How To Build Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract customers, and getting the exact same disappointing results? As most small business owners know, that trying to generate new customers can be difficult. Just trying to stay in business requires a lot of your time, money and energy, and sometimes this can feel like it’s just not worth the effort.
In today’s web-based and social media-driven economy, ignoring what your customers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
Ignoring what consumers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
By the same token, you could be doing your business a disservice if you don’t spread the positive things your customers say about your products, solutions, client support, training, etc. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful ways of helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be included in your content.
In this article, you’ll discover how to turn more visitors into qualified prospects with effective client testimonials.
User Reviews And Testimonials
Phineas Taylor (Aka “P.T.”) Barnum, the great, legendary showman and businessman, once said that “Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.”
P.T. Barnum obviously understood the power of “social proof”. Using social proof as content is a powerful and effective way of promoting your business. Quoting genuine testimonials and reviews from existing users is satisfied clients are far more persuasive when it comes to attracting new clients 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 … reviews from their existing clients!
Reviews and testimonials are a great way to build credibility for your services and products.
Marketing studies conducted by many leading companies all point to the same conclusion: user reviews and testimonials eliminate doubts potential customers may have about buying your products or services, help with product selection and increases conversions of visitors into sales.
Below are just some of the stats available to support this:
- According to research findings 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 site if it has ratings and user reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, customer reviews are responsible for producing 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 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).
(Source: eConsultancy.com)
Adding User Reviews And Testimonials – Managing Online Reputation
You should be adding great reviews from existing clients who have experienced positive results with your business to your website.
Testimonials and reviews, however, are like double-edged swords; they can affect your business both in a positive or negative manner.
People may not be saying bad things about your products directly to your face, but they could post updates on a forum about a bad 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 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 really don’t need it) may be hurting your business without you even being aware of it.
See this article to learn more about a WordPress plugin that allows you to legally and ethically manage customer feedback:
Tips On How To Create Standout Testimonials
Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are effective ways of helping you market your products and services online and should be added to your content marketing. When you include responses from users in your content, you:
- Show potential customers exactly what problems and pains your products and services can solve for them and how easily this can be done.
- Help prospects identify and address their objections.
- Help prospects connect with their motivations and aspirations and facilitate moving them closer to a buying decision.
Below are some practical tips on creating standout customer testimonials:
- Avoid over-editing: Try to use your customer’s actual words as much as possible. Leaving grammatical errors and misspelled words in the content helps to keep it ‘real’.
- Use photos of real people: Images of people’s faces draw the most attention to your content. Adding photos of your clients next to their testimonials and reviews will help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your content.
- Tell a story: Stories are so much more effective and memorable than simply providing statistical facts. The ability to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution came to the rescue will make a longer-lasting impression on those reading your content than presenting generalized statements about how “excellent” the customer support has been and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
- Use it in context: Add customer testimonials in your site copy where it makes the most sense to place them, and where you believe these can most effectively help sell your point. 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 your product or service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before presenting the benefits of your products, or testimonials where customers are genuinely thrilled about your customer service before offering guarantees or addressing objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements do you think is more powerful: “XYZ solution was directly responsible for helping us grow our bottom line by $18,079 during the last fiscal year,” or “XYZ solution helped us grow our business?” If possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable results, like how much your solution helped to increase their profits 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, 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, it’s best to avoid using the same testimonial everywhere on your web pages. Depending on the nature of your business, you could try to obtain more 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 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 content across different platforms. If someone publishes great feedback on your Facebook page praising your solution, send them a message asking for permission to reprint the content on your site.
- Don’t use fake client testimonials. Many people can tell if you are employing copy writers to produce your content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your potential customers need to believe that the testimonials you provide on your site are genuine. Don’t compromise your integrity or reputation with false testimonials.
How To Get Testimonials
Always Ask For Testimonials
Getting a testimonial from a happy customer can be as simple as just asking for it.
Here are some tips for soliciting testimonials:
- Contact your clients after a specific period of time, e.g. 60 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you did not obtain one after performing a service.
- Add a field for testimonials in client satisfaction surveys.
- Pull 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 wouldn’t mind recording a very brief video testimonial/feedback interview. If they agree, while recording your video, explain to viewers what you have done for your client and try to record the client’s positive reactions and feedback.
- Make it easy 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 written – 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 done this to save them time and invite them to modify what you have written however they see fit before replying with their approval.
Offer To Post A Link To The Source
Offer to add a link to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great incentive to get clients providing a testimonial. It also makes the implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are real and can be verified.
Add A Testimonial Request To Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a subscriber list, include a request for a testimonial in a periodic auto responder message. 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 them for honest feedback, a testimonial, or a review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature helps you obtain testimonials from other members for your profile. With LinkedIn, the process for requesting and providing recommendations is quite simple and user-friendly and the person who provides the recommendation gets a link to their profile. If you get a positive recommendation on LinkedIn, ask for permission to reprint it on your website (once again, you can offer to add a link back to their website in exchange).
Create A Customer Testimonials Page
Create a new page for customer testimonials and add a “more client testimonials …” link pointing to this section wherever you have displayed blocks of testimonials on your content sections.
Tip: You can measure how useful user testimonials are by how long visitors remain on the section of your pages or posts where you have added your 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 website to understand visitor behavior here:
Useful Testimonial Plugins
If your site or blog is built using 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 reviews and testimonials.
Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), all you have to do is refer clients to your “Testimonials” page.
Check out the WordPress testimonial plugins below:
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 posts and pages 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 for adding a photo of the testimonial author, a logo, etc.
Easy Testimonials also provides a “pro” version with additional features and developer support.
To download and use this plugin, go here:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free WordPress plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with videos or images on your WordPress 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.
The Testimonials Widget plugin provides additional features via a premium version, including built-in functions for improved search engine results and plugin support.
For more information about this plugin, go here:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium plugin offers plenty of great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes to display correctly on any device or browser.
- Display options for your testimonials in a widget or as sliders, slideshows, grid layout, list layout, etc. by adding a shortcode
- Styling options (display image at the top, bottom, or side of testimonials, display testimonial in a speech bubble, customize font and background colours, font types and more.
To learn more about using the plugin, visit this site:
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 can help your business add credibility, build authority, improve online reputation, and grow your sales funnel. Always ask for feedback, reviews, and testimonials from your customers, and start publishing these on your site.
Additional Info
The articles below provide useful information about creating engaging testimonials and were also used when researching 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 actionable information that will show you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful content for 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!
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