Build Your Reputation With User Testimonials And 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 results? As most business owners know, that trying to generate new business can be hard. 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 digital, mobile and social media-driven economy, ignoring what customers 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 aren’t publishing the positive things your customers are saying about your products and services. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are persuasive ways of helping you market and promote your products and services online and should be included as part of your content marketing.
In this article, you’ll discover how to convert more visitors into qualified prospects using effective client testimonials.
Testimonials And Consumer Reviews
The great American showman and successful promoter Phineas Taylor (Aka “P.T.”) Barnum is often quoted as having stated that “Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.”
P.T. Barnum understood the power of “social proof”. Social proof-driven content is a powerful and effective way of promoting your business. Quoting testimonials and reviews from your satisfied users 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 simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … consumer testimonials and reviews!
Customer testimonials and user reviews are a great way to build credibility for your products or services.
Marketing studies conducted by many leading research firms all point to the same conclusion: user reviews and testimonials help decrease doubts potential customers may have about purchasing your product, help with product selection and increases conversions of visitors into sales.
Here are just some findings that support this:
- According to a study 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, customer reviews produce 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 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).
(The figures above were sourced from eConsultancy.com)
Adding Client Reviews And Testimonials – Managing Online Reputation
You should be adding great reviews and testimonials from really happy clients to your site.
Consumer reviews and customer testimonials, however, are like double-edged swords; they can impact your business both in a negative and positive manner.
You see, people may not be saying bad things about your business, products or services directly to you, but they could be posting unhelpful comments on Facebook or a discussion group about an unpleasant encounter they’ve just had with one of your representatives and this could be costing you business.
This is where online reputation management becomes an important aspect of your success.
Misconceptions about online reputation management, such as the process 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 being aware of this.
See this article to learn more about a plugin for WordPress users that allows you to legally and ethically manage user feedback:
How To Create Effective Testimonials – Useful Tips
Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful when it comes to helping you market your products and services online and should be used in your content. When you include your own client responses in your content, you:
- Show other users exactly with similar problems and pains what your products and services can do for them.
- Help your visitors identify and address their objections.
- Help potential customers connect with their motivations and facilitate moving them further along the sales process.
Here are some useful tips on improving your conversions with user testimonials:
- Avoid over-editing: You should try using the actual words used by your customers as much as you can. Leaving grammatical errors and misspelled words in the content helps keep your testimonials sounding authentic.
- Use real photos: It’s a proven fact that using images of people’s faces will draw the most attention of visitors on a web page. Adding photos of your clients next to their testimonials and reviews will help increase visitor engagement with your site’s content.
- Tell a powerful story: Stories are far more powerful and memorable than providing mere statistical facts. The ability to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution came to the rescue will make a far more lasting impression on those reading your content than using generalized statements about excellent customer support and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
- Use it in context: Add customer testimonials in your web content where it best makes sense to place them, and where you believe these can most effectively help 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 your product or service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before talking about the benefits of your products, or testimonials where clients are truly thrilled about your support when offering guarantees or addressing objections.
- Quantify the information: Which of the following statements do you think your prospects would consider to be more powerful: “XYZ solution was directly responsible for helping to increase our profits by $37,183 in the last financial quarter,” or “XYZ software definitely 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 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.
- Avoid using the same customer testimonial throughout your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult if you are just starting out or have very few clients, it’s best to avoid using the same testimonial everywhere on your website. Depending on the type of business you run, you could try to obtain more customer 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 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 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 ideal customers.
- Reprint across different platforms. If someone posts great feedback on your Facebook page praising your solution, ask them permission to reprint the comment or post on your site.
- Only use genuine client testimonials. Prospective customers need to believe that the testimonials published on your site are genuine. Don’t compromise your credibility or reputation with false testimonials.
How To Get Testimonials
Always Ask For Testimonials
Getting a testimonial from a satisfied client can be as simple as just asking for it.
Here are some useful tips for requesting testimonials:
- Contact your clients after 30 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you did not obtain one immediately after completing your service.
- Add a text box for testimonials in client satisfaction surveys.
- Pull out your phone when you next visit clients or hand over a finished job and if they are delighted with the results, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a quick video testimonial/feedback interview. When recording your video, explain to your viewers what you have done for your client and make sure to capture the client’s positive reactions and responses.
- Make it easy and write the testimonial 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 let them know they are completely free to change what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.
Offer To Post A Link Back To The Source
Offer to publish a link back to their website 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 not fake 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 newsletter broadcasts. This should be timed to reach subscribers just after your customers have had a chance to experience your products. Use words like “I need your help” in your email subject and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking clients to provide feedback, a testimonial, or a review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature allows you to obtain testimonials that become part of your profile. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is simple and user-friendly and the person providing the recommendation receives a link to their profile. If you get a 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 Client Testimonials Section
Create a “Testimonials” page and place a “more client testimonials …” link pointing to your main testimonials section wherever you have added small blocks of testimonials on your site.
Practical Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of testimonials by how long visitors stay on the section of your pages or posts where you have added the testimonial content. ”Heatmapping” technology is a great way to understanding visitor behavior on your pages.
We have written an article about adding heatmaps to your website to measure visitor behavior here:
WordPress Testimonial Plugins
If you use 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 testimonials.
Once your 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 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 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 images with testimonials, which you can use for adding a photo of the testimonial author, a company logo, etc.
Easy Testimonials also provides users with a “pro” version that has additional features and technical support.
To download and use this plugin, go here:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, or text with videos or images on your WordPress site. You can insert testimonials via 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 has plenty of additional features available via a premium version, including built-in functions for improved search engine results and plugin support.
To download and use the plugin, visit this site:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This is a premium plugin that provides a range 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, 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.
Visit this site to download this plugin:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Summary …
Client testimonials and customer reviews 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 clients or customers, and publish positive content about your business on your site.
Additional Info
The articles below are a great source of information on creating effective 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
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