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 business owners don’t need to be told that trying to generate new business can be extremely hard and confusing. 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 web-based and social-driven economy, ignoring what clients may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
Don’t ignore what clients may be saying online about your business!
You are also doing your business a great disservice if you don’t spread the positive things your customers say about your products and services. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are effective ways of helping you market and promote your products and services online and should be an integral part of your content.
In this article, you’ll discover ways to achieve better results online with engaging customer testimonials.
Client Reviews
The great, legendary showman P.T. Barnum once said that “Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.”
P.T. Barnum understood the power of “social proof”. Social proof-based content is a powerful way of getting your business promoted effectively. Quoting reviews and testimonials from your satisfied customers is satisfied customers are far more persuasive when it comes to attracting new clients, customers or users than anything you can say about your own products or services.
There is an untapped source of business growth potential that most businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … customer reviews and testimonials!
Reviews and customer testimonials are great for building credibility for your products and services.
Research conducted by marketing research companies all lead to the same inevitable conclusion: testimonials and user reviews reduce doubts potential customers may have about purchasing your product, help users select products and help increase 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 user reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, user reviews play a significant role in creating an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more consumer reviews per product can translate into a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Site visitors who interact with both 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).
- 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 Testimonials And Reviews – Managing Online Reputation
Adding great testimonials and reviews to your site from very happy clients is important for growing your business and creating a solid online reputation.
Consumer reviews and customer testimonials, however, are like double-edged swords; they can affect your business both negative and positive ways.
People may not be saying bad things about your products directly to you, but they could post disparaging remarks on a discussion thread about an unpleasant experience they’ve just had with your services 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 vital to your online success.
Misconceptions about engaging in online reputation management practices, such as being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you really don’t need it) may be seriously harming your business without you even realizing this.
See this article to learn more about a simple yet effective WordPress plugin that can help to avoid the escalation of negative reviews about your business, products or services through effective user review management:
How To Create Client Testimonials – Useful Tips
Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are persuasive when it comes to helping you market your products and services online and should be included in your content marketing. When you quote your own client responses in your content, you:
- Show prospects exactly with similar problems and pains what your products and services can do for them.
- Help site visitors identify and address their objections.
- Help prospects connect with their motivations and aspirations and this facilitates moving them closer to a buying decision.
Below are some useful tips on creating sales boosting customer testimonials:
- Avoid over-editing: Try using the actual words used by your customers as much as you can. 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 on 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.
- Tell a powerful story: Stories are far more powerful and memorable than just providing statistical facts. The ability to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution saved the day will make a far more lasting impression on those reading your content than using generalized statements about excellent service and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
- Use it in context: Add testimonials in your web content where it best makes sense to place them, and where you believe these can most effectively help you sell your point. For example, think about the impact you will have on your visitor’s perception by adding a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution retails for before posting your product or service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before presenting the benefits of your services, or testimonials where clients are truly thrilled about your support when offering guarantees or addressing objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements is more powerful… “As a direct result of using your XYZ services, we have seen our net profit increase by $93,364 during the previous fiscal year,” or “XYZ product definitely helped us grow our sales?” Whenever possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable data, like how much your solution helped to increase their profits 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, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
- Vary the client testimonials on your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult when you are just starting out or don’t have many clients, try to avoid using the same testimonial repeatedly throughout your website. Depending on the type of business you run, you could try to obtain more testimonials by offering limited review copies of your product, or a special launch discount for 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 ideal customer is, providing testimonials from people who your prospects can relate to is an extremely 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 across different platforms. If you get great feedback on your Facebook wall praising your commitment to customer satisfaction, send them a message asking for permission to reprint the comment or post on your site.
- Only use genuine client testimonials. Prospective customers need to see that the testimonials published on your site are genuine. Don’t destroy your reputation with a ”made up” testimonial.
How To Get Testimonials
Ask
Getting a testimonial from a happy customer can be as simple as just asking for it.
Here are some tips for soliciting testimonials:
- Contact customers after a specific period of time, e.g. 30 days with an email request for a testimonial if you did not obtain one after performing a service.
- Add a text box for testimonials in your client satisfaction surveys.
- Take out your phone when you next visit clients or hand over a finished project and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a quick video testimonial/feedback interview. During your video, explain to viewers what you have done for your client and try to 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 juiciest sections (only use what they have written – never put words into their mouth), and shape these into a testimonial, then contact the client and ask them for permission to use it. Explain that you have done this to save them time and invite them to edit what you have written however they like 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 often enough of an incentive for clients to provide you with a testimonial. It also makes an implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are real 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 a scheduled newsletter broadcast. This should be timed to reach subscribers just after your customers have had a chance to use your solution. Use words like “I need a quick favor” 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 product review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature is a great way to solicit testimonials from other members that become part of your account. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is user-friendly and the person who provides the recommendation gets a link to their profile. If you get a positive recommendation on LinkedIn, ask their permission to reprint it on your site (and offer to add a link back to their profile in exchange).
Create A Testimonials Page
Create a new section for client testimonials and add a “read more testimonials …” link pointing to your main testimonials page throughout your content sections.
Practical Tip: You can measure how effective testimonials are 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 what visitors are doing on your site.
We have written an article about a heatmap analytics technology you can add to your site to understand visitor behavior here:
Using WordPress Testimonial Plugins
If your website or blog is built using WordPress, you can use a plugin to display testimonials. Some plugins also let you add forms to your pages where users can submit reviews and testimonials.
Once your plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), all you have to do is send customers to your “Testimonials” page.
Below are some great WordPress testimonial plugins you can check out:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is a free WP plugin that lets you add client testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed them into a Page or Post using a shortcode. The Easy Testimonials plugin also lets you insert a list of all your testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which you can use to add a photo of the testimonial author, a business logo, etc.
Easy Testimonials also provides a “pro” version that has additional features and developer support.
To download and use the plugin, visit this site:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free WP plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with images or videos on your posts and pages. 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 makes loads of additional features available via a premium version, including built-in options SEO functionality and plugin support.
To download the plugin, visit this site:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium plugin provides many 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 slideshows, sliders, 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, customized font and background colours, font types and more.
Go here for more information about the plugin:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
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 feedback, reviews, and testimonials from your clients, and start publishing these on your site.
Resources
The articles below provide useful information about creating effective 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
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 and practical tips that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your business online using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!
***
***
"Your training is the best in the world! It is simple, yet detailed, direct, understandable, memorable, and complete." Andrea Adams, FinancialJourney.org