Building Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract customers, only to get the exact same results? Most business owners don’t need to be told that finding new ways of generating new customers can be confusing, time-consuming and extremely hard. Just trying to keep your business afloat 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, mobile and social-driven economy, ignoring what your clients may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
Don’t ignore what your clients may be saying online about your business!
You could be doing your business a great disservice if you don’t publish the positive things your clients are saying about your products or services. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are effective ways of marketing your products and services online and should be used in your content marketing.
In this article, we’ll show you how to turn more visitors into qualified leads using effective user testimonials.
User Reviews
Legendary showman Phineas Taylor P.T. Barnum once 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 way of getting your business promoted effectively. Genuine reviews and testimonials quoted directly from satisfied users are far more persuasive when it comes to attracting new customers than anything you say about your own products or services.
There is clearly an untapped source of opportunities for generating new business that most businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … reviews from their previous customers!
Reviews and testimonials are a fantastic way to build credibility for your business.
Studies conducted by many leading firms all lead to the same inevitable conclusion: testimonials and user reviews reduce doubts potential customers may have about purchasing products, help with product selection and increases the number of product sales.
Here are just some statistics that support this:
- According to a study by eVoc Insights, a company 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 reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, reviews are responsible for producing an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more reviews per product can translate into a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Website 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 Client Reviews – Managing Online Reputation
Adding testimonials and reviews to your website from existing customers is important for helping you grow your business online and creating a solid online reputation.
Testimonials and reviews, however, can work both ways and impact your business both negative and positive ways.
People may not be saying bad things about your services directly to your face, but they could have posted disparaging remarks on Facebook about an unpleasant experience they’ve just had with your services 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 vital to your business success.
Misconceptions about engaging in online reputation management practices, such as the process being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you really don’t need it) may be causing damage to your business without you even being aware of it.
See this article to learn more about a simple tool for WordPress users that can help to avoid the escalation of negative reviews about your business through effective customer review management:
How To Create Powerful Testimonials – Useful Tips
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are powerful ways of marketing your products and services online and should be an integral part of your content marketing. When you include your own user responses in your content, you:
- Show potential customers exactly with similar problems and pains how your products and services can help them.
- Help your visitors identify their objections and address these.
- Help potential customers connect with their aspirations and motivations and this facilitates moving them closer to a buying decision.
Here are some useful tips on creating awesome user testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: You should try to use the actual words used by your customers as much as possible. Leaving grammatical errors and misspelled words in the content helps preserve your testimonials’ authenticity.
- Use photos: Images of people’s faces draw the most attention to your content. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews will help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your content.
- Tell a powerful story: Stories are so much more powerful and captivating 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 generic statements about excellent customer support and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
- Keep it in context: It’s good to add testimonials in your web content where it makes the most sense to place them, and where you believe these can most effectively help sell your point. For example, 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 your pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before presenting the benefits of your products, or testimonials where clients are truly ecstatic about your customer service when offering guarantees 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 increasing our sales by $24,334 during the last financial quarter,” or “XYZ software definitely helped us grow our business?” If possible, ask clients to specify quantifiable results when submitting testimonials, like how much your solution helped to increase their profits or reduce their costs in specific percentages or amounts, how many hours 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.
- Vary the client testimonials throughout your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult when you are just starting out or have very few clients, try to avoid displaying the same testimonial repeatedly throughout your site’s pages. Depending on the type of business you run, you could try to obtain more client 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 target audience 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 someone publishes a great comment on your Facebook page praising your products or services, send them a message asking for their permission to reprint the content on your blog.
- Never use fake client testimonials. Most people can tell if you are employing professional writers to create your content. Outsourcing content is fine, but prospective clients need to see that the testimonials displayed on your site are real. Don’t compromise your integrity or reputation with a ”made up” testimonial.
How To Get Testimonials
Ask For Testimonials
If you have just completed performing a service, or a customer says they are really happy with your product or service, ask them for a testimonial.
Here are some tips for soliciting testimonials from clients:
- Contact your customers after 60 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you have not obtained one immediately after completing your service.
- Add a field for entering testimonials in your client surveys.
- Pull out your phone next time you meet with a client or hand over a finished job and if they are delighted with the results, ask them if they would be happy to record a brief video testimonial/feedback interview. While recording your video, describe to your viewers what you have done for the client and make sure to record their positive reactions and responses.
- Make it easy and write the testimonial for them. Whenever 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 your 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 Post A Link Back To The Source Wherever You Publish Their Testimonial
Offer to add a link to their website in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive to get clients to provide you with a testimonial. It also makes the implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are real and can be verified.
Include A Testimonial Request In Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a subscriber list, include a request for a testimonial in one of your newsletter mailouts. Preferably, this should be timed to reach subscribers just after your clients have had a chance to experience your solution. Use words like “I need a quick favor” in your email subject and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking customers for honest feedback, a testimonial, or a review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature helps you obtain testimonials from other members for your account. With LinkedIn, 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 for permission to reprint it on your website (you can offer to add a link back to their website in exchange).
Create A Testimonials Section On Your Site
Create a new page for customer testimonials and add a “more customer testimonials …” link to this section whenever you are adding new testimonials on your site.
Useful Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of user testimonials by how long visitors stay on the section of your pages or posts where you have added the testimonial content. ”Heatmapping” technology is a great way to monitoring visitor behaviour on your pages.
We have written an article about adding heatmap analytics to your sites to analyze visitor behaviour 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 forms to your pages inviting users to submit reviews 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 refer users to your “Testimonials” page.
Below are some WordPress testimonial plugins you can check out:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is a free WP plugin that lets you add testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed them into your pages and posts using a shortcode. Easy Testimonials also lets you insert 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 company logo, etc.
The plugin also comes with a “pro” version that offers additional features and developer support.
To download and use this plugin, visit this site:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free WP plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, or text with images or videos on your site. You can insert customer testimonials via a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and specify different display options such as random or specific ordering.
The plugin has plenty of additional features available via a premium version, including built-in functions SEO functionality and technical support.
To download and use this plugin, go here:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This is a premium WP plugin that offers many great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes for displaying correctly on any device or browser.
- Options to display your testimonials in a widget or as sliders, slideshows, list layout, grid layout, etc. via a shortcode
- Styling options (display image at the top, bottom, or side of the testimonial, display testimonials in a speech bubble, customized font and background colours, font types and more.
Visit this site to download the plugin:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Conclusion …
Client testimonials and user reviews are powerful 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 testimonials, reviews, and feedback from your customers, and start publishing these on your website.
Resources
For additional information about creating effective 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 website or blog, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your business online using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!
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