How To Build Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews

Are you stuck in a cycle of doing what you’ve always done to attract and retain new customers, and getting the exact same disappointing results? Most business owners don’t need to be told that finding new ways of generating new customers can be quite difficult and time-consuming. Just trying to remain in business 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 media-driven economy, ignoring what users may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!

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

You could be doing your business a great disservice if you are not spreading the positive things your customers say about your products and services. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive when it comes to marketing your products and services online and should be used throughout your content.

In this article, you will learn how to turn more visitors into qualified prospects with knockout customer testimonials.

Testimonials And Client Reviews

Phineas Taylor P.T. Barnum, the great, legendary showman, 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 and effective way of promoting your business. Testimonials and reviews quoted directly from existing users are far more persuasive when it comes to attracting new clients than anything you have to say about your own products or services.

There is an untapped source of opportunities for generating new business that most small businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … testimonials and reviews from their clients!

Reviews and customer testimonials are effective for building credibility for your business.

Research conducted by many leading marketing research firms all seem to lead to the same conclusion: adding customer testimonials and reviews to your point of sale pages helps reduce doubts potential customers may have about purchasing products and services, helps users select products and helps increase the number of product sales.

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, customer reviews play a significant role in creating an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more consumer reviews per product can translate into a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
• Site 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 UGC. (Bazaarvoice, Conversation Index, Q2 2011).
• Consumer 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 Client Reviews – Online Reputation Management

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

Reviews and customer testimonials, however, are like double-edged swords; they can affect your business both in a positive or negative way.

You see, people may not be saying bad things about your business directly to your face, but they could be posting damaging words on Facebook, or a forum or discussion group about a bad experience they’ve just had with your services and this could be costing you business.

This is where online reputation management becomes an important aspect of your online success.

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

See this article to learn more about a simple yet effective plugin for WordPress users that lets you legally and ethically manage your customer feedback:

• Manage Poor Client Feedback With Power Online Reviews WordPress Plugin

Tips For Creating Effective Customer Testimonials

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

• Show other users exactly with similar problems and pains how your products and services can help them.
• Help your visitors identify and address their objections.
• Help potential customers connect with their motivations and aspirations and facilitate moving them closer to a decision to purchase.

Below are some practical tips on how to create captivating testimonials:

• Avoid over-editing: Try using your customer’s actual words as much as possible. Leaving grammatical errors and misspellings in the content helps keep your testimonials sounding authentic.
• Use real photos: Marketing studies show that using images of people’s faces draws the attention of visitors on a web page. Adding photos of your clients next to their testimonials and reviews can help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your site’s content.
• Tell a powerful story: Stories are much more effective and captivating than just providing facts and statistics. Being able to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution saved the day will make a longer-lasting impression on those reading your content than presenting generalized statements about excellent customer support and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that all of us have 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 you believe these can most effectively help sell your point. Think about the impact you can create on your visitor’s perception by adding a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution retails for before posting product pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before discussing the benefits of your products, or testimonials where customers are genuinely thrilled about your support when offering a risk-free guarantee or addressing objections.
• Quantify the information: Which of the following statements do you think your prospects would consider to be more powerful: “XYZ solution was directly responsible for helping us grow our net profit by $93,764 during the previous financial quarter,” or “XYZ software helped us grow our sales?” Whenever possible, ask clients to specify quantifiable results when submitting testimonials, like how much your solution helped to increase their sales or reduce their costs in specific percentages or amounts, how many hours they have saved, how many new leads or new clients they were able to generate during a specific period, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
• Vary the testimonials on your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult when you are just starting out and have very few clients, it’s best to avoid using the same testimonial repeatedly throughout your website. Depending on the type of business you run, 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 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 can relate to is a very powerful motivator and influencer. People want to see and buy from “better versions” of themselves, so make sure to include testimonials targeted to your ideal customers.
• Reprint across different platforms. If you get fantastic feedback on your Facebook page praising your solution, send them a message asking for permission to reprint the comment or post on your blog.
• Don’t use fake testimonials. Prospective clients need to believe that the testimonials displayed on your site are real. Don’t destroy your credibility with a ”made up” testimonial.

How To Get Testimonials From Your Customers

Just 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 guidelines for soliciting 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 have not obtained one after completing 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 brief video testimonial/feedback interview. While recording your video, describe to your viewers what you have done for your client and try to record their positive reactions and feedback.
• Make it easy and write it for them. If clients send 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 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 quote them on your site. Explain that you have already prepared something to save them time and invite them to modify what you have written however they see fit before replying with their approval.

Offer To Post A Link Back To Their Site

Offer to post a link to their website in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great incentive to get clients providing a testimonial. It also makes the 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 subscriber list, include a request for a testimonial in one of your autoresponder messages. This should be done as soon as your clients have had a chance to use 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 users for feedback, a testimonial, or a review.

Use LinkedIn

The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature helps you solicit testimonials for your profile. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is quite simple and user-friendly and the person providing the recommendation receives a link to their profile. If you get a positive recommendation on LinkedIn, ask for permission to reprint it on your website (tip: offer to publish a link back to their profile in exchange).

Create A Customer Testimonials Section

Create a new section for client testimonials and add a “more customer testimonials …” link pointing to this page whenever you have added single testimonials on your content sections.

Practical Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of your user testimonials by how long visitors stay on the section of your pages or posts where you have added your testimonial content. A great tool for monitoring visitor behavior on your site are “heatmaps”.

We have written an article about a heatmap technology you can add to your website to analyze visitor behavior here:

• Spy On Your WordPress Site Users Using HeatMap Software – HeatMap Tracker Review

WordPress 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 where users can submit testimonials.

Once your plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), you then send customers to your “Testimonials” page.

Here are a few useful WordPress testimonial plugins you can check out:

Easy Testimonials

Easy Testimonials is a free plugin that lets you add user testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed them into posts and pages using a shortcode. Easy Testimonials also lets you publish a list of all testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which is great for adding a photo of the testimonial author, their logo, etc.

Easy Testimonials also comes with a “pro” version that has additional features and technical support.

For more information about this plugin, go here:

• Easy Testimonials – WordPress Testimonials Plugin

Testimonials Widget

Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with images or videos on your website. You can insert testimonials using a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and have multiple display options such as random or specific ordering.

The Testimonials Widget plugin comes with extra features via a premium version, including built-in options SEO functionality and technical support.

For more information about the plugin, visit this site:

• Testimonials Widget

Testimonials WordPress Plugin

This is a premium plugin that offers many 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 slideshows, sliders, grid layout, list 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.

Go here for more information about using this plugin:

• Testimonials WordPress Plugin

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

• How To Add Testimonials In WordPress

In Conclusion …

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 existing customers, and publish positive content about your business on your site.

Resources

For additional sources of information and resources on creating engaging clients 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 actionable information and practical tips that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your site 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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