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 customers, only to get the exact same disappointing results? As most business owners know, that finding effective ways of generating new customers can be very difficult. Just trying to stay 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, you just can’t ignore the effect of online consumer behavior, especially if they are talking about your business.
Don’t ignore what clients may be saying online about your business!
By the same token, you may also be doing your business a great disservice if you are not promoting the positive things your clients are saying about your services and products. 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 used in your content marketing.
In this article, we’ll show you how to turn more visitors into qualified leads using sales boosting customer testimonials.
Testimonials And Consumer Reviews
The great, legendary showman and successful promoter P.T. Barnum is often quoted as having stated that “Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.”
P.T. Barnum obviously understood the power of “social proof”. Social proof-driven content is a powerful and effective way of promoting your business. Quoting genuine testimonials directly from satisfied users is existing clients are far more persuasive for drawing new customers than anything you say about your own products or services.
There is a source of untapped business growth potential that most businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … user reviews!
Reviews and testimonials are a great way to build credibility for your business.
Studies conducted by leading marketing research firms all lead to the same inevitable conclusion: testimonials and user reviews eliminate doubts potential customers may have about purchasing products and services, help with product selection and increases sales.
Here are just some of the findings available to support this:
- According to research findings by eVoc Insights, an organization 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 customer reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, user reviews 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.
- Web site visitors who interact with both consumer 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).
- 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 Customer Reviews And Testimonials – Online Reputation Management
You should be adding testimonials and reviews from clients who have experienced positive results with your business to your website.
Testimonials and reviews, however, can work both ways and affect your business both in a negative as well as positive manner.
People may not be saying bad things about your products directly to your face, but they could post negative comments on Facebook or a discussion group about an unpleasant encounter they’ve just had with one of your representatives 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 vitally important to your business success.
Misconceptions about engaging in online reputation management practices, such as being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you really don’t need it) may be seriously harming your business without you even realizing it.
See this article to learn more about a simple WordPress plugin that lets you legally and ethically manage user reviews:
How To Create Testimonials – Useful Tips
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive ways of helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be included as part of your content. When you include your own client responses in your content, you:
- Show prospects exactly with similar problems and pains how your products and services can help them.
- Help your visitors identify and address their objections.
- Help prospects connect with their motivations and aspirations and facilitate moving them closer to a buying decision.
Here are some tips on improving your conversions with compelling testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: Try using the actual words used by your customers as much as possible. Leave grammatical or spelling errors in the content. This helps keep your testimonials ‘real’.
- Use 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 client photos 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 captivating than just providing facts and statistics. The ability to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution saved the day will make a far longer-lasting impression on those reading your content than using generic statements about excellent service and giving “two thumbs up” service 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 makes the most sense to place them, and where you believe these can most effectively help you 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 can be purchased for before posting product or service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before discussing the benefits of your products, or testimonials where customers are genuinely thrilled about your support before offering a money-back guarantee or providing content designed to help your readers overcome their objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements is more powerful… “XYZ solution was directly responsible for increasing our sales by $34,276 in the previous financial quarter,” or “XYZ software definitely 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 sales 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 during a specific financial quarter, 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 somewhat difficult if you are just starting out or have very few clients, it’s best to avoid displaying the same testimonial throughout your web pages. 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 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 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 testimonials across different platforms. If you get great feedback on your Facebook page praising your business, send them a message asking permission to reprint the content on your site.
- Never use fake testimonials. Your prospects need to see that the testimonials provided on your site are real. Don’t compromise your integrity or reputation with ”made up” testimonials.
How To Get Customer Testimonials
Just Ask
Getting a testimonial from a happy customer can be as simple as just asking for it.
Follow these useful tips for soliciting testimonials:
- Contact clients after a specific period of time, e.g. 14 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you have not obtained one immediately after performing a service.
- Include a field for testimonials in client surveys.
- Take out your phone next time you visit a client or hand over a finished job and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they would be happy to record a very brief video testimonial/feedback interview. During your video, explain to viewers what you have done for your client and make sure to capture 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 juiciest sections (only use what they have given you – never 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 save them time and let them know they are completely free to modify 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 back to their website in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great incentive to get clients providing you with a testimonial. It also makes the 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 list of subscribers, include requests for a testimonial in a regularly-spaced auto responder broadcast. This should be timed to reach subscribers just after your clients have had a chance to use 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 customers for feedback, a testimonial, or a review of your services.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature helps you solicit testimonials from other members for your profile. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is quite 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 or profile in exchange).
Create A Client Testimonials Page
Create a new section for testimonials and add a “read more testimonials …” link pointing to your main testimonials page whenever you have added new testimonials on your content sections.
Tip: You can measure how useful testimonials are by how long visitors stay on the section of your pages or posts where you have added your testimonial content. A great tool for measuring what visitors are doing on your pages are “heatmaps”.
We have written an article about a heatmap software you can add to your website to track visitor behaviour here:
Using Testimonial Plugins For WordPress
If your website or blog is built using 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 (with instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), you then send clients to your “Testimonials” page.
Check out the testimonial plugins below:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is a free WordPress plugin that lets you add customer testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into posts and pages using a shortcode. The Easy Testimonials plugin also lets you insert a list of all testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which is great for adding a photo of the testimonial author, their logo, etc.
The Easy Testimonials plugin also comes with a “pro” version with additional features and plugin support.
To learn more about using the plugin, go here:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free WP plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with images or videos on your website. 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.
Testimonials Widget makes plenty more features available via a premium version, including built-in functions SEO functionality and plugin support.
Visit this site to download the plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium WP plugin provides plenty of great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes for correct display on any device or browser.
- Display options for your testimonials in a widget or as slideshows, sliders, list layout, grid layout, etc. by adding a shortcode
- Styling options (display image on top, bottom, or side of testimonials, display testimonial in a speech bubble, customize font and background colours, font types and more.
Go here for more information about using the plugin:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Summary …
Customer reviews and client testimonials 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 feedback, reviews, and testimonials from existing customers, and start publishing these on your web site.
Additional Info
For additional resources on creating effective users testimonials see these 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
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 teach you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, 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 100% FREE!
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