Building Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews

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

In today’s online and social media-driven economy, you simply can’t afford to ignore the effect of what potential customers are doing online, especially if they are posting comments about your business.

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

You could be doing your business a disservice if you are not boosting the positive things your clients are saying about your services and products. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful when it comes to helping you market your products and services online and should be an integral part of your content.

In this article, you’ll learn tips for creating better results online using standout user testimonials.

User Reviews And Testimonials

P.T. Barnum, legendary American showman and successful promoter, is often quoted as having 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. Reviews and testimonials from existing clients are far more persuasive when it comes to attracting new customers, clients or users than anything you have to 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 and testimonials from their previous clients!

Reviews and testimonials are a fantastic way to build credibility for your products and services.

Tests conducted by many leading companies all lead to the same inevitable conclusion: user reviews and testimonials eliminate doubts potential customers may have about purchasing products, help users select products and help increase sales conversions.

Below are just some of the statistics available to support this:

• According to a study 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 site if it has ratings and customer reviews.”
• According to Reevoo.com, consumer reviews can 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.
• 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 Consumer Testimonials And Reviews – Managing Online Reputation

Adding positive reviews to your website from very happy clients is important for helping you grow your business online and creating a solid online reputation.

Customer testimonials and user reviews, however, can work both ways and affect your business both positively or negatively.

You see, people may not be saying bad things about your business directly to you, but they could be posting disparaging remarks on a forum about an unpleasant experience they’ve just had using your products and this could be costing you business.

This is where online reputation management becomes vital to your success.

Misconceptions about engaging in online reputation management practices, such as being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you just don’t need it) could be seriously hurting your business without you even realizing this.

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

• How To Manage Negative Customer Reviews On WordPress With Power Online Reviews

Tips On How To Create Effective User Testimonials

User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are effective when it comes to helping you market your products and services online and should be an integral part of your content marketing strategy. When you include responses from clients in your content, you:

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

Below are some practical tips on how to create testimonials:

• Avoid over-editing: Try using 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: Marketing tests show that using images of people’s faces will draw the attention of visitors on a web page. Adding photos of your clients next to their testimonials and reviews will help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your content.
• Use the power of storytelling: Stories are so much more powerful and memorable than simply providing statistical facts. Being able to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution came to the rescue will make a far more lasting impression on those reading your content than presenting generic statements about how “excellent” the support has been and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
• Use it in context: It’s good to add customer testimonials in your web content 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 can create on your visitor’s mind by adding a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution retails for before posting your pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before discussing the benefits of your products, or testimonials where customers are truly ecstatic about your customer service when offering guarantees or providing content that helps your readers overcome their objections.
• Quantify your information: Which of the following statements do you think is more powerful… “Since using your XYZ software, we have noticed an additional sales growth of $40,793 in the previous financial quarter,” or “XYZ product definitely helped us grow our business?” Whenever possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable results, 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, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
• Avoid using the same customer testimonial throughout your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult if you are just starting out and don’t have many clients, it’s best to avoid displaying the same testimonial repeatedly throughout your site’s pages. Depending on the nature of your business, you could try to obtain more 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 choose to use it.
• Appeal to your ideal 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 can relate to can be a very 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 you get fantastic feedback on your Facebook wall praising your products or services, contact them privately asking for permission to reprint the content on your blog.
• Only use genuine client testimonials. Prospective clients need to believe that the testimonials provided on your site are genuine. Don’t compromise your credibility with ”made up” testimonials.

How To Get Customer Testimonials

Just Ask

Getting a testimonial from a happy customer can be as simple as just asking for it.

Here are some useful tips for soliciting testimonials from customers:

• Make it a part of your business processes to contact customers after 90 days with an email request for a testimonial if you have not obtained one after performing a service.
• Include a field for entering testimonials in all client satisfaction surveys.
• Take out your phone when you next visit a client or hand over a completed project and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a very brief video testimonial/feedback interview. When recording the video, explain to your viewers what you have done for your client and try to record your client’s positive reactions and feedback.
• Make it easy and write the testimonial for them. Whenever a client sends you positive written feedback 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 shape these into a testimonial, then contact the client and ask them for permission to publish it. Explain that you have already prepared something to save them time and invite them to change what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.

Offer To Publish A Link Back To The Source Wherever You Publish Their Testimonial

Offer to publish a link to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great incentive to get clients to provide 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 list of subscribers, include requests for a testimonial in one of your autoresponder broadcasts. 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 them to provide feedback, a testimonial, or a review.

Use LinkedIn

The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature allows you to request testimonials from other members for your account. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is quite simple and user-friendly and the person who provides the recommendation gets a link to their profile. If you get a positive recommendation on LinkedIn, ask for permission to reprint it on your site (once again, you can offer to publish a link back to their website in exchange).

Create A Customer Testimonials Section On Your Site

Create a “Testimonials” page and place a “read more testimonials …” link pointing to this page wherever you plan to display blocks of testimonials on your site.

Useful Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of 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 measuring visitor behavior on your site.

We have written an article about a heatmap analytics technology you can add to your site to measure visitor behavior here:

• Monitoring Visitor Behaviour On Your WordPress Site Using Heat Mapping Tools – HeatMap Tracker Review

Testimonial Plugins

If your website 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 where users can submit testimonials.

Once your plugin is installed and set up (remember to provide simple instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), you then send customers to your “Testimonials” section.

Check out the WordPress testimonial plugins below:

Easy Testimonials

Easy Testimonials is a free plugin that lets you add testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into a Page or Post using a shortcode. The plugin also lets you insert 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 logo, etc.

The plugin also can be upgraded to a “pro” version that has additional features and plugin support.

For more information about the plugin, visit this site:

• Easy Testimonials – WordPress Plugin

Testimonials Widget

Testimonials Widget is a free WordPress plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with images or videos on your WordPress site. You can insert testimonials content 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 has loads of additional features available via a premium version, including built-in options for better search engine results and plugin support.

Visit this site for more information about using this plugin:

• Testimonials Widget

Testimonials WordPress Plugin

This is a premium plugin that provides 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. via a shortcode
• Styling options (display image at the top, bottom, or side of testimonials, display testimonial in a speech bubble, customized font and background colors, font types and more.

Go here to download and use this plugin:

• Testimonials Plugin

To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:

• How To Add Testimonials In WordPress

In Conclusion …

Customer reviews and client testimonials 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 existing clients or customers, and publish positive content about your business on your website.

Resources

For additional sources of information and resources on creating effective customer testimonials read these articles:

• 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 actionable information and practical tips that will teach you 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. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

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