Building 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 disappointing results? Most business owners don’t need to be told that finding new ways of generating new business can be confusing, frustrating and very difficult. Just trying to remain in business takes up 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 media-driven economy, it’s a mistake to ignore the impact of online consumer behavior, especially if they are posting negative comments about your business.
Don’t ignore what your clients may be saying online about your business!
By the same token, you may also be doing your business a disservice if you don’t promote the positive things your customers say about your products, services, client training, support, etc. 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 included as part of your content marketing.
In this article, you will learn how to improve your sales with standout client testimonials.
Client Reviews And Testimonials
Legendary American businessman and showman P.T. Barnum once said 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 way of getting your business promoted effectively. Reviews quoted directly from satisfied clients are far more persuasive when it comes to attracting new clients 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 … testimonials and reviews from their customers!
Customer reviews and customer testimonials are fantastic for building credibility for your products and services.
Tests conducted by many leading research companies all point to the same inevitable conclusion: testimonials and user reviews eliminate doubts potential customers may have about purchasing your products, help with product selection and increases conversions of visitors into sales.
Below are just some of the statistics available to support this:
- According to research findings 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 consumer reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, customer reviews can result in an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more consumer reviews per product can mean a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Website 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).
- 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).
(Above figures sourced from eConsultancy.com)
Adding User Testimonials And Reviews – Online Reputation Management
Adding positive reviews to your site from delighted customers is essential for creating a solid online business reputation.
User reviews and customer testimonials, however, are like double-edged swords; they can affect your business both in a positive or negative manner.
You see, people may not be saying bad things about your products directly to your face, but they could be posting updates on Facebook about a bad experience they’ve just had using your products and this could be costing you business.
This is where online reputation management becomes vital to your business success.
Misconceptions about managing your reputation online, such as being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you just don’t need it) may be seriously hurting your business without you even being aware of it.
See this article to learn more about a simple yet effective WordPress plugin that lets you legally and ethically manage user reviews:
How To Create Testimonials – Useful Tips
Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful ways of helping you market and promote your products and services online and should be added to your content marketing strategy. When you quote your own user responses in your content, you:
- Show potential customers exactly with similar problems and pains what your products and services can do for them.
- Help prospects identify and address their objections.
- Help potential customers connect with their aspirations and motivations and facilitate moving them closer to a buying decision.
Here are some useful tips on creating testimonials:
- Avoid over-editing: You should try using the actual words used by your customers as much as you can. Leaving grammatical errors and misspellings in the content helps preserve your testimonials’ authenticity.
- Use photos of real people: It’s a proven fact that using images of people’s faces draws the attention of visitors on a web page. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews will help increase visitor engagement with your site’s content.
- Tell a powerful story: Stories are much more powerful and memorable than just providing facts and statistics. Being able to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution saved the day will make a far more lasting impression on those reading your content than using generalized statements about how “excellent” your support was and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
- Keep it in context: It’s good to add customer testimonials to 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 perception by adding a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution sells for before posting product pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before discussing the benefits of your services, or testimonials where clients are genuinely ecstatic about your customer service when offering a risk-free guarantee or addressing objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements do you think your prospects would consider to be more powerful: “As a direct result of using XYZ product, we were able to increase our bottom line by an additional $69,418 during the previous financial quarter,” or “XYZ product definitely 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 in specific percentages or amounts, how many hours of work they have saved, 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 testimonial throughout your site: Although this can be a little difficult when you are just starting out or have very few clients, it’s best to avoid displaying the same testimonial repeatedly throughout your site’s pages. Depending on the nature of your business, 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 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 target audience is, providing testimonials from people who your prospects can relate to is a really powerful motivator and influencer. People want to see and buy from “better versions” of themselves, so make sure to include testimonials that speak directly to your ideal customers.
- Reprint content across different platforms. If someone posts a great comment on your Facebook wall praising your customer service, contact them privately asking for their permission to reprint the content on your blog.
- Never use fake client testimonials. Your potential customers need to believe that the testimonials you provide on your site are genuine. Don’t destroy your credibility with a false testimonial.
How To Get Customer Testimonials
Ask For Testimonials
When you complete a service for someone, or a customer says they are really happy with your product or service, ask them for a testimonial.
Here are some useful guidelines for soliciting testimonials from your clients:
- Contact your clients after 30 days with an email request for a testimonial if you have not obtained one immediately after completing your service.
- Add a field for testimonials in your 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 the results, ask them if they would be happy to record a very quick video testimonial/feedback interview. When recording the video, explain to viewers what you have done for the client and make sure to capture 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 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 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 let them know they are completely free to edit what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.
Offer To Post A Link To Their Site Wherever You Quote Their Testimonial
Offer to add a link back to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive to get clients providing you with a testimonial. It also makes the implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are not fake and can be verified.
Include A Testimonial Request In Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a subscriber list, include requests for a testimonial in a periodic auto responder broadcast. This should be done after your customers have had a chance to experience your product, service or solution. 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 feedback, a testimonial, or a review of your services.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature is a great way to solicit testimonials that become part of your profile. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is 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 (and offer to publish a link back to their website in exchange).
Create A Client Testimonials Section On Your Site
Create a “Testimonials” page and place a “more customer testimonials …” link to this page wherever you are adding single testimonials on your site.
Practical Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of your customer 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 observing what visitors are doing on your pages.
We have written an article about adding heatmap analytics to your site to monitor visitor behavior here:
- Understanding User Behavior On Your WordPress Site With Analytics Software – Heat Map Tracker Review
WordPress Plugins
If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to add and 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 (make sure to provide simple instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), all you have to do is send customers to your “Testimonials” page.
Here are some great WordPress testimonial plugins you can check out:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is a free plugin that lets you add user testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into your pages and posts using a shortcode. Easy Testimonials also lets you add a list of all your testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include an image with each testimonial, which is great to add a photo of the testimonial author, a logo, etc.
The Easy Testimonials plugin also provides users with a “pro” version with additional features and technical support.
To download and use this plugin, visit this site:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free WordPress plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, or text with images or videos on your site. You can insert testimonials using a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and specify different display options such as random or specific ordering.
The plugin offers a range of additional features via a premium version, including built-in functions for better search engine results and plugin support.
Visit this site for more information about the plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This is a premium WordPress plugin that provides many great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes for displaying correctly on any device or browser.
- Display options for your testimonials in a widget or as sliders, slideshows, grid layout, list layout, etc. using a shortcode
- Styling options (display image on top, bottom, or side of the testimonial, display testimonials in a speech bubble, customized font and background colours, font types and more.
To download and use the plugin, visit this site:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Conclusion …
Client testimonials and customer reviews are powerful sources of content that can help your business add credibility, build authority, improve online reputation, and grow your sales funnel. Always ask for testimonials, reviews, and feedback from your clients or customers, and publish positive content about your business on your web site.
Additional Info
For additional information on creating engaging users testimonials read the articles below:
- 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 easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating high-quality 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 100% FREE!
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