How To Build Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract and retain customers, and getting the exact same results? As most small business owners know, that generating new customers can be very difficult, confusing and frustrating. Just trying to keep your business afloat takes 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, you just can’t ignore the effect of online consumer behavior, especially if they are posting negative comments about your business.
Ignoring what clients may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
By the same token, you are also doing your business a great disservice if you don’t promote the positive things your customers are saying about your products or services. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are powerful when it comes to helping you market and promote your products and services online and should be used in your content.
In this article, you will learn tips for converting more visitors into qualified leads with knockout user testimonials.
Consumer Reviews
Legendary businessman and showman P.T. Barnum is often quoted as having said that “Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.”
P.T. Barnum understood the power of “social proof”. Social proof-driven content is a powerful and effective way of getting your business promoted. Reviews from satisfied users are far more persuasive when it comes to drawing new customers than anything you say about your own products or services.
There is an untapped source of business growth potential that most small businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … testimonials and reviews from your clients!
Reviews and customer testimonials are fantastic for building credibility for your products or services.
Marketing studies conducted by leading firms all lead to the same conclusion: adding testimonials and reviews to your sales pages helps reduce doubts potential customers may have about buying your products or services, helps users select products and helps increase the number of product sales.
Below are just some of the stats available to support this:
- According to a study by eVoc Insights, a company 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 can produce an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more consumer reviews per product can translate into 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 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).
(The figures above were sourced from eConsultancy.com)
Adding Client Reviews And Testimonials – Managing Online Reputation
Adding great testimonials and reviews to your website from clients who are delighted with the results they’ve obtained by using your services is important for helping you grow your business and creating a solid online reputation.
Testimonials and customer reviews, however, are like double-edged swords; they can impact your business both positively and negatively.
People may not be saying bad things about your business directly to you, but they could have posted negative comments on a discussion thread about a bad encounter they’ve just had with you or 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 an integral part of your business and content marketing strategy.
Misconceptions about managing your reputation online, such as being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you just don’t need to worry about it) may be harming your business without you even realizing this.
See this article to learn more about a simple tool for WordPress users that can help you avoid the escalation of negative reviews about your products through effective customer review management:
Tips For Creating Sales Boosting User Testimonials
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are powerful ways of marketing your products and services online and should be included as part of your content marketing strategy. When you include responses from clients in your content, you:
- Show prospects exactly what pains and problems your products and services can help to solve for them and how easily this can be done.
- Help your visitors identify their objections and address these.
- Help prospects connect with their motivations and this facilitates moving them closer to a decision to purchase.
Here are some useful tips on how to create testimonials:
- Avoid over-editing: Try using the actual words used by your customers as much as possible. Leaving little grammatical errors and misspelled words in the content helps preserve the authenticity of your testimonials.
- Use photos: Images of people’s faces draw attention to your content. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews can help increase visitor engagement with your content.
- Tell a story: Stories are far more effective and memorable 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 generic statements about excellent 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 customer testimonials in your site copy where it best makes sense to place them, and where they can most effectively help you sell your point. For example, 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 pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before discussing the benefits of your products, or testimonials where customers are genuinely thrilled about your customer service when offering guarantees or addressing objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements do you think your prospects would consider to be more powerful: “As a direct result of implementing your XYZ software, we were able to grow our revenue by an additional $55,816 during the last financial quarter,” or “XYZ solution definitely helped us grow our business?” If possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable results, 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 they have saved, how many new leads or new clients they were able to generate during a specific financial period, 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 repeatedly throughout your site: Although this can be a little difficult if you are just starting out and don’t have many clients, try to avoid using the same testimonial everywhere on your website. Depending on your business, you could try to obtain more testimonials by offering limited review copies of your product, or a special discount for existing clients in exchange for an honest review and permission to publish it if you choose 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 can relate to is a really 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 across different platforms. If you get fantastic feedback on your Facebook wall praising your products or services, ask them for permission to reprint the comment or post on your site.
- Never use fake testimonials. Most people can see through sites that employ copywriters to write content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your prospects need to believe that the testimonials provided on your site are real. Don’t compromise your credibility or reputation with ”made up” testimonials.
How To Get Customer Testimonials
Just 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.
Here are some useful guidelines for soliciting testimonials from clients:
- Make it a part of your business processes to contact clients 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 completing your service.
- Include a text box for entering testimonials in all your client satisfaction surveys.
- Take out your phone when you next meet with a client or hand over a finished project and if they are delighted with the results, ask them if they would be happy to record a quick video testimonial/feedback interview. When recording your video, explain to viewers what you have done for the client and record the client’s positive reactions and feedback.
- Make it easy and write the testimonial for them. Whenever clients send you positive written feedback that contains snippets of useful testimonial material interspersed with the rest of their message, grab the juiciest 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 invite them to modify what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.
Offer To Publish A Link To Their Site
Offer to post a link to their website in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great incentive for 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.
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 newsletter messages. 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 message and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking them to provide feedback, a testimonial, or a review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature is a great way to obtain testimonials from other members that become part of your account. With LinkedIn, the process for requesting and providing recommendations is user-friendly and the person who provides the recommendation receives a link to their profile. If you get a recommendation on LinkedIn, ask for permission to reprint it on your website (and offer to publish a link back to their website in exchange).
Create A Client Testimonials Page
Create a new page for testimonials and place a “more testimonials …” link pointing to your main testimonials page wherever you display single testimonials on your site.
Useful Tip: You can measure how useful testimonials are by how long visitors stay on the section of your pages or posts where you have added the testimonial content. A great tool for observing what visitors are doing on your pages are “heatmaps”.
We have written an article about adding heatmaps to your site to predict visitor behavior here:
WordPress Plugins
If your site or blog is powered by 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 (remember to provide simple instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), all you have to do is send customers to your “Testimonials” page.
Check out the testimonial plugins below:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is a free plugin that lets you add testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed them into your pages and posts using a shortcode. The Easy Testimonials plugin also lets you add a list of all your testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which can be used for adding a photo of the testimonial author, their business logo, etc.
The Easy Testimonials plugin also provides a “pro” version that offers additional features and technical support.
Go here to download and use this plugin:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with images or videos on your web site. 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.
Testimonials Widget provides a range of additional features via a premium version, including built-in options for better search engine results and technical support.
Visit this site to download the plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This is a premium WP plugin that provides a range of great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes for correct display on any device or browser.
- Display your testimonials in a widget or as sliders, slideshows, list layout, grid layout, etc. by adding a shortcode
- Styling options (display image at the top, bottom, or side of the testimonial, display testimonials in a speech bubble, customize font and background colors, font types and more.
Visit this site for more information about using the plugin:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Summary …
User reviews and client testimonials are powerful 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 existing customers or clients, and start publishing these on your website.
Additional Info
For additional sources of information and resources on creating effective customer testimonials refer to these useful 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 you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful 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 100% FREE!
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