How To Build Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract and retain new customers, only to get the exact same results? Most small business owners don’t need to be told that finding new ways of generating new business can be hard, time consuming and frustrating. Just trying to keep your business afloat takes up 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, ignoring what users may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
Don’t ignore what customers may be saying online about your business!
By the same token, you may also be doing your business a great disservice if you are not boosting the positive things your clients say about your products and services. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are effective ways of helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be used throughout your content.
In this article, you’ll discover how to achieve better results online using engaging user testimonials.
Client Reviews
The great American showman and successful promoter Phineas Taylor (Aka “P.T.”) Barnum 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. Reviews quoted directly from existing customers 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 clearly an untapped source of opportunities for generating new business that most small businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … reviews from your clients!
Testimonials and customer reviews are effective for building credibility for your business.
Studies conducted by leading marketing research companies all seem to lead to the same inevitable conclusion: user reviews and testimonials decrease doubts potential customers may have about products that you are trying to sell, help users select products and help increase conversions of visitors into sales.
Here are just some of the stats available to support this:
- According to research by eVoc Insights, a company that researches and measures user experience, “In general, 63% of users indicate they are more likely to purchase from a web site if it has ratings and customer reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, consumer reviews can produce an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more customer reviews per product can translate into a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Web 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 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).
(Above figures sourced from eConsultancy.com)
Adding Consumer Reviews – Online Reputation Management
You should be adding positive reviews from satisfied clients who have experienced positive results with your business to your website.
Testimonials and customer reviews, however, are like double-edged swords; they can impact your business both negatively and positively.
People may not be saying bad things about your products directly to you, but they could post damaging words on Facebook about an unpleasant experience they’ve just had with your services and this could be costing you business.
This is where online reputation management becomes a vital aspect of your online business success.
Misconceptions about managing your reputation online, such as being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you really don’t need it) may be harming your business without you even being aware of this.
See this article to learn more about a simple WordPress plugin that can help to avoid the escalation of problem reviews about your products through effective customer review management:
Creating Testimonials – Useful Tips
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive when it comes to helping you market your products and services online and should be used in your content marketing strategy. When you quote your own customer responses in your content, you:
- Show other users exactly with similar problems and pains how your products and services can help them.
- Help potential customers identify their objections and address these.
- Help prospects connect with their motivations and facilitate the sales process.
Below are some useful tips on improving your sales conversions with profit boosting customer testimonials:
- Avoid over-editing: Try using your customer’s actual words as much as possible. Leave little grammatical or spelling errors in the content. This helps to keep things ‘real’.
- Use photos of real people: It’s a proven fact that using images of people’s faces will draw the most attention of visitors browsing a web page. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews can help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your site’s content.
- Use the power of storytelling: Stories are much more effective and memorable than providing mere facts and statistics. 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 using generalized statements about how “excellent” the support was and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
- Keep it in context: It’s good to add customer testimonials to your site copy where it makes the most sense to place them, and where you believe these can most effectively help to 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 price information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before discussing the benefits of your services, or testimonials where customers are truly ecstatic about your support when offering a money-back guarantee or addressing objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements do you think your prospects would find more powerful: “XYZ solution was directly responsible for growing our revenue by $70,179 during the previous fiscal year,” or “XYZ software helped us grow our business?” 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 of work you have helped them save, 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 repeatedly throughout your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult when you are just starting out or have very few clients, it’s best to avoid using the same testimonial everywhere on your web pages. Depending on the type of business you run, you could try to obtain more user 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 decide 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 target audience 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 ideal customers.
- Reprint content across different platforms. If you get a great comment on your Facebook wall praising your solution, ask them for permission to reprint the content on your site.
- Only use real testimonials. Many people can tell if you are employing professional writers to create your content. Outsourcing content is fine, but prospective customers need to see that the testimonials you provide on your site are genuine. Don’t compromise your integrity or reputation with a false testimonial.
How To Get Testimonials From Customers
Just Ask
Getting a testimonial from a happy client can be as simple as just asking for it.
Here are some useful tips for requesting testimonials from your customers:
- Contact your customers 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.
- Add a text box for entering testimonials in your client 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 very brief video testimonial/feedback interview. If they agree, while recording your video, describe to your viewers what you have done for the client and try to capture your client’s positive reactions and feedback.
- Make it easy and write the testimonial for them. If clients send 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 given you – don’t put words into their mouth), and use these to create a testimonial, then contact the client and ask them for permission to quote them on your site. Explain that you have done this to help them save time and invite them to modify what you have written however they see fit before replying with their approval.
Offer To Post A Link To The Source
Offer to post a link back to their website in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive to get clients to provide you with 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 autoresponder mailouts. Preferably, this should be done as soon as your clients have had a chance to experience your product, service or 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 subscribers to provide honest feedback, a testimonial, or a review of your services.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature lets you solicit testimonials from other members for your account. With LinkedIn, the process for requesting and providing recommendations is quite user-friendly and the person providing the recommendation gets a link to their profile. If you get a positive recommendation on LinkedIn, ask their permission to reprint it on your website (and offer to publish a link back to their website in exchange).
Create A Testimonials Page
Create a “Testimonials” page and place a “read more client testimonials …” link pointing to this page whenever you plan to add new testimonials on your content sections.
Practical Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of your 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 what visitors are doing on your pages.
We have written an article about a heatmap software you can add to your sites to observe visitor behavior here:
Useful WordPress Testimonial Plugins
If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to add and display testimonials. Some plugins also let you add forms to your pages inviting users to 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” section.
Below are some plugins you can check out:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is a free WP plugin that lets you add user testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into a Page or Post using a shortcode. The plugin also lets you publish 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 plugin also comes with a “pro” version with additional features and developer support.
To learn more about the plugin, visit this site:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with images or videos on your website. You can insert testimonials content via 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 offers added features via a premium version, including built-in options for better search engine results and plugin support.
Visit this site to learn more about the plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium WP plugin provides many great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes for displaying correctly on any device or browser.
- Options to display your testimonials in a widget or as sliders, slideshows, list layout, grid 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 colours, font types and more.
To download and use this plugin, go here:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Conclusion …
Client testimonials and user reviews 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 customers, and publish positive content about your business on your site.
Additional Info
For additional sources of information and resources on creating effective customer testimonials read 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 regular training emails with easy-to-digest information that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating high-quality content for your visitors and grow your business online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!
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