How To Build Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract and retain new customers, and getting the exact same disappointing results? Most business owners don’t need to be told that finding effective ways to generate new business can be quite hard. Just trying to keep your business afloat takes a lot of your 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, you just can’t ignore the effect 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!
By the same token, you could be doing your business a disservice if you are not spreading the positive things your clients say about your products or services. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive when it comes to helping you market your products and services online and should be an integral part of your content.
In this article, you’ll discover how to get better results online using captivating customer testimonials.
Customer Reviews And Testimonials
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-based content is a powerful way of getting your business promoted effectively. Quoting testimonials from your existing clients is satisfied customers are far more persuasive for drawing new customers, clients or users than anything you have to say about your own products or services.
There is clearly a source of untapped opportunities for generating new business that most businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … customer reviews and testimonials!
Customer testimonials and reviews are a fantastic way to build credibility for your products and services.
Research conducted by many leading marketing research firms all lead to the same conclusion: adding reviews and customer testimonials to your site helps reduce doubts potential customers may have about buying products that you are trying to sell, helps users select products and helps increase conversions of visitors into sales.
Below are just some findings that support this:
- According to research 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 reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, customer reviews produce an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more user reviews per product can translate into a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Website 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 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 Testimonials And Reviews – Online Reputation Management
You should be adding reviews and testimonials from satisfied clients to your website.
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 services directly to you, but they could be posting negative comments on Facebook, or a forum or discussion thread about an unpleasant encounter they’ve just had with you or your business and this could be costing you business.
This is where online reputation management becomes vitally important to your success.
Misconceptions about managing your reputation online, such as being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you really don’t need to worry about it) could be hurting your business without you even being aware of this.
See this article to learn more about a tool for WordPress users that can help you avoid the escalation of negative reviews about your products through effective customer review management:
Tips On How To Create Engaging User Testimonials
Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are effective ways of helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be included in your content. When you quote responses from customers in your content, you:
- Show other users exactly what pains and problems your products and services can help 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 tips on improving your sales conversions with testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: Try to use 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 of real people: Images of people’s faces draw attention on a web page. Adding photos of your clients next to their testimonials and reviews can help increase visitor engagement with your site’s content.
- Tell a story: Stories are much more powerful and captivating than providing mere facts and statistics. Being able to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution saved the day will make a longer-lasting impression on those reading your content than using generalized statements about excellent customer service and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
- Use it in context: It’s good to add customer testimonials to your site copy 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 perception if you were to display a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution retails for before posting your service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before talking about the benefits of your services, or testimonials where clients are genuinely thrilled about your support before offering guarantees or providing content designed to help readers overcome their 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 seen a profit increase of $89,232 during the previous fiscal year,” or “XYZ solution has helped us grow our business?” 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 you have helped them save, 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 customer testimonial repeatedly throughout your site: Although this can be a little difficult if you are just starting out or have very few clients, try to avoid using the same testimonial everywhere on your site’s pages. Depending on the type of business you run, you could try to obtain more user 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 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 aspire to become 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 appeal directly to your best audience demographic.
- Reprint testimonials across different platforms. If someone posts fantastic feedback on your Facebook page praising your commitment to customer satisfaction, contact them privately asking for permission to reprint the comment or post on your blog.
- Only use real client testimonials. Prospective clients need to believe that the testimonials you provide on your site are real. Don’t compromise your credibility with false testimonials.
How To Get Client Testimonials
Ask
Getting a testimonial from a happy client can be as simple as just asking for it.
Here are some useful tips for soliciting testimonials:
- Make it a part of your business processes to contact customers after a specific period of time, e.g. 90 days with an email request for a testimonial if you did not obtain one immediately after performing a service.
- Include a field for testimonials in client surveys.
- Take out your phone when you next visit a client or hand over a completed 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. When recording your video, explain to viewers what you have done for your client and record your client’s positive reactions and feedback.
- Make it easy and write the testimonial 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 best sections (only use what they have given you – never put words into their mouth), and use these to create a testimonial, then contact the client and ask them for permission to quote them on your site. Explain that you have already prepared something to save them time and invite them to modify what you have written however they see fit before replying with their approval.
Offer To Publish A Link Back To Their Site Wherever You Publish 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.
Add A Testimonial Request To Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a list of subscribers, include a request for a testimonial in one of your autoresponder broadcasts. This should be done as soon as your customers have had a chance to experience your products. Use words like “I need a quick favor” in your email subject and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking users for feedback, a testimonial, or a product review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature helps you request testimonials that become part of your profile. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is simple and 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 site (once again, you can offer to add a link back to their profile in exchange).
Create A Customer Testimonials Page
Create a “Testimonials” page and place a “read more testimonials …” link pointing to your main testimonials section throughout your content sections.
Practical 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. ”Heatmapping” technology is a great way to observing visitor behaviour on your site.
We have written an article about adding heatmaps to your website to measure visitor behaviour here:
Useful Testimonial Plugins
If your website or blog is powered by WordPress, you can use a plugin to add and display testimonials. Some plugins also let you add a form to your pages inviting users to submit feedback and testimonials.
Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), you then send customers to your “Testimonials” page.
Below are some great plugins you can check out:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is a free WordPress plugin that lets you add testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed them into posts and pages using a shortcode. The Easy Testimonials plugin also lets you publish a list of all your testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which is great for adding a photo of the testimonial author, a company logo, etc.
The Easy Testimonials plugin also comes with a “pro” version with additional features and technical support.
Go here to download and use this plugin:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with images or videos on your web site. You can insert client testimonials via a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and specify different display options such as random or specific ordering.
The plugin comes with a range of additional features via a premium version, including built-in options for better search engine results and plugin support.
Visit this site to download and use the plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This is a premium WP plugin that offers plenty of great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes for displaying correctly on any device or browser.
- Options to display your testimonials in a widget or as sliders, slideshows, list layout, grid layout, etc. by adding a shortcode
- Styling options (display image on top, bottom, or side of testimonials, display testimonials in a speech bubble, customized font and background colors, font types and more.
To download this plugin, go here:
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 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 or customers, and start publishing these on your website or blog.
Additional Info
For additional sources of information and resources about creating engaging customer 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 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 that will add value to your 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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