Building Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract customers, and getting the exact same results? As most small business owners know, that generating new business can be quite difficult. Just trying to keep your business afloat takes a lot of 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 users 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 could be doing your business a disservice if you don’t spread the positive things your customers are saying about your products and services. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are effective ways of helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be used throughout your content.
In this article, you’ll learn tips for creating better results online with awesome client testimonials.
Testimonials And Customer Reviews
The great American businessman and showman Phineas Taylor (Aka “P.T.”) Barnum is often quoted as having said 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 way of getting your business promoted effectively. Quoting testimonials and reviews directly from satisfied customers is satisfied users are far more persuasive for drawing new customers, clients or users than anything you say about your own products or services.
There is clearly an untapped source of opportunities for generating new business that most small businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … reviews and testimonials from happy clients!
Customer testimonials and reviews are a great way to build credibility for your business.
Marketing studies conducted by leading research firms all seem to lead to the same conclusion: testimonials and user reviews reduce doubts potential customers may have about products and services, help users select products and help increase sales.
Here are just some of the stats available to support this:
- According to research 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 web site if it has ratings and reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, customer reviews result in an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more user reviews per product can result in 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).
(The figures above were sourced from eConsultancy.com)
Adding Client Testimonials And Reviews – Online Reputation Management
Clearly, you should be adding positive reviews and testimonials from existing clients to your site.
Reviews and customer testimonials, however, are like double-edged swords; they can affect your business both in a negative as well as positive manner.
People may not be saying bad things about your products directly to you, but they could be posting negative words on a discussion thread about an unpleasant experience they’ve just had using your products 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 online 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 just don’t need it) could be seriously causing damage to your business without you even realizing this.
See this article to learn more about a simple yet effective plugin for WordPress users that allows you to legally and ethically manage your customer reviews:
Tips For Creating Client Testimonials
Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful when it comes to helping you market and promote your products and services online and should be added to your content marketing. When you include responses from users in your content, you:
- Show prospects exactly what problems and pains your products and services can solve for them and how easily it can do this.
- Help prospects identify and address their objections.
- Help prospects connect with their motivations and aspirations and facilitate moving them closer to a decision to purchase.
Below are some useful tips on how to create compelling customer testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: You should try using your customer’s actual words as much as possible. Leave grammatical or spelling errors in the content. This helps to keep things ‘real’.
- Use real photos: Research shows that using images of people’s faces will draw the attention of visitors browsing a web page. Adding photos of your clients next to their testimonials and reviews will help increase visitor engagement with your content.
- Tell a powerful story: Stories are far more effective and memorable than simply providing facts and statistics. Being able to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution came to the rescue will make a far longer-lasting impression on those reading your content than presenting generic statements about how “excellent” your service has been and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
- Keep it in context: It’s good to add testimonials to your site copy where it best makes sense to place them, and where they can most effectively help to sell your point. For example, think about the impact you will have on your visitor’s mind if you were to insert a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution sells for before posting product or service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before discussing the benefits of your products, or testimonials where customers are truly thrilled about your customer service before offering a money-back guarantee or addressing objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements do you think is more powerful… “As a direct result of installing XYZ product, we have noticed our net profit increase by $50,155 in the previous financial quarter,” or “XYZ software helped us grow our business?” Whenever 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 you have helped them save, how many new leads or new clients they were able to generate in a recent financial quarter, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
- Use different customer testimonials throughout your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult if you are just starting out and don’t have many clients, it’s best to avoid displaying the same testimonial repeatedly throughout your website. Depending on the nature of your business, you could try to obtain more client 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 decide 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 target audience is, providing testimonials from people who your prospects aspire to become can be 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 testimonials across different platforms. If you get a great comment on your Facebook page praising your products or services, ask them permission to reprint the comment or post on your blog.
- Only use genuine testimonials. Your prospects need to see that the testimonials provided on your site are real. Don’t destroy your credibility with a ”made up” testimonial.
How To Get Testimonials
Just Ask
Getting a testimonial from a satisfied client can be as simple as just asking for it.
Follow these useful guidelines for soliciting testimonials from customers:
- Make a point of contacting customers after a specific period of time, e.g. 30 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you have not obtained one after completing your service.
- Include a field for entering testimonials in all your client surveys.
- Pull out your phone when you next visit 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 quick video testimonial/feedback interview. While recording your video, explain to your viewers what you have done for your client and record your 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 best sections (only use what they have given you – don’t put words into their mouth), and use these to create a testimonial, then contact your client and ask them for permission to use it. Explain that you have done this to save them time and invite them to change what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.
Offer To Publish 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 to get clients to provide a testimonial. It also makes an implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are real and can be verified.
Include Testimonial Requests In Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a subscriber list, include a request for a testimonial in a scheduled email message. This should be timed to reach subscribers just after your customers have had a chance to assess the results of using your product, service or solution. Use words like “I need a quick favor” in the subject of your message and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking users for feedback, a testimonial, or a review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature is a great way to request testimonials from other members that become part of your account. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is quite simple and user-friendly and the person who provides the recommendation receives a link to their profile. If you get a positive recommendation on LinkedIn, ask for permission to reprint it on your site (tip: offer to add a link back to their website or profile in exchange).
Create A Testimonials Section
Create a new section on your web site for testimonials and place a “more testimonials …” link to your main testimonials section whenever you have added new testimonials on your site.
Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of 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 understanding what visitors are doing on your pages are “heatmaps”.
We have written an article about adding heatmaps to your site to observe visitor behavior here:
Useful Testimonial Plugins
If your site or blog is powered by WordPress, you can use a plugin to add and display testimonials. Some plugins also let you add forms to your pages inviting users to submit testimonials.
Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (make sure to provide simple instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), you then refer users to your “Testimonials” section.
Check out the plugins below:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use free plugin that lets you add testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed them into a Page or Post 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 you can use for adding a photo of the testimonial author, their logo, etc.
Easy Testimonials also provides users with a “pro” version with additional features and technical support.
To download and use the plugin, go here:
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 pages and posts. You can insert testimonials content using a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and specify different display options such as random or specific ordering.
Testimonials Widget comes with additional features via a premium version, including built-in functions for improved search engine results and technical support.
Visit this site to download this plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium plugin offers plenty of great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes for correct display on any device or browser.
- Display your testimonials in a widget or as slideshows, sliders, list layout, grid layout, etc. via a shortcode
- Styling options (display image at the top, bottom, or side of testimonials, display testimonials in a speech bubble, customize font and background colors, font types and more.
Go here to download the plugin:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Conclusion …
Client testimonials and user 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, and publish positive content about your business on your website.
Resources
For additional resources on creating effective customer testimonials see 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
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