Build Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews

Are you stuck in a cycle of doing what you’ve always done to attract new customers, only to get the exact same disappointing results? Most small business owners don’t need to be told that finding new ways of generating new business can be hard. Just trying to keep your business afloat takes a lot of time, money and energy, and sometimes this can feel like it’s just not worth the effort.

In today’s digital, mobile and social media-driven economy, you cannot afford to ignore the impact of what your potential customers are doing online, especially if they are talking about your business.

Don’t ignore what clients may be saying online about your business!

You are also doing your business a disservice if you are not boosting the positive things your clients are saying about your products, solutions, client support, training, etc. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are powerful when it comes to helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be used in your content.

In this article, you’ll discover how to create better results online with sales boosting customer testimonials.

Client Reviews

Legendary businessman and showman P.T. Barnum once said 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 and effective way of getting your business promoted. Reviews quoted directly from existing customers are far more persuasive for attracting new customers than anything you can say about your own products or services.

There is a source of untapped business growth potential that most small businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … consumer reviews!

Customer testimonials and user reviews are terrific for building credibility for your business.

Studies conducted by leading research companies all seem to lead to the same inevitable conclusion: adding customer testimonials and reviews to your site helps to eliminate doubts potential customers may have about certain products, helps users select products and increases sales conversions.

Here are just some findings that 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 reviews.”
• According to Reevoo.com, reviews can result in an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more user reviews per product can translate into a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
• Website visitors who interact with both customer 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).

(The figures above were sourced from eConsultancy.com)

Adding Customer Reviews And Testimonials – Managing Online Reputation

You should be adding positive reviews from happy clients who have experienced positive results with your business to your website.

Testimonials and customer reviews, however, can work both ways and impact your business both negatively or positively.

You see, people may not be saying bad things about your services directly to your face, but they could post updates on Facebook or a forum about a bad encounter they’ve just had with one of your sales or customer support representatives and this could be costing you business.

This is where online reputation management becomes an integral part of your business and content marketing strategy.

Misconceptions about managing your reputation online, such as the process being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you really don’t need it) could be seriously causing damage to your business without you even realizing it.

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

• Manage Your Online Reputation With Power Online Reviews Plugin

Improving Your Conversions With Testimonials – Useful Tips

User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive when it comes to helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be included in your content. When you include your own customer responses in your content, you:

• Show prospects exactly what problems and pains your products and services can help solve for them and how easily this can be done.
• Help your visitors identify and address their objections.
• Help potential customers connect with their motivations and this facilitates moving them closer to a buying decision.

Here are some tips on creating client testimonials:

• Avoid over-editing: You should try using the actual words used by your customers as much as possible. Leave 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 photos of your clients next to their testimonials and reviews will help increase visitor engagement with your site’s content.
• Use the power of storytelling: Stories are far more powerful and memorable than simply providing facts and statistics. The ability to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution came to the rescue will make a far longer-lasting impression on those reading your content than using generic statements about how “excellent” the service was and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
• Use it in context: It’s good to add testimonials in your site copy where it best makes sense to place them, and where they can most effectively help sell your point. Think about the impact you can create on your visitor’s perception if you were to add a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution can be purchased for before posting your product or service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before presenting the benefits of your services, or testimonials where clients are truly thrilled about your support before offering a money-back guarantee or providing content designed to help readers overcome their objections.
• Quantify your information: Which of the following statements is more powerful: “XYZ solution was directly responsible for increasing our bottom line by $65,152 during the last fiscal year,” or “XYZ product helped us grow our sales?” If 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 they have saved, how many new leads or new clients they were able to generate in a recent financial quarter, 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 a little difficult if you are just starting out or don’t have many clients, it’s best to avoid displaying the same testimonial repeatedly throughout your site. Depending on the type of business you run, 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 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 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 appeal directly to your best audience demographic.
• Reprint across different platforms. If someone publishes great feedback on your Facebook page praising your business, send them a message asking permission to reprint the comment or post on your blog.
• Only use genuine testimonials. Prospective customers need to believe that the testimonials published on your site are real. Don’t compromise your integrity or reputation with false testimonials.

How To Get Testimonials From Customers

Ask

When you complete a service for someone, 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 customers:

• Make a point of contacting clients after 90 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you did not obtain one immediately after completing a service.
• Add a field for entering testimonials in your client satisfaction surveys.
• Take out your phone when you next meet with clients or hand over a finished project and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they would be happy to record a quick video testimonial/feedback interview. While recording the video, explain to viewers what you have done for the client and capture their positive reactions and feedback.
• Make it easy and write it for them. If a client sends 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 – don’t put words into their mouth), and use these to create a testimonial, then contact your client and ask them for permission to publish it. Explain that you have done this to help them save time and let them know they are completely free to change what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.

Offer To Publish A Link To Their Site Wherever You Quote Their Testimonial

Offer to add a link back to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive to get clients to provide you with a testimonial. It also makes an implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are real 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 a periodic newsletter message. Preferably, this should be done after your clients have had a chance to assess the impact of using 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 clients for honest feedback, a testimonial, or a product review.

Use LinkedIn

The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature lets you solicit 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 (tip: offer to add a link back to their website in exchange).

Create A Client Testimonials Section On Your Site

Create a new page for testimonials and add a “more testimonials …” link to this page whenever you are displaying new testimonials on your site.

Practical Tip: You can measure how effective client 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 measuring visitor behavior on your pages are “heatmaps”.

We have written an article about a heatmap analytics software you can add to your sites to monitor visitor behaviour here:

• Monitoring User Behaviour On Your WordPress Site With Analytics Software – HeatMap Tracker Review

Testimonial Plugins

If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to add and display testimonials. Some plugins also allow you to add a form to your pages inviting users to submit 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 clients 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 customer testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into your pages and posts using a shortcode. The plugin also lets you add a list of all your testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which you can use for adding a photo of the testimonial author, their logo, etc.

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

To download this plugin, go here:

• Easy Testimonials – WordPress Plugin

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 testimonials via a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and have multiple display options such as random or specific ordering.

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

Go here for more information about using the plugin:

• Testimonials Widget

Testimonials WordPress Plugin

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

To learn more about this plugin, visit this site:

• 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 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 customers or clients, and publish positive content about your business on your website.

Resources

The articles below provide useful 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 easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, 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 100% FREE!

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