Building Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews
Are you stuck in a cycle of doing what you’ve always done to attract new customers, and getting the exact same results? Most business owners don’t need to be told that generating new business can be extremely difficult. Just trying to keep your business afloat 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 clients may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
Ignoring what consumers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
You may also be doing your business a disservice if you are not spreading the positive things your customers say about your services and products. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful 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 ways to improve your visitor-to-sales conversions with engaging user testimonials.
User Reviews
Legendary American businessman and showman P.T. Barnum once 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 reviews and testimonials directly from existing users is satisfied clients are far more persuasive when it comes to attracting new customers, clients or users than anything you can say about your own products or services.
There is clearly an untapped source of opportunities for generating new business that most small businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … client testimonials and reviews!
Customer testimonials and customer reviews are great for building credibility for your products or services.
Studies conducted by leading firms all point to the same conclusion: adding customer testimonials and reviews to your sales pages reduces doubts potential customers may have about purchasing certain products or services, helps users select products and helps increase sales.
Here are just some of the findings available to support this:
- According to research 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, customer reviews play a significant role in creating an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more customer reviews per product can mean 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).
- 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 Testimonials And Reviews – Online Reputation Management
Adding great reviews to your site from delighted customers is essential for helping you grow your business.
Reviews and testimonials, however, are like double-edged swords; they can affect your business both positive and negative ways.
You see, people may not be saying bad things about your services directly to your face, but they could have posted updates on Facebook or a forum about a bad experience they’ve just had using your products and this could be costing you business.
This is where online reputation management becomes important to your success.
Misconceptions about engaging in online reputation management practices, such as the process being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you just don’t need it) may be hurting your business without you even realizing this.
See this article to learn more about a simple yet effective tool for WordPress users that lets you legally and ethically manage customer reviews:
How To Create User Testimonials – Useful Tips
Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful ways of helping you market your products and services online and should be added to your content marketing. When you include responses from users in your content, you:
- Show others exactly with similar problems and pains how your products and services can help them.
- Help potential customers identify and address their objections.
- Help prospects connect with their motivations and facilitate moving them closer to a decision to purchase.
Here are some practical tips on how to create knockout testimonials:
- Avoid over-editing: 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: Images of people’s faces draw attention on a web page. Adding photos of your clients next to their testimonials and reviews will help increase visitor engagement with your site’s content.
- Tell a story: Stories are so much more powerful and captivating than providing mere statistical facts. 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 how “excellent” the service has been 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 in 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 sells for before posting price information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before discussing the benefits of your services, or testimonials where clients are truly thrilled about your customer service when offering guarantees or providing content that helps your readers overcome their objections.
- Quantify the information: Which of the following statements do you think your prospects would consider to be more powerful… “XYZ solution was directly responsible for helping to increase our profits by $65,096 in the previous fiscal year,” or “XYZ product 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 they have saved, how many new leads or new clients they were able to generate during a specific period, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
- Use different testimonials throughout your site: Although this can be a little difficult if you are just starting out and don’t have many clients, it’s best to avoid displaying the same testimonial repeatedly 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 launch 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 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 ideal customers.
- Reprint content across different platforms. If someone publishes a great comment on your Facebook wall praising your business, send them a message asking for permission to reprint the content on your blog.
- Don’t use fake testimonials. Most people can see through sites that employ copywriters to produce content. Outsourcing content is fine, but prospective customers need to believe that the testimonials provided on your site are real. Don’t compromise your credibility with a ”made up” testimonial.
How To Get Testimonials From Clients
Ask For Testimonials
Getting a testimonial from a satisfied customer can be as simple as just asking for it.
Here are some useful tips for soliciting testimonials:
- Contact customers after a specific period of time, e.g. 60 days with an email request for a testimonial if you did not obtain one immediately after completing your service.
- Add a text box for testimonials in all client surveys.
- Take out your phone next time you visit a client or hand over a finished job and if they are delighted with the results, ask them if they would be happy to record a very quick video testimonial/feedback interview. During the video, explain to your viewers what you have done for the client and record their positive reactions and feedback.
- Make it easy 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 best sections (only use what they have given you – never 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 let them know they are completely free to modify what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.
Offer To Publish A Link To The Source Wherever You Quote Their Testimonial
Offer to publish a link back to their website in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great incentive to get clients providing a testimonial. It also makes an implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are not fake and can be verified.
Add Testimonial Requests To Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a subscriber list, include a request for a testimonial in a periodic auto responder message. This should be timed to reach subscribers just after your clients have had a chance to experience your solution. Use words like “I need your help” in the subject of your email and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking them for honest feedback, a testimonial, or a review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature helps you request testimonials for your account. With LinkedIn, the process for requesting and providing recommendations is quite simple and user-friendly and the person who provides the recommendation gets a link to their profile. If you get a positive recommendation on LinkedIn, ask for permission to reprint it on your website (you can offer to publish a link back to their website or profile in exchange).
Create A Testimonials Section On Your Site
Create a new page for customer testimonials and place a “read more customer testimonials …” link pointing to your main testimonials section throughout your site.
Practical Tip: You can measure how effective testimonials are by how long visitors stay on the section of your pages or posts where you have added your testimonial content. ”Heatmapping” technology is a great way to understanding what visitors are doing on your pages.
We have written an article about adding heatmaps to your website to monitor visitor behavior here:
Useful Testimonial Plugins
If your website or blog is powered by WordPress, you can use a plugin to add, edit and display testimonials. Some plugins also let you add forms to your pages inviting users to submit feedback and testimonials.
Once your plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), you can then send users to your “Testimonials” page.
Check out the plugins below:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is a free WP plugin that lets you add testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed them into your pages and posts using a shortcode. The plugin also lets you insert a list of all your testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which can be used to add a photo of the testimonial author, their company logo, etc.
The plugin also comes with a “pro” version that has additional features and developer support.
To download and use the plugin, go here:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with videos or images on your pages and posts. You can insert customer testimonials using a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and specify different display options such as random or specific ordering.
The plugin makes loads more features available via a premium version, including built-in functions for better search engine results and plugin support.
Go here to download and use the plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium WordPress plugin provides a range of great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes for displaying correctly 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 the testimonial, display testimonials 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 …
Testimonials and customer reviews are great 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 publish positive content about your business on your website.
Resources
For additional resources on creating effective 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 easy-to-digest information that will show you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your business online using content marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!
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