Build 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 results? Most business owners don’t need to be told that generating new customers can be extremely hard. Just trying to keep your business afloat 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 and social-driven economy, you simply can’t afford to ignore the effect of online consumer behavior, especially if they are posting negative comments 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 don’t publish the positive things your clients are saying about your services or products. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are effective ways of helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be used in your content.
In this article, you will learn ways to improve your conversions with more effective client testimonials.
Testimonials And Customer Reviews
The great American showman 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-driven content is a powerful and effective way of promoting your business. Quoting genuine reviews and testimonials from your satisfied clients is satisfied customers are far more persuasive when it comes to drawing new customers, clients or users than anything you say about your own products or services.
There is clearly a source of untapped opportunities for generating new business that most small businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … consumer reviews!
Testimonials and reviews are terrific for building credibility for your products or services.
Studies conducted by many leading marketing firms all seem to lead to the same conclusion: adding customer reviews and testimonials to your sales information decreases doubts potential customers may have about buying a specific product, helps with product selection and increases the number of product sales.
Below are just some of the statistics available to support this:
- According to research findings by eVoc Insights, a company 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 play a significant role in creating an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more reviews per product can result in 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).
(Above figures sourced from eConsultancy.com)
Adding Consumer Reviews And Testimonials – Managing Online Reputation
You should be adding great reviews and testimonials from existing customers to your site.
Customer testimonials and reviews, however, can work both ways and affect your business both positive and negative ways.
You see, people may not be saying bad things about your products directly to you, but they could be posting disparaging remarks on a discussion group 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 vitally important to your 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 really don’t need it) could be seriously harming your business without you even realizing it.
See this article to learn more about a simple tool for WordPress users that can help to avoid the escalation of problem reviews about your business, products or services through effective user review management:
How To Create Profit Boosting Testimonials – Useful Tips
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are powerful ways of helping you market and promote your products and services online and should be added to your content marketing strategy. When you quote your own user responses in your content, you:
- Show prospects exactly what pains and problems your products and services can solve for them and how easily it can do this.
- Help site visitors identify and address their objections.
- Help prospects connect with their motivations and aspirations and facilitate the sales process.
Here are some practical tips on creating awesome testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: Try to use the actual words used by your customers as much as you can. Leave grammatical or spelling errors in the content. This helps keep your testimonials ‘real’.
- Use real 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 powerful story: Stories are so much more powerful and captivating than just providing statistical facts. Being able 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 how “excellent” your customer service has been and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
- Use it in context: Add testimonials to your site copy where it makes the most sense to place them, and where you believe these can most effectively help you sell your point. For example, 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 price information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before discussing the benefits of your products, or testimonials where customers are truly thrilled about your customer service when offering a money-back guarantee or addressing objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements is more powerful: “Since using your XYZ services, our profits grew by an additional $70,679 during the previous financial quarter,” or “XYZ solution definitely helped us grow our sales?” Whenever possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable data, 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.
- Avoid using the same client testimonial throughout your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult if you are just starting out or don’t have many clients, try to avoid displaying the same testimonial throughout your site’s pages. Depending on your business, you could try to obtain more 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 ideal customer is, providing testimonials from people who your prospects aspire to become is a really powerful motivator and influencer. People want to see and buy from “better versions” of themselves, so make sure to include testimonials that speak directly to your ideal customers.
- Reprint testimonials across different platforms. If you get a great comment on your Facebook wall praising your customer service, ask them permission to reprint the content on your site.
- Only use genuine testimonials. Many people can tell if you are employing professional writers to create your content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your prospects need to believe that the testimonials provided on your site are real. Don’t compromise your integrity with false testimonials.
How To Get Customer 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.
Here are some tips for soliciting testimonials:
- Make a point of contacting customers after 60 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you did not obtain one after completing your service.
- Add a text box for entering testimonials in all your client satisfaction surveys.
- Take out your phone next time you 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 quick video testimonial/feedback interview. During your video, explain to viewers what you have done for your client and capture the client’s positive reactions and responses.
- Make it easy and write it for them. When 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 – never put words into their mouth), and use these to create 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 edit what you have written however they see fit before replying with their approval.
Offer To Post A Link Back To The Source Wherever You Publish Their Testimonial
Offer to publish a link back to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive to get clients providing 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 list of subscribers, include a request for a testimonial in one of your autoresponder broadcasts. This should be done as soon as your clients have had a chance to experience your products. Use words like “I need a quick favor” in your email subject and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking customers to provide feedback, a testimonial, or a review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature helps you obtain testimonials from other members for your profile. 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 positive recommendation on LinkedIn, ask for permission to reprint it on your site (you can offer to publish a link back to their website or profile in exchange).
Create A Customer Testimonials Page On Your Site
Create a new section for client testimonials and place a “read more testimonials …” link to this section throughout your site.
Practical Tip: You can measure how effective testimonials are by how long visitors stay on the section of your pages or posts where you have added the testimonial content. A great tool for understanding visitor behavior on your site are “heatmaps”.
We have written an article about adding heatmaps to your website to track visitor behavior here:
Testimonial Plugins For WordPress
If your site or blog is powered by 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 adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), you then send users to your “Testimonials” section.
Check out the testimonial plugins below:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is a free WordPress plugin that lets you add user testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed them into posts and pages using a shortcode. The Easy Testimonials plugin also lets you add a list of all testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include an image with each testimonial, which is great for adding a photo of the testimonial author, a logo, etc.
The Easy Testimonials plugin also comes with a “pro” version that offers additional features and developer support.
To download the plugin, go here:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, 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 specify different display options such as random or specific ordering.
The Testimonials Widget plugin makes plenty more features available via a premium version, including built-in functions SEO functionality and plugin support.
Visit this site to download and use the plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium WP plugin offers many 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 slideshows, sliders, grid layout, list layout, etc. via a shortcode
- Styling options (display image at the top, bottom, or side of the testimonial, display testimonial in a speech bubble, customize font and background colours, font types and more.
To download and use this plugin, visit this site:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Summary …
Customer 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 your clients or customers, and start publishing these on your site.
Additional Info
The articles below are a great source of information about creating effective testimonials and were also helpful in providing research and 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 regular training emails with easy-to-digest information that will teach you 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. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!
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