Build Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews

Are you stuck in a cycle of doing what you’ve always done to attract customers, and getting the exact same disappointing results? As most business owners know, that finding new ways of generating new customers can be extremely hard and confusing. Just trying to survive 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 digital, mobile and social media-driven economy, ignoring what customers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!

Ignoring what your clients may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!

You could be doing your business a great disservice if you are not promoting the positive things your customers are saying about your services or products. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are persuasive ways of helping you market your products and services online and should be an integral part of your content marketing.

In this article, you will learn how to improve your sales conversions with captivating client testimonials.

User Reviews

The great, legendary showman Phineas Taylor (Aka “P.T.”) Barnum once stated that “Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.”

P.T. Barnum obviously understood the power of “social proof”. Social proof-based content is a powerful and effective way of getting your business promoted. Quoting reviews and testimonials from satisfied customers is satisfied customers are far more persuasive for drawing new clients, customers or users than anything you say about your own products or services.

There is clearly an untapped source of business growth potential that most businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … testimonials and reviews from your customers!

Customer testimonials and reviews are terrific for building credibility for your products and services.

Tests conducted by leading research firms all lead to the same conclusion: user reviews and testimonials help decrease doubts potential customers may have about products that you are trying to sell, help users select products and increases sales conversions.

Below are just some findings that support this:

• According to a study 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 web site if it has ratings and consumer reviews.”
• According to Reevoo.com, reviews are responsible for producing an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more reviews per product can result in a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
• Web site 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).

(The figures above were sourced from eConsultancy.com)

Adding Client Reviews And Testimonials – Managing Online Reputation

Clearly, you should be adding reviews from delighted customers to your website.

Testimonials and reviews, however, can work both ways and impact your business both in a positive and negative manner.

You see, people may not be saying bad things about your business directly to your face, but they could post negative comments on Facebook or a discussion thread about an unpleasant encounter they’ve just had with one of your staff and this could be costing you business.

This is where online reputation management becomes vital to your success.

Misconceptions about managing your reputation online, such as being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you just don’t need it) could be seriously hurting your business without you even being aware of this.

See this article to learn more about a WordPress plugin that can help to avoid the escalation of negative reviews about your business, products or services through effective user review management:

• Managing Your Online Reputation Easily With Power Online Reviews WordPress Plugin

Tips For Creating Testimonials

User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are powerful when it comes to helping you market your products and services online and should be added to your content marketing strategy. When you include responses from users in your content, you:

• Show other users exactly with similar problems and pains what your products and services can do for them.
• Help your visitors identify and address their objections.
• Help prospects connect with their motivations and facilitate moving them further along the sales process.

Here are some useful tips on creating customer testimonials:

• Don’t over edit: Try to use your customer’s actual words as much as you can. Leave 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 will draw the most attention of visitors browsing a web page. Adding photos of your clients next to their testimonials and reviews can help increase visitor engagement with your site’s content.
• Tell a story: Stories are much more effective and captivating than simply providing facts and statistics. 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 presenting generic statements about how “excellent” your support has been and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
• Keep 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. For example, think about the impact you can create on your visitor’s perception by adding a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution sells for before posting your product or service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before presenting the benefits of your products, or testimonials where customers are truly thrilled about your customer service before offering guarantees or addressing objections.
• Quantify the information: Which of the following statements do you think is more powerful: “Since using your services, we increased our sales by $57,597 during the previous financial quarter,” or “XYZ solution has helped us grow our sales?” Whenever possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable data, like how much your solution helped to increase their profits or reduce their costs in specific percentages or amounts, how many hours they have saved, 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.
• Avoid using the same testimonial 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 everywhere on your site’s pages. Depending on the nature of your business, you could try to obtain more user 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 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 targeted to your best audience demographic.
• Reprint content across different platforms. If someone publishes great feedback on your Facebook page praising your solution, contact them privately asking for permission to reprint the content on your site.
• Don’t use fake client testimonials. Prospective customers need to believe that the testimonials provided on your site are real. Don’t compromise your credibility or reputation with a ”made up” testimonial.

How To Get Testimonials From Your Customers

Ask

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

Here are some useful guidelines for requesting testimonials:

• Make it a part of your business processes to contact customers after a specific period of time, e.g. 90 days with an email request for a testimonial if you did not obtain one immediately after performing a service.
• Add a field for entering testimonials in all your client satisfaction surveys.
• Take out your phone next time you visit clients or hand over a finished project and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they would be happy to record a very short video testimonial/feedback interview. While recording the video, describe to your viewers what you have done for the client and make sure to capture their positive reactions and responses.
• Make it easy for them. Whenever 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 already prepared something to save them time and let them know they are completely free to edit what you have written however they see fit before replying with their approval.

Offer To Post A Link To The Source Wherever You Publish Their Testimonial

Offer to post a link to their website in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive to get clients to provide a testimonial. It also makes an implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are not fake and can be verified.

Include A Testimonial Request In Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages

If you have a subscriber list, include requests for a testimonial in a regularly-spaced email message. This should be timed to reach subscribers just after your customers have had a chance to assess the results of using your products. 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 subscribers for honest feedback, a testimonial, or a review.

Use LinkedIn

The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature is a great way to obtain testimonials that become part of your account. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is quite 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 for permission to reprint it on your website (once again, you can offer to publish a link back to their website or profile in exchange).

Create A Client Testimonials Section On Your Site

Create a “Testimonials” page and place a “more client testimonials …” link to your main testimonials section throughout your site.

Tip: You can measure how effective customer testimonials are by how long visitors stay on the section of your pages or posts where you have added the testimonial content. A great tool for observing visitor behaviour on your site are “heatmaps”.

We have written an article about adding heatmap analytics to your website to observe visitor behaviour here:

• Monitoring Visitor Behavior On Your WordPress Site Using Heatmapping Software – HeatMapTracker Review

WordPress Plugins

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

Once your plugin is installed and set up (remember to provide simple instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), you can then refer users to your “Testimonials” page.

Below are a few useful WordPress testimonial plugins you can check out:

Easy Testimonials

Easy Testimonials is a free plugin that lets you add customer testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into a Page or Post using a shortcode. The plugin also lets you insert a list of all your testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include an image with each testimonial, which can be used to add a photo of the testimonial author, their company logo, etc.

The plugin also can be upgraded to a “pro” version with additional features and plugin support.

Go here to learn more about the plugin:

• Easy Testimonials

Testimonials Widget

Testimonials Widget is a free WP plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, or text with images or videos on your site. 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.

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

To download this plugin, go here:

• Testimonials Widget

Testimonials WordPress Plugin

This premium WP plugin provides 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, grid layout, list layout, etc. by adding a shortcode
• Styling options (display image at the top, bottom, or side of testimonials, display testimonial in a speech bubble, customize font and background colors, font types and more.

To download and use this plugin, go here:

• Testimonials Plugin

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

• How To Add Testimonials In WordPress

In Summary …

Client testimonials and user reviews are great sources of content that can help your business in terms of adding credibility, building authority, improving online reputation, and growing your sales funnel. Always ask for feedback, reviews, and testimonials from your customers, and start publishing these on your website.

Additional Info

The articles below are a great source of 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 easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality content for your site 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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