How To Build Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract customers, and getting the exact same results? As most small business owners know, that generating new business can be quite hard. Just trying to keep your business afloat requires 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 media-driven economy, ignoring what customers 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 are also doing your business a disservice if you are not boosting the positive things your clients say about your products or services. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are effective ways of helping you market and promote your products and services online and should be included in your content.
In this article, we’ll show you ways to achieve better results online with profit-boosting client testimonials.
Testimonials And Client Reviews
P.T. Barnum, the great, legendary showman and businessman, is often quoted as having 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 and effective way of getting your business promoted. Genuine testimonials quoted directly from satisfied clients are far more persuasive for drawing new customers than anything you have to say about your own products or services.
There is clearly an untapped source of opportunities for generating new business that most businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … consumer testimonials and reviews!
Reviews and customer testimonials are great for building credibility for your products and services.
Tests conducted by many leading companies all point to the same inevitable conclusion: testimonials and user reviews eliminate doubts potential customers may have about your products or services, help with product selection and help increase sales.
Here are just some of the stats available to support this:
- According to research findings 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 customer reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, consumer reviews can 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 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 Customer Testimonials And Reviews – Managing Online Reputation
Adding positive reviews to your website from people who are delighted with your products or services is important for growing your business online and creating a solid online reputation.
Reviews and testimonials, however, are like double-edged swords; they can affect your business both positive and negative ways.
People may not be saying bad things about your business directly to you, but they could have posted negative comments on Facebook, or a forum or discussion thread about an unpleasant encounter they’ve just had with one of your sales or customer support representatives 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 a significant part of your business success strategy.
Misconceptions about managing your reputation online, such as the process being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you just don’t need it) may be causing damage to your business without you even realizing it.
See this article to learn more about a WordPress plugin that lets you legally and ethically manage user reviews:
Creating Captivating Testimonials – Useful Tips
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are effective ways of helping you market your products and services online and should be included in your content marketing. When you include your own customer responses in your content, you:
- Show others exactly what pains and problems your products and services can help to solve for them and how easily it can do this.
- Help visitors identify and address their objections.
- Help potential customers connect with their motivations and aspirations and facilitate the sales process.
Here are some tips on improving your sales with captivating user testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: Try to use your customer’s actual words as much as you can. Leave little grammatical or spelling errors in the content. This helps keep your testimonials ‘real’.
- Use photos of real people: It’s a proven fact that using images of people’s faces draws the most attention of visitors browsing a web page. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews will help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your content.
- Use the power of storytelling: Stories are so much more effective and memorable than simply 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 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: Add customer testimonials in your web content where it best makes sense to place them, and where they can most effectively help sell your point. Think about the impact you will have on your visitor’s perception by adding a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution can be purchased for before posting your service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before discussing the benefits of your products, or testimonials where clients are truly ecstatic about your customer service when offering a risk-free guarantee or addressing objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements is more powerful: “As a direct result of using your services, we have seen our revenue grow by $83,982 during the previous fiscal year,” or “XYZ solution has 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 sales or reduce their costs by 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 quarter, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
- Vary the customer testimonials throughout your site: Although this can be a little difficult when you are just starting out and don’t have many clients, it’s best to avoid using the same testimonial repeatedly throughout your web pages. Depending on the nature of your business, 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 ideal customer: 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 is an extremely 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, send them a message asking permission to reprint the comment or post on your site.
- Only use real client testimonials. Your prospects need to believe that the testimonials you provide on your site are genuine. Don’t compromise your credibility or reputation with a ”made up” testimonial.
How To Get Customer Testimonials
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.
Here are some tips for requesting testimonials from your customers:
- Make a point of contacting clients after 90 days with an email request for a testimonial if you have not obtained one immediately after completing a service.
- Include a field for entering 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 wouldn’t mind recording a very brief video testimonial/feedback interview. While recording your video, explain to viewers what you have done for the client and capture their positive reactions and responses.
- 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 given you – never 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 already prepared something to save them time and invite them to edit what you have written however they see fit before replying with their approval.
Offer To Post A Link To Their Site
Offer to publish a link back to their website in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive to get 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 subscriber list, include a request for a testimonial in a periodic email message. Preferably, this should be timed to reach subscribers just after your customers have had a chance to assess the impact of using your solution. Use words like “I need your help” in the subject of your message 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 is a great way to solicit testimonials that become part of your account. With LinkedIn, the process for requesting and providing recommendations is user-friendly and the person who provides the recommendation gets a link to their profile. If you get a recommendation on LinkedIn, ask their permission to reprint it on your website (once again, you can offer to publish a link back to their profile in exchange).
Create A Client Testimonials Section
Create a “Testimonials” page and place a “read more client testimonials …” link pointing to your main testimonials section wherever you plan to add new testimonials on your site.
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. A great tool for understanding what visitors are doing on your site are “heatmaps”.
We have written an article about a heatmap technology you can add to your sites to monitor visitor behavior here:
Testimonial Plugins For WordPress
If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to add, edit and display testimonials. Some plugins also let you add forms to your pages where users can submit feedback and testimonials.
Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), you can then refer users to your “Testimonials” page.
Below are some great testimonial plugins you can check out:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use free plugin that lets you add client testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed them into your pages and posts using a shortcode. The Easy Testimonials plugin also lets you publish a list of all testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which is great for adding a photo of the testimonial author, their logo, etc.
Easy Testimonials also can be upgraded to a “pro” version with additional features and plugin support.
Go here to download and use this plugin:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, or text with images or videos on your blog. You can insert 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 Testimonials Widget plugin provides extra features via a premium version, including built-in functions for better search engine results and developer support.
Visit this site for more information about using the plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium WordPress plugin provides plenty of great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes for correct display on any device or browser.
- Display options for your testimonials in a widget or as sliders, slideshows, list layout, grid layout, etc. via a shortcode
- Styling options (display image on top, bottom, or side of the testimonial, display testimonial in a speech bubble, customized font and background colors, font types and more.
To download and use the plugin, visit this site:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Conclusion …
Testimonials and customer reviews are great sources of content that 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 your clients, and publish positive content about your business on your website or blog.
Resources
For additional resources about 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 a comprehensive series of training emails with easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will show exactly 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. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!
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