Building Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract new customers, and getting the exact same results? Most small business owners don’t need to be told that finding effective ways of generating new business can be quite difficult. 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 digital, mobile and social-driven economy, it’s foolish to ignore the impact of what potential customers are doing online, especially if they are posting negative comments about your business.
Don’t ignore what your customers may be saying online about your business!
By the same token, you are also doing your business a disservice if you are not boosting the positive things your customers are saying about your services and products. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive when it comes to 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 tips for converting more visitors into prospects using meaningful client testimonials.
Testimonials And Client Reviews
Phineas Taylor (Aka “P.T.”) Barnum, legendary showman and successful promoter, once stated that “Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.”
P.T. Barnum understood the power of “social proof”. Social proof-driven content is a powerful way of getting your business promoted effectively. Quoting genuine reviews and testimonials directly from existing customers is satisfied customers are far more persuasive when it comes to attracting new clients, customers or users than anything you have to say about your own products or services.
There is an untapped source of business growth potential that most businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … testimonials and reviews from their satisfied clients!
Reviews and testimonials are a powerful way to build credibility for your services and products.
Research conducted by many leading marketing research companies all point to the same inevitable conclusion: adding reviews and customer testimonials to your sales information helps reduce doubts potential customers may have about purchasing your products, helps with product selection and helps increase conversions of visitors into sales.
Below are just some of the statistics 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 web site if it has ratings and consumer reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, consumer reviews are responsible for producing 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 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 Consumer Reviews – Online Reputation Management
You should be adding reviews from existing clients who have experienced positive results with your business to your site.
Customer testimonials and reviews, however, are like double-edged swords; they can affect your business both negative and positive ways.
People may not be saying bad things about your business, products or services directly to you, but they could have posted damaging words on a forum about an unpleasant experience they’ve just had using your products 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 important to your online success.
Misconceptions about online reputation management, such as the process being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you really don’t need to worry about it) may be seriously causing damage to your business without you even realizing this.
See this article to learn more about a simple yet effective plugin for WordPress users that can help you avoid the escalation of negative reviews about your business, products or services through effective user review management:
Tips On Improving Your Sales With Awesome 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 included as part of your content marketing. When you include responses from customers in your content, you:
- Show others exactly what problems and pains your products and services can help to solve for them and how easily this can be done.
- Help potential customers identify their objections and address these.
- Help prospects connect with their motivations and this facilitates the sales process.
Below are some tips on improving your sales with testimonials:
- Avoid over-editing: You should try using the actual words used by your customers as much as you can. Leaving grammatical errors and misspellings in the content helps preserve your testimonials’ authenticity.
- Use photos of real people: Research shows that using images of people’s faces will draw the attention of visitors on a web page. Adding photos of your clients next to their testimonials and reviews can help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your site’s content.
- Use the power of storytelling: Stories are far more effective and memorable 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 generic statements about how “excellent” the support has been and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
- Use it in context: Add customer testimonials in 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 will have on your visitor’s perception if you were to present a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution can be purchased for before posting pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before talking about the benefits of your services, or testimonials where customers are truly thrilled about your support when offering a money-back guarantee or providing content designed to help your readers overcome their objections.
- Quantify the information: Which of the following statements do you think your prospects would find more powerful: “XYZ solution was directly responsible for increasing our sales by $73,906 during the previous financial quarter,” or “XYZ solution definitely helped us grow our business?” If possible, ask clients to specify quantifiable results when submitting testimonials, 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 they have saved, how many new leads or new clients they were able to generate during a specific financial period, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
- Vary the client testimonials on your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult if you are just starting out or don’t have many clients, it’s best to avoid displaying the same testimonial everywhere on your website. 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 decide 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 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 across different platforms. If you get great feedback on your Facebook wall praising your products or services, ask them for permission to reprint the content on your site.
- Only use real testimonials. Prospective customers need to see that the testimonials provided on your site are genuine. Don’t destroy your reputation with a ”made up” testimonial.
How To Get Testimonials From Customers
Ask
Getting a testimonial from a happy client can be as simple as just asking for it.
Follow these tips for requesting testimonials from your customers:
- Make a point of contacting customers after a specific period of time, e.g. 60 days with an email request for a testimonial if you have not obtained one after completing your service.
- Include a text box for entering testimonials in all client surveys.
- Pull out your phone next time you 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 brief video testimonial/feedback interview. During your video, explain to viewers what you have done for the client and 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 best 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 publish it. 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 see fit before replying with their approval.
Offer To Post A Link Back To Their Site
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 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 subscriber list, include requests for a testimonial in a periodic newsletter broadcast. Preferably, this should be timed to reach subscribers just after your customers have had a chance to use your solution. Use words like “I need your help” in your email subject and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking subscribers to provide feedback, a testimonial, or a review of your services.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature lets you solicit testimonials that become part of your profile. With LinkedIn, the process for requesting and providing recommendations is simple and user-friendly and the person who provides the recommendation receives 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 publish a link back to their profile in exchange).
Create A Customer Testimonials Page On Your Site
Create a new section for customer testimonials and add a “read more customer testimonials …” link pointing to your main testimonials section throughout your content sections.
Tip: You can measure how useful customer 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 monitoring visitor behavior on your pages.
We have written an article about a heatmap analytics technology you can add to your site to predict visitor behavior here:
Using Testimonial Plugins For WordPress
If your website or blog is built using WordPress, you can use a plugin to display testimonials. Some plugins also allow you to add a form to your pages inviting users to submit 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” section.
Here are some testimonial plugins you can check out:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use free plugin that lets you add testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into posts and pages using a shortcode. The Easy Testimonials plugin also lets you add a list of all your testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which is great to add a photo of the testimonial author, a business logo, etc.
The Easy Testimonials plugin also comes with a “pro” version that offers additional features and technical support.
Go here to download and use the plugin:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free WordPress plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, or text with videos or images on your posts and pages. You can insert customer testimonials using a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and have multiple display options such as random or specific ordering.
The plugin comes with added features via a premium version, including built-in functions for improved search engine results and technical support.
Go here to learn more about the plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium WordPress plugin offers a range of great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes for displaying correctly on any device or browser.
- Display 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 this plugin:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Summary …
Client testimonials and user reviews are powerful sources of content that help your business add credibility, build authority, improve online reputation, and grow your sales funnel. Always ask for testimonials, reviews, and feedback from existing customers, and start publishing these on your website or blog.
Additional Info
The articles below provide useful information on creating effective testimonials and were helpful in providing research and 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 a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful content that will add value to 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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