Building Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews
Are you stuck in a cycle of doing what you’ve always done to attract and retain customers, only to get the exact same disappointing results? As most business owners know, that generating new business can be hard. Just trying to survive in business takes a lot of time, money and energy, and sometimes this can feel like it’s just not worth the effort.
In today’s digital, mobile and social-driven economy, ignoring what clients 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 are not promoting the positive things your customers say about your products or services. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are powerful when it comes to helping you market and promote your products and services online and should be included in your content marketing.
In this article, you will learn tips for converting more visitors into prospects with standout user testimonials.
Testimonials And Customer Reviews
The great American showman and successful promoter Phineas Taylor (Aka “P.T.”) Barnum is often quoted as having stated that “Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.”
P.T. Barnum understood the power of “social proof”. Social proof-driven content is a powerful way of getting your business promoted effectively. Reviews from existing customers are far more persuasive when it comes to attracting new clients than anything you say about your own products or services.
There is clearly an untapped source of opportunities for generating new business that most businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … consumer reviews and testimonials!
Customer testimonials and customer reviews are great for building credibility for your business.
Marketing studies conducted by many leading firms all lead to the same inevitable conclusion: adding customer testimonials and reviews to your sales information pages helps to eliminate doubts potential customers may have about purchasing your product, helps with product selection and increases sales.
Here are just some of the statistics 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 web site if it has ratings and user reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, customer reviews result in an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more consumer reviews per product can mean a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Website visitors who interact with both 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).
- Consumer 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 Customer Reviews – Online Reputation Management
Clearly, you should be adding great reviews from really happy customers to your website.
Testimonials and reviews, however, are like double-edged swords; they can affect your business both in a negative as well as positive way.
You see, people may not be saying bad things about your services directly to your face, but they could have posted negative comments on a forum about an unpleasant experience they’ve just had using your products and this could be costing you business.
This is where online reputation management becomes important to your online business 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 to worry about it) could be seriously harming your business without you even being aware of it.
See this article to learn more about a simple tool for WordPress users that can help to avoid the escalation of negative reviews about your services through effective customer review management:
Tips On Improving Your Sales Conversions With User Testimonials
Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are effective when it comes to helping you market your products and services online and should be included as part of your content marketing strategy. When you include your own user responses in your content, you:
- Show potential customers exactly with similar problems and pains how your products and services can help them.
- Help potential customers identify and address their objections.
- Help prospects connect with their motivations and this facilitates moving them closer to a decision to purchase.
Here are some tips on how to create compelling client testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: You should try using your customer’s actual words as much as possible. Leaving grammatical errors and misspelt words in the content helps preserve your testimonials’ authenticity.
- Use photos: Images of people’s faces draw the most attention on a web page. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews can help increase visitor engagement with your site’s content.
- Use the power of storytelling: Stories are much more effective and memorable than providing mere statistical facts. Being able 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 generalized statements about how “excellent” the service was and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
- Use it in context: Add customer testimonials in your site copy where it best makes sense to place them, and where they can most effectively help sell your point. Think about the impact you will have on your visitor’s perception if you were to display 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 talking about the benefits of your products, or testimonials where customers are truly ecstatic about your customer service before offering guarantees or addressing objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements is more powerful: “XYZ solution was directly responsible for increasing our profits by $22,165 during the previous fiscal year,” or “XYZ software definitely helped us grow our sales?” 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 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.
- Vary the testimonials on your site: Although this can be a little difficult if you are just starting out and have very few clients, it’s best to avoid displaying the same testimonial throughout your web pages. 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 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 aspire to become can be a really 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 content across different platforms. If you get a great comment on your Facebook page praising your products or services, 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 copy writers to produce your content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your prospects need to see that the testimonials you provide on your site are real. Don’t destroy your reputation with a false testimonial.
How To Get Testimonials From Your Clients
Just Ask
Getting a testimonial from a satisfied client can be as simple as just asking for it.
Follow these tips for soliciting testimonials:
- Contact clients after 30 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you did not obtain one immediately after performing a service.
- Include a text box for testimonials in all your client satisfaction surveys.
- Take out your phone next time you 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 brief video testimonial/feedback interview. While recording the video, explain to your viewers what you have done for your client and try to capture the client’s positive reactions and responses.
- Make it easy for them. When a client sends you a positive email thanking you for a great job 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 the client and ask them for permission to use it. 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 Back To Their Site
Offer to post a link back to their website in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great incentive to get clients providing you with 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 a request for a testimonial in one of your autoresponder broadcasts. This should be timed to reach subscribers just after your customers have had a chance to use your 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 clients to provide feedback, a testimonial, or a review of your services.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature allows you to solicit testimonials from other members that become part of your account. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is simple and user-friendly and the person providing the recommendation receives a link to their profile. If you get a recommendation on LinkedIn, ask for permission to reprint it on your website (tip: offer to publish a link back to their website or profile in exchange).
Create A Client Testimonials Section On Your Site
Create a new page for testimonials and add a “read more customer testimonials …” link pointing to your main testimonials section whenever you have displayed blocks of testimonials on your content sections.
Practical Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of your testimonials by how long visitors stay 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 heatmaps to your sites to monitor visitor behaviour here:
Testimonial Plugins For WordPress
If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to add and display testimonials. Some plugins also allow you to add forms to your pages inviting users to 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 send users to your “Testimonials” page.
Here are some great testimonial plugins you can check out:
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 them into a Page or Post using a shortcode. The Easy Testimonials plugin also lets you publish a list of all your testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which you can use to add a photo of the testimonial author, a logo, etc.
Easy Testimonials also can be upgraded to a “pro” version with additional features and plugin support.
Visit this site to download the plugin:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free WordPress plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with images or videos on your site. You can insert testimonials content via 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 developer support.
To download and use this plugin, go here:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium WordPress plugin provides a range of great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes for displaying correctly on any device or browser.
- Display your testimonials in a widget or as sliders, slideshows, grid layout, list layout, etc. by adding a shortcode
- Styling options (display image at the top, bottom, or side of the testimonial, display testimonial in a speech bubble, customized font and background colors, font types and more.
To download the plugin, go here:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Summary …
User reviews and client testimonials are great 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 clients, and start publishing these on your web site.
Additional Info
The articles below provide useful information on creating engaging 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
We also recommend subscribing to our Free Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable information that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating high-quality content for your 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!
***
***
"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now