Building Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews

Are you stuck in a cycle of doing what you’ve always done to attract new customers, and getting the exact same results? As most small business owners know, that finding new ways of generating new business can be extremely hard. 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 customers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!

Ignoring what users may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!

You may also be doing your business a great disservice if you are not promoting the positive things your clients say about your services or products. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are effective ways of helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be added throughout your content.

In this article, we’ll show you how to turn more visitors into qualified leads with sales boosting client testimonials.

Testimonials And User Reviews

The great, legendary showman and businessman P.T. Barnum is often quoted as having said 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. Quoting testimonials directly from satisfied users is satisfied users are far more persuasive for drawing new clients than anything you can say about your own products or services.

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

Customer reviews and testimonials are a great way to build credibility for your business.

Studies conducted by many marketing companies all point to the same conclusion: adding customer testimonials and customer reviews to your sales information helps decrease doubts potential customers may have about products, helps with product selection and helps increase sales.

Below are just some of the findings available to support this:

• According to research by eVoc Insights, a company 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 consumer reviews.”
• According to Reevoo.com, reviews can result in an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more user reviews per product can result in 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 user-generated content (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).

(Source: eConsultancy.com)

Adding Client Reviews And Testimonials – Online Reputation Management

You should be adding reviews from clients who have experienced positive results with your business to your site.

Reviews and customer testimonials, however, are like double-edged swords; they can affect your business both in a positive as well as negative manner.

People may not be saying bad things about your business, products or services directly to your face, but they could post negative comments on Facebook or a forum thread about an unpleasant encounter they’ve just had with one of your employees and this could be costing you business.

This is where online reputation management becomes a vitally important aspect of your business 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) may be hurting your business without you even realizing it.

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

• Learn How To Easily Manage Poor User Reviews On WordPress With Power Online Reviews

Tips For Creating User Testimonials

Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are effective ways of helping you market your products and services online and should be included in your content marketing strategy. When you quote responses from customers in your content, you:

• Show others exactly what pains and problems your products and services can solve for them and how easily it can do this.
• Help your visitors identify and address their objections.
• Help prospects connect with their aspirations and motivations and this facilitates moving them closer to a decision to purchase.

Here are some practical tips on creating client testimonials:

• Don’t over edit: 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 the authenticity of your testimonials.
• Use real photos: It’s a proven fact 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 your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your content.
• Tell a story: Stories are much more effective and memorable than just providing facts and statistics. 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 in your site copy where it makes the most sense to place them, and where they can most effectively help sell your point. For example, think about the impact you can create on your visitor’s perception if you were to display 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 services, or testimonials where clients are truly thrilled about your support before offering a money-back guarantee or providing content that helps your readers overcome their objections.
• Quantify the information: Which of the following statements is more powerful: “As a direct result of using your XYZ software, we have seen a net profit growth of $90,229 in the previous financial quarter,” or “XYZ software helped us grow our sales?” Whenever possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable results, like how much your solution helped to increase their sales or reduce their costs in specific percentages or amounts, how many hours of work you have helped them save, 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.
• Vary the client testimonials throughout your site: Although this can be a little difficult if you are just starting out or don’t have many clients, it’s best to avoid using the same testimonial repeatedly throughout your web pages. 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 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 best customer is, providing testimonials from people who your prospects aspire to become can be a powerful motivator and influencer. People want to see and buy from “better versions” of themselves, so make sure to include testimonials that appeal directly to your ideal customers.
• Reprint testimonials across different platforms. If you get great feedback on your Facebook wall praising your customer service, send them a message asking for their permission to reprint the comment or post on your blog.
• Never use fake testimonials. Many people can see through sites that employ copywriters to create content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your potential clients need to believe that the testimonials displayed on your site are genuine. Don’t compromise your credibility or reputation with false testimonials.

How To Get Testimonials

Ask For Testimonials

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.

Here are some useful guidelines for soliciting testimonials:

• Contact your clients after 60 days with an email request for a testimonial if you did not obtain one after completing your service.
• Include a field for entering testimonials in all your client surveys.
• Take out your phone next time you visit a client or hand over a completed project and if they are delighted with the results, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a very brief video testimonial/feedback interview. If they agree, while recording the video, explain to your viewers what you have done for your client and try to capture their positive reactions and feedback.
• Make it easy for them. Whenever 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 written – never put words into their mouth), and shape these into a testimonial, then contact the client and ask them for permission to use it. Explain that you have done this to help them save time and let them know they are completely free to modify what you have written however they see fit before replying with their approval.

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

Offer to add a link back to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive for clients to provide a testimonial. It also makes an implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are real and can be verified.

Include Testimonial Requests In Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages

If you have a subscriber list, include a request for a testimonial in a regularly-spaced email message. This should be done as soon as your clients have had a chance to assess the results of using your product, service or solution. Use words like “I need a quick favor” in your email subject and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking customers for feedback, a testimonial, or a review of your services.

Use LinkedIn

The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature is a great way to solicit testimonials that become part of your profile. 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 add a link back to their profile in exchange).

Create A Client Testimonials Section

Create a new page on your web site for testimonials and place a “read more testimonials …” link to your main testimonials page wherever you add small blocks of 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 your testimonial content. A great tool for observing what visitors are doing on your pages are “heatmaps”.

We have written an article about adding heatmaps to your sites to monitor visitor behavior here:

• Spy On Your WordPress Site Visitors With Analytics Software – Heat Map Tracker Review

Testimonial Plugins For WordPress

If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to display testimonials. Some plugins also allow you to add a form to your pages inviting users to submit feedback and testimonials.

Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (make sure to provide simple instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), you then send customers to your “Testimonials” page.

Check out the WordPress testimonial plugins below:

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 posts and pages using a shortcode. Easy Testimonials also lets you publish a list of all testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which can be used to add a photo of the testimonial author, their company logo, etc.

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

Visit this site to download and use the plugin:

• Easy Testimonials

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 web site. You can insert testimonials content via a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and have multiple display options such as random or specific ordering.

Testimonials Widget makes loads of additional features available via a premium version, including built-in options for better search engine results and technical support.

Go here for more information about this plugin:

• Testimonials Widget

Testimonials WordPress Plugin

This is a premium plugin that provides a range of 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. via a shortcode
• Styling options (display image on top, bottom, or side of the testimonial, display testimonials in a speech bubble, customize font and background colors, font types and more.

To download the 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 Conclusion …

Customer reviews and testimonials are powerful 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 clients, and start publishing these on your website or blog.

Resources

For additional sources of information and resources about creating effective testimonials see 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

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 or blog, save money creating useful content for your visitors and grow your business online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

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