Building Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews

Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract 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 difficult. Just trying to keep your business afloat requires 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 just can’t ignore the impact 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!

You are also doing your business a disservice if you don’t promote the positive things your customers are saying about your services or products. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive when it comes to marketing your products and services online and should be an integral part of your content.

In this article, you’ll learn how to achieve better results online with more effective client testimonials.

Testimonials And Customer Reviews

P.T. Barnum, legendary businessman and showman, is often quoted as having stated 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 getting your business promoted. Reviews quoted directly from existing users are far more persuasive for attracting new clients than anything you have to say about your own products or services.

There is clearly an untapped source of business growth potential that most small businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … reviews and testimonials from their clients!

Reviews and customer testimonials are terrific for building credibility for your services or products.

Tests conducted by leading companies all lead to the same conclusion: adding testimonials and user reviews to your point of sale pages eliminates doubts potential customers may have about some products, helps with product selection and increases the number of sales.

Here are just some of the stats available to 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 user reviews.”
• According to Reevoo.com, reviews play a significant role in creating an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more reviews per product can mean 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).
• 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).

(Above figures sourced from eConsultancy.com)

Adding Client Reviews And Testimonials – Online Reputation Management

Adding great reviews to your site from very happy clients is essential for growing your business online.

User reviews and customer testimonials, however, can work both ways and affect your business both negative and positive ways.

People may not be saying bad things about your services directly to you, but they could be posting disparaging remarks on Facebook about an unpleasant experience they’ve just had with your business and this could be doing far more damage to your business than all the good work you’ve been putting into building it.

This is where online reputation management becomes a significant part of your online success strategy.

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 it) could be seriously causing damage to your business without you even realizing this.

See this article to learn more about a simple WordPress plugin that can help you avoid the escalation of problem reviews about your business through effective user review management:

• Manage Your Online Reputation Easily With Power Online Reviews Plugin

Tips On How To Create Meaningful Testimonials

Testimonials, user reviews, 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. When you quote your own client responses in your content, you:

• Show others exactly what problems and pains your products and services can solve for them and how easily this can be done.
• Help prospects identify and address their objections.
• Help prospects 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: You should try to use the actual words used by your customers as much as possible. Leaving little grammatical errors and misspelt words in the content helps to keep it ‘real’.
• Use real photos: Images of people’s faces draw the most attention to your content. Adding photos of your clients next to their testimonials and reviews will help increase visitor engagement with your content.
• Use the power of storytelling: Stories are much more powerful and captivating than providing mere facts and statistics. 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 using generalized statements about how “excellent” your support has been and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
• Keep it in context: Add customer testimonials in your site copy where it makes the most 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 perception by adding a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution sells for before posting your product pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before discussing the benefits of your services, or testimonials where customers are genuinely ecstatic about your support when offering guarantees or addressing objections.
• Quantify the information: Which of the following statements do you think is more powerful: “XYZ solution was directly responsible for increasing our revenue by $29,882 in the previous fiscal year,” or “XYZ product helped us grow our sales?” Whenever 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 of work you have helped them save, how many new leads or new clients they were able to generate during a specific 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 customer testimonial throughout your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult if you are just starting out or have very few clients, it’s best to avoid displaying the same testimonial everywhere on 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 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 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 can be a really powerful motivator and influencer. People want to see and buy from “better versions” of themselves, so make sure to include testimonials targeted to your best audience demographic.
• Reprint content across different platforms. If someone posts fantastic feedback on your Facebook page praising your commitment to customer satisfaction, contact them privately asking for permission to reprint the content on your site.
• Only use genuine client testimonials. Most people can tell if you are employing professional writers to create your content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your potential customers need to believe that the testimonials displayed on your site are real. Don’t compromise your credibility or reputation with ”made up” testimonials.

How To Get Testimonials From Your Clients

Ask

When you complete 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 from your clients:

• Contact your customers after a specific period of time, e.g. 30 days with an email request for a testimonial if you have not obtained one after performing a service.
• Add a field for testimonials in all client satisfaction surveys.
• Take out your phone next time you visit a client 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 quick video testimonial/feedback interview. If they agree, while recording your video, describe to viewers what you have done for the client and try to record your client’s positive reactions and feedback.
• Make it easy for them. If a client sends 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 given you – never put words into their mouth), and use these to create a testimonial, then contact the client and ask them for permission to publish it. Explain that you have already prepared something 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 publish a link back to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great incentive to get clients providing a testimonial. It also makes an implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are not fake and can be verified.

Add A Testimonial Request To Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages

If you have a list of subscribers, include requests 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 solution. Use words like “I need a quick favor” in the subject of your email and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking them for feedback, a testimonial, or a product review.

Use LinkedIn

The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature is a great way to solicit testimonials that become part of your profile. 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 On Your Site

Create a new page for customer testimonials and add a “more testimonials …” link pointing to this section throughout your site.

Practical Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of client testimonials by how long visitors remain on the section of your pages or posts where you have added the testimonial content. ”Heatmapping” technology is a great way to understanding visitor behavior on your site.

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

• How To Spy On Your WordPress Site Users With Analytics Software – Heat Map Tracker Review

Using Testimonial Plugins

If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to add and display testimonials. Some plugins also let you add a form to your pages inviting users to submit testimonials.

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

Below are a few useful plugins you can check out:

Easy Testimonials

Easy Testimonials is a free plugin that lets you add customer testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into posts and pages 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 is great for adding a photo of the testimonial author, their business logo, etc.

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

For more information about using the plugin, visit this site:

• Easy Testimonials

Testimonials Widget

Testimonials Widget is a free WordPress plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with images or videos on your pages and posts. 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 Testimonials Widget plugin comes with additional features via a premium version, including built-in options for improved search engine results and technical support.

For more information about the plugin, visit this site:

• Testimonials Widget

Testimonials WordPress Plugin

This premium WP plugin provides many great features right out of the box, including:

• Responsive design that resizes for correct display 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 on top, bottom, or side of testimonials, display testimonials in a speech bubble, customized font and background colours, font types and more.

To download and use the 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 …

User reviews and testimonials are great sources of content that can help your business add credibility, build authority, improve online reputation, and grow your sales funnel. Always ask for testimonials, reviews, and feedback from your clients, and publish positive content about your business on your website or blog.

Additional Info

The articles below are a great source of information on creating effective testimonials and were also helpful in providing research and 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 actionable information and practical tips that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful 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 completely FREE!

***

***