Building Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract and retain new customers, and getting the exact same disappointing results? As most small business owners know, that finding effective ways to generate new business can be hard. Just trying to remain in business 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 online economy, ignoring what clients may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
Ignoring what customers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
By the same token, you may also be doing your business a disservice if you don’t promote the positive things your clients are saying about your products or services. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are powerful when it comes to marketing your products and services online and should be included as part of your content marketing.
In this article, you’ll learn how to get better results online with powerful customer testimonials.
Testimonials And Customer Reviews
P.T. Barnum, legendary showman and businessman, 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-based content is a powerful way of getting your business promoted effectively. Genuine testimonials and reviews from your satisfied users are far more persuasive for drawing 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 simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … testimonials and reviews from existing clients!
Customer reviews and testimonials are a powerful way to build credibility for your products and services.
Tests conducted by many leading research firms all point to the same inevitable conclusion: adding customer testimonials and reviews to your site helps to eliminate doubts potential customers may have about purchasing specific products or services, helps with product selection and helps increase sales conversions.
Below are just some of the statistics available to support this:
- According to a study 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 customer reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, reviews produce an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more user reviews per product can mean a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Site 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 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 Client Testimonials And Reviews – Managing Online Reputation
Adding great reviews to your site from customers who are delighted with your products or services is essential for creating a solid online reputation.
Reviews and testimonials, however, are like double-edged swords; they can affect your business both positively and negatively.
You see, people may not be saying bad things about your business directly to your face, but they could be posting disparaging remarks on Facebook or a discussion group about a bad encounter they’ve just had with one of your sales or customer support representatives and this could be costing you business.
This is where online reputation management becomes important to 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 seriously hurting 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 to avoid the escalation of negative reviews about your business, products or services through effective user review management:
Improving Your Conversions With Engaging Testimonials – Useful Tips
Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are effective ways of marketing your products and services online and should be added to your content. When you include responses from users in your content, you:
- Show others exactly with similar problems and pains how your products and services can help them.
- Help your visitors identify their objections and address these.
- Help prospects connect with their motivations and aspirations and this facilitates moving them closer to a decision to purchase.
Here are some useful tips on how to create powerful client testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: You should try using your customer’s actual words as much as possible. Leaving little grammatical errors and misspelt words in the content helps keep your testimonials sounding authentic.
- Use photos: Images of people’s faces draw attention to your content. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews will help increase visitor engagement with your content.
- Tell a story: Stories are so much more effective and memorable than just providing statistical facts. Being able to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution came to the rescue will make a far longer-lasting impression on those reading your content than using generic statements about excellent customer support and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
- Keep it in context: It’s good to add testimonials to your web content where it best makes sense to place them, and where you believe these can most effectively help to 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 can be purchased for before posting price information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before talking about the benefits of your services, or testimonials where clients are genuinely ecstatic about your customer service before offering guarantees or providing content designed to help readers overcome their objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements is more powerful… “As a direct result of using XYZ software, we have seen our profits grow by $28,404 in the previous fiscal year,” or “XYZ software definitely 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, 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 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 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 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 targeted to your ideal customers.
- Reprint testimonials across different platforms. If you get a great comment on your Facebook wall praising your commitment to customer satisfaction, contact them privately asking for permission to reprint the comment or post on your blog.
- Don’t use fake client testimonials. Prospective clients need to believe that the testimonials you provide on your site are genuine. Don’t destroy your credibility with false testimonials.
How To Get Testimonials From Your Clients
Ask For Testimonials
Getting a testimonial from a happy customer can be as simple as just asking for it.
Follow these tips for requesting testimonials:
- Contact clients after 60 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you did not obtain one immediately after performing a service.
- Include a text box for testimonials in all client satisfaction surveys.
- Take out your phone next time you meet with clients or hand over a completed job and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a very quick video testimonial/feedback interview. If they agree, while recording your video, describe to your viewers what you have done for your client and record your client’s positive reactions and feedback.
- Make it easy for them. When a client sends 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 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 done this to save them time and invite them to modify what you have written however they see fit before replying with their approval.
Offer To Publish A Link To The Source
Offer to add a link back 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.
Add A Testimonial Request To Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a subscriber list, include a request for a testimonial in a scheduled email message. Preferably, this should be done as soon as your clients have had a chance to experience your products. Use words like “I need your help” in your email subject and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking customers to provide honest feedback, a testimonial, or a review of your services.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature lets you request 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 receives a link to their profile. If you get a positive recommendation on LinkedIn, ask for permission to reprint it on your website (and offer to publish a link back to their profile in exchange).
Create A Customer Testimonials Page
Create a new page for testimonials and add a “more client testimonials …” link pointing to this section throughout your content sections.
Useful 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 your testimonial content. ”Heatmapping” technology is a great way to observing visitor behavior on your site.
We have written an article about adding heatmap analytics to your sites to analyze visitor behavior here:
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 inviting users to submit reviews and testimonials.
Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (remember to provide simple instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), all you have to do is refer customers to your “Testimonials” page.
Below are some great testimonial plugins you can check out:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use free plugin that lets you add testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into your pages and posts using a shortcode. The Easy Testimonials plugin also lets you insert a list of all testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which can be used to add a photo of the testimonial author, a business logo, etc.
The Easy Testimonials plugin also provides users with a “pro” version with additional features and developer support.
Visit this site to learn more about using the plugin:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, or text with videos or images on your website. You can insert user testimonials 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 makes plenty more features available via a premium version, including built-in functions SEO functionality and plugin support.
To download and use this plugin, go here:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This is a premium plugin that provides plenty of great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes for displaying correctly on any device or browser.
- Display 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 testimonials, display testimonials in a speech bubble, customized font and background colors, 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 Summary …
Client testimonials and customer reviews are powerful sources of content that help your business add credibility, build authority, improve online reputation, and grow your sales funnel. Always ask for feedback, reviews, and testimonials from existing customers or clients, and publish positive content about your business on your web site.
Additional Info
The articles below provide useful information on creating engaging customer testimonials and were 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
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