Build Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews

Are you stuck in a cycle of doing what you’ve always done to attract customers, and getting the exact same disappointing results? Most business owners don’t need to be told that generating new business can be extremely difficult, confusing and frustrating. 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 web-based and social-driven economy, it’s foolish to ignore the effect of online consumer behavior, especially if they are posting comments about your business.

Ignoring what your customers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!

You could be doing your business a disservice if you are not spreading the positive things your customers say about your services and products. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful ways of marketing your products and services online and should be used in your content marketing.

In this article, you’ll learn tips for turning more visitors into qualified prospects using more effective user testimonials.

Testimonials And Customer Reviews

Phineas Taylor (Aka “P.T.”) Barnum, the great American showman and businessman, 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 way of getting your business promoted effectively. Quoting reviews and testimonials from existing users is satisfied users are far more persuasive for attracting new customers, clients or users than anything you can say about your own products or services.

There is clearly an untapped source of business growth potential that most small businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … consumer reviews and testimonials!

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

Research conducted by many marketing research companies all seem to lead to the same inevitable conclusion: testimonials and user reviews help to eliminate doubts potential customers may have about buying a certain product, help with product selection and help increase the number of sales.

Below are just some statistics that support this:

According to research 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 web site if it has ratings and user reviews.”
According to Reevoo.com, consumer reviews result in an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more consumer reviews per product can result in a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
Web site visitors who interact with both customer 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 – Managing Online Reputation

Adding positive reviews to your website from clients who are thrilled with the results they’ve obtained by using your services is important for helping you grow your business and creating a solid online reputation.

Testimonials and consumer reviews, however, can work both ways and impact your business both positive and negative ways.

People may not be saying bad things about your products directly to you, but they could have posted damaging comments on a discussion group about a bad encounter they’ve just had with one of your representatives and this could be costing you business.

This is where online reputation management becomes an important part of your success strategy.

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 it) could be harming your business without you even realizing this.

See this article to learn more about a simple yet effective plugin for WordPress users that can help you avoid the escalation of problem reviews about your business through effective user review management:

Manage Your Online Reputation On WordPress With Power Online Reviews

Creating Effective Customer Testimonials – Useful Tips

Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful when it comes to helping you market and promote your products and services online and should be added to your content. When you quote your own customer responses in your content, you:

Show other users exactly with similar problems and pains what your products and services can do for them.
Help potential customers identify their objections and address these.
Help prospects connect with their aspirations and motivations and facilitate moving them closer to a decision to purchase.

Below are some practical tips on how to create client testimonials:

Don’t over edit: Try using the actual words used by your customers as much as you can. Leaving grammatical errors and misspelt words in the content helps to keep it ‘real’.
Use photos: Images of people’s faces draw attention to your content. Adding photos of your clients next to their testimonials and reviews can help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your content.
Tell a story: Stories are so much more effective and memorable than just 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 using generic statements about excellent customer service 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 they can most effectively help to sell your point. Think about the impact you will have on your visitor’s perception by adding a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution retails for before posting product pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before discussing the benefits of your services, or testimonials where customers are genuinely thrilled about your customer service before offering guarantees or providing content that helps readers overcome their objections.
Quantify your information: Which of the following statements do you think is more powerful… “XYZ solution was directly responsible for helping us grow our sales by $58,116 during the previous fiscal year,” or “XYZ solution 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 market share or reduce their costs by 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 throughout your site: Although this can be a little difficult if you are just starting out or don’t have many clients, try to avoid displaying the same testimonial repeatedly throughout your website. Depending on your business, you could try to obtain more user 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 ideal 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 can relate to can be 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 ideal customers.
Reprint testimonials across different platforms. If you get a great comment on your Facebook wall praising your customer service, contact them privately asking for permission to reprint the comment or post on your site.
Only use real client testimonials. Most people can see through sites that employ copywriters to produce content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your prospects need to see that the testimonials published on your site are genuine. Don’t destroy your reputation with ”made up” testimonials.

How To Get Testimonials From Clients

Just Ask

Getting a testimonial from a happy customer can be as simple as just asking for it.

Here are some useful tips for requesting testimonials:

Make a point of contacting clients after a specific period of time, e.g. 30 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you did not obtain one immediately after performing a service.
Include a field for entering testimonials in all client satisfaction surveys.
Take out your phone next time you meet with a client or hand over a completed job and if they are delighted with the results, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a very quick video testimonial/feedback interview. While recording your video, explain to your viewers what you have done for the client and try to capture your client’s positive reactions and feedback.
Make it easy for them. Whenever clients send 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 juiciest sections (only use what they have given you – don’t put words into their mouth), and use these to create a testimonial, then contact your client and ask them for permission to publish it. Explain that you have done this to save them time and invite them to edit what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.

Offer To Post A Link Back To Their Site

Offer to post a link to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive to get clients providing you with a testimonial. It also makes the implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are not fake and can be verified.

Include Testimonial Requests In Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages

If you have a list of subscribers, include a request for a testimonial in a regularly-spaced email message. Preferably, this should be done as soon as your customers have had a chance to use your products. Use words like “I need your help” in the subject of your email and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking users to provide feedback, a testimonial, or a review.

Use LinkedIn

The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature allows you to request testimonials that become part of your account. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is user-friendly and the person who provides the recommendation receives a link to their profile. If you get a positive recommendation on LinkedIn, ask for permission to reprint it on your site (and offer to publish a link back to their profile in exchange).

Create A Testimonials Page

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

Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of customer testimonials by how long visitors remain on the section of your pages or posts where you have added your testimonial content. A great tool for understanding visitor behaviour on your pages are “heatmaps”.

We have written an article about a heatmap software you can add to your site to monitor visitor behavior here:

Analyzing Visitor Behaviour On Your WordPress Site With Heatmapping Software – HeatMapTracker Review

Using Testimonial Plugins

If your website or blog is built using WordPress, you can use a plugin to display testimonials. Some plugins also let you add forms to your pages inviting users to submit testimonials.

Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (make sure to provide simple instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), you can then refer clients to your “Testimonials” page.

Here are a few useful testimonial plugins you can check out:

Easy Testimonials

Easy Testimonials is a free plugin that lets you add testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed them into a Page or Post using a shortcode. The Easy Testimonials plugin also lets you add 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 business logo, etc.

The plugin also provides a “pro” version that has additional features and technical support.

Visit this site to download the plugin:

Easy Testimonials – WordPress Testimonials Plugin

Testimonials Widget

Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with images or videos on your web site. You can insert user testimonials via a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and specify different display options such as random or specific ordering.

Testimonials Widget makes plenty more features available via a premium version, including built-in options SEO functionality and plugin support.

To download and use the plugin, visit this site:

Testimonials Widget

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 displaying correctly on any device or browser.
Options to display your testimonials in a widget or as slideshows, sliders, list layout, grid 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.

Go here to learn more about this plugin:

Testimonials WordPress Plugin

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

How To Add Testimonials In WordPress

In Summary …

Client testimonials and user reviews are great 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 clients, and publish positive content about your business on your website.

Resources

For additional resources about creating effective clients testimonials refer to these articles:

We also recommend subscribing to our Free Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your site, 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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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum

Tag: Customer Testimonials

Building Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews