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 new customers, only to get the exact same disappointing results? Most small business owners don’t need to be told that finding new ways of generating new business can be difficult. Just trying to keep your business afloat requires a lot of your time, money and energy, and sometimes this can feel like it’s just not worth the effort.
In today’s online economy, it’s a mistake to ignore the effect of what potential customers are doing online, especially if they are talking about your business.
Don’t ignore what users may be saying online about your business!
You may also be doing your business a disservice if you are not boosting the positive things your clients say about your products or services. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are effective ways of helping you market your products and services online and should be included as part of your content.
In this article, you’ll learn how to convert more visitors into qualified leads using engaging customer testimonials.
Testimonials And Consumer Reviews
P.T. Barnum, legendary American showman and businessman, once stated that “Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.”
P.T. Barnum obviously understood the power of “social proof”. Social proof-driven content is a powerful way of getting your business promoted effectively. Testimonials quoted directly from existing clients are far more persuasive for attracting new clients, customers or users than anything you can say about your own products or services.
There is clearly a source of untapped business growth potential that most small businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … user testimonials and reviews!
Customer testimonials and user reviews are effective for building credibility for your business.
Marketing studies conducted by many leading research firms all lead to the same inevitable conclusion: testimonials and user reviews help reduce doubts potential customers may have about products and services, help users select products and help increase the number of sales.
Here are just some statistics that support this:
- According to research 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 consumer reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, user reviews play a significant role in creating an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more user reviews per product can translate into a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- 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).
(Above figures sourced from eConsultancy.com)
Adding Consumer Testimonials And Reviews – Managing Online Reputation
Adding positive reviews to your site from existing clients is important for helping you grow your business and creating a solid online reputation.
Customer testimonials and reviews, however, are like double-edged swords; they can affect your business both positively and negatively.
You see, people may not be saying bad things about your services directly to your face, but they could post disparaging remarks on Facebook or a user group about a bad encounter they’ve just had with you or your business and this could be costing you business.
This is where online reputation management becomes vitally important to your business success.
Misconceptions about engaging in online reputation management practices, such as being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you really don’t need to worry about it) may be causing damage to your business without you even being aware of it.
See this article to learn more about a WordPress plugin that allows you to legally and ethically manage customer feedback:
Improving Your Conversions With Awesome Testimonials – Useful Tips
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive ways of helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be included in your content marketing strategy. When you include your own customer responses in your content, you:
- Show others exactly what problems and pains your products and services can help to 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 this facilitates moving them closer to a buying decision.
Below are some tips on creating testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: You should try to use the actual words used by your customers as much as possible. Leaving little grammatical errors and misspelled words in the content helps to keep it ‘real’.
- Use real photos: Images of people’s faces draw the most attention to your content. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews can help increase visitor engagement with your content.
- Use the power of storytelling: Stories are much more powerful and captivating than just 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 service has been 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 they can most effectively help you sell your point. 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 can be purchased for before posting your product or service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before discussing the benefits of your services, or testimonials where customers are genuinely ecstatic about your support when offering guarantees or addressing objections.
- Quantify the information: Which of the following statements do you think your prospects would consider to be more powerful… “XYZ solution was directly responsible for increasing our sales by $52,558 during the previous fiscal year,” or “XYZ product has helped us grow our business?” If possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable results, like how much your solution helped to increase their profits or reduce their costs in specific percentages or amounts, how many hours of work they have saved, 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.
- Use different testimonials throughout your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult when you are just starting out or don’t have many clients, it’s best to avoid displaying the same testimonial repeatedly throughout your website. Depending on the type of business you run, 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 decide 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 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 best audience demographic.
- Reprint testimonials across different platforms. If someone publishes a great comment on your Facebook page praising your products or services, ask them permission to reprint the content on your blog.
- Don’t use fake testimonials. Your prospects need to see that the testimonials displayed on your site are real. Don’t compromise your integrity or reputation with a false testimonial.
How To Get Testimonials From Your Clients
Ask For Testimonials
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.
Follow these useful guidelines for soliciting testimonials from customers:
- Make a point of contacting customers after a specific period of time, e.g. 30 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you have not obtained one after performing a service.
- Add a text box for testimonials in all your client surveys.
- Take out your phone next time you visit clients or hand over a completed project and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a quick video testimonial/feedback interview. When recording the video, explain to viewers what you have done for the client and capture your client’s positive reactions and responses.
- Make it easy and write the testimonial for them. If clients send you positive written feedback 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 the client and ask them for permission to use it. Explain that you have already prepared something to save them time and invite them to modify what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.
Offer To Publish A Link To Their Site Wherever You Quote Their Testimonial
Offer to publish a link to their website 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 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 one of your newsletter mailouts. This should be timed to reach subscribers just after your customers have had a chance to use your solution. Use words like “I need your help” in your email subject and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking clients to provide honest feedback, a testimonial, or a product review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature helps you request testimonials from other members for your account. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is quite 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 website or profile in exchange).
Create A Client Testimonials Section On Your Site
Create a new page for client testimonials and place a “more testimonials …” link to your main testimonials section throughout your content sections.
Tip: You can measure how useful client testimonials are by how long visitors remain on the section of your pages or posts where you have added the testimonial content. ”Heatmapping” technology is a great way to measuring what visitors are doing on your site.
We have written an article about a heatmap analytics technology you can add to your site to understand visitor behavior here:
WordPress Plugins
If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to 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 (remember to provide simple instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), you then refer clients to your “Testimonials” section.
Below are some testimonial plugins you can check out:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is a free WordPress plugin that lets you add client testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into your pages and posts using a shortcode. The Easy Testimonials plugin also lets you publish a list of all 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, their company logo, etc.
The plugin also provides users with a “pro” version that has additional features and plugin support.
To download the plugin, go here:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free WP plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, or text with videos or images on your blog. 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 Testimonials Widget plugin comes with added features via a premium version, including built-in functions for improved search engine results and technical support.
Go here to learn more about the plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This is a premium plugin that provides many great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes to display correctly on any device or browser.
- Display your testimonials in a widget or as sliders, slideshows, list layout, grid layout, etc. using 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 colours, font types and more.
For more information about this plugin, go here:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Summary …
Client testimonials and user reviews are great sources of content that can 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 customers or clients, and start publishing these on your website or blog.
Resources
For additional sources of information and resources on creating effective customer testimonials see these useful articles:
- 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
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