How To Build Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract and retain customers, and getting the exact same results? Most business owners don’t need to be told that finding new ways of generating new business can be quite hard. 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, mobile and social media-driven economy, it’s a mistake to ignore the significance of online consumer behavior, especially if they are posting comments about your business.
Don’t ignore what customers may be saying online about your business!
You may also be doing your business a disservice if you don’t promote the positive things your clients are saying about your products and services. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive ways of helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be included throughout your content.
In this article, you’ll learn ways to improve your visitor-to-sales conversions using awesome customer testimonials.
Testimonials And Consumer Reviews
Legendary American showman Phineas Taylor P.T. Barnum once stated that “Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.”
P.T. Barnum understood the power of “social proof”. Social proof-based content is a powerful and effective way of getting your business promoted. Quoting testimonials from satisfied clients is existing clients are far more persuasive for attracting 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 simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … client reviews and testimonials!
Testimonials and consumer reviews are a fantastic way to build credibility for your business.
Studies conducted by leading research companies all lead to the same conclusion: adding customer reviews and testimonials to your sales information helps decrease doubts potential customers may have about purchasing products and services, helps users select products and helps increase sales.
Below are just some of the statistics available to support this:
- According to research findings 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 site if it has ratings and user reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, reviews are responsible for producing an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more user reviews per product can translate into 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 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).
(Above figures sourced from eConsultancy.com)
Adding Client Reviews And Testimonials – Managing Online Reputation
You should be adding great reviews and testimonials from satisfied clients to your site.
Reviews and customer testimonials, however, are like double-edged swords; they can impact your business both in a positive as well as negative way.
You see, people may not be saying bad things about your products directly to you, but they could have posted negative comments on Facebook, or a discussion group or forum 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 online reputation management, such as the process being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you just don’t need it) could be harming your business without you even being aware of this.
See this article to learn more about a WordPress plugin that lets you legally and ethically manage your customer feedback:
Creating Testimonials – Useful Tips
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive ways of helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be added to your content. When you include your own user responses in your content, you:
- Show prospects exactly with similar problems and pains what your products and services can do for them.
- Help prospects 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 practical tips on how to create knockout testimonials:
- Avoid over-editing: Try to use your customer’s actual words as much as possible. Leave grammatical or spelling errors in the content. This helps to keep things ‘real’.
- Use photos: Marketing studies show that using images of people’s faces draws the attention of visitors browsing a web page. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews can help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your content.
- Use the power of storytelling: Stories are far more effective and captivating than simply providing facts and statistics. Being able to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution saved the day will make a far more lasting impression on those reading your content than presenting generic statements about how “excellent” your customer support was and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
- Use it in context: It’s good to add testimonials to your web content where it best makes sense to place them, and where they can most effectively help to sell your point. Think about the impact you can create on your visitor’s mind if you were to add a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution retails for before posting product pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before presenting the benefits of your products, or testimonials where customers are genuinely ecstatic about your customer service before offering a risk-free guarantee or addressing objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements is more powerful… “XYZ solution was directly responsible for helping us grow our bottom line by $45,508 in the last financial quarter,” or “XYZ product 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 by in specific percentages or amounts, how many hours they have saved, how many new leads or new clients they were able to generate in a recent financial quarter, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
- Vary the 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 everywhere on 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 existing 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 best customer is, providing testimonials from people who your prospects aspire to become 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 across different platforms. If someone posts a great comment on your Facebook wall praising your business, contact them privately asking for permission to reprint the content on your blog.
- Only use genuine client testimonials. Many people can tell if you are employing professional writers to create your content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your potential clients need to believe that the testimonials provided on your site are real. Don’t destroy your reputation with false testimonials.
How To Get Testimonials
Just Ask
Getting a testimonial from a satisfied customer can be as simple as just asking for it.
Follow these useful guidelines for soliciting testimonials from your customers:
- Make it a part of your business processes to contact clients after a specific period of time, e.g. 60 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you have not obtained one immediately after completing your service.
- Include a text box for testimonials in all your client satisfaction surveys.
- Pull out your phone when you next meet with a client or hand over a finished project and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a very short video testimonial/feedback interview. While recording the video, describe to viewers what you have done for your client and try to record their positive reactions and feedback.
- Make it easy and write it for them. When clients send you positive written feedback 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 shape these into a testimonial, then contact the client and ask them for permission to quote them on your site. Explain that you have already prepared something to save them time and invite them 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 back to their website in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive to get clients to provide you with a testimonial. It also makes the implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are not fake and can be verified.
Add Testimonial Requests To Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a list of subscribers, include requests 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 use your product, service or solution. Use words like “I need your help” in your email subject and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking customers for feedback, a testimonial, or a review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature is a great way to solicit testimonials for your profile. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is quite simple and user-friendly and the person providing the recommendation receives a link to their profile. If you get a recommendation on LinkedIn, ask their permission to reprint it on your site (once again, you can offer to publish a link back to their profile in exchange).
Create A Client Testimonials Page On Your Site
Create a “Testimonials” page and add a “more testimonials …” link pointing to your main testimonials section whenever you have added new testimonials on your site.
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 the testimonial content. ”Heatmapping” technology is a great way to measuring visitor behavior on your pages.
We have written an article about a heatmap analytics technology you can add to your website to understand visitor behavior here:
WordPress Testimonial Plugins
If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to display testimonials. Some plugins also let you 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 refer clients to your “Testimonials” section.
Check out the WordPress testimonial plugins below:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use free plugin that lets you add user testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into a Page or Post using a shortcode. Easy Testimonials also lets you insert a list of all your testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which can be used to add a photo of the testimonial author, a company logo, etc.
Easy Testimonials also provides a “pro” version that offers additional features and developer support.
To download the plugin, go here:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free WP plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with videos or images on your pages and posts. You can insert testimonials via a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and have multiple display options such as random or specific ordering.
The plugin offers added features via a premium version, including built-in options for improved search engine results and developer support.
To learn more about the plugin, visit this site:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium plugin offers a range of 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. 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 this plugin, go here:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Conclusion …
User reviews and testimonials are great 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 testimonials, reviews, and feedback from your customers, and publish positive content about your business on your web site.
Resources
For additional sources of information and resources on creating effective clients testimonials read 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 that will show you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating high-quality 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 completely FREE!
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