Build Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews

Are you stuck in a cycle of doing what you’ve always done to attract customers, and getting the exact same disappointing results? As most small business owners know, that finding effective ways to generate new customers can be extremely difficult. 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 digital, mobile and social-driven economy, ignoring what your customers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!

Ignoring what users may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!

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

In this article, you’ll discover ways to achieve better results online using sales boosting client testimonials.

Consumer Reviews

The great American businessman and showman Phineas Taylor P.T. Barnum is often quoted as having said that “Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.”

P.T. Barnum understood the power of “social proof”. Using social proof as content is a powerful way of getting your business promoted effectively. Quoting reviews and testimonials from satisfied customers is satisfied customers are far more persuasive when it comes to attracting new customers, clients or users than anything you have to say about your own products or services.

There is clearly a source of untapped business growth potential that most small businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … reviews from your clients!

User reviews and customer testimonials are terrific for building credibility for your products and services.

Research conducted by leading marketing firms all point to the same inevitable conclusion: adding testimonials and user reviews to your sales information pages reduces doubts potential customers may have about your products, helps with product selection and increases sales conversions.

Here are just some of the stats 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 web site if it has ratings and 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.
Site visitors who interact with both user 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 Client Reviews – Managing Online Reputation

You should be adding positive testimonials and reviews from extremely satisfied customers to your website.

Testimonials and reviews, however, are like double-edged swords; they can affect your business both negatively and positively.

You see, people may not be saying bad things about your business, products or services directly to your face, but they could be posting updates on a discussion group about a bad experience they’ve just had with your business and this could be costing you business.

This is where online reputation management becomes an important aspect of your online business success.

Misconceptions about online reputation management, 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 realizing it.

See this article to learn more about a simple plugin for WordPress users that lets you legally and ethically manage customer feedback:

Easily Manage Your Online Reputation In WordPress With Power Online Reviews

Creating Testimonials – Useful Tips

Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are effective 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 user responses in your content, you:

Show other users exactly what pains and problems your products and services can solve for them and how easily this can be done.
Help your visitors identify and address their objections.
Help prospects connect with their aspirations and motivations and facilitate moving them closer to a decision to purchase.

Here are some tips on improving your sales with engaging user testimonials:

Don’t over edit: Try to use the actual words used by your customers as much as possible. Leave little grammatical or spelling errors in the content. This helps keep your testimonials ‘real’.
Use photos of real people: Research shows that using images of people’s faces draws the most attention of visitors browsing a web page. Adding photos of your clients next to their testimonials and reviews can help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your content.
Use the power of storytelling: Stories are so much more powerful and captivating than providing mere facts and statistics. Being able 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 presenting generalized statements about excellent service and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
Use it in context: Add customer testimonials to your site copy where it makes the most sense to place them, and where you believe these can most effectively help to 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 retails for before posting your service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before presenting the benefits of your products, or testimonials where clients are truly ecstatic about your customer service before offering a money-back guarantee or providing content designed to help readers overcome their 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 $96,525 in the last financial quarter,” or “XYZ software helped us grow our sales?” If possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable results, like how much your solution helped to increase their market share 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 during a specific financial period, 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 a little difficult when you are just starting out or have very few clients, try to avoid displaying the same testimonial everywhere on your site. 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 discount for clients in exchange for an honest review and permission to publish it if you choose to use it.
Appeal to your ideal customer: As every infomercial featuring a celebrity endorsement, subject expert or “busy mom” knows, if you know who your best customer 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 ideal customers.
Reprint content across different platforms. If someone publishes fantastic feedback on your Facebook page praising your products or services, ask them for permission to reprint the comment or post on your blog.
Don’t use fake client testimonials. Many people can see through sites that employ copywriters to produce content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your potential customers need to see that the testimonials published on your site are genuine. Don’t compromise your credibility with false testimonials.

How To Get Client Testimonials

Just Ask

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

Here are some useful tips for requesting testimonials:

Make a point of contacting 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 field for entering testimonials in all your client satisfaction surveys.
Take out your phone when you next meet with a client or hand over a completed job and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a short video testimonial/feedback interview. If they agree, while recording your video, describe to viewers what you have done for the client and try to record their positive reactions and responses.
Make it easy and write the testimonial 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 written – don’t put words into their mouth), and shape these into a testimonial, then contact your client and ask them for permission to quote them on your site. Explain that you have done this to help them save time and invite them to edit what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.

Offer To Post A Link Back To The Source

Offer to post a link to their website in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great incentive to get clients to provide you with 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 requests for a testimonial in a scheduled email broadcast. This should be done as soon as your customers have had a chance to experience your products. Use words like “I need your help” in the subject of your email 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 allows you to obtain testimonials from other members that become part of your account. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is user-friendly and the person providing the recommendation gets a link to their profile. If you get a recommendation on LinkedIn, ask their permission to reprint it on your website (tip: offer to publish a link back to their profile in exchange).

Create A Customer Testimonials Section

Create a “Testimonials” page and add a “more customer testimonials …” link to your main testimonials section throughout your site.

Practical Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of your client testimonials by how long visitors remain on the section of your pages or posts where you have added your testimonial content. ”Heatmapping” technology is a great way to monitoring what visitors are doing on your site.

We have written an article about adding heatmaps to your sites to monitor visitor behaviour here:

Spy On Your WordPress Site Users With Analytics Software – HeatMap Tracker Review

WordPress Testimonial Plugins

If your website or blog is powered by WordPress, you can use a plugin to add and display testimonials. Some plugins also let you add a form to your pages where users can submit feedback and testimonials.

Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (remember to provide simple instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), you can then send customers to your “Testimonials” page.

Check out the testimonial plugins below:

Easy Testimonials

Easy Testimonials is a free WP plugin that lets you add testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed them into your pages and posts using a shortcode. The plugin also lets you add 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, a logo, etc.

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

Visit this site for more information about this plugin:

Easy Testimonials – WordPress Plugin

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 posts and pages. 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 Testimonials Widget plugin has loads more features available via a premium version, including built-in options SEO functionality and technical support.

To learn more about using the plugin, go here:

Testimonials Widget

Testimonials WordPress Plugin

This premium WordPress plugin offers many great features right out of the box, including:

Responsive design that resizes for displaying 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 testimonials, display testimonial in a speech bubble, customized font and background colours, font types and more.

To download and use the plugin, visit this site:

Testimonials Plugin

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

How To Add Testimonials In WordPress

In Conclusion …

Customer reviews and 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 your clients or customers, and start publishing these on your site.

Additional Info

For additional resources on creating effective testimonials see these articles:

We also recommend subscribing to our Free Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with easy-to-digest information that will show you how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to 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!

***

"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum

Tag: Testimonials

Building Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews