Build Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract new customers, and getting the exact same disappointing results? Most business owners don’t need to be told that finding new ways of generating new business can be quite difficult and confusing. 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 online and social media-driven economy, ignoring what your clients 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 great disservice if you don’t publish the positive things your customers are saying about your services and products. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are persuasive when it comes to marketing your products and services online and should be included as part of your content.
In this article, you will learn ways to improve your conversions using meaningful user testimonials.
Testimonials And User Reviews
Legendary showman Phineas Taylor (Aka “P.T.”) Barnum once stated 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 testimonials and reviews from satisfied customers is satisfied customers are far more persuasive for drawing new customers, clients or users than anything you can 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 and testimonials from their customers!
Customer testimonials and reviews are a fantastic way to build credibility for your business.
Marketing studies conducted by many leading research firms all lead to the same conclusion: user reviews and testimonials help reduce doubts potential customers may have about buying your products or services, help users select products and help increase sales.
Here are just some findings that support this:
- According to research findings by eVoc Insights, an organization 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, reviews produce an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more user reviews per product can translate into a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Web site 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 Consumer Testimonials And Reviews – Managing Online Reputation
Adding positive reviews and testimonials to your website from people who are delighted with the results they’ve obtained by using your products or services is important for growing your business online and creating a solid online reputation.
Testimonials and consumer reviews, however, are like double-edged swords; they can impact your business both positive and negative ways.
You see, people may not be saying bad things about your services directly to you, but they could post disparaging remarks on a discussion group about an unpleasant encounter they’ve just had with one of your team members and this could be costing you business.
This is where online reputation management becomes an important aspect of your online business success.
Misconceptions about engaging in online reputation management practices, such as being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you just don’t need to worry about it) may be hurting your business without you even being aware of it.
See this article to learn more about a simple WordPress plugin that allows you to legally and ethically manage customer reviews:
Improving Your Conversions With Profit Boosting Testimonials – Useful Tips
Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful when it comes to helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be included in your content. When you quote your own client responses in your content, you:
- Show potential customers exactly with similar problems and pains what your products and services can do for them.
- Help site visitors identify and address their objections.
- Help potential customers connect with their motivations and aspirations and this facilitates moving them closer to a decision to purchase.
Here are some tips on how to create profit boosting testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: You should try using your customer’s actual words as much as you can. Leave little grammatical or spelling errors in the content. This helps to keep things ‘real’.
- Use photos: Images of people’s faces draw attention on a web page. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews will help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your content.
- Tell a story: Stories are far more powerful and memorable than just providing facts and statistics. 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 presenting generalized statements about how “excellent” your service has been and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
- Keep it in context: It’s good to 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 can create on your visitor’s perception if you were to display 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 talking about the benefits of your services, or testimonials where clients are genuinely thrilled about your support 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 growing our bottom line by $14,128 in the last fiscal year,” or “XYZ software has 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 profits 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 customer testimonials on your site: Although this can be a little difficult when you are just starting out or don’t have many clients, it’s best to avoid displaying the same testimonial throughout your website. 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 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 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 across different platforms. If someone publishes a great comment on your Facebook wall praising your solution, ask them for permission to reprint the comment or post on your blog.
- Only use real client testimonials. Many people can see through sites that employ copywriters to create content. Outsourcing content is fine, but prospective customers need to believe that the testimonials published on your site are real. Don’t compromise your integrity or reputation with a ”made up” testimonial.
How To Get Testimonials
Just Ask
Getting a testimonial from a happy client can be as simple as just asking for it.
Follow these tips for soliciting testimonials from your customers:
- Make a point of contacting 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 entering testimonials in all client satisfaction surveys.
- Take out your phone next time you meet with clients or hand over a completed job and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a very brief video testimonial/feedback interview. While recording the video, describe to viewers what you have done for your client and try to record their positive reactions and responses.
- Make it easy for them. If clients send you a positive email thanking you for a great job 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 – never put words into their mouth), and use these to create a testimonial, then contact the client and ask them for permission to use it. Explain that you have done this 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 Their Site Wherever You Publish Their Testimonial
Offer to post a link to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great incentive to get clients providing you with 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 subscriber list, include requests for a testimonial in one of your autoresponder mailouts. Preferably, this should be timed to reach subscribers just after your clients have had a chance to experience 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 customers for honest feedback, a testimonial, or a product review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature helps you obtain testimonials that become part of 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 site (once again, you can offer to add a link back to their website in exchange).
Create A Client Testimonials Page
Create a “Testimonials” page and place a “read more client testimonials …” link pointing to your main testimonials page throughout your site.
Practical Tip: You can measure how effective testimonials are by how long visitors stay on the section of your pages or posts where you have added the testimonial content. A great tool for monitoring what visitors are doing on your site are “heatmaps”.
We have written an article about adding heatmaps to your website to understand visitor behavior here:
Testimonial Plugins For WordPress
If you use 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 plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), all you have to do is refer customers to your “Testimonials” section.
Check out the testimonial plugins below:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is a 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 insert a list of all testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include an image with each testimonial, which can be used to add a photo of the testimonial author, their logo, etc.
Easy Testimonials also comes with a “pro” version with additional features and plugin support.
Go here for more information about the plugin:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with images or videos on your website. You can insert user testimonials via a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and specify different display options such as random or specific ordering.
Testimonials Widget offers a range of additional features via a premium version, including built-in functions SEO functionality and plugin support.
Visit this site to learn more about the plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium WordPress plugin provides a range of great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes for correct display on any device or browser.
- Options to display your testimonials in a widget or as sliders, slideshows, list layout, grid layout, etc. by adding a shortcode
- Styling options (display image on top, bottom, or side of testimonials, display testimonials in a speech bubble, customized font and background colors, font types and more.
For more information about using this plugin, go here:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Conclusion …
User reviews and testimonials are great 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 or clients, and publish positive content about your business on your website or blog.
Resources
The articles below provide useful information on creating engaging testimonials and were also 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
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 website or blog, 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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