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 customers, only to get the exact same disappointing results? As most business owners know, that generating new business can be quite hard, confusing and frustrating. Just trying to stay 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-driven economy, you simply can’t afford to ignore the effect of what your potential customers are doing online, especially if they are posting comments about your business.
Ignoring what customers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
By the same token, you could be doing your business a disservice if you don’t promote the positive things your clients say about your products or services. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful ways of helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be included as part of your content.
In this article, you’ll discover how to get better results online with profit-boosting customer testimonials.
Consumer Reviews And Testimonials
Phineas Taylor (Aka “P.T.”) Barnum, legendary American 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”. Social proof-driven content is a powerful and effective way of promoting your business. Quoting genuine reviews from your existing customers is existing customers are far more persuasive for drawing new customers, clients or users than anything you can say about your own products or services.
There is a source of untapped opportunities for generating new business that most small businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … consumer reviews!
Customer testimonials and customer reviews are great for building credibility for your products and services.
Research conducted by leading marketing companies all seem to lead to the same conclusion: testimonials and user reviews help decrease doubts potential customers may have about buying products or solutions that you are trying to sell, help users select products and help increase sales conversions.
Below are just some findings that support this:
- According to research 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 can result in an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more reviews per product can result in a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Website 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 user-generated content (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).
(Source: eConsultancy.com)
Adding Customer Testimonials And Reviews – Online Reputation Management
Adding great testimonials and reviews to your website from clients who are delighted with your products or services is important for growing your business and creating a solid online reputation.
User reviews and testimonials, 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 you, but they could post updates on Facebook, or a discussion thread or forum 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 vital to 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 causing damage to your business without you even being aware of this.
See this article to learn more about a simple yet effective tool for WordPress users that can help you avoid the escalation of problem reviews about your products through effective user review management:
Tips On Improving Your Sales Conversions With Client Testimonials
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are effective when it comes to helping you market and promote 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 potential customers exactly with similar problems and pains what your products and services can do for them.
- Help your visitors identify their objections and address these.
- Help prospects connect with their aspirations and motivations and this facilitates the sales process.
Here are some practical tips on how to create user 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 to keep things ‘real’.
- Use photos: Research shows that using images of people’s faces draws the attention of visitors browsing 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.
- Tell a story: Stories are so much more powerful and memorable than providing mere statistical facts. The ability 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 how “excellent” the support was and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
- Use it in context: 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 will have on your visitor’s mind by adding a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution sells for before posting your service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before talking about the benefits of your products, or testimonials where customers are genuinely ecstatic about your support before offering a risk-free guarantee or providing content that helps readers overcome their objections.
- Quantify the information: Which of the following statements is more powerful: “Since installing your XYZ software, we have seen our revenue grow by $19,139 in the previous fiscal year,” or “XYZ product helped us grow our business?” Whenever possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable results, like how much your solution helped to increase their market share or reduce their costs by in specific percentages or amounts, how many hours of work 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.
- Use different customer testimonials on your site: Although this can be a little difficult when you are just starting out or don’t have many clients, try to avoid using the same testimonial everywhere on your site. 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 existing 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 ideal customer is, providing testimonials from people who your prospects aspire to become 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 someone publishes a great comment on your Facebook wall praising your solution, ask them permission to reprint the comment or post on your blog.
- Never use fake client testimonials. Your prospects need to see that the testimonials published on your site are real. Don’t compromise your integrity with a false testimonial.
How To Get Testimonials
Always Ask For Testimonials
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:
- Make a point of contacting customers after a specific period of time, e.g. 60 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you have not obtained one immediately after performing a service.
- Include a text box for entering testimonials in your client satisfaction surveys.
- Take out your phone next time you visit a client or hand over a completed project and if they are delighted with the results, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a short video testimonial/feedback interview. If they agree, while recording your video, explain to your viewers what you have done for your client and make sure to capture their positive reactions and feedback.
- Make it easy for them. Whenever a client sends you a positive email thanking you for a great service 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 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 To Their Site Wherever You Publish Their Testimonial
Offer to add a link back to their website in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great incentive to get clients providing you with a testimonial. It also makes an 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 a periodic auto responder message. Preferably, this should be timed to reach subscribers just after your clients have had a chance to use your products or services. Use words like “I need your help” in the subject of your email 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 is a great way to solicit testimonials from other members that become part of your profile. With LinkedIn, the process for requesting and providing recommendations is quite simple and user-friendly and the person who provides the recommendation receives a link to their profile. If you get a recommendation on LinkedIn, ask their permission to reprint it on your website (and offer to add a link back to their website or profile in exchange).
Create A Testimonials Page On Your Site
Create a “Testimonials” page and place a “read more client testimonials …” link to your main testimonials page whenever you have added small blocks of testimonials on your site.
Useful Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of user testimonials by how long visitors remain on the section of your pages or posts where you have added your testimonial content. A great tool for measuring visitor behavior on your site are “heatmaps”.
We have written an article about adding heatmaps to your sites to measure visitor behaviour here:
Testimonial Plugins For WordPress
If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to 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 (make sure to provide simple instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), you then send users to your “Testimonials” page.
Check out the plugins below:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is a free plugin that lets you add testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed them into your pages and posts using a shortcode. The Easy Testimonials plugin also lets you publish a list of all your 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.
The Easy Testimonials plugin also provides a “pro” version with additional features and plugin support.
For more information about using the plugin, go here:
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 website. You can insert client 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 comes with added features via a premium version, including built-in functions for better search engine results and technical support.
Visit this site for more information about using this plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This is a premium WordPress plugin that provides a range of great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes to display correctly on any device or browser.
- Options to display your testimonials in a widget or as sliders, slideshows, grid layout, list layout, etc. using 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 for more information about the plugin:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Summary …
Customer reviews and testimonials are great sources of content that 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, and publish positive content about your business on your web site.
Resources
The articles below provide useful information on creating engaging 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 that will teach 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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