How To Build Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract and retain new customers, and getting the exact same disappointing results? As most small business owners know, that generating new customers can be quite hard. Just trying to survive in business takes up a lot of time, money and energy, and sometimes this can feel like it’s just not worth the effort.
In today’s web-based economy, you just can’t ignore the effect of what your potential customers are doing online, 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 may also be doing your business a disservice if you don’t promote the positive things your clients are saying about your products, solutions, customer support, training, etc. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive ways of helping you market your products and services online and should be used in your content marketing.
In this article, we’ll show you how to get better results online with awesome client testimonials.
Testimonials And User Reviews
P.T. Barnum, the great, legendary showman, once said that “Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.”
P.T. Barnum understood the power of “social proof”. Using social proof as content is a powerful and effective way of promoting your business. Quoting genuine reviews from your satisfied users is satisfied users are far more persuasive when it comes to attracting new clients, customers or users than anything you can say about your own products or services.
There is clearly a source of untapped opportunities for generating new business that most businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … reviews and testimonials from your users!
Customer testimonials and reviews are effective for building credibility for your products or services.
Marketing studies conducted by leading firms all point to the same conclusion: adding reviews and customer testimonials to your sales information decreases doubts potential customers may have about products or services, helps with product selection and increases conversions of visitors into sales.
Below are just some of the stats available to support this:
- According to research findings 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 can result in an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more reviews per product can mean 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).
- 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).
(The figures above were sourced from eConsultancy.com)
Adding User Reviews And Testimonials – Managing Online Reputation
Clearly, you should be adding great testimonials and reviews from existing clients who have experienced positive results with your business to your site.
Customer testimonials and customer reviews, however, are like double-edged swords; they can affect your business both positively and negatively.
People may not be saying bad things about your business directly to your face, but they could have posted unhelpful words on Facebook, or a forum or discussion thread about a bad experience they’ve just had with your business and this could be costing you business.
This is where online reputation management becomes a vitally important aspect of your online business success.
Misconceptions about online reputation management, such as the process being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you really don’t need it) could be seriously hurting your business without you even realizing this.
See this article to learn more about a simple yet effective plugin for WordPress users that allows you to legally and ethically manage your customer reviews:
Tips For Creating Knockout Testimonials
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are powerful ways of marketing your products and services online and should be used in your content marketing strategy. When you include your own user responses in your content, you:
- Show potential customers exactly what pains and problems your products and services can help to solve for them and how easily this can be done.
- Help potential customers identify their objections and address these.
- Help prospects connect with their motivations and aspirations and facilitate moving them further along the sales process.
Here are some practical tips on creating customer testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: You should try to use the actual words used by your customers as much as you can. Leave little grammatical or spelling errors in the content. This helps to keep it ‘real’.
- Use photos of real people: It’s a proven fact that using images of people’s faces will draw the attention of visitors browsing a web page. Adding photos of your clients next to their testimonials and reviews will help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your site’s content.
- Tell a story: Stories are far more effective and memorable than simply providing statistical facts. The ability to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution saved the day will make a more lasting impression on those reading your content than presenting generic statements about how “excellent” your support has been 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 testimonials in your web content where it best makes sense to place them, and where they can most effectively help you sell your point. Think about the impact you can create on your visitor’s mind if you were to present a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution sells for before posting pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before talking about the benefits of your products, or testimonials where clients are truly ecstatic about your customer service before offering guarantees or addressing objections.
- Quantify the information: Which of the following statements do you think your prospects would find more powerful: “XYZ solution was directly responsible for helping us grow our net profit by $94,914 in the last financial quarter,” or “XYZ solution has helped us grow our business?” Whenever possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable results, like how much your solution helped to increase their sales 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 customer testimonials on your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult if you are just starting out or have very few clients, it’s best to avoid displaying the same testimonial throughout your website. Depending on the type of business you run, you could try to obtain more user testimonials by offering limited review copies of your product, or a special discount for clients in exchange for an honest review and permission to publish it if you choose 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 is a very 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 customer service, contact them privately asking for their permission to reprint the content on your site.
- Only use genuine client testimonials. Most people can see through sites that employ copywriters to create content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your potential clients need to see that the testimonials displayed on your site are genuine. Don’t compromise your credibility or reputation with false testimonials.
How To Get Testimonials From Your Clients
Ask For Testimonials
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.
Follow these tips for soliciting testimonials:
- Make a point of contacting customers after 14 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you did not obtain one immediately after completing a service.
- Include a text box for entering testimonials in all client satisfaction surveys.
- Take out your phone when you next meet with clients or hand over a completed project and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they would be happy to record a very quick video testimonial/feedback interview. While recording your video, describe to viewers what you have done for your client and try to record their positive reactions and feedback.
- 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 – 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 done this 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 The Source
Offer to publish a link to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive for clients to provide 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 one of your autoresponder mailouts. Preferably, this should be done after your customers have had a chance to assess the results of using 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 users for feedback, a testimonial, or a review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature lets you request testimonials that become part of your profile. 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 their permission to reprint it on your website (and offer to publish a link back to their profile in exchange).
Create A Customer Testimonials Section On Your Site
Create a “Testimonials” page and add a “read more client testimonials …” link to your main testimonials page throughout your site.
Practical Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of user 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 observing visitor behaviour on your site.
We have written an article about a heatmap software you can add to your sites to track visitor behaviour here:
Using 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 a form to your pages where users can submit reviews and testimonials.
Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), you then send 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 testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed them into your pages and posts using a shortcode. Easy Testimonials also lets you add a list of all testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which is great to add a photo of the testimonial author, their logo, etc.
Easy Testimonials also provides users with a “pro” version that offers additional features and plugin support.
To learn more about this plugin, go here:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with videos or images on your blog. You can insert testimonials content using 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 additional features via a premium version, including built-in functions for improved search engine results and developer support.
To download and use the plugin, go here:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This is a premium plugin that offers 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. using a shortcode
- Styling options (display image at the top, bottom, or side of testimonials, display testimonial in a speech bubble, customize font and background colours, font types and more.
To download this plugin, go here:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Summary …
Client testimonials and customer reviews are powerful sources of content that can help your business add credibility, build authority, improve online reputation, and grow your sales funnel. Always ask for feedback, reviews, and testimonials from existing customers, and start publishing these on your web site.
Additional Info
For additional resources about creating engaging testimonials refer to the articles below:
- 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 and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality 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 100% FREE!
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