Build Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews

Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract customers, and getting the exact same results? Most small business owners don’t need to be told that generating new business can be quite difficult and time-consuming. Just trying to remain in business requires a lot of time, money and energy, and sometimes this can feel like it’s just not worth the effort.

In today’s online and social-driven economy, ignoring what users may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!

Don’t ignore what your customers may be saying online about your business!

You could be doing your business a disservice if you don’t spread the positive things your customers are saying about your products or services. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful when it comes to helping you market and promote your products and services online and should be an integral part of your content.

In this article, you’ll learn how to improve your visitor-to-sales conversions with powerful customer testimonials.

Testimonials And User Reviews

Legendary showman and businessman P.T. Barnum 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 reviews from your 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 clearly a source of untapped business growth potential that most businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … reviews from your clients!

Customer reviews and testimonials are a terrific way to build credibility for your business.

Studies conducted by many leading marketing companies all lead to the same conclusion: adding reviews and testimonials to your site reduces doubts potential customers may have about purchasing products or services, helps users select products and helps increase sales conversions.

Here are just some of the stats available to support this:

According to research findings 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 consumer reviews.”
According to Reevoo.com, customer reviews play a significant role in creating an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more consumer reviews per product can mean 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 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 Client Reviews And Testimonials – Managing Online Reputation

Adding great reviews and testimonials to your website from clients who are thrilled with the results they’ve obtained by using your services is important for helping you grow your business and creating a solid online reputation.

Reviews and testimonials, 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, products or services directly to your face, but they could post disparaging remarks on Facebook or a discussion group about an unpleasant encounter they’ve just had with one of your employees 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 vital part of your business and content marketing strategy.

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 to worry about it) may be hurting your business without you even realizing this.

See this article to learn more about a simple yet effective WordPress plugin that allows you to legally and ethically manage your customer feedback:

Managing Your Online Reputation With Power Online Reviews Plugin

Creating Engaging Testimonials – Useful Tips

Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are effective when it comes to marketing your products and services online and should be an integral part of your content. When you quote your own user responses in your content, you:

Show others exactly what problems and pains your products and services can 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 aspirations and facilitate moving them further along the sales process.

Below are some tips on improving your sales with testimonials:

Avoid over-editing: You should try to use your customer’s actual words as much as you can. Leaving grammatical errors and misspellings 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 will help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your site’s content.
Tell a story: Stories are much more effective and captivating than just providing facts and statistics. Being able 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 customer support 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 customer testimonials to your site copy where it best makes sense to place them, and where they can most effectively help sell your point. For example, think about the impact you can create on your visitor’s perception if you were to add a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution can be purchased for before posting 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 customers are genuinely ecstatic about your support before offering a money-back guarantee or addressing objections.
Quantify your information: Which of the following statements do you think is more powerful… “XYZ solution was directly responsible for helping to increase our sales by $68,681 in the last fiscal year,” or “XYZ product helped us grow our sales?” Whenever possible, ask clients to specify quantifiable results when submitting testimonials, like how much your solution helped to increase their market share or reduce their costs by in specific percentages or amounts, how many hours they have saved, how many new leads or new clients they were able to generate during a specific financial quarter, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
Avoid using the same client testimonial throughout your site: Although this can be a little difficult if you are just starting out and have very few clients, try to avoid displaying the same testimonial everywhere on your site. Depending on the type of business you run, you could try to obtain more client 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 decide 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 can relate to 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 ideal customers.
Reprint across different platforms. If someone posts a great comment on your Facebook wall praising your commitment to customer satisfaction, ask them for permission to reprint the content on your site.
Don’t use fake client testimonials. Prospective customers need to see that the testimonials displayed on your site are genuine. Don’t destroy your credibility with ”made up” testimonials.

How To Get Testimonials From Customers

Ask

If you have just completed a service for someone, 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 your customers:

Contact your clients after a specific period of time, e.g. 90 days with an email request for a testimonial if you did not obtain one after performing a service.
Include a text box for entering testimonials in client surveys.
Take 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 would be happy to record a brief video testimonial/feedback interview. When recording the video, describe to your viewers what you have done for your client and make sure to record the client’s positive reactions and feedback.
Make it easy and write it for them. When clients send 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 given you – 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 already prepared something 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 The Source Wherever You Quote Their Testimonial

Offer to add a link back to their website 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.

Add Testimonial Requests To Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages

If you have a list of subscribers, include a request for a testimonial in one of your autoresponder messages. Preferably, this should be done after your clients have had a chance to use your product, service or solution. 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 lets you request testimonials from other members that become part of your profile. With LinkedIn, the process for requesting and providing recommendations is user-friendly and the person providing the recommendation receives a link to their profile. If you get a positive recommendation on LinkedIn, ask their permission to reprint it on your site (tip: offer to publish a link back to their website in exchange).

Create A Customer Testimonials Section

Create a “Testimonials” page and place a “more testimonials …” link pointing to this section whenever you plan to add new testimonials on your content sections.

Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of user testimonials by how long visitors stay on the section of your pages or posts where you have added your testimonial content. A great tool for measuring what visitors are doing on your site are “heatmaps”.

We have written an article about adding heatmaps to your site to analyze visitor behavior here:

How To Predict User Behavior On Your WordPress Site Using Heatmapping Tools – HeatMapTracker Review

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 let you add a form to your pages inviting users to submit feedback and testimonials.

Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), you can then refer customers to your “Testimonials” page.

Check out the WordPress testimonial plugins below:

Easy Testimonials

Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use free plugin that lets you add client testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into posts and pages using a shortcode. The plugin also lets you add a list of all your testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which is great for adding a photo of the testimonial author, a business logo, etc.

The Easy Testimonials plugin also comes with a “pro” version with additional features and plugin support.

Visit this site to download and use the plugin:

Easy Testimonials – WordPress Testimonials 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 pages and posts. You can insert user testimonials using a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and have multiple display options such as random or specific ordering.

The plugin comes with a range of additional features via a premium version, including built-in options for better search engine results and technical support.

To download this plugin, visit this site:

Testimonials Widget

Testimonials WordPress Plugin

This premium WP plugin offers 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 the testimonial, display testimonial in a speech bubble, customize font and background colours, font types and more.

Visit this site to download and use the plugin:

Testimonials WordPress Plugin

To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:

How To Add Testimonials In WordPress

In Summary …

Customer reviews and client testimonials 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 existing customers or clients, and publish positive content about your business on your web site.

Additional Info

The articles below provide useful information about creating effective customer testimonials and were also helpful in providing research and information for sections of this article:

We also recommend subscribing to our Free Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will show you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your visitors and grow your business online using content marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum

Tag: Testimonials

Building Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews