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, and getting the exact same results? Most small business owners don’t need to be told that trying to generate new business can be quite difficult. Just trying to remain in business 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 economy, ignoring what consumers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
Don’t ignore what customers may be saying online about your business!
By the same token, you are also doing your business a great disservice if you aren’t publishing the positive things your clients say about your solutions, user training, support, etc. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful ways of helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be included as part of your content.
In this article, you will learn how to convert more visitors into prospects using meaningful user testimonials.
Customer Reviews
The great, legendary businessman and showman 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”. Using social proof as content is a powerful and effective way of promoting your business. Quoting genuine testimonials and reviews from existing clients is satisfied clients are far more persuasive for drawing new clients than anything you say about your own products or services.
There is clearly a source of untapped business growth potential that most small businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … customer reviews and testimonials!
Testimonials and customer reviews are fantastic for building credibility for your products or services.
Studies conducted by many leading marketing research companies all lead to the same conclusion: adding reviews and testimonials to your site decreases doubts potential customers may have about buying a certain product or service, helps with product selection and increases the number of product sales.
Below are just some of the statistics 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 user reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, reviews can produce an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more reviews per product can translate into a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- 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 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 Consumer Reviews And Testimonials – Online Reputation Management
Adding great testimonials and reviews to your website from very satisfied clients is essential for growing your business.
Testimonials and consumer reviews, however, are like double-edged swords; they can impact your business both in a positive or negative manner.
People may not be saying bad things about your products directly to you, but they could have posted negative comments on Facebook, or a forum or discussion thread about an unpleasant experience they’ve just had using your products and this could be costing you business.
This is where online reputation management becomes an important 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 it) could be causing damage to your business without you even realizing it.
See this article to learn more about a simple tool for WordPress users that can help you avoid the escalation of problem reviews about your products through effective user review management:
Tips On How To Create Engaging User Testimonials
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are effective when it comes to helping you market and promote your products and services online and should be used in your content. When you include responses from clients in your content, you:
- Show potential customers exactly with similar problems and pains how your products and services can help them.
- Help site visitors identify and address their objections.
- Help potential customers connect with their motivations and aspirations and facilitate moving them closer to a decision to purchase.
Here are some tips on how to create testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: Try using the actual words used by your customers as much as you can. Leaving grammatical errors and misspellings in the content helps keep your testimonials sounding authentic.
- Use real photos: Images of people’s faces draw the most attention to your content. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews will help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your site’s content.
- Use the power of storytelling: Stories are far more effective and captivating than just providing facts and statistics. 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 generalized statements about excellent customer service and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
- Keep it in context: Add customer testimonials to your site copy where it makes the most sense to place them, and where they can most effectively help to sell your point. Think about the impact you can create on your visitor’s perception if you were to display a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution can be purchased for before posting 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 thrilled about your support before offering guarantees or addressing objections.
- Quantify the information: Which of the following statements do you think your prospects would consider to be more powerful… “As a direct result of using your services, we have grown our revenue by an additional $32,558 in the last fiscal year,” or “XYZ product definitely 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, 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 throughout your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult if you are just starting out or don’t have many clients, try 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 existing clients in exchange for an honest review and permission to publish it if you choose to use it.
- Appeal to your best customer: As every infomercial featuring a celebrity endorsement, subject expert or “busy mom” knows, if you know who your best customer is, providing testimonials from people who your prospects can relate to can be 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 best audience demographic.
- Reprint content across different platforms. If someone publishes a great comment on your Facebook page praising your customer service, contact them privately asking for permission to reprint the content on your blog.
- Only use real testimonials. Prospective clients need to believe that the testimonials published on your site are genuine. Don’t compromise your credibility with ”made up” testimonials.
How To Get Testimonials From Customers
Just Ask
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.
Follow these useful tips for soliciting testimonials:
- Make a point of contacting customers after a specific period of time, e.g. 90 days with an email request for a testimonial if you did not obtain one after completing a service.
- Add a field for testimonials in all your client surveys.
- Pull out your phone next time you meet with a client or hand over a completed project and if they are delighted with the results, ask them if they would be happy to record a brief video testimonial/feedback interview. When recording the video, explain to your viewers what you have done for your client and record your client’s positive reactions and feedback.
- Make it easy for them. If clients send 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 written – don’t put words into their mouth), and shape these into a testimonial, then contact the client and ask them for permission to quote them on your site. Explain that you have done this to save them time and invite them to edit what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.
Offer To Post A Link Back To Their Site
Offer to add a link to their website in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive for clients to provide you with a testimonial. It also makes an implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are real and can be verified.
Add Testimonial Requests To Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a list of subscribers, include a request for a testimonial in a scheduled email message. Preferably, this should be done as soon as your customers have had a chance to experience your services. Use words like “I need a quick favor” in the subject of your email and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking customers to provide feedback, a testimonial, or a review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature lets you obtain testimonials that become part of your account. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is simple and user-friendly and the person providing the recommendation gets a link to their profile. If you get a recommendation on LinkedIn, ask their permission to reprint it on your website (tip: offer to add a link back to their website or profile in exchange).
Create A Client Testimonials Page
Create a new page on your website or blog for client testimonials and place a “more client testimonials …” link to your main testimonials section throughout your site.
Practical Tip: You can measure how effective customer testimonials are 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 measuring what visitors are doing on your pages.
We have written an article about a heatmap technology you can add to your sites to analyze visitor behaviour here:
Using Testimonial Plugins For WordPress
If your website or blog is powered by WordPress, you can use a plugin to add and 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 adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), you then send clients 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 the sidebar as a widget, or embed them into posts and pages using a shortcode. The Easy Testimonials plugin also lets you add a list of all testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include an image with each testimonial, which is great for adding a photo of the testimonial author, a company logo, etc.
The Easy Testimonials plugin also can be upgraded to a “pro” version with additional features and plugin support.
Visit this site for more information about the plugin:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, or text with images or videos on your posts and pages. You can insert user testimonials using a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and have multiple display options such as random or specific ordering.
Testimonials Widget makes loads of additional features available via a premium version, including built-in options for better search engine results and developer support.
To download and use the plugin, go here:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This is a premium plugin that 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, grid layout, list layout, etc. using a shortcode
- Styling options (display image on top, bottom, or side of the testimonial, display testimonial in a speech bubble, customized font and background colours, font types and more.
Visit this site to download the plugin:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Conclusion …
Customer reviews and client testimonials are powerful sources of content that help your business add credibility, build authority, improve online reputation, and grow your sales funnel. Always ask for feedback, reviews, and testimonials from existing clients, and publish positive content about your business on your site.
Resources
The articles below are a great source of information on creating effective 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 that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your web site, 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 100% FREE!
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