Building Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract and retain new customers, only to get the exact same disappointing results? As most small business owners know, that finding new ways of generating new business can be extremely difficult. Just trying to stay in business takes a lot of time, money and energy, and sometimes this can feel like it’s just not worth the effort.
In today’s digital and social media-driven economy, ignoring what customers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
Ignoring what your customers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
By the same token, you are also doing your business a disservice if you are not spreading the positive things your customers are saying about your products, solutions, user support, etc. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are effective when it comes to marketing your products and services online and should be added to your content marketing.
In this article, you’ll discover how to get better results online using standout customer testimonials.
Consumer Reviews
The great, legendary showman and successful promoter P.T. Barnum is often quoted as having said 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 promoting your business. Quoting testimonials from existing users is existing clients are far more persuasive for 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 just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … reviews from customers!
Customer testimonials and reviews are a fantastic way to build credibility for your business.
Research conducted by many marketing research firms all point to the same conclusion: testimonials and user reviews help decrease doubts potential customers may have about products or services, help with product selection and increases conversions of visitors into sales.
Below are just some findings that support this:
- According to research findings by eVoc Insights, a company 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 reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, user reviews can result in an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more reviews per product can result in a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Website 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 user-generated content (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).
(Above figures sourced from eConsultancy.com)
Adding Client Reviews – Managing Online Reputation
Clearly, you should be adding reviews from very happy clients who have experienced positive results with your business to your website.
Customer testimonials and consumer reviews, however, can work both ways and impact your business both in a negative and positive manner.
You see, people may not be saying bad things about your business directly to your face, but they could be posting disparaging remarks on Facebook about an unpleasant encounter they’ve just had with one of your sales or customer support 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 engaging in online reputation management practices, such as being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you really don’t need it) may be seriously causing damage to your business without you even being aware of this.
See this article to learn more about a WordPress plugin that allows you to legally and ethically manage user reviews:
Tips On Improving Your Sales Conversions With Testimonials
Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are effective ways of marketing your products and services online and should be included as part of your content. When you quote your own customer responses in your content, you:
- Show prospects exactly what pains and problems your products and services can help solve for them and how easily this can be done.
- Help potential customers identify their objections and address these.
- Help potential customers connect with their aspirations and motivations and facilitate the sales process.
Here are some tips on how to create standout client testimonials:
- Avoid over-editing: Try using the actual words used by your customers as much as you can. Leaving little grammatical errors and misspellings in the content helps keep your testimonials sounding authentic.
- Use real photos: It’s a proven fact 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 will help increase visitor engagement with your content.
- Tell a powerful story: 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 came to the rescue will make a longer-lasting impression on those reading your content than using generic statements about excellent customer service and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
- Keep it in context: Add testimonials in your site copy where it best makes sense to place them, and where you believe these can most effectively help to sell your point. Think about the impact you can create on your visitor’s mind if you were to display a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution retails for before posting product pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before presenting the benefits of your products, or testimonials where clients are genuinely ecstatic about your customer service 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 consider to be more powerful… “XYZ solution was directly responsible for increasing our profits by $79,142 during the previous financial quarter,” or “XYZ solution has 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 market share 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 in a recent business quarter, 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, try to avoid using the same testimonial everywhere on your site. Depending on the nature of your business, you could try to obtain more customer 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 decide 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 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 testimonials across different platforms. If you get a great comment on your Facebook page praising your customer service, send them a message asking permission to reprint the comment or post on your site.
- Don’t use fake testimonials. Most people can see through sites that employ copywriters to write content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your potential customers need to see that the testimonials you provide on your site are real. Don’t destroy your credibility with ”made up” testimonials.
How To Get Customer Testimonials
Always Ask For Testimonials
Getting a testimonial from a happy client can be as simple as just asking for it.
Here are some useful guidelines for requesting testimonials:
- Contact your clients after a specific period of time, e.g. 60 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you have not obtained one after performing a service.
- Include a text box for entering testimonials in all client satisfaction surveys.
- Take out your phone when you next meet with a client or hand over a completed job and if they are delighted with the results, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a brief video testimonial/feedback interview. During the video, describe to your viewers what you have done for your client and try to capture their positive reactions and feedback.
- 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 juiciest sections (only use what they have given you – never put words into their mouth), and shape these into 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 let them know they are completely free to change what you have written however they see fit before replying with their approval.
Offer To Publish A Link To The Source Wherever You Publish Their Testimonial
Offer to add a link to their website in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive for clients to provide a testimonial. It also makes an implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are real 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 email broadcast. This should be timed to reach subscribers just after your customers have had a chance to experience your products. Use words like “I need a quick favor” in the subject of your email and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking clients for honest feedback, a testimonial, or a product review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature is a great way to request testimonials from other members for your account. 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 their permission to reprint it on your website (you can offer to add a link back to their website or profile in exchange).
Create A Testimonials Section
Create a “Testimonials” page and add a “read more testimonials …” link pointing to this page throughout your content sections.
Practical 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 your testimonial content. A great tool for measuring visitor behaviour on your site are “heatmaps”.
We have written an article about a heatmap analytics software you can add to your site to predict visitor behaviour here:
WordPress Testimonial Plugins
If your website or blog is built using WordPress, you can use a plugin to add, edit and display testimonials. Some plugins also let you add a form to your pages where users can submit testimonials.
Once your plugin is installed and set up (make sure to provide simple instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), you then send users to your “Testimonials” section.
Check out the testimonial plugins below:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is a free WordPress plugin that lets you add customer testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into posts and pages 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, a logo, etc.
The Easy Testimonials plugin also provides users with a “pro” version that offers additional features and developer support.
Visit this site to download and use this plugin:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with images or videos on your website. You can insert testimonials content using a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and have multiple display options such as random or specific ordering.
The Testimonials Widget plugin provides added features via a premium version, including built-in options for better search engine results and developer support.
To download the plugin, go here:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This is a premium WordPress plugin that 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 slideshows, sliders, grid layout, list layout, etc. via a shortcode
- Styling options (display image on top, bottom, or side of the testimonial, display testimonials in a speech bubble, customized font and background colors, font types and more.
Visit this site to learn more about using the plugin:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Conclusion …
Client testimonials and user reviews are great 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 your customers or clients, and publish positive content about your business on your web site.
Resources
The articles below are a great source of information about creating engaging users testimonials and were used when researching 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 show you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful content for 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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