Building Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract customers, and getting the exact same results? As most small business owners know, that finding effective ways to generate new customers can be very hard. Just trying to keep your business afloat takes up 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 and social media-driven economy, you cannot afford to ignore the effect of online consumer behavior, especially if they are talking about your business.
Don’t ignore what your clients may be saying online about your business!
You are also doing your business a great disservice if you aren’t publishing the positive things your customers say about your services or products. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful ways of helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be added to your content.
In this article, you will learn how to improve your sales conversions with captivating user testimonials.
Testimonials And Customer Reviews
Legendary 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 obviously understood the power of “social proof”. Social proof-based content is a powerful and effective way of getting your business promoted. Quoting genuine testimonials and reviews from your existing users is satisfied clients are far more persuasive when it comes to attracting new clients, customers or users than anything you can say about your own products or services.
There is a source of untapped business growth potential that most businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … reviews and testimonials from happy clients!
Customer reviews and customer testimonials are a fantastic way to build credibility for your services and products.
Marketing studies conducted by leading research firms all lead to the same conclusion: testimonials and user reviews eliminate doubts potential customers may have about buying products, help users select products and increases the number of product sales.
Here are just some of the statistics available to 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 user reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, customer reviews are responsible for producing 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 user 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 User Reviews And Testimonials – Online Reputation Management
Adding reviews to your site from very happy customers is essential for helping you grow your business.
Consumer reviews and testimonials, however, can work both ways and affect your business both in a positive or negative way.
You see, people may not be saying bad things about your services directly to you, but they could be posting disparaging remarks on Facebook, or a forum or discussion thread about a bad encounter they’ve just had with one of your sales or customer support representatives and this could be costing you business.
This is where online reputation management becomes a vital aspect of your success.
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 to worry about it) may be seriously hurting 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 user reviews:
Tips On Improving Your Sales With Knockout Testimonials
Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are persuasive when it comes to helping you market your products and services online and should be included in your content marketing. When you include responses from customers in your content, you:
- Show potential customers exactly what pains and problems your products and services can solve for them and how easily it can do this.
- Help prospects identify and address their objections.
- Help potential customers connect with their motivations and aspirations and facilitate the sales process.
Below are some practical tips on creating sales boosting customer testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: Try using the actual words used by your customers as much as possible. Leaving little grammatical errors and misspelled words in the content helps preserve the authenticity of your testimonials.
- Use real photos: Images of people’s faces draw attention on a web page. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews can help increase visitor engagement with your site’s content.
- Tell a story: Stories are far more effective and memorable than providing mere facts and statistics. Being able to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution came to the rescue will make a far more lasting impression on those reading your content than presenting generalized statements about excellent service and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
- Use it in context: Add testimonials to your web content where it makes the most sense to place them, and where you believe these 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 retails for before posting your product or service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before presenting the benefits of your products, or testimonials where clients are genuinely thrilled about your support before offering guarantees or addressing objections.
- Quantify the information: Which of the following statements do you think your prospects would find more powerful… “XYZ solution was directly responsible for helping us grow our revenue by $84,686 during the last financial quarter,” or “XYZ solution has helped us grow our business?” If possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable data, like how much your solution helped to increase their profits or reduce their costs by 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 during a specific financial period, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
- Use different testimonials on your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult if you are just starting out and don’t have many clients, try to avoid using the same testimonial throughout your site’s pages. Depending on the nature of 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 target audience: 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 aspire to become is an extremely 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 best audience demographic.
- Reprint content across different platforms. If you get a great comment on your Facebook wall praising your products or services, ask them for permission to reprint the content on your site.
- Only use real client testimonials. Prospective clients need to see that the testimonials you provide on your site are genuine. Don’t compromise your credibility with a false testimonial.
How To Get Testimonials From Clients
Ask
If you have just completed a service for someone, or a customer says they are really happy with your product or service, ask them for a testimonial.
Follow these useful tips for soliciting testimonials from customers:
- Contact clients after 90 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you have not obtained one after performing a service.
- Add a field for testimonials in all your client surveys.
- Take out your phone next time you meet with clients or hand over a completed job and if they are delighted with the results, ask them if they would be happy to record a very quick video testimonial/feedback interview. If they agree, while recording the video, describe to viewers what you have done for the client and try to record the client’s positive reactions and responses.
- Make it easy and write the testimonial for them. When clients send you positive written feedback that contains snippets of useful testimonial material interspersed with the rest of their message, grab the best sections (only use what they have given you – don’t 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 already prepared something to help them save time and invite them to change what you have written however they see fit before replying with their approval.
Offer To Publish A Link Back To Their Site
Offer to add a link back to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive to get clients to provide you with a testimonial. It also makes an implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are not fake and can be verified.
Add Testimonial Requests To Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a subscriber list, include requests for a testimonial in a scheduled auto responder message. This should be done as soon as your customers have had a chance to assess the results of using your services. Use words like “I need a quick favor” in the subject of your email and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking customers for feedback, a testimonial, or a review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature helps you request testimonials that become part of your profile. With LinkedIn, the process for requesting and providing recommendations is quite simple and user-friendly and the person providing the recommendation receives a link to their profile. If you get a 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 Section
Create a “Testimonials” page and add a “read more client testimonials …” link pointing to this page throughout your site.
Useful Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of customer testimonials by how long visitors stay on the section of your pages or posts where you have added your testimonial content. A great tool for observing visitor behavior on your pages are “heatmaps”.
We have written an article about a heatmap analytics technology you can add to your site to analyze visitor behaviour here:
Useful 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 inviting users to submit feedback and testimonials.
Once your plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), all you have to do is refer customers to your “Testimonials” page.
Here are some testimonial plugins you can check out:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use free plugin that lets you add testimonials to the 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 testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include an image with each testimonial, which is great to add a photo of the testimonial author, a logo, etc.
Easy Testimonials also provides users with a “pro” version that has additional features and plugin support.
Go here to download the plugin:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free WP plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, or text with images or videos on your web site. You can insert testimonials using 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 provides additional features via a premium version, including built-in functions SEO functionality and technical support.
Visit this site to download and use this plugin:
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 for correct display on any device or browser.
- Display your testimonials in a widget or as sliders, slideshows, list layout, grid layout, etc. by adding 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.
Go here for more information about this plugin:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Summary …
Customer reviews and testimonials 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 your clients or customers, and start publishing these on your web site.
Additional Info
The articles below provide useful information about creating engaging 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
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