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 small business owners don’t need to be told that generating new business can be hard and time-consuming. 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-driven economy, ignoring what clients may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
Ignoring what your clients may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
You may also be doing your business a disservice if you are not promoting the positive things your customers say about your services or products. User reviews, testimonials, 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 marketing.
In this article, you will learn how to convert more visitors into qualified prospects with engaging customer testimonials.
Testimonials And User Reviews
Phineas Taylor (Aka “P.T.”) Barnum, the great American showman and businessman, 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-based content is a powerful and effective way of promoting your business. Quoting genuine reviews and testimonials directly from satisfied customers is existing customers are far more persuasive when it comes to drawing new clients, customers or users than anything you have to 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 … consumer reviews and testimonials!
Reviews and testimonials are a powerful way to build credibility for your business.
Tests conducted by many leading research companies all point to the same inevitable conclusion: user reviews and testimonials help reduce doubts potential customers may have about a specific product, help with product selection and help increase sales.
Below are just some findings that support this:
- According to research 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 web 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 consumer reviews per product can result in 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).
- 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 Customer Reviews – Managing Online Reputation
You should be adding positive testimonials and reviews from happy clients who have experienced positive results with your business to your website.
Customer testimonials and reviews, however, can work both ways and affect your business both in a negative or positive way.
People may not be saying bad things about your services directly to you, but they could post disparaging remarks on Facebook, or a discussion thread or forum about an unpleasant 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 business success.
Misconceptions about engaging in online reputation management practices, 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 realizing it.
See this article to learn more about a WordPress plugin that allows you to legally and ethically manage customer feedback:
Tips On Improving Your Sales Conversions With Compelling User Testimonials
Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are persuasive when it comes to helping you market your products and services online and should be included as part of your content. When you include your own user responses in your content, you:
- Show prospects exactly what problems and pains your products and services can solve for them and how easily this can be done.
- Help your visitors identify and address their objections.
- Help prospects connect with their motivations and aspirations and facilitate moving them closer to a decision to purchase.
Below are some useful tips on improving your sales conversions with awesome client testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: Try using the actual words used by your customers as much as possible. Leaving grammatical errors and misspellings in the content helps preserve the authenticity of your testimonials.
- Use photos of real people: Images of people’s faces draw 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 content.
- Use the power of storytelling: Stories are so much more effective and memorable than just providing statistical facts. The ability 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 presenting generalized statements about how “excellent” your support has been and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
- Use 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. 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 sells for before posting service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before presenting the benefits of your products, or testimonials where clients are truly ecstatic about your customer service when offering guarantees or providing content that helps readers overcome their objections.
- Quantify the information: Which of the following statements do you think is more powerful: “XYZ solution was directly responsible for increasing our profits by $68,016 in the previous financial quarter,” or “XYZ product definitely helped us grow our business?” If possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable results, like how much your solution helped to increase their market share or reduce their costs 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, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
- Vary the testimonials throughout your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult if you are just starting out and don’t have many clients, it’s best to avoid using the same testimonial throughout your website. Depending on your business, 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 target audience: 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 aspire to become is a powerful motivator and influencer. People want to see and buy from “better versions” of themselves, so make sure to include testimonials that appeal directly to your best audience demographic.
- Reprint testimonials across different platforms. If you get a great comment on your Facebook page praising your business, contact them privately asking for permission to reprint the content on your blog.
- Never use fake testimonials. Your potential clients need to believe that the testimonials displayed on your site are real. Don’t compromise your credibility or reputation with false testimonials.
How To Get Customer Testimonials
Ask
Getting a testimonial from a satisfied customer can be as simple as just asking for it.
Follow these tips for soliciting testimonials:
- Contact customers after a specific period of time, e.g. 90 days with an email request for a testimonial if you have not obtained one immediately after performing a service.
- Include a text box for testimonials in your client satisfaction surveys.
- Pull out your phone next time you meet with a client or hand over a completed job 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, describe to viewers what you have done for your client and try to record your client’s positive reactions and responses.
- Make it easy for them. If clients send 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 best sections (only use what they have written – don’t put words into their mouth), and shape these into a testimonial, then contact your client and ask them for permission to use it. Explain that you have done this to save them time and invite them to change what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.
Offer To Publish A Link To The Source Wherever You Quote Their Testimonial
Offer to add a link to their website in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great incentive to get 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 list of subscribers, include requests for a testimonial in one of your autoresponder mailouts. Preferably, this should be timed to reach subscribers just after your customers have had a chance to assess the results of using 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 subscribers to provide feedback, a testimonial, or a review of your services.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature helps 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 who provides the recommendation receives a link to their profile. If you get a positive recommendation on LinkedIn, ask their permission to reprint it on your website (once again, you can offer to publish a link back to their profile in exchange).
Create A Testimonials Page
Create a new page for testimonials and place a “more customer testimonials …” link pointing to this page throughout your site.
Practical Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of testimonials by how long visitors remain on the section of your pages or posts where you have added the testimonial content. A great tool for understanding what visitors are doing on your site are “heatmaps”.
We have written an article about a heatmap analytics software you can add to your website to observe visitor behavior here:
WordPress Testimonial Plugins
If your website or blog is powered by WordPress, you can use a plugin to display testimonials. Some plugins also allow you to add a form to your pages where users can submit feedback and testimonials.
Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (make sure to provide simple instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), all you have to do is send clients to your “Testimonials” section.
Here are some testimonial plugins you can check out:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use free plugin that lets you add customer 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 insert a list of all your testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include an image with each testimonial, which you can use for adding a photo of the testimonial author, their business logo, etc.
The Easy Testimonials plugin also comes with a “pro” version that offers additional features and developer support.
Visit this site to learn more about the plugin:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free WP plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, or text with videos or images on your site. You can insert testimonials content using a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and have multiple display options such as random or specific ordering.
Testimonials Widget makes plenty of additional features available via a premium version, including built-in functions SEO functionality and technical support.
To download the plugin, visit this site:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This is a premium WordPress 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 options for your testimonials in a widget or as slideshows, sliders, grid layout, list layout, etc. using 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.
To download this plugin, go here:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Summary …
User reviews and client testimonials are great 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 testimonials, reviews, and feedback from existing customers or clients, and publish positive content about your business on your site.
Additional Info
For additional sources of information and resources about creating effective customer testimonials read the articles below:
- 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 show exactly how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to 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!
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