Building Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews

Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract and retain customers, and getting the exact same disappointing results? As most business owners know, that generating new business can be hard. 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 online and social media-driven economy, it’s a mistake to ignore the effect of online consumer behavior, especially if they are talking 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 great disservice if you don’t spread the positive things your clients are saying about your solutions, client support, training, etc. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive ways of helping you market and promote your products and services online and should be an integral part of your content marketing.

In this article, we’ll show you tips for creating better results online using awesome customer testimonials.

Testimonials And Consumer Reviews

Legendary showman and successful promoter Phineas Taylor (Aka “P.T.”) Barnum 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 promoting your business. Quoting testimonials and reviews from existing users 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 opportunities for generating new business that most small businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … reviews from their existing customers!

Reviews and customer testimonials are a terrific way to build credibility for your products or services.

Research conducted by marketing companies all point to the same conclusion: testimonials and user reviews help decrease doubts potential customers may have about purchasing your products or services, help users select products and increases the number of product sales.

Below are just some findings that 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 user reviews.”
• According to Reevoo.com, user reviews can produce an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more consumer reviews per product can mean a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
• 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).
• 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 Client Reviews – Managing Online Reputation

Adding great reviews and testimonials to your website from clients who are thrilled with the results they’ve obtained by using your products or services is essential for creating a solid online reputation.

Testimonials and user reviews, however, can work both ways and impact your business both positive and negative ways.

People may not be saying bad things about your business directly to your face, but they could be posting negative comments on Facebook or a discussion group about an unpleasant encounter they’ve just had with one of your representatives and this could be costing you business.

This is where online reputation management becomes an integral part of your business and content marketing strategy.

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) may be hurting your business without you even realizing this.

See this article to learn more about a tool for WordPress users that allows you to legally and ethically manage customer feedback:

• Manage Your Online Reputation On WordPress With Power Online Reviews Plugin

How To Create Engaging Testimonials – Useful Tips

User reviews, testimonials, 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. When you include your own user responses in your content, you:

• Show others exactly with similar problems and pains how your products and services can help them.
• Help your visitors 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 creating user testimonials:

• Avoid over-editing: Try to use your customer’s actual words as much as you can. Leaving little grammatical errors and misspellings in the content helps keep your testimonials sounding authentic.
• Use photos of real people: Research shows that using images of people’s faces will draw the attention of visitors browsing a web page. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews can help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your site’s content.
• Tell a powerful story: Stories are far more powerful and memorable than providing mere statistical facts. The ability 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 presenting generalized statements about excellent customer service and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
• Use it in context: It’s good to add testimonials to your site copy where it best makes sense to place them, and where they can most effectively help 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 can be purchased for before posting product pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before discussing the benefits of your services, or testimonials where clients are truly ecstatic about your customer service when offering a risk-free guarantee or providing content designed to help your readers overcome their objections.
• Quantify the information: Which of the following statements do you think is more powerful… “XYZ solution was directly responsible for helping us grow our profits by $68,793 during the last fiscal year,” or “XYZ solution definitely helped us grow our sales?” Whenever possible, ask clients to specify quantifiable results when submitting testimonials, like how much your solution helped to increase their sales or reduce their costs in specific percentages or amounts, how many hours you have helped them save, how many new leads or new clients they were able to generate in a recent period, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
• Vary the testimonials throughout your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult when 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 testimonials by offering limited review copies of your product, or a special discount for existing 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 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 you get a great comment on your Facebook wall praising your products or services, ask them for permission to reprint the comment or post on your blog.
• Don’t use fake client testimonials. Most people can tell if you are employing professional writers to produce your content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your prospects need to believe that the testimonials you provide on your site are real. Don’t destroy your credibility with a ”made up” testimonial.

How To Get Client Testimonials

Ask For Testimonials

Getting a testimonial from a happy client can be as simple as just asking for it.

Follow these useful tips for soliciting testimonials:

• Make a point of contacting customers after 14 days with an email request for a testimonial if you did not obtain one after completing your service.
• Add a field for testimonials in your client surveys.
• Take out your phone when you next meet with clients or hand over a finished project and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a very brief video testimonial/feedback interview. When recording the video, explain to viewers what you have done for your client and make sure to record your client’s positive reactions and responses.
• Make it easy and write the testimonial for them. When a client sends you a positive email thanking you for a great service that contains snippets of useful testimonial material interspersed with the rest of their message, grab the juiciest 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 use it. Explain that you have done this to help them save time and invite them to edit what you have written however they see fit before replying with their approval.

Offer To Post A Link Back To The Source

Offer to add a link to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great incentive to get clients to provide a testimonial. It also makes the implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are real and can be verified.

Include A Testimonial Request In Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages

If you have a subscriber list, include a request for a testimonial in one of your autoresponder messages. This should be timed to reach subscribers just after your customers have had a chance to assess the effect of using your services. Use words like “I need a quick favor” in the subject of your message and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking clients to provide honest feedback, a testimonial, or a review.

Use LinkedIn

The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature allows you to obtain testimonials from other members that become part of your profile. With LinkedIn, the process for requesting and providing recommendations is user-friendly and the person providing the recommendation gets 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 page for testimonials and place a “more customer testimonials …” link to your main testimonials page wherever you have added new testimonials on your content sections.

Tip: You can measure how useful testimonials are by how long visitors stay on the section of your pages or posts where you have added your testimonial content. A great tool for monitoring what visitors are doing on your pages are “heatmaps”.

We have written an article about adding heatmaps to your website to analyze visitor behaviour here:

• Measuring Visitor Behavior On Your WordPress Site Using Analytics Software – HeatMapTracker Review

Using Testimonial Plugins For WordPress

If your website or blog is built using WordPress, you can use a plugin to add and display testimonials. Some plugins also let you add a form to your pages where users can submit reviews and testimonials.

Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (remember to provide simple instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), all you have to do is send clients to your “Testimonials” page.

Here are some testimonial plugins you can check out:

Easy Testimonials

Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use free plugin that lets you add customer testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into a Page or Post using a shortcode. The plugin also lets you publish a list of all testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which is great to add a photo of the testimonial author, their logo, etc.

The Easy Testimonials plugin also provides users with a “pro” version with additional features and plugin support.

To download and use this plugin, visit this site:

• Easy Testimonials – WordPress Testimonials Plugin

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 WordPress site. You can insert client testimonials via a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and have multiple display options such as random or specific ordering.

Testimonials Widget has loads more features available via a premium version, including built-in functions SEO functionality and developer support.

Visit this site to download and use this plugin:

• Testimonials Widget

Testimonials WordPress Plugin

This premium WordPress plugin offers a range of great features right out of the box, including:

• Responsive design that resizes for correct display on any device or browser.
• Options to display 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.

Go here to download and use this plugin:

• Testimonials Plugin

To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:

• How To Add Testimonials In WordPress

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 start publishing these on your website.

Resources

The articles below are a great source of information about creating effective users testimonials and were also 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 high-quality content for 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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