Build Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews

Are you stuck 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 business can be quite hard. Just trying to stay in business 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 digital economy, you cannot afford to ignore the effect of online consumer behavior, especially if they are talking 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 great disservice if you are not boosting the positive things your clients say about your products, services, client training, support, etc. Testimonials, user reviews, 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 improve your conversions using captivating client testimonials.

Customer Reviews

Legendary showman P.T. Barnum is often quoted as having said that “Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.”

P.T. Barnum obviously understood the power of “social proof”. Using social proof as content is a powerful and effective way of promoting your business. Quoting genuine testimonials directly from satisfied customers is existing users 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 … customer reviews and testimonials!

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

Studies conducted by many leading firms all lead to the same conclusion: user reviews and testimonials decrease doubts potential customers may have about purchasing a product or service, help with product selection and help increase 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 web site if it has ratings and consumer 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 result in a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
• 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 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 User Reviews – Online Reputation Management

Clearly, you should be adding great reviews and testimonials from very happy clients who have experienced positive results with your business to your website.

Testimonials and consumer reviews, however, are like double-edged swords; they can impact your business both positively and negatively.

You see, people may not be saying bad things about your business directly to you, but they could have posted negative comments on a forum about an unpleasant encounter they’ve just had with one of your staff members and this could be costing you business.

This is where online reputation management becomes vitally important to your online business success.

Misconceptions about engaging in online reputation management practices, such as being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you just don’t need it) may be seriously hurting your business without you even realizing this.

See this article to learn more about a simple tool for WordPress users that lets you legally and ethically manage user feedback:

• How To Easily Manage Your Online Reputation On WordPress With Power Online Reviews

How To Create Profit Boosting Testimonials – Useful Tips

Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful when it comes to marketing your products and services online and should be included in your content marketing. When you include responses from users in your content, you:

• Show others exactly what problems and pains your products and services can help solve for them and how easily this can be done.
• Help potential customers identify and address their objections.
• Help prospects connect with their motivations and this facilitates moving them further along the sales process.

Here are some tips on improving your sales with meaningful user testimonials:

• Don’t over edit: Try to use your customer’s actual words as much as possible. Leave little grammatical or spelling errors in the content. This helps to keep it ‘real’.
• Use real photos: Images of people’s faces draw attention to your content. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews can help increase visitor engagement with your content.
• Tell a powerful story: Stories are far more powerful and memorable than providing mere statistical facts. Being able to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution saved the day will make a far more lasting impression on those reading your content than presenting generalized statements about how “excellent” your customer service was and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
• Keep 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 to sell your point. Think about the impact you can create on your visitor’s perception if you were to display a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution retails for before posting your service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before discussing the benefits of your services, or testimonials where customers are truly ecstatic about your support when offering a risk-free guarantee or providing content that helps your readers overcome their objections.
• Quantify the information: Which of the following statements do you think your prospects would consider to be more powerful… “As a direct result of using your services, we were able to increase our net profit by $92,764 during the last financial quarter,” or “XYZ solution has helped us grow our business?” Whenever 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 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 in a recent 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 repeatedly throughout your site: Although this can be a little difficult when you are just starting out and don’t have many clients, it’s best to avoid displaying the same testimonial repeatedly throughout your website. Depending on the nature of your business, you could try to obtain more testimonials by offering limited review copies of your product, or a special discount for existing clients in exchange for an honest review and permission to publish it if you choose 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 best customer is, providing testimonials from people who your prospects can relate to is 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 best audience demographic.
• Reprint testimonials across different platforms. If someone publishes great feedback on your Facebook wall praising your commitment to customer satisfaction, ask them for permission to reprint the comment or post on your blog.
• Never use fake client testimonials. Many people can see through sites that employ copywriters to write their content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your potential clients need to believe that the testimonials published on your site are genuine. Don’t compromise your credibility or reputation with false testimonials.

How To Get Testimonials From Clients

Always Ask For Testimonials

Getting a testimonial from a happy client can be as simple as just asking for it.

Here are some useful guidelines for requesting testimonials:

• Make a point of contacting clients after 90 days with an email request for a testimonial if you have not obtained one after performing a service.
• Include a text box for testimonials in all client satisfaction surveys.
• Take out your phone when you next visit clients or hand over a finished project and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a 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 their positive reactions and responses.
• Make it easy for them. Whenever 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 written – don’t 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 done this to save them time and invite them to change what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.

Offer To Publish A Link To The Source Wherever You Publish Their Testimonial

Offer to add a link back to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great incentive to get clients to provide 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 subscriber list, include requests for a testimonial in a scheduled auto responder broadcast. This should be done as soon as your clients have had a chance to use your services. Use words like “I need your help” in your email subject and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking them to provide honest feedback, a testimonial, or a review of your services.

Use LinkedIn

The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature lets you obtain testimonials that become part of your account. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is simple and user-friendly and the person who provides the recommendation gets a link to their profile. If you get a recommendation on LinkedIn, ask their permission to reprint it on your website (once again, you can offer to add a link back to their website or profile in exchange).

Create A Testimonials Section On Your Site

Create a “Testimonials” page and place a “more client testimonials …” link to this page throughout your site.

Useful Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of testimonials by how long visitors remain on the section of your pages or posts where you have added your testimonial content. ”Heatmapping” technology is a great way to monitoring what visitors are doing on your site.

We have written an article about adding heatmap analytics to your sites to track visitor behaviour here:

• How To Spy On Your WordPress Site Users With HeatMap Software – HeatMap Tracker Review

Useful WordPress Testimonial Plugins

If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to add and 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 refer customers to your “Testimonials” section.

Check out the testimonial plugins below:

Easy Testimonials

Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use free plugin that lets you add client testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into posts and pages using a shortcode. The Easy Testimonials plugin also lets you insert a list of all 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, a business logo, etc.

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

Visit this site to download this plugin:

• Easy Testimonials – WordPress Plugin

Testimonials Widget

Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with images or videos on your pages and posts. You can insert testimonials content using a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and specify different display options such as random or specific ordering.

Testimonials Widget has plenty more features available via a premium version, including built-in functions SEO functionality and plugin support.

To download and use the plugin, visit this site:

• Testimonials Widget

Testimonials WordPress Plugin

This premium plugin provides plenty of 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 slideshows, sliders, grid layout, list layout, etc. by adding a shortcode
• Styling options (display image on top, bottom, or side of testimonials, display testimonials in a speech bubble, customized font and background colours, font types and more.

To download and use this plugin, go here:

• Testimonials Plugin

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

• How To Add Testimonials In WordPress

In Summary …

Customer reviews and client testimonials 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 feedback, reviews, and testimonials from your clients or customers, and start publishing these on your website.

Additional Info

The articles below are a great source of information on creating effective customer testimonials and were also used when researching 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 a comprehensive series of training emails with easy-to-digest information that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating high-quality content for 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!

***

***