Building Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract customers, and getting the exact same disappointing results? Most small business owners don’t need to be told that finding effective ways of generating new customers can be hard. 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 online economy, ignoring what your clients may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
Ignoring what clients may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
By the same token, you may also be doing your business a great disservice if you don’t spread the positive things your clients say about your services and products. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are persuasive when it comes to marketing your products and services online and should be used in your content.
In this article, you’ll discover tips for creating better results online using sales boosting customer testimonials.
Consumer Reviews And Testimonials
Phineas Taylor (Aka “P.T.”) Barnum, legendary showman and successful promoter, 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-driven content is a powerful way of getting your business promoted effectively. Reviews quoted directly from satisfied users are far more persuasive for 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 small businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … reviews from their users!
Customer testimonials and customer reviews are great for building credibility for your products and services.
Marketing studies conducted by many leading companies all lead to the same inevitable conclusion: testimonials and user reviews reduce doubts potential customers may have about buying your products or services, help with product selection and help increase conversions of visitors into sales.
Here are just some of the stats 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 site if it has ratings and consumer reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, customer reviews result in 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 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).
(The figures above were sourced from eConsultancy.com)
Adding Customer Testimonials And Reviews – Online Reputation Management
Adding testimonials and reviews to your website from clients is essential for creating a solid online reputation.
Testimonials and reviews, however, can work both ways and affect your business both positive and negative ways.
You see, people may not be saying bad things about your business, products or services directly to your face, but they could post unhelpful feedback on Facebook about a bad experience they’ve just had using your products and this could be costing you business.
This is where online reputation management becomes an important aspect of your online business success.
Misconceptions about managing your reputation online, such as the process being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you just don’t need it) may be hurting your business without you even realizing this.
See this article to learn more about a simple tool for WordPress users that can help you avoid the escalation of negative reviews about your business, products or services through effective user review management:
Improving Your Sales Conversions With Standout Client Testimonials – Useful Tips
Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful when it comes to helping you market and promote your products and services online and should be included as part of your content. When you quote responses from customers in your content, you:
- Show potential customers exactly what problems and pains your products and services can help solve for them and how easily it can do this.
- Help visitors identify and address their objections.
- Help potential customers connect with their aspirations and motivations and facilitate moving them closer to a decision to purchase.
Here are some practical tips on how to create testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: You should try to use the actual words used by your customers as much as you can. Leave little grammatical or spelling errors in the content. This helps keep your testimonials ‘real’.
- Use photos: Images of people’s faces draw attention on a web page. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews will help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your site’s content.
- Use the power of storytelling: Stories are so much more effective and captivating than just providing statistical facts. 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” your service has been and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
- Keep it in context: Add customer testimonials to your web content where it makes the most sense to place them, and where they can most effectively help to sell your point. Think about the impact you will have on your visitor’s mind if you were to display a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution can be purchased for before posting 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 customers are genuinely thrilled about your support before offering a money-back guarantee or addressing objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements do you think your prospects would consider to be more powerful… “XYZ solution was directly responsible for increasing our net profit by $32,033 in the last fiscal year,” or “XYZ product helped us grow our business?” Whenever possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable data, like how much your solution helped to increase their sales 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 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 throughout 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 everywhere on your website. 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 existing clients in exchange for an honest review and permission to publish it if you decide 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 target audience is, providing testimonials from people who your prospects aspire to become can be a 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 great feedback on your Facebook page praising your customer service, ask them for permission to reprint the comment or post on your blog.
- Only use genuine client testimonials. Many people can tell if you are employing copywriters to produce your content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your potential clients need to believe that the testimonials you provide on your site are genuine. Don’t destroy your reputation with ”made up” testimonials.
How To Get Client Testimonials
Ask
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.
Follow these useful tips for requesting testimonials:
- Make it a part of your business processes to contact clients after a specific period of time, e.g. 60 days with an email request for a testimonial if you did not obtain one after completing a service.
- Include a field for testimonials in all client surveys.
- Pull out your phone next time you 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 brief video testimonial/feedback interview. If they agree, while recording the video, explain to your viewers what you have done for the client and make sure to record the client’s positive reactions and responses.
- Make it easy and write the testimonial for them. If 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 juiciest sections (only use what they have given you – never put words into their mouth), and use these to create a testimonial, then contact the client and ask them for permission to use it. Explain that you have already prepared something to save them time and let them know they are completely free to change what you have written however they see fit before replying with their approval.
Offer To Post A Link Back To Their Site Wherever You Quote Their Testimonial
Offer to publish a link back to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive for clients to provide a testimonial. It also makes the implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are not fake and can be verified.
Include A Testimonial Request In Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a list of subscribers, include a request for a testimonial in one of your newsletter broadcasts. 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 your help” in your email subject and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking clients to provide feedback, a testimonial, or a review of your services.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature lets you obtain testimonials from other members for your profile. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is quite 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 website (once again, you can offer to publish a link back to their profile in exchange).
Create A Client Testimonials Page
Create a “Testimonials” page and place a “more testimonials …” link to your main testimonials section whenever you have displayed blocks of testimonials on your site.
Tip: You can measure how useful customer testimonials are 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 what visitors are doing on your pages are “heatmaps”.
We have written an article about a heatmap technology you can add to your sites to track visitor behavior here:
Testimonial Plugins For WordPress
If your website or blog is powered by WordPress, you can use a plugin to display testimonials. Some plugins also let you add a form to your pages inviting users to submit testimonials.
Once your plugin is installed and set up (remember to provide simple instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), you then send users to your “Testimonials” page.
Here are a few useful plugins you can check out:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is a free plugin that lets you add customer testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into posts and pages using a shortcode. The Easy Testimonials plugin also lets you publish a list of all your testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include an image with each testimonial, which can be used to add a photo of the testimonial author, a company logo, etc.
Easy Testimonials also provides a “pro” version with additional features and technical support.
Go here for more information about this plugin:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free 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 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 loads more features available via a premium version, including built-in functions for better search engine results and technical support.
Visit this site to learn more about this plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium WordPress plugin provides a range of great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes for correct display on any device or browser.
- Display options for 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 testimonials in a speech bubble, customized font and background colours, font types and more.
Visit this site to learn more about 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 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 customers or clients, and publish positive content about your business on your web site.
Additional Info
The articles below are a great source of information about creating effective testimonials and were 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 actionable information and practical tips that will show you how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating useful 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!
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