Build Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews
Are you stuck in a cycle of doing what you’ve always done to attract customers, only to get the exact same disappointing results? As most business owners know, that finding new ways of generating new customers can be extremely hard. Just trying to remain in business takes up a lot of your 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 users may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
Don’t ignore what users may be saying online about your business!
You could be doing your business a disservice if you are not spreading the positive things your customers say about your products and services. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful when it comes to helping you market your products and services online and should be used throughout your content.
In this article, we’ll show you how to improve your visitor-to-sales conversions using meaningful user testimonials.
Consumer 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 obviously understood the power of “social proof”. Using social proof as content is a powerful way of getting your business promoted effectively. Quoting genuine reviews directly from satisfied clients is existing clients are far more persuasive when it comes to drawing new customers, clients or users than anything you can say about your own products or services.
There is clearly an untapped source of business growth potential that most small businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … consumer reviews and testimonials!
Consumer reviews and customer testimonials are fantastic for building credibility for your products and services.
Studies conducted by marketing research companies all point to the same conclusion: adding customer testimonials and user reviews to your sales information pages helps decrease doubts potential customers may have about buying your products or services, helps users select products and helps increase sales conversions.
Here are just some of the statistics available to support this:
- According to research by eVoc Insights, a company that researches and measures user experience, “In general, 63% of users indicate they are more likely to purchase from a site if it has ratings and reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, consumer reviews produce an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more reviews per product can translate into 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).
(Source: eConsultancy.com)
Adding User Reviews – Online Reputation Management
Clearly, you should be adding reviews and testimonials from existing clients who have experienced positive results with your business to your site.
Reviews and customer testimonials, however, are like double-edged swords; they can impact your business both in a positive and negative way.
People may not be saying bad things about your products directly to you, but they could have posted disparaging remarks on a forum about an unpleasant experience they’ve just had with your services and this could be costing you business.
This is where online reputation management becomes a vital aspect of your online 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 harming your business without you even realizing this.
See this article to learn more about a WordPress plugin that can help you avoid the escalation of problem reviews about your business through effective user review management:
Tips On How To Create Testimonials
Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are persuasive ways of helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be an integral part of your content marketing strategy. When you include your own user responses in your content, you:
- Show other users exactly with similar problems and pains how your products and services can help them.
- Help visitors identify their objections and address these.
- Help prospects connect with their motivations and aspirations and this facilitates moving them further along the sales process.
Below are some useful tips on creating customer testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: You should try to use your customer’s actual words 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 will draw the most attention of visitors on a web page. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews will help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your site’s content.
- Tell a powerful story: Stories are far more powerful and memorable than just providing statistical facts. 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 using generic statements about how “excellent” the support was and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
- Keep it in context: Add testimonials in 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 your service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before presenting the benefits of your products, or testimonials where clients are truly ecstatic about your customer service when offering a money-back guarantee or providing content designed to help readers overcome their objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements is more powerful… “XYZ solution was directly responsible for helping us grow our net profit by $88,836 in the last fiscal year,” or “XYZ solution helped us grow our sales?” Whenever possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable results, like how much your solution helped to increase their profits 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 period, 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 don’t have many clients, it’s best 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 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 ideal customer 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 ideal customers.
- Reprint testimonials across different platforms. If you get fantastic feedback on your Facebook wall praising your business, send them a message asking for permission to reprint the comment or post on your site.
- Don’t use fake client testimonials. Many people can tell if you are employing copy writers to produce your content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your prospects need to believe that the testimonials you provide on your site are genuine. Don’t destroy your credibility with a ”made up” testimonial.
How To Get Testimonials From Clients
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 tips for requesting testimonials:
- Make a point of contacting clients after 14 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you did not obtain one immediately after performing a service.
- Include a text box for testimonials in all your client satisfaction surveys.
- Pull out your phone when you next meet with clients or hand over a finished job and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they would be happy to record a brief video testimonial/feedback interview. When recording your video, explain to your viewers what you have done for the client and make sure to record their positive reactions and responses.
- Make it easy and write it for them. If clients send you a positive email thanking you for a great job that contains snippets of useful testimonial material interspersed with the rest of their message, grab the juiciest sections (only use what they have written – 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 save them 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 Back To The Source
Offer to post a link to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive to get clients providing a testimonial. It also makes the implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are not fake and can be verified.
Add A Testimonial Request To Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a list of subscribers, include requests for a testimonial in a scheduled email message. This should be done as soon as your customers have had a chance to assess the results 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 customers for feedback, a testimonial, or a product review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature allows you to request testimonials from other members for your profile. With LinkedIn, 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 (once again, you can offer to add a link back to their website in exchange).
Create A Testimonials Section
Create a “Testimonials” page and add a “more customer testimonials …” link to this page wherever you are adding single testimonials on your content sections.
Tip: You can measure how useful testimonials are by how long visitors remain on the section of your pages or posts where you have added the testimonial content. ”Heatmapping” technology is a great way to understanding what visitors are doing on your site.
We have written an article about a heatmap software you can add to your website to measure visitor behaviour here:
Useful Testimonial Plugins For WordPress
If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to display testimonials. Some plugins also let you add forms to your pages inviting users to submit reviews 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 then refer customers to your “Testimonials” page.
Check out the testimonial plugins below:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is a free WordPress 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 for adding a photo of the testimonial author, a business logo, etc.
The Easy Testimonials plugin also provides users with a “pro” version that offers additional features and technical support.
To download and use the plugin, visit this site:
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 posts and pages. You can insert testimonials content via a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and have multiple display options such as random or specific ordering.
The plugin makes loads of additional features available via a premium version, including built-in functions for improved search engine results and technical support.
To download and use this plugin, visit this site:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This is a premium plugin that offers plenty of great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes to display correctly on any device or browser.
- Options to display 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 testimonials, display testimonial in a speech bubble, customize font and background colours, font types and more.
To download this 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 in terms of adding credibility, building authority, improving online reputation, and growing your sales funnel. Always ask for feedback, reviews, and testimonials from your customers, and publish positive content about your business on your website.
Additional Info
For additional information about creating effective 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
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 and practical tips that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating useful content for your site visitors and grow your business online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!
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