Building Your Reputation With User Testimonials And 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? Most business owners don’t need to be told that finding effective ways to generate new business can be 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, mobile and social-driven economy, you simply can’t afford to ignore the impact of online consumer behavior, especially if they are posting comments about your business.

Don’t ignore what clients may be saying online about your business!

By the same token, you are also doing your business a disservice if you don’t publish the positive things your customers are saying about your products, services, user support, etc. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are powerful when it comes to marketing your products and services online and should be added throughout your content.

In this article, you will learn how to improve your visitor-to-lead conversions with compelling client testimonials.

Consumer Reviews And Testimonials

Phineas Taylor (Aka “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. Reviews and testimonials from satisfied users are far more persuasive for attracting new customers, clients 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 businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … reviews from clients!

User reviews and customer testimonials are great for building credibility for your services or products.

Tests conducted by many leading research companies all seem to lead to the same inevitable conclusion: adding testimonials and reviews to your site helps reduce doubts potential customers may have about buying particular products or services, helps users select products and increases the number of sales.

Here are just some findings that support this:

• According to a study 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 reviews.”
• According to Reevoo.com, consumer reviews are responsible for producing an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more consumer reviews per product can translate into a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
• Web site 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 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 – Managing Online Reputation

Adding great reviews and testimonials to your site from satisfied clients is essential for helping you grow your business.

Reviews and customer testimonials, however, are like double-edged swords; they can affect your business both negatively and positively.

You see, people may not be saying bad things about your business directly to you, but they could post negative comments on a forum about a bad experience they’ve just had using your products and this could be doing far more damage to your business than all the good work you’ve been putting into building it.

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

Misconceptions about online reputation management, such as being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you really don’t need to worry about it) may be hurting your business without you even being aware of it.

See this article to learn more about a WordPress plugin that can help you avoid the escalation of problem reviews about your products through effective customer review management:

• Manage Your Online Reputation With Power Online Reviews Plugin

Tips On How To Create Knockout User Testimonials

Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful when it comes to marketing your products and services online and should be added to your content marketing strategy. When you include 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 your visitors identify and address their objections.
• Help potential customers connect with their motivations and aspirations and this facilitates moving them further along the sales process.

Below are some useful tips on how to create powerful testimonials:

• Don’t over edit: You should try using the actual words used by your customers as much as possible. Leaving grammatical errors and misspellings in the content helps to keep it ‘real’.
• Use real photos: Images of people’s faces draw the most attention on a web page. Adding photos of your clients next to their testimonials and reviews can help increase visitor engagement with your site’s content.
• Tell a 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 using generalized statements about excellent service and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
• Keep it in context: It’s good to add customer testimonials in your site copy where it makes the most sense to place them, and where you believe these can most effectively help to sell your point. For example, think about the impact you can create on your visitor’s perception if you were to insert a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution sells for before posting price information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before talking about the benefits of your products, or testimonials where customers are truly thrilled about your customer service when offering guarantees or providing content designed to help readers overcome their objections.
• Quantify the information: Which of the following statements is more powerful… “As a direct result of using your XYZ services, we have noticed our profits increase by $79,443 during the previous financial quarter,” or “XYZ product 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 during a specific business quarter, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
• Use different testimonials 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 user testimonials by offering limited review copies of your product, or a special launch discount for clients in exchange for an honest review and permission to publish it if you decide to use it.
• Appeal to your best 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 aspire to become 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 someone publishes a great comment on your Facebook page praising your customer service, ask them permission to reprint the comment or post on your blog.
• Never use fake testimonials. Many people can tell if you are employing copywriters to produce your content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your potential clients need to believe that the testimonials displayed on your site are genuine. Don’t compromise your integrity with a ”made up” testimonial.

How To Get Customer Testimonials

Just Ask

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.

Here are some useful tips for soliciting testimonials from your customers:

• Make it a part of your business processes to contact clients after 60 days with an email request for a testimonial if you have not obtained one after completing a service.
• Include a text box for entering testimonials in your client satisfaction surveys.
• Pull out your phone when you next visit a client or hand over a completed 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, describe to viewers what you have done for the client and try to capture their positive reactions and feedback.
• Make it easy for them. If 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 best sections (only use what they have written – 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 already prepared something to save them time and invite them to modify what you have written however they see fit before replying with their approval.

Offer To Post A Link Back To Their Site

Offer to publish a link to their website in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive for clients to provide you with a testimonial. It also makes an implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are real 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 a periodic newsletter broadcast. Preferably, this should be done after your customers have had a chance to experience your solution. Use words like “I need your help” in the subject of your message and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking subscribers to provide honest feedback, a testimonial, or a review.

Use LinkedIn

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

Create A Testimonials Section

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

Useful 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. ”Heatmapping” technology is a great way to measuring visitor behavior on your site.

We have written an article about adding heatmaps to your sites to track visitor behavior here:

• Measuring Visitor Behavior On Your WordPress Site With Heat Mapping Tools – HeatMap Tracker Review

Useful Testimonial Plugins For WordPress

If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to display testimonials. Some plugins also let you add forms to your pages where users can submit reviews and testimonials.

Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), you can then send users to your “Testimonials” page.

Check out the testimonial plugins below:

Easy Testimonials

Easy Testimonials is a free WP plugin that lets you add customer testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into posts and pages using a shortcode. The plugin also lets you insert a list of all your testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include an image with each testimonial, which you can use for adding a photo of the testimonial author, a company logo, etc.

The plugin also provides a “pro” version with additional features and developer support.

Visit this site to learn more about this plugin:

• Easy Testimonials

Testimonials Widget

Testimonials Widget is a free WordPress plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, or text with images or videos on your WordPress site. You can insert client 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 of additional features available via a premium version, including built-in functions for improved search engine results and technical support.

To learn more about using the plugin, visit this site:

• Testimonials Widget

Testimonials WordPress Plugin

This is a premium WP plugin that offers plenty of great features right out of the box, including:

• Responsive design that resizes to display 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 at the top, bottom, or side of the testimonial, display testimonial in a speech bubble, customized font and background colors, font types and more.

Visit this site to download this plugin:

• Testimonials Plugin

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

• How To Add Testimonials In WordPress

In Summary …

Testimonials and user reviews are powerful sources of content that help your business add credibility, build authority, improve online reputation, and grow your sales funnel. Always ask for testimonials, reviews, and feedback from existing customers or clients, and publish positive content about your business on your site.

Resources

For additional resources about creating engaging testimonials see 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 a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable information that will teach you 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. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

***

***