It also makes an implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are not fake 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 one of your newsletter mailouts. Preferably, this should be done after your clients have had a chance to experience your solution. 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 clients for 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 user-friendly and the person providing the recommendation receives a link to their profile. If you get a positive recommendation on LinkedIn, ask for 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 new page on your web site for client testimonials and add a “read more customer testimonials …” link to this section throughout your site.
Useful Tip: You can measure how useful testimonials are by how long visitors stay on the section of your pages or posts where you have added your testimonial content. A great tool for understanding visitor behavior on your pages are “heatmaps”.
We have written an article about a heatmap analytics software you can add to your site to understand visitor behaviour here:
Using Testimonial Plugins For WordPress
If your website or blog is built using 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 reviews and testimonials.
Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (remember to provide simple instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), you then send clients to your “Testimonials” page.
Below are some great WordPress testimonial plugins you can check out:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use free plugin that lets you add testimonials to your 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 testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which is great to add a photo of the testimonial author, their logo, etc.
Easy Testimonials also provides a “pro” version with additional features and developer support.
To download the plugin, visit this site:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with videos or images on your web site. You can insert testimonials using a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and have multiple display options such as random or specific ordering.
The plugin provides a range of additional features via a premium version, including built-in functions for improved search engine results and developer support.
To download and use the 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 slideshows, sliders, grid layout, list layout, etc. using a shortcode
- Styling options (display image on top, bottom, or side of the testimonial, display testimonial in a speech bubble, customized font and background colors, font types and more.
To download and use this plugin, go here:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Conclusion …
User reviews and client 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 testimonials, reviews, and feedback from existing customers, and publish positive content about your business on your website or blog.
Additional Info
For additional information about creating engaging customer testimonials refer to these articles:
- 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 and practical tips that will teach 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 strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!
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