Build Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews

Are you stuck 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 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 online and social-driven economy, it’s foolish to ignore the effect of what your potential customers are doing online, especially if they are talking about your business.

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

By the same token, you may also be doing your business a disservice if you are not boosting the positive things your clients are saying about your solutions, user support, training, etc. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are effective ways of helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be used in your content marketing strategy.

In this article, we’ll show you tips for converting more visitors into prospects using compelling client testimonials.

Testimonials And Customer Reviews

P.T. Barnum, legendary showman and successful promoter, is often quoted as having said 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 and effective way of getting your business promoted. Reviews quoted directly from satisfied customers are far more persuasive when it comes to attracting new clients, customers or users than anything you can say about your own products or services.

There is clearly a source of untapped opportunities for generating new business that most small businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … user reviews!

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

Marketing studies conducted by leading companies all point to the same conclusion: adding testimonials and customer reviews to your point of sale pages helps to eliminate doubts potential customers may have about your product, helps users select products and increases conversions of visitors into sales.

Below are just some statistics that support this:

• According to research 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 consumer reviews.”
• According to Reevoo.com, 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.
• 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 Client Reviews – Managing Online Reputation

Adding positive testimonials and reviews to your website from people who are thrilled with the results they’ve obtained by using your products or services is essential for helping you grow your business online.

Reviews and customer testimonials, however, are like double-edged swords; they can affect your business both positive and negative ways.

You see, people may not be saying bad things about your products directly to your face, but they could post disparaging remarks on Facebook or a forum about a bad encounter they’ve just had with one of your staff 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 important to your 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 just don’t need it) may be hurting your business without you even realizing it.

See this article to learn more about a simple WordPress plugin that can help to avoid the escalation of problem reviews about your business, products or services through effective customer review management:

• Managing Poor User Feedback With Power Online Reviews

Creating Powerful Testimonials – Useful Tips

User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are effective when it comes to helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be included in your content. When you quote your own client responses in your content, you:

• Show potential customers exactly what problems and pains your products and services can solve for them and how easily this can be done.
• Help site visitors identify and address their objections.
• Help prospects connect with their motivations and this facilitates the sales process.

Here are some tips on improving your conversions with customer testimonials:

• Don’t over edit: You should try to use the actual words used by your customers as much as you can. Leaving little grammatical errors and misspellings in the content helps to keep it ‘real’.
• Use photos: Research shows that using images of people’s faces will draw the attention of visitors browsing a web page. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews will help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your site’s content.
• Use the power of storytelling: Stories are far more effective and memorable than providing mere facts and statistics. The ability 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 how “excellent” the customer support has been and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
• Use it in context: Add customer testimonials to your site copy where it best makes 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 by adding a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution can be purchased for before posting product pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before talking about the benefits of your products, or testimonials where clients are truly thrilled about your support before offering guarantees or providing content designed to help your readers overcome their objections.
• Quantify the information: Which of the following statements do you think is more powerful… “XYZ solution was directly responsible for growing our net profit by $17,583 in the last fiscal year,” or “XYZ software helped us grow our business?” Whenever possible, ask clients to specify quantifiable results when submitting testimonials, 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, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
• Avoid using the same customer testimonial repeatedly throughout your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult when you are just starting out and have very few clients, try to avoid displaying the same testimonial everywhere on your site. Depending on the nature of your business, you could try to obtain more customer 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 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 best customer is, providing testimonials from people who your prospects aspire to become 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 that speak directly to your ideal customers.
• Reprint testimonials across different platforms. If you get great feedback on your Facebook page praising your customer service, contact them privately asking for their permission to reprint the content on your site.
• Only use real testimonials. Most people can tell if you are employing copywriters to create your content. Outsourcing content is fine, but prospective customers need to believe that the testimonials published on your site are genuine. Don’t compromise your credibility or reputation with false testimonials.

How To Get Testimonials From Clients

Always Ask For Testimonials

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

Here are some useful guidelines for requesting testimonials from customers:

• Make a point of contacting customers after 30 days with an email request for a testimonial if you did not obtain one immediately after completing your service.
• Add a field for entering testimonials in all client surveys.
• Take out your phone when you next meet with clients or hand over a finished job and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they would be happy to record a very brief video testimonial/feedback interview. If they agree, while recording your video, explain to viewers what you have done for your client and make sure to record their positive reactions and responses.
• Make it easy and write it for them. If a client sends 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 your client and ask them for permission to quote them on your site. Explain that you have already prepared something to save them 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 Publish A Link To Their Site Wherever You Quote Their Testimonial

Offer to post a link to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great incentive to get clients providing a testimonial. It also makes the 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 requests for a testimonial in a regularly-spaced auto responder broadcast. This should be timed to reach subscribers just after your clients have had a chance to experience your products. Use words like “I need your help” in your email subject and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking them to provide honest feedback, a testimonial, or a review.

Use LinkedIn

The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature is a great way to solicit testimonials that become part of your profile. 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 site (once again, you can offer to publish a link back to their website or profile in exchange).

Create A Client Testimonials Page

Create a “Testimonials” page and add a “read more customer testimonials …” link pointing to this page throughout your site.

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

We have written an article about a heatmap analytics software you can add to your site to monitor visitor behavior here:

• How To Spy On Your WordPress Site Visitors Using HeatMap Tools – HeatMapTracker Review

WordPress Plugins

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

Once your plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), you then refer users to your “Testimonials” page.

Check out the testimonial plugins below:

Easy Testimonials

Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use free plugin that lets you add 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 testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which you can use for adding a photo of the testimonial author, their logo, etc.

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

To download and use this plugin, visit this site:

• Easy Testimonials – WordPress Testimonials Plugin

Testimonials Widget

Testimonials Widget is a free WordPress plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with images or videos on your pages and posts. You can insert testimonials content 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 extra features via a premium version, including built-in functions SEO functionality and plugin support.

Visit this site to learn more about using the plugin:

• Testimonials Widget

Testimonials WordPress Plugin

This is a premium plugin that 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, list layout, grid layout, etc. via a shortcode
• Styling options (display image at the top, bottom, or side of testimonials, display testimonials in a speech bubble, customized font and background colors, font types and more.

To download and use the plugin, go here:

• Testimonials Plugin

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

• How To Add Testimonials In WordPress

In Summary …

Testimonials and customer reviews are powerful 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 or clients, and publish positive content about your business on your website.

Additional Info

The articles below are a great source of information on creating effective clients testimonials and were helpful in providing research and 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 easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating useful content that will add value to 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 completely FREE!

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