Build Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews

Are you stuck in a cycle of doing what you’ve always done to attract customers, and getting the exact same disappointing results? As most business owners know, that generating new customers can be quite difficult. Just trying to keep your business afloat takes up a lot of time, money and energy, and sometimes this can feel like it’s just not worth the effort.

In today’s digital and social-driven economy, ignoring what consumers 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!

You could be doing your business a great disservice if you don’t publish the positive things your customers are saying about your products and services. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive when it comes to helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be included in your content.

In this article, you will learn ways to achieve better results online using more effective user testimonials.

Client Reviews And Testimonials

The great American businessman and showman Phineas Taylor (Aka “P.T.”) Barnum 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 way of getting your business promoted effectively. Genuine reviews and testimonials from existing customers are far more persuasive when it comes to attracting new clients than anything you can say about your own products or services.

There is a source of untapped opportunities for generating new business that most businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … client reviews and testimonials!

Reviews and customer testimonials are a powerful way to build credibility for your business.

Tests conducted by many leading research companies all seem to lead to the same inevitable conclusion: testimonials and user reviews eliminate doubts potential customers may have about purchasing products and services, help with product selection and help increase the number of sales.

Here are just some statistics that 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 consumer reviews.”
• According to Reevoo.com, customer reviews can result in an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more user reviews per product can translate into 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 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).

(The figures above were sourced from eConsultancy.com)

Adding Customer Reviews – Online Reputation Management

Adding great testimonials and reviews to your website from customers who are delighted with your services is important for growing your business and creating a solid online reputation.

Customer testimonials and reviews, however, can work both ways and impact your business both in a positive or negative way.

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 forum about a bad encounter they’ve just had with one of your representatives 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 vitally important aspect of your online business success.

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

See this article to learn more about a tool for WordPress users that lets you legally and ethically manage your customer reviews:

• Managing Your Online Reputation With Power Online Reviews

Improving Your Sales With Client Testimonials – Useful Tips

Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful ways of helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be an integral part of your content. When you include responses from clients in your content, you:

• Show others 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 potential customers connect with their aspirations and motivations and facilitate moving them further along the sales process.

Here are some tips on how to create standout user testimonials:

• Avoid over-editing: You should try using your customer’s actual words as much as you can. Leaving grammatical errors and misspelt words in the content helps keep your testimonials sounding authentic.
• Use real photos: Marketing tests show that using images of people’s faces draws the attention of visitors on a web page. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews can help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your content.
• Tell a powerful story: Stories are far more effective and captivating than just providing facts and statistics. Being able to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution came to the rescue will make a more lasting impression on those reading your content than using generalized statements about excellent support and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
• Keep it in context: Add testimonials in 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 will have on your visitor’s mind if you were to display a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution can be purchased for before posting 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 thrilled about your customer service before offering a risk-free guarantee or addressing objections.
• Quantify your information: Which of the following statements is more powerful: “XYZ solution was directly responsible for increasing our revenue by $80,144 in the previous financial quarter,” or “XYZ product definitely helped us grow our business?” If possible, ask clients to specify quantifiable results when submitting testimonials, like how much your solution helped to increase their sales or reduce their costs by in specific percentages or amounts, how many hours you have helped them save, 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 customer testimonials throughout your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult when you are just starting out and don’t have many clients, it’s best to avoid displaying the same testimonial repeatedly throughout your web pages. Depending on your business, you could try to obtain more client 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 best customer is, providing testimonials from people who your prospects can relate to 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 best audience demographic.
• Reprint content across different platforms. If someone publishes a great comment on your Facebook wall praising your commitment to customer satisfaction, ask them permission to reprint the content on your site.
• Don’t use fake testimonials. Many people can see through sites that employ copywriters to produce content. Outsourcing content is fine, but prospective customers need to believe that the testimonials provided on your site are genuine. Don’t compromise your integrity with ”made up” testimonials.

How To Get Testimonials

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.

Here are some useful guidelines for requesting testimonials from customers:

• Contact customers after 60 days with an email request for a testimonial if you did not obtain one immediately after completing your service.
• Include a text box for testimonials in your client satisfaction surveys.
• Pull out your phone when you next visit a client or hand over a finished project and if they are delighted with the results, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a brief video testimonial/feedback interview. During your video, describe to viewers what you have done for your client and record the client’s positive reactions and feedback.
• Make it easy and write it 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 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 quote them on your site. Explain that you have already prepared something to help them save time and invite them to edit what you have written however they see fit before replying with their approval.

Offer To Publish A Link Back To The Source

Offer to post a link back to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive for clients to provide a testimonial. It also makes an implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are not fake and can be verified.

Include Testimonial Requests In Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages

If you have a subscriber list, include requests for a testimonial in one of your newsletter mailouts. Preferably, this should be done after your clients have had a chance to experience your services. 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 that become part of your profile. With LinkedIn, the process for requesting and providing recommendations is simple and user-friendly and the person providing the recommendation gets a link to their profile. If you get a recommendation on LinkedIn, ask for permission to reprint it on your site (you can offer to publish a link back to their profile in exchange).

Create A Client Testimonials Page On Your Site

Create a new page for client testimonials and place a “more customer testimonials …” link pointing to this section wherever you are displaying single testimonials on your site.

Tip: You can measure how effective client testimonials are by how long visitors remain on the section of your pages or posts where you have added your testimonial content. ”Heatmapping” technology is a great way to observing what visitors are doing on your pages.

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

• Spy On Your WordPress Site Users Using Analytics Software – HeatMapTracker Review

Using Testimonial Plugins For WordPress

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

Once your plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), all you have to do is refer users to your “Testimonials” section.

Check out the testimonial plugins below:

Easy Testimonials

Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use free plugin that lets you add user testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into your pages and posts using a shortcode. Easy Testimonials also lets you insert a list of all your testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include an image with each testimonial, which you can use to add a photo of the testimonial author, their company logo, etc.

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

To download this plugin, go here:

• Easy Testimonials – WordPress Testimonials Plugin

Testimonials Widget

Testimonials Widget is a free WordPress plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with videos or images on your website. You can insert testimonials via 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 loads of additional features available via a premium version, including built-in functions SEO functionality and plugin support.

To download the plugin, visit this site:

• Testimonials Widget

Testimonials WordPress Plugin

This is a premium plugin that provides plenty 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. by adding 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 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 …

Testimonials and customer reviews are great sources of content that help your business add credibility, build authority, improve online reputation, and grow your sales funnel. Always ask for testimonials, reviews, and feedback from existing customers, and publish positive content about your business on your website.

Resources

For additional sources of information and resources about creating effective customer testimonials read these articles:

• 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 show exactly how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating high-quality content for your site 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!

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