Building 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 results? Most small business owners don’t need to be told that finding effective ways of generating new customers can be quite hard. 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 and social-driven economy, it’s foolish to ignore the impact of what your potential customers are doing online, especially if they are posting negative comments about your business.
Ignoring what users may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
You are also doing your business a disservice if you don’t promote the positive things your clients are saying about your services, solutions, client support, etc. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are powerful ways of helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be an integral part of your content.
In this article, you will learn all you need to know to achieve better results online using captivating customer testimonials.
Customer Reviews
Phineas Taylor P.T. Barnum, legendary showman and successful promoter, is often quoted as having said that “Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.”
P.T. Barnum understood the power of “social proof”. Social proof-based content is a powerful and effective way of promoting your business. Quoting genuine reviews from satisfied customers is existing customers are far more persuasive when it comes to attracting new clients than anything you can say about your own products or services.
There is an untapped source of opportunities for generating new business that most businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … client reviews!
Reviews and customer testimonials are a fantastic way to build credibility for your business.
Studies conducted by many leading marketing research companies all lead to the same inevitable conclusion: testimonials and user reviews help reduce doubts potential customers may have about buying your products, help users select products and help increase sales conversions.
Here are just some of the findings available to support this:
- According to a study 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 consumer reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, customer reviews result in an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more user reviews per product can mean a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Site 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).
- 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).
(Source: eConsultancy.com)
Adding Customer Testimonials And Reviews – Managing Online Reputation
Adding great reviews and testimonials to your site from happy customers is important for helping you grow your business online and creating a solid online reputation.
Testimonials and reviews, however, can work both ways and impact your business both negative and positive ways.
People may not be saying bad things about your products directly to your face, but they could have posted disparaging remarks on a forum about a bad experience they’ve just had with your business 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 vital aspect of your online success.
Misconceptions about online reputation management, such as the process being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you just don’t need to worry about it) could be seriously hurting your business without you even realizing this.
See this article to learn more about a WordPress plugin that allows you to legally and ethically manage customer reviews:
Improving Your Sales With User Testimonials – Useful Tips
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive when it comes to marketing your products and services online and should be used in your content marketing. When you quote responses from clients in your content, you:
- Show prospects exactly what pains and problems your products and services can solve for them and how easily this can be done.
- Help site visitors identify their objections and address these.
- Help potential customers connect with their motivations and this facilitates moving them closer to a decision to purchase.
Below are some tips on how to create user testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: Try using the actual words used by your customers as much as you can. Leaving grammatical errors and misspelt words in the content helps to keep it ‘real’.
- Use photos of real people: Images of people’s faces draw the most attention to your content. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews can help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your site’s content.
- Tell a powerful story: Stories are much more powerful and memorable than providing mere statistical facts. The ability to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution came to the rescue will make a longer-lasting impression on those reading your content than using generic statements about how “excellent” your customer support has been and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
- Keep it in context: Add testimonials to your web content where it best makes 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 if you were to insert a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution sells for before posting your service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before discussing the benefits of your services, or testimonials where clients are truly ecstatic about your customer service before offering a risk-free guarantee or providing content that helps readers overcome their objections.
- Quantify the information: Which of the following statements do you think is more powerful: “Since installing XYZ solution, we were able to grow our net profit by an additional $58,107 in the last financial quarter,” or “XYZ software has helped us grow our business?” If possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable data, 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 they have saved, how many new leads or new clients they were able to generate during a specific business quarter, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
- Avoid using the same client testimonial repeatedly throughout your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult if you are just starting out and have very few clients, try to avoid using the same testimonial everywhere on your site. 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 decide 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 can relate to can be a very 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 best audience demographic.
- Reprint testimonials across different platforms. If you get a great comment on your Facebook wall praising your commitment to customer satisfaction, send them a message asking for their permission to reprint the content on your site.
- Only use genuine testimonials. Your prospects need to believe that the testimonials provided on your site are genuine. Don’t compromise your credibility or reputation with a ”made up” testimonial.
How To Get Customer Testimonials
Always Ask For Testimonials
If you have just completed 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 requesting testimonials:
- Make it a part of your business processes to contact clients after a specific period of time, e.g. 30 days with an email request for a testimonial if you have not obtained one after performing a service.
- Include a text box for testimonials in all client surveys.
- Pull out your phone when you next meet with clients or hand over a completed job and if they are delighted with the results, 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 your client and make sure to record the client’s positive reactions and feedback.
- Make it easy for them. When 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 written – never put words into their mouth), and shape these into a testimonial, then contact your client and ask them for permission to use it. Explain that you have done this to help them save 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 add a link to their website in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an 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.
Add A Testimonial Request To Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a subscriber list, include requests for a testimonial in a scheduled auto responder broadcast. Preferably, this should be timed to reach subscribers just after your customers have had a chance to assess the effect of using your products or services. Use words like “I need a quick favor” in your email subject and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking subscribers to provide feedback, a testimonial, or a product review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature allows you to request testimonials from other members that become part of your profile. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is quite user-friendly and the person who provides the recommendation gets a link to their profile. If you get a positive recommendation on LinkedIn, ask their permission to reprint it on your website (tip: offer to add a link back to their profile in exchange).
Create A Client Testimonials Page
Create a “Testimonials” page and place a “more client testimonials …” link pointing to your main testimonials page throughout your site.
Useful Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of customer testimonials by how long visitors stay on the section of your pages or posts where you have added the testimonial content. ”Heatmapping” technology is a great way to observing visitor behaviour on your pages.
We have written an article about adding heatmap analytics to your sites to analyze visitor behaviour here:
Useful WordPress Plugins
If your site or blog is powered by WordPress, you can use a plugin to display testimonials. Some plugins also allow you to add a form to your pages where users can submit feedback and testimonials.
Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (make sure to provide simple instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), you can then refer users to your “Testimonials” page.
Check out the plugins below:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use free plugin that lets you add user testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed them into a Page or Post using a shortcode. The plugin also lets you publish a list of all testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which can be used to add a photo of the testimonial author, their logo, etc.
The Easy Testimonials plugin also can be upgraded to a “pro” version that has additional features and technical support.
Go here to download and use the plugin:
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 pages and posts. You can insert testimonials content 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 additional features via a premium version, including built-in options for improved search engine results and developer support.
Visit this site to download the plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium plugin provides many great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes to display correctly on any device or browser.
- Display options for your testimonials in a widget or as slideshows, sliders, list layout, grid layout, etc. using a shortcode
- Styling options (display image at the top, bottom, or side of the testimonial, display testimonial in a speech bubble, customize font and background colours, font types and more.
For more information about using the plugin, visit this site:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Summary …
User 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 testimonials, reviews, and feedback from your customers or clients, and publish positive content about your business on your website.
Additional Info
The articles below provide useful information about creating engaging testimonials and were also used when researching 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 regular training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will show you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, 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 completely FREE!
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