Building Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews

Are you stuck in a cycle of doing what you’ve always done to attract customers, only to get the exact same disappointing results? Most small business owners don’t need to be told that finding new ways of generating new customers can be extremely hard. Just trying to remain in business 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, mobile and social media-driven economy, you simply can’t afford to ignore the impact of online consumer behavior, especially if they are posting negative comments about your business.

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

By the same token, you are also doing your business a disservice if you are not spreading the positive things your clients are saying about your products or services. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive ways of helping you market and promote your products and services online and should be included as part of your content marketing strategy.

In this article, you will learn how to achieve better results online using engaging customer testimonials.

Client Reviews And Testimonials

Phineas Taylor (Aka “P.T.”) Barnum, the great American showman, once 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 promoting your business. Reviews and testimonials quoted directly from existing users are far more persuasive when it comes to drawing new customers than anything you have to say about your own products or services.

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

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

Marketing studies conducted by many leading companies all seem to lead to the same conclusion: testimonials and user reviews help reduce doubts potential customers may have about buying a certain product, help users select products and increases sales.

Here are just some of the stats available to support this:

• According to research by eVoc Insights, a company known for researching and measuring user experience, “In general, 63% of users indicate they are more likely to purchase from a site if it has ratings and user reviews.”
• According to Reevoo.com, consumer reviews can result in an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more user reviews per product can mean 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 user-generated content (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 And Testimonials – Managing Online Reputation

Clearly, you should be adding reviews from really happy clients who have experienced positive results with your business to your website.

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

People may not be saying bad things about your products directly to you, but they could post negative comments on a discussion group 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 vitally 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 really don’t need it) could be hurting your business without you even being aware of this.

See this article to learn more about a simple yet effective WordPress plugin that allows you to legally and ethically manage customer reviews:

• Managing Your Online Reputation Easily With Power Online Reviews WordPress Plugin

Improving Your Sales Conversions With Testimonials – Useful Tips

User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are effective when it comes to helping you market and promote your products and services online and should be an integral part of 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 site visitors identify and address their objections.
• Help potential customers connect with their motivations and facilitate moving them closer to a decision to purchase.

Below are some tips on improving your sales with powerful testimonials:

• Don’t over edit: You should try to use your customer’s actual words as much as possible. Leave grammatical or spelling errors in the content. This helps to keep it ‘real’.
• Use photos of real people: Marketing studies show that using images of people’s faces draws the attention of visitors on a web page. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews can help increase visitor engagement with your content.
• Tell a story: Stories are so much more powerful and memorable than just providing statistical facts. The ability to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution came to the rescue will make a more lasting impression on those reading your content than presenting generalized statements about how “excellent” your service was and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
• Use it in context: It’s good to add customer testimonials in your web content where it best makes sense to place them, and where you believe these can most effectively help you sell your point. For example, think about the impact you will have on your visitor’s mind if you were to display a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution retails for before posting your product pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before presenting the benefits of your products, or testimonials where clients are genuinely ecstatic about your customer service before offering guarantees or providing content designed to help readers overcome their objections.
• Quantify the information: Which of the following statements do you think your prospects would consider to be more powerful: “XYZ solution was directly responsible for increasing our revenue by $65,005 during the last financial quarter,” or “XYZ software helped us grow our business?” Whenever possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable results, like how much your solution helped to increase their profits or reduce their costs in specific percentages or amounts, how many hours they have saved, 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 client testimonials throughout your site: Although this can be somewhat 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 site. 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 existing 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 ideal customer is, providing testimonials from people who your prospects can relate to 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 appeal directly to your best audience demographic.
• Reprint across different platforms. If someone publishes great feedback on your Facebook wall praising your business, ask them permission to reprint the comment or post on your blog.
• Don’t use fake client testimonials. Most people can tell if you are employing copywriters to create your content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your prospects need to see that the testimonials displayed on your site are real. Don’t destroy your reputation with a ”made up” testimonial.

How To Get Testimonials From Customers

Ask

When you complete 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 tips for requesting testimonials from your clients:

• Make it a part of your business processes to contact clients after a specific period of time, e.g. 30 days with an email request for a testimonial if you have not obtained one immediately after performing a service.
• Include a field for testimonials in all client satisfaction surveys.
• Take out your phone next time you visit a client or hand over a finished project and if they are delighted with the results, ask them if they would be happy to record a very brief video testimonial/feedback interview. During your video, describe to viewers what you have done for your client and record their positive reactions and responses.
• Make it easy for them. If clients send 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 juiciest sections (only use what they have written – never put words into their mouth), and shape these into a testimonial, then contact your client and ask them for permission to publish it. Explain that you have already prepared something to help them save time and invite them to modify what you have written however they see fit before replying with their approval.

Offer To Publish A Link Back To The Source

Offer to post a link back to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great incentive to get clients providing 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 list of subscribers, include requests for a testimonial in a periodic newsletter broadcast. This should be done after your clients have had a chance to assess the effect of using 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 customers to provide feedback, a testimonial, or a review of your services.

Use LinkedIn

The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature helps you request testimonials from other members for your profile. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is user-friendly and the person providing the recommendation gets a link to their profile. If you get a positive recommendation on LinkedIn, ask their permission to reprint it on your site (you can offer to add a link back to their website in exchange).

Create A Testimonials Page On Your Site

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

Useful Tip: You can measure how useful user testimonials are by how long visitors remain on the section of your pages or posts where you have added your testimonial content. ”Heatmapping” technology is a great way to understanding what visitors are doing on your site.

We have written an article about adding heatmap analytics to your site to observe visitor behavior here:

• How To Track User Behaviour On Your WordPress Site Using Heatmapping Software – Heat Map Tracker Review

Testimonial Plugins For WordPress

If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to add, edit and display testimonials. Some plugins also let you add a form to your pages where users can submit reviews and 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 customers to your “Testimonials” section.

Here 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 them into your pages and posts using a shortcode. The Easy Testimonials plugin also lets you insert 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, a company logo, etc.

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

Go here to download the plugin:

• Easy Testimonials

Testimonials Widget

Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, or text with videos or images on your site. You can insert client 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 Testimonials Widget plugin provides added features via a premium version, including built-in functions for improved search engine results and technical support.

For more information about the plugin, visit this site:

• Testimonials Widget

Testimonials WordPress Plugin

This premium plugin offers many great features right out of the box, including:

• Responsive design that resizes for correct display on any device or browser.
• Options to display your testimonials in a widget or as sliders, slideshows, list layout, grid layout, etc. by adding 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 for more information about using this plugin:

• Testimonials Plugin

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

• How To Add Testimonials In WordPress

In Summary …

User reviews and client 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 your clients or customers, and start publishing these on your web site.

Additional Info

The articles below provide useful information on creating effective users 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 a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will show 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 marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

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