Building Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract and retain customers, only to get the exact same results? Most business owners don’t need to be told that finding effective ways to generate new business can be very difficult. Just trying to remain in business requires a lot of 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, ignoring what clients may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
Don’t ignore what consumers may be saying online about your business!
You are also doing your business a great disservice if you are not boosting the positive things your customers are saying about your products, solutions, user support, etc. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive ways of helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be included as part of your content marketing strategy.
In this article, you will learn ways to achieve better results online using effective customer testimonials.
Testimonials And Consumer Reviews
The great, legendary showman and businessman 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”. Using social proof as content is a powerful way of getting your business promoted effectively. Genuine testimonials and reviews from existing customers are far more persuasive when it comes to drawing new clients than anything you can say about your own products or services.
There is an untapped source of opportunities for generating new business that most businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … reviews and testimonials from their users!
Customer testimonials and reviews are a great way to build credibility for your business.
Marketing studies conducted by leading firms all seem to lead to the same conclusion: user reviews and testimonials help decrease doubts potential customers may have about purchasing specific products, help users select products and increases the number of product sales.
Below are just some findings that 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 customer reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, customer reviews produce 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 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).
(The figures above were sourced from eConsultancy.com)
Adding Customer Reviews And Testimonials – Online Reputation Management
Adding positive reviews to your website from clients who are delighted with the results they’ve obtained by using your products or services is important for helping you grow your business and creating a solid online reputation.
Testimonials and user reviews, however, are like double-edged swords; they can impact your business both in a positive as well as negative manner.
People may not be saying bad things about your business, products or services directly to your face, but they could be posting disparaging remarks on Facebook about a bad experience they’ve just had with your business and this could be costing you business.
This is where online reputation management becomes a vital part of your online business success 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 seriously causing damage to your business without you even realizing it.
See this article to learn more about a simple yet effective WordPress plugin that can help you avoid the escalation of negative reviews about your services through effective customer review management:
Improving Your Conversions With Client Testimonials – Useful Tips
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are effective when it comes to helping you promote and market your products and services online and should be included as part of your content. When you quote responses from clients in your content, you:
- Show potential customers exactly with similar problems and pains what your products and services can do for them.
- Help potential customers identify and address their objections.
- Help potential customers connect with their motivations and facilitate the sales process.
Below are some practical tips on improving your conversions with captivating user testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: Try using your customer’s actual words as much as possible. Leave grammatical or spelling errors in the content. This helps keep your testimonials ‘real’.
- Use real photos: 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 much more powerful and memorable than simply providing statistical facts. Being able to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution came to the rescue will make a more lasting impression on those reading your content than presenting generic statements about excellent customer support and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
- Use it in context: Add customer testimonials in 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 can create on your visitor’s mind if you were to present a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution retails for before posting your product 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 support when offering guarantees or providing content designed to help your readers overcome their objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements do you think your prospects would find more powerful: “Since using your services, we have noticed a net profit growth of $73,021 during the previous financial quarter,” or “XYZ solution 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 they have saved, how many new leads or new clients they were able to generate, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
- Use different client testimonials on your site: Although this can be a little difficult when you are just starting out or don’t have many clients, it’s best to avoid using the same testimonial throughout your site’s pages. Depending on 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 decide 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 best 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 ideal customers.
- Reprint across different platforms. If someone posts fantastic feedback on your Facebook wall praising your commitment to customer satisfaction, contact them privately asking for their permission to reprint the content on your blog.
- Only use real testimonials. Many people can tell if you are employing copywriters to write your content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your potential customers need to believe that the testimonials published on your site are real. Don’t compromise your credibility with false testimonials.
How To Get Testimonials
Ask For Testimonials
Getting a testimonial from a happy client can be as simple as just asking for it.
Here are some useful tips for soliciting testimonials:
- Contact customers after a specific period of time, e.g. 14 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you did not obtain one immediately after performing a service.
- Include a field for entering testimonials in all your client satisfaction surveys.
- Pull 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 quick video testimonial/feedback interview. When recording your video, describe to your viewers what you have done for your client and capture their positive reactions and feedback.
- Make it easy and write the testimonial for them. If a client sends 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 – don’t 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 done this to help them save 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 Back To The Source Wherever You Publish Their Testimonial
Offer to post a link back to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive for clients to provide you with a testimonial. It also makes the implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are real and can be verified.
Include Testimonial Requests In Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a subscriber list, include a request for a testimonial in one of your newsletter messages. Preferably, this should be done after your customers have had a chance to assess the results of using your services. Use words like “I need your help” in the subject of your email and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking clients to provide feedback, a testimonial, or a product review.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature helps you solicit testimonials from other members for your profile. With LinkedIn, the process for requesting and providing recommendations is quite user-friendly and the person providing the recommendation gets a link to their profile. If you get a recommendation on LinkedIn, ask for permission to reprint it on your site (you can offer to publish a link back to their website or profile in exchange).
Create A Customer Testimonials Page
Create a “Testimonials” page and add a “read more testimonials …” link to your main testimonials section wherever you are adding small blocks of testimonials on your site.
Useful Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of your user testimonials 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 a heatmap analytics technology you can add to your sites to measure visitor behaviour here:
WordPress Plugins
If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to add, edit and display testimonials. Some plugins also let you add a form to your pages inviting users to submit testimonials.
Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), you can then refer clients to your “Testimonials” page.
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 Easy Testimonials plugin also lets you add a list of all testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include an image with each testimonial, which can be used for adding a photo of the testimonial author, a logo, etc.
The plugin also comes with a “pro” version that offers additional features and plugin support.
To download and use the plugin, go here:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with videos or images on your site. You can insert testimonials content via 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 SEO functionality and technical support.
Visit this site for more information about using this plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium 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.
- Options to display your testimonials in a widget or as slideshows, sliders, list layout, grid layout, etc. by adding a shortcode
- Styling options (display image on top, bottom, or side of testimonials, display testimonial in a speech bubble, customize 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 …
User 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 testimonials, reviews, and feedback from existing customers, and start publishing these on your website or blog.
Resources
The articles below provide useful information about creating engaging 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 regular training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your web site, 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 completely FREE!
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