How To Build Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract and retain new customers, only to get the exact same results? As most small business owners know, that finding effective ways of generating new customers can be difficult. Just trying to keep your business afloat takes 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 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 don’t promote the positive things your clients say about your services or products. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are powerful ways of helping you market and promote your products and services online and should be included as part of your content.
In this article, you will learn tips for creating better results online with effective customer testimonials.
Testimonials And User Reviews
Phineas Taylor P.T. Barnum, the great American showman and businessman, is often quoted as having stated that “Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.”
P.T. Barnum obviously understood the power of “social proof”. Social proof-driven content is a powerful way of getting your business promoted effectively. Quoting testimonials and reviews directly from existing customers is satisfied users are far more persuasive when it comes to drawing new customers than anything you can say about your own products or services.
There is a source of untapped business growth potential that most businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … customer reviews!
Testimonials and reviews are a terrific way to build credibility for your services and products.
Marketing studies conducted by leading firms all seem to lead to the same inevitable conclusion: adding user reviews and customer testimonials to your sales information reduces doubts potential customers may have about products and services, helps users select products and increases sales.
Below are just some of the stats available to support this:
- According to a study 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 site if it has ratings and consumer reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, consumer reviews produce an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more user reviews per product can result in a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Web site visitors who interact with both customer 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).
(The figures above were sourced from eConsultancy.com)
Adding User Reviews – Managing Online Reputation
Adding great testimonials and reviews to your website from very satisfied clients is essential for growing your business.
User reviews and customer testimonials, however, are like double-edged swords; they can impact your business both negatively and positively.
People may not be saying bad things about your services directly to your face, but they could be posting negative comments on Facebook or a forum group about a bad encounter they’ve just had with one of your employees 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 vital aspect of your online success.
Misconceptions about online reputation management, such as being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you really don’t need it) may be harming your business without you even being aware of it.
See this article to learn more about a simple plugin for WordPress users that allows you to legally and ethically manage user feedback:
Tips For Creating Testimonials
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are powerful ways of marketing your products and services online and should be included as part of your content marketing strategy. When you quote your own client responses in your content, you:
- Show other users exactly what problems and pains your products and services can solve for them and how easily this can be done.
- Help visitors identify their objections and address these.
- Help potential customers connect with their motivations and aspirations and this facilitates moving them further along the sales process.
Below are some useful tips on improving your sales conversions with engaging testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: Try using your customer’s actual words as much as you can. Leaving little grammatical errors and misspellings in the content helps keep your testimonials sounding authentic.
- Use photos: It’s a proven fact that using images of people’s faces will draw the most 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.
- Tell a powerful 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 generic statements about how “excellent” the customer service was and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
- Keep it in context: Add testimonials to your web content where it makes the most sense to place them, and where you believe these can most effectively help you sell your point. Think about the impact you can create on your visitor’s perception by adding a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution sells for before posting price information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before presenting the benefits of your services, or testimonials where clients are genuinely thrilled about your support when offering guarantees or providing content designed to help readers overcome their objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements is more powerful… “Since using your services, we have noticed our sales increase by $57,505 in the previous financial quarter,” or “XYZ solution has helped us grow our business?” If possible, ask clients to specify quantifiable results when submitting testimonials, like how much your solution helped to increase their profits or reduce their costs by 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, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
- Use different testimonials throughout your site: Although this can be a little difficult if you are just starting out and don’t have many clients, it’s best to avoid using the same testimonial repeatedly throughout your web pages. Depending on your business, 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 decide 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 target audience is, providing testimonials from people who your prospects can relate to can be 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 ideal customers.
- Reprint testimonials across different platforms. If someone posts great feedback on your Facebook wall praising your solution, contact them privately asking for their permission to reprint the content on your site.
- Only use genuine testimonials. Many people can see through sites that employ copywriters to produce their content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your prospects need to see that the testimonials displayed on your site are real. Don’t compromise your credibility with ”made up” testimonials.
How To Get Testimonials From Clients
Always Ask For Testimonials
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 tips for soliciting testimonials:
- Make a point of contacting clients after a specific period of time, e.g. 14 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 client surveys.
- Pull out your phone next time you meet with clients or hand over a finished project and if they are delighted with the results, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a short video testimonial/feedback interview. While recording the video, describe to your viewers what you have done for the client and capture their positive reactions and responses.
- Make it easy 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 given you – don’t put words into their mouth), and shape these into a testimonial, then contact the client and ask them for permission to publish it. Explain that you have done this to help them save time and invite them to edit what you have written however they see fit before replying with their approval.
Offer To Publish A Link Back To The Source 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 to provide a testimonial. It also makes the implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are not fake and can be verified.
Include Testimonial Requests In Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a list of subscribers, include a request for a testimonial in one of your newsletter messages. Preferably, this should be timed to reach subscribers just after 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 users for honest feedback, a testimonial, or a review of your services.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature allows you to solicit testimonials that become part of 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 for permission to reprint it on your website (you can offer to add a link back to their website in exchange).
Create A Client Testimonials Page On Your Site
Create a new section on your site for customer testimonials and place a “read more testimonials …” link pointing to this section wherever you add new testimonials on your site.
Useful Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of your client 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 what visitors are doing on your site are “heatmaps”.
We have written an article about a heatmap analytics technology you can add to your website to predict visitor behaviour here:
Testimonial Plugins For WordPress
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 testimonials.
Once your plugin is installed and set up (make sure to provide simple instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), you then refer users to your “Testimonials” page.
Check out the plugins below:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is a free WordPress plugin that lets you add client testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into posts and pages using a shortcode. The plugin also lets you publish a list of all your testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include an image with each testimonial, which can be used for adding a photo of the testimonial author, their logo, etc.
The plugin also provides a “pro” version that offers additional features and developer support.
Visit this site to download the plugin:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, or text with images or videos on your WordPress 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.
Testimonials Widget provides a range of additional features via a premium version, including built-in functions for better search engine results and developer support.
Go here to learn more about using the plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium plugin offers plenty of great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes to display correctly on any device or browser.
- Options to display your testimonials in a widget or as slideshows, sliders, list layout, grid layout, etc. via a shortcode
- Styling options (display image on top, bottom, or side of the testimonial, display testimonials in a speech bubble, customized font and background colors, font types and more.
Visit this site to download the plugin:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Summary …
Testimonials and customer reviews are great sources of content that can help your business add credibility, build authority, improve online reputation, and grow your sales funnel. Always ask for testimonials, reviews, and feedback from existing clients, and start publishing these on your site.
Additional Info
The articles below provide useful information about creating engaging 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 that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality content for your site 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!
***
***
"Your training is the best in the world! It is simple, yet detailed, direct, understandable, memorable, and complete." Andrea Adams, FinancialJourney.org