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? As most business owners know, that generating new customers can be very difficult. 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 digital and social-driven economy, it’s a mistake to ignore the significance of what potential customers are doing online, especially if they are talking about your business.
Don’t ignore what your 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 clients say about your services or products. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are powerful ways of helping you market your products and services online and should be added throughout your content.
In this article, you’ll learn how to improve your sales with highly effective user testimonials.
Testimonials And Customer Reviews
P.T. Barnum, legendary American showman and businessman, 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 way of getting your business promoted effectively. Quoting testimonials directly from existing customers is satisfied customers are far more persuasive when it comes to drawing 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 … reviews from your users!
Customer testimonials and reviews are effective for building credibility for your products and services.
Tests conducted by leading research companies all seem to point to the same inevitable conclusion: adding customer testimonials and reviews to your site eliminates doubts potential customers may have about products and services, helps users select products and helps increase the number of sales.
Here are just some of the stats available to support this:
- According to research findings by eVoc Insights, a company known for researching and measuring user experience, “In general, 63% of users indicate they are more likely to purchase from a web site if it has ratings and customer reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, customer reviews result in an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more customer 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 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 Consumer Testimonials And Reviews – Online Reputation Management
Clearly, you should be adding great reviews from satisfied customers to your website.
User reviews and customer testimonials, however, can work both ways and affect your business both positively and negatively.
You see, people may not be saying bad things about your products directly to your face, but they could be posting disparaging remarks on a forum about a bad encounter they’ve just had with one of your employees and this could be costing you business.
This is where online reputation management becomes a vitally important aspect of your success.
Misconceptions about managing your reputation online, such as being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you really don’t need to worry about it) could be hurting your business without you even being aware of this.
See this article to learn more about a WordPress plugin that can help you avoid the escalation of negative reviews about your products through effective user review management:
Tips On Improving Your Sales With Testimonials
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive ways of marketing your products and services online and should be added to your content marketing. When you include your own user responses in your content, you:
- Show other users exactly what problems and pains your products and services can solve for them and how easily this can be done.
- Help visitors identify and address their objections.
- Help prospects connect with their motivations and aspirations and this facilitates the sales process.
Below are some tips on improving your sales with meaningful user testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: Try using the actual words used by your customers as much as you can. Leave grammatical or spelling errors in the content. This helps to keep things ‘real’.
- Use real photos: It’s a proven fact that using images of people’s faces draws the most attention of visitors on a web page. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews will help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your content.
- Tell a story: Stories are far more effective and captivating 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 longer-lasting impression on those reading your content than using generic statements about how “excellent” the customer service has been and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
- Keep it in context: It’s good to add customer testimonials in your site copy where it best makes sense to place them, and where you believe these can most effectively help sell your point. Think about the impact you will have on your visitor’s mind by adding a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution can be purchased for before posting your product pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before presenting the benefits of your services, or testimonials where clients are truly thrilled about your customer service before offering guarantees or providing content designed to help readers overcome their objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements do you think your prospects would find more powerful… “As a direct result of using your XYZ software, we were able to increase our profits by an additional $14,178 during the previous financial quarter,” or “XYZ product helped us grow our sales?” Whenever 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 they have saved, how many new leads or new clients they were able to generate during a specific financial quarter, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
- Use different client testimonials on your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult when you are just starting out or don’t have many clients, try to avoid displaying the same testimonial everywhere on your web pages. 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 existing 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 target audience is, providing testimonials from people who your prospects can relate to can be an extremely 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, send them a message asking for their permission to reprint the comment or post on your blog.
- Don’t use fake client testimonials. Prospective customers need to see that the testimonials provided on your site are real. Don’t destroy your credibility with a ”made up” testimonial.
How To Get Testimonials From Your Clients
Just Ask
Getting a testimonial from a satisfied customer can be as simple as just asking for it.
Here are some useful tips for soliciting testimonials:
- Make it a part of your business processes to contact clients after a specific period of time, e.g. 30 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you did not obtain one immediately after completing a service.
- Include a text box for entering testimonials in all client satisfaction surveys.
- Pull out your phone when you next meet with clients or hand over a completed job 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 your viewers what you have done for the client and make sure to record their positive reactions and responses.
- Make it easy for them. When clients send you a positive email thanking you for a great service 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 invite them to modify what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.
Offer To Publish A Link Back To The Source
Offer to post a link back 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 an implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are not fake and can be verified.
Include Testimonial Requests In 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 done after your customers have had a chance to use your services. Use words like “I need a quick favor” in your email subject and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking users for feedback, a testimonial, or a review of your services.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature allows you to solicit testimonials that become part of your profile. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is quite simple and user-friendly and the person who provides the recommendation receives a link to their profile. If you get a recommendation on LinkedIn, ask their permission to reprint it on your site (once again, you can offer to publish a link back to their profile in exchange).
Create A Client Testimonials Section
Create a “Testimonials” page and place a “read more customer testimonials …” link to this section whenever you are displaying new testimonials on your site.
Useful Tip: You can measure how useful customer 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 monitoring visitor behavior on your pages.
We have written an article about adding heatmaps to your website to monitor visitor behavior here:
Using Testimonial Plugins For WordPress
If your site or blog is powered by WordPress, you can use a plugin to add, edit and display testimonials. Some plugins also allow you to add a form to your pages inviting users to submit testimonials.
Once your plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), you can then refer clients to your “Testimonials” section.
Check out the WordPress testimonial plugins below:
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 posts and pages using a shortcode. The plugin also lets you publish a list of all your testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include an image with each testimonial, which is great for adding a photo of the testimonial author, their business logo, etc.
The plugin also can be upgraded to a “pro” version that offers additional features and plugin support.
To download and use this plugin, visit this site:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, or text with videos or images on your site. You can insert customer 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 Testimonials Widget plugin makes loads of additional features available via a premium version, including built-in options for better search engine results and technical support.
Visit this site to download this plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This is a premium WordPress plugin that offers a range of great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes for displaying correctly on any device or browser.
- Display options for your testimonials in a widget or as sliders, slideshows, grid layout, list layout, etc. by adding a shortcode
- Styling options (display image on 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 this plugin:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Conclusion …
Client testimonials and customer reviews are great 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 clients, and start publishing these on your site.
Additional Info
The articles below provide useful information on 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 teach you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful 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 100% FREE!
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