Build Your Reputation With Testimonials And User 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 small business owners don’t need to be told that trying to generate new customers can be extremely hard. Just trying to stay in business takes a lot of time, money and energy, and sometimes this can feel like it’s just not worth the effort.
In today’s digital and social media-driven economy, you simply can’t afford 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!
By the same token, you are also doing your business a disservice if you don’t promote the positive things your customers are saying about your services and products. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are powerful ways of helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be an integral part of your content.
In this article, you will learn tips for turning more visitors into prospects using effective customer testimonials.
Client Reviews
The great American showman and successful promoter Phineas Taylor (Aka “P.T.”) Barnum is often quoted as having 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 and effective way of getting your business promoted. Genuine reviews from your existing users are far more persuasive when it comes to drawing new clients than anything you say about your own products or services.
There is a source of untapped opportunities for generating new business that most businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … reviews and testimonials from their clients!
User reviews and customer testimonials are terrific for building credibility for your services and products.
Studies conducted by leading firms all lead to the same conclusion: adding customer reviews and customer testimonials to your site eliminates doubts potential customers may have about buying your 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 a study 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 site if it has ratings and customer reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, customer reviews play a significant role in creating 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 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 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 Consumer Testimonials And Reviews – Managing Online Reputation
Adding great testimonials and reviews to your site from delighted clients is important for helping you grow your business online and creating a solid online reputation.
Reviews and customer testimonials, however, can work both ways and impact your business both in a negative as well as positive manner.
People may not be saying bad things about your products directly to your face, but they could be posting disparaging remarks on Facebook or a forum 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 a significant part of your business and content marketing strategy.
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 hurting your business without you even realizing it.
See this article to learn more about a simple yet effective tool for WordPress users that lets you legally and ethically manage your customer reviews:
Tips On Improving Your Sales With Captivating Customer Testimonials
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are powerful when it comes to helping you market your products and services online and should be used in your content marketing strategy. When you include your own customer responses in your content, you:
- Show others 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 this facilitates moving them closer to a decision to purchase.
Below are some useful tips on improving your sales with compelling testimonials:
- Avoid over-editing: Try using the actual words used by your customers as much as possible. Leaving little grammatical errors and misspellings in the content helps preserve the authenticity of your testimonials.
- Use photos of real people: Images of people’s faces draw the most attention to your content. 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.
- Use the power of storytelling: Stories are much more effective and memorable than providing mere facts and statistics. The ability to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution saved the day will make a far longer-lasting impression on those reading your content than using generalized statements about excellent customer service and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
- Keep it in context: Add customer testimonials to your site copy where it best makes sense to place them, and where they can most effectively help to 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 can be purchased for before posting your product or service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before talking about the benefits of your services, or testimonials where clients are genuinely ecstatic about your support before offering a risk-free guarantee or providing content that helps readers overcome their objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements is more powerful: “XYZ solution was directly responsible for growing our sales by $82,813 during the last financial quarter,” or “XYZ product helped us grow our business?” Whenever possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable data, like how much your solution helped to increase their market share or reduce their costs by in specific percentages or amounts, how many hours they have saved, how many new leads or new clients they were able to generate during a specific financial period, 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 when you are just starting out and don’t have many clients, it’s best to avoid using the same testimonial everywhere on your website. Depending on your business, you could try to obtain more 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 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 can relate to can be a really 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 across different platforms. If you get fantastic feedback on your Facebook page praising your commitment to customer satisfaction, ask them for permission to reprint the comment or post on your blog.
- Don’t use fake client testimonials. Most people can tell if you are employing copy writers to write your 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 satisfied client can be as simple as just asking for it.
Follow these useful tips for soliciting testimonials:
- 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 immediately after performing a service.
- Add a text box for entering testimonials in client surveys.
- Take out your phone next time you visit a client or hand over a finished job and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they would be happy to record a very quick video testimonial/feedback interview. During the video, explain to viewers what you have done for the client and try to capture your client’s positive reactions and responses.
- Make it easy and write the testimonial for them. If a client sends 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 – 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 help them save time and let them know they are completely free to edit what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.
Offer To Post A Link Back To Their Site Wherever You Publish Their Testimonial
Offer to post a link to their website in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great incentive to get 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 Testimonial Requests To Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a list of subscribers, include a request for a testimonial in a regularly-spaced auto responder broadcast. Preferably, this should be timed to reach subscribers just after your customers have had a chance to use your product, service or solution. Use words like “I need a quick favor” in the subject of your message and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking clients for feedback, a testimonial, or a review of your services.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature helps you solicit testimonials from other members for your profile. With LinkedIn, the process for requesting and providing recommendations is simple and user-friendly and the person providing the recommendation gets a link to their profile. If you get a recommendation on LinkedIn, ask their permission to reprint it on your site (and offer to add a link back to their website in exchange).
Create A Customer Testimonials Section
Create a “Testimonials” page and add a “more customer testimonials …” link pointing to this page wherever you have added new testimonials on your site.
Tip: You can measure how useful client testimonials are by how long visitors stay on the section of your pages or posts where you have added your testimonial content. A great tool for understanding what visitors are doing on your site are “heatmaps”.
We have written an article about adding heatmaps to your site to analyze visitor behavior here:
Useful 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 forms to your pages inviting users to submit testimonials.
Once your plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), you then refer customers to your “Testimonials” section.
Here are a few useful plugins you can check out:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is a free WordPress plugin that lets you add customer testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into a Page or Post using a shortcode. Easy Testimonials also lets you publish a list of all your testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include an image with each testimonial, which you can use to add a photo of the testimonial author, their logo, etc.
Easy Testimonials also can be upgraded to a “pro” version that has additional features and technical support.
To download this plugin, visit this site:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free WP plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with videos or images on your site. You can insert client testimonials via a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and have multiple display options such as random or specific ordering.
The plugin makes plenty of additional features available via a premium version, including built-in functions for better search engine results and technical support.
Visit this site to download the plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium WordPress plugin provides many great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes for correct display on any device or browser.
- Options to 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 the testimonial, display testimonial in a speech bubble, customize font and background colours, font types and more.
Go here to download and use the plugin:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Summary …
User reviews and testimonials 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 your customers or clients, and start publishing these on your web site.
Resources
The articles below are a great source of information about creating engaging users 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 show exactly how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful content for your 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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