Build Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews
Are you stuck in a cycle of doing what you’ve always done to attract new customers, only to get the exact same results? Most business owners don’t need to be told that generating new customers can be very difficult. Just trying to remain in business requires a lot of 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, it’s foolish to ignore the significance of online consumer behavior, especially if they are talking about your business.
Ignoring what your clients 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 boosting the positive things your customers are saying about your services or products. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive when it comes to helping you market your products and services online and should be an integral part of your content.
In this article, we’ll show you tips for creating better results online using meaningful user testimonials.
Testimonials And Customer Reviews
Phineas Taylor (Aka “P.T.”) Barnum, legendary businessman and showman, once said that “Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.”
P.T. Barnum obviously understood the power of “social proof”. Social proof-based content is a powerful and effective way of getting your business promoted. Quoting testimonials from existing users is existing customers are far more persuasive when it comes to attracting new clients, customers or users than anything you have to say about your own products or services.
There is clearly a source of untapped business growth potential that most small businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … user reviews!
Reviews and testimonials are fantastic for building credibility for your products or services.
Tests conducted by many leading firms all point to the same conclusion: testimonials and user reviews decrease doubts potential customers may have about purchasing specific products, help users select products and increases sales.
Below are just some of the findings available to support this:
- According to a study by eVoc Insights, an organization 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 play a significant role in creating an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more reviews per product can translate into 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 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 Consumer Testimonials And Reviews – Managing Online Reputation
Adding reviews to your website from very happy customers is important for helping you grow your business and creating a solid online reputation.
Testimonials and consumer reviews, however, are like double-edged swords; they can impact your business both in a negative or positive way.
You see, people may not be saying bad things about your business, products or services directly to you, but they could have posted updates on Facebook, or a forum or discussion group about an unpleasant experience they’ve just had with your services 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 being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you really don’t need it) may be seriously hurting your business without you even realizing it.
See this article to learn more about a WordPress plugin that allows you to legally and ethically manage customer feedback:
Creating Sales Boosting Testimonials – Useful Tips
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are effective ways of helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be included as part of your content marketing strategy. When you quote your own user responses in your content, you:
- Show others exactly what problems and pains your products and services can help solve for them and how easily this can be done.
- Help your visitors identify their objections and address these.
- Help prospects connect with their aspirations and motivations and this facilitates moving them closer to a buying decision.
Below are some useful tips on improving your sales conversions with powerful client testimonials:
- Avoid over-editing: Try using your customer’s actual words as much as you can. Leave little grammatical or spelling errors in the content. This helps keep your testimonials ‘real’.
- Use photos: Marketing tests show that using images of people’s faces draws the most attention of visitors on a web page. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews can help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your site’s content.
- Use the power of storytelling: Stories are so much more powerful and captivating than simply providing statistical facts. The ability to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution came to the rescue will make a longer-lasting impression on those reading your content than presenting generic statements about excellent support and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
- Keep it in context: It’s good to add customer testimonials to your web content where it best makes sense to place them, and where you believe these can most effectively help to 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 can be purchased for before posting price information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before discussing the benefits of your services, or testimonials where clients are truly ecstatic about your customer service when offering a risk-free guarantee or addressing objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements do you think your prospects would consider to be more powerful… “As a direct result of using your services, we have grown our sales by an additional $93,738 in the previous fiscal year,” or “XYZ product 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 market share 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 customer 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 displaying the same testimonial everywhere on your site’s pages. Depending on the nature of your business, you could try to obtain more testimonials by offering limited review copies of your product, or a special discount for existing clients in exchange for an honest review and permission to publish it if you decide 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 target audience 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 ideal customers.
- Reprint across different platforms. If you get a great comment on your Facebook wall praising your solution, ask them permission to reprint the comment or post on your blog.
- Only use real client testimonials. Prospective customers need to believe that the testimonials you provide on your site are real. Don’t compromise your integrity with false testimonials.
How To Get Client Testimonials
Just Ask
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.
Follow these useful tips for soliciting testimonials:
- Contact your clients after a specific period of time, e.g. 60 days with an email request for a testimonial if you did not obtain one immediately after performing a service.
- Include a text box for testimonials in your client surveys.
- Take out your phone when you next meet with a client or hand over a finished job and if they are delighted with the results, ask them if they would be happy to record a short video testimonial/feedback interview. During your video, explain to your viewers what you have done for the client and try to capture the client’s positive reactions and responses.
- Make it easy and write it for them. If a client sends you positive written feedback that contains snippets of useful testimonial material interspersed with the rest of their message, grab the juiciest sections (only use what they have given you – never 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 let them know they are completely free to modify what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.
Offer To Publish A Link Back To The Source
Offer to add a link to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great incentive for clients to provide a testimonial. It also makes an implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are real and can be verified.
Add Testimonial Requests To Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a subscriber list, include requests for a testimonial in one of your autoresponder broadcasts. Preferably, this should be done after your clients have had a chance to experience 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 clients to provide feedback, a testimonial, or a review of your services.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature helps you obtain testimonials that become part of your account. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is 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 site (once again, you can offer to publish a link back to their website or profile in exchange).
Create A Testimonials Page
Create a “Testimonials” page and add a “more client testimonials …” link pointing to your main testimonials page throughout your content sections.
Tip: You can measure how effective testimonials are by how long visitors remain on the section of your pages or posts where you have added the testimonial content. A great tool for monitoring 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 track visitor behaviour here:
Using WordPress Plugins
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 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), all you have to do is refer customers to your “Testimonials” section.
Check out the testimonial plugins below:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use free plugin that lets you add customer testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into your pages and posts using a shortcode. The Easy Testimonials plugin also lets you publish a list of all 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, a company logo, etc.
The Easy Testimonials plugin also comes with a “pro” version that has additional features and plugin support.
Go here to download and use 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 website. 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.
The Testimonials Widget plugin makes loads more features available via a premium version, including built-in options SEO functionality and technical support.
For more information about the plugin, visit this site:
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 correct display on any device or browser.
- Display 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 testimonial in a speech bubble, customize font and background colours, font types and more.
To download the plugin, visit this site:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Summary …
Client testimonials and customer reviews are great sources of content that help your business add credibility, build authority, improve online reputation, and grow your sales funnel. Always ask for feedback, reviews, and testimonials from existing clients or customers, and publish positive content about your business on your site.
Resources
The articles below are a great source of information on creating effective testimonials and were also used when researching 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
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