Build Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract new customers, and getting the exact same disappointing results? Most small business owners don’t need to be told that generating new customers can be extremely difficult. Just trying to survive in business takes up 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 just can’t ignore the significance of online consumer behavior, especially if they are talking about your business.
Don’t ignore what customers may be saying online about your business!
By the same token, you could be doing your business a great disservice if you are not boosting the positive things your clients say about your services or products. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive ways of helping you market and promote your products and services online and should be used throughout your content.
In this article, you’ll discover how to convert more visitors into qualified prospects using meaningful client testimonials.
User Reviews And Testimonials
Legendary showman and successful promoter Phineas Taylor 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 way of getting your business promoted effectively. Genuine reviews and testimonials quoted directly from satisfied clients are far more persuasive for drawing new customers than anything you have to say about your own products or services.
There is clearly a source of untapped opportunities for generating new business that most businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … consumer reviews and testimonials!
Reviews and testimonials are a great way to build credibility for your products and services.
Research conducted by marketing firms all point to the same inevitable conclusion: user reviews and testimonials help decrease doubts potential customers may have about buying a product or service, help with product selection and help increase sales conversions.
Here are just some of the statistics available to support this:
- According to research findings 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 web 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 customer reviews per product can mean a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Web site visitors who interact with both consumer 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 Testimonials And Reviews – Managing Online Reputation
Adding reviews to your site from customers who are delighted with your products or services is important for growing your business and creating a solid online reputation.
Customer testimonials and reviews, however, are like double-edged swords; they can impact your business both in a negative or positive way.
You see, people may not be saying bad things about your services directly to your face, but they could be posting updates on a discussion group about an unpleasant encounter they’ve just had with one of your team members and this could be doing far more damage to your business than all the good work you’ve been putting into building it.
This is where online reputation management becomes an essential part of your online success strategy.
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 seriously harming your business without you even being aware of it.
See this article to learn more about a WordPress plugin that can help to avoid the escalation of negative reviews about your services through effective user review management:
Tips On Improving Your Sales Conversions With Customer Testimonials
Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful when it comes to helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be included in your content marketing. When you quote responses from clients 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 potential customers identify their objections and address these.
- Help potential customers connect with their motivations and facilitate the sales process.
Below are some practical tips on creating user testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: You should try to use your customer’s actual words as much as you can. Leaving little grammatical errors and misspelled words in the content helps keep your testimonials sounding authentic.
- Use photos of real people: It’s a proven fact that using images of people’s faces draws the attention of visitors on a web page. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews will help increase visitor engagement with your content.
- Tell a story: Stories are much more effective and captivating than simply providing facts and statistics. Being able 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 generalized statements about how “excellent” your support was and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
- Use it in context: Add customer testimonials to 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 will have on your visitor’s perception by adding a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution sells for before posting service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before discussing the benefits of your products, or testimonials where clients are truly ecstatic about your customer service when offering a risk-free guarantee or providing content designed to help your readers overcome their objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements do you think is more powerful… “XYZ solution was directly responsible for helping us grow our revenue by $73,437 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 profits or reduce their costs by 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 during a specific financial period, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
- Vary the testimonials throughout your site: Although this can be a little difficult when you are just starting out or don’t have many clients, try to avoid using the same testimonial throughout your web pages. Depending on the nature of your business, you could try to obtain more customer 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 choose 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 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 best audience demographic.
- Reprint across different platforms. If you get a great comment on your Facebook page praising your solution, contact them privately asking for permission to reprint the content on your site.
- Only use real client testimonials. Your prospects need to see that the testimonials displayed on your site are real. Don’t compromise your credibility or reputation with ”made up” testimonials.
How To Get Testimonials From Customers
Always Ask For Testimonials
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 tips for soliciting testimonials from customers:
- Make it a part of your business processes to contact clients after 60 days with an email request for a testimonial if you did not obtain one after completing your service.
- Include a field for entering testimonials in all client surveys.
- Take 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 very quick video testimonial/feedback interview. When recording the video, describe to your viewers what you have done for the client and make sure to record their positive reactions and feedback.
- 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 written – never put words into their mouth), and shape these into a testimonial, then contact your client and ask them for permission to use it. Explain that you have done this to save them time and invite them to modify what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.
Offer To Post A Link To Their Site
Offer to post a link to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive for clients to provide a testimonial. It also makes an 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 subscriber list, include requests for a testimonial in one of your autoresponder mailouts. Preferably, this should be timed to reach subscribers just after your clients have had a chance to use your 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 users to provide honest feedback, a testimonial, or a review of your services.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature helps you solicit testimonials that become part of your profile. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is quite user-friendly and the person providing the recommendation gets a link to their profile. If you get a positive recommendation on LinkedIn, ask for permission to reprint it on your website (you can offer to publish a link back to their website in exchange).
Create A Customer Testimonials Section
Create a “Testimonials” page and place a “read more customer testimonials …” link to this page whenever you are adding new testimonials on your content sections.
Practical Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of your customer testimonials by how long visitors stay 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 pages.
We have written an article about a heatmap analytics technology you can add to your sites to observe visitor behaviour here:
- Understanding User Behavior On Your WordPress Site With Analytics Software – Heat Map Tracker Review
WordPress Plugins
If your site or blog is powered by 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 testimonial plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), you can then send customers to your “Testimonials” page.
Below are some great WordPress testimonial plugins you can check out:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use free plugin that lets you add testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed them into a Page or Post using a shortcode. Easy Testimonials also lets you add a list of all your 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 business logo, etc.
The Easy Testimonials plugin also can be upgraded to a “pro” version that has additional features and developer support.
For more information about using the plugin, visit this site:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free WP plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with videos or images on your posts and pages. You can insert customer 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 plugin provides added features via a premium version, including built-in functions for better search engine results and plugin support.
To learn more about using this plugin, visit this site:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This is a premium plugin that offers a range of great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes to display correctly on any device or browser.
- Display options for your testimonials in a widget or as slideshows, sliders, grid layout, list layout, etc. using a shortcode
- Styling options (display image at the top, bottom, or side of testimonials, 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 Summary …
Testimonials and user 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 feedback, reviews, and testimonials from existing customers or clients, and publish positive content about your business on your web site.
Additional Info
For additional resources about creating engaging users testimonials see the articles below:
- 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 that will add value to your visitors and grow your business online using content marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!
***
***
"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)