How To Build Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews

Are you stuck in a cycle of doing what you’ve always done to attract and retain new customers, only to get the exact same disappointing results? As most small business owners know, that generating new business can be confusing, frustrating and difficult. Just trying to survive 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 digital, mobile and social-driven economy, ignoring what customers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!

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

By the same token, you may also be doing your business a disservice if you are not spreading the positive things your customers say about your services and products. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are effective ways of helping you market and promote your products and services online and should be used throughout your content.

In this article, you will learn tips for creating better results online using compelling user testimonials.

Testimonials And User Reviews

The great, legendary showman P.T. Barnum is often quoted as having stated 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 and effective way of promoting your business. Genuine testimonials from your satisfied users are far more persuasive when it comes to drawing new customers than anything you have to say about your own products or services.

There is clearly a source of untapped opportunities for generating new business that most businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … reviews from your previous users!

Consumer reviews and testimonials are a fantastic way to build credibility for your services and products.

Studies conducted by leading marketing research firms all lead to the same conclusion: adding testimonials and reviews to your sales pages decreases doubts potential customers may have about products, helps users select products and helps increase the number of product sales.

Here are just some of the statistics available to 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 site if it has ratings and reviews.”
• According to Reevoo.com, 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.
• 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).
• 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 Client Testimonials And Reviews – Managing Online Reputation

Adding reviews and testimonials to your site from customers who are thrilled with your services is important for helping you grow your business online and creating a solid online reputation.

Reviews and testimonials, however, can work both ways and affect your business both positive and negative ways.

People may not be saying bad things about your business, products or services directly to your face, but they could have posted negative comments on Facebook about a bad experience they’ve just had with 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 a vitally important aspect of your business success.

Misconceptions about online reputation management, such as being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you really don’t need it) could be seriously hurting 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 reviews:

• Managing Poor Client Feedback Easily With Power Online Reviews

Tips On How To Create Knockout Customer Testimonials

User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive when it comes to helping you market and promote your products and services online and should be used in your content marketing strategy. When you include responses from customers in your content, you:

• Show prospects exactly what pains and problems your products and services can solve for them and how easily it can do this.
• Help visitors identify their objections and address these.
• Help potential customers connect with their motivations and aspirations and this facilitates moving them closer to a decision to purchase.

Here are some useful tips on how to create profit boosting customer testimonials:

• Don’t over edit: You should try using your customer’s actual words as much as you can. Leaving little grammatical errors and misspelled words in the content helps keep your testimonials sounding authentic.
• Use photos: Images of people’s faces draw attention to your content. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews can help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your site’s content.
• Use the power of storytelling: Stories are far more effective and memorable than just providing statistical facts. Being able to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution came to the rescue will make a more lasting impression on those reading your content than using generic statements about excellent service and giving “two thumbs up” product 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 makes the most 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 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 services, or testimonials where clients are truly thrilled about your support when offering a money-back guarantee or addressing objections.
• Quantify the information: Which of the following statements is more powerful: “Since using your XYZ services, we have noticed our revenue increase by $72,487 in the previous 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 sales or reduce their costs in specific percentages or amounts, how many hours they have saved, how many new leads or new clients they were able to generate in a recent business quarter, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
• Use different testimonials on your site: Although this can be a little difficult when you are just starting out and don’t have many clients, try to avoid using the same testimonial throughout your site. 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 discount for clients in exchange for an honest review and permission to publish it if you decide to use it.
• Appeal to your best 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 aspire to become can be a really 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 posts a great comment on your Facebook wall praising your customer service, contact them privately asking for permission to reprint the content on your blog.
• Never use fake testimonials. Many people can tell if you are employing copy writers to write your content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your prospects need to believe that the testimonials displayed on your site are genuine. Don’t destroy your credibility with a ”made up” testimonial.

How To Get Testimonials

Ask

Getting a testimonial from a satisfied customer can be as simple as just asking for it.

Follow these useful tips for soliciting testimonials:

• Make it a part of your business processes to contact clients after 90 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you did not obtain one after performing a service.
• Include a field for testimonials in your client satisfaction surveys.
• Pull out your phone when you next meet with clients or hand over a completed project and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they would be happy to record a quick video testimonial/feedback interview. If they agree, while recording the video, explain to viewers what you have done for the client and make sure to record the client’s positive reactions and feedback.
• Make it easy for them. If 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 given you – don’t 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 already prepared something to save them time and invite them to change what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.

Offer To Post A Link Back To Their Site Wherever You Publish Their Testimonial

Offer to publish a link back to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great 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.

Add Testimonial Requests To Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages

If you have a list of subscribers, include a request for a testimonial in a scheduled newsletter message. Preferably, this should be done after your customers have had a chance to assess the results of using your solution. Use words like “I need your help” in your email subject and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking customers for feedback, a testimonial, or a product review.

Use LinkedIn

The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature lets you obtain testimonials that become part of your profile. With LinkedIn, the process for requesting and providing recommendations is simple and user-friendly and the person who provides the recommendation gets a link to their profile. If you get a recommendation on LinkedIn, ask for permission to reprint it on your website (tip: offer to publish a link back to their website or profile in exchange).

Create A Client Testimonials Page On Your Site

Create a new section for customer testimonials and add a “read more customer testimonials …” link pointing to your main testimonials page throughout your content sections.

Useful Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of your user testimonials by how long visitors remain on the section of your pages or posts where you have added your testimonial content. A great tool for monitoring visitor behaviour on your pages are “heatmaps”.

We have written an article about adding heatmap analytics to your site to track visitor behavior here:

• Tracking Visitor Behavior On Your WordPress Site Using Heatmapping Tools – Heat Map Tracker Review

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 forms to your pages inviting users to submit testimonials.

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

Below are some plugins you can check out:

Easy Testimonials

Easy Testimonials is a free WP plugin that lets you add testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into posts and pages using a shortcode. The Easy Testimonials plugin also lets you insert a list of all testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which can be used to add a photo of the testimonial author, their company logo, etc.

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

To learn more about the plugin, visit this site:

• Easy Testimonials

Testimonials Widget

Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with videos or images on your WordPress site. You can insert 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 Testimonials Widget plugin comes with extra features via a premium version, including built-in options SEO functionality and technical support.

To download and use the plugin, go here:

• Testimonials Widget

Testimonials WordPress Plugin

This is a premium WP plugin that offers 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 sliders, slideshows, grid layout, list layout, etc. via 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 download and use the plugin, go here:

• Testimonials WordPress Plugin

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

• How To Add Testimonials In WordPress

In Conclusion …

Client testimonials and user reviews are powerful sources of content that help your business add credibility, build authority, improve online reputation, and grow your sales funnel. Always ask for testimonials, reviews, and feedback from existing clients, and start publishing these on your site.

Resources

For additional resources about creating engaging 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 regular training emails with actionable information that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful content for 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!

***

***