How To Build Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews

Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract and retain new customers, and getting the exact same disappointing results? As most business owners know, that finding effective ways of generating new customers can be difficult, time consuming and frustrating. Just trying to keep your business afloat 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, mobile and social media-driven economy, you simply can’t afford to ignore the significance of online consumer behavior, especially if they are posting negative comments about your business.

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

You are also doing your business a great disservice if you don’t promote the positive things your clients say about your products and services. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are powerful ways of helping you market your products and services online and should be included in your content marketing strategy.

In this article, we’ll show you all you need to know to get better results online with compelling user testimonials.

Client Reviews And Testimonials

P.T. Barnum, legendary American showman and businessman, 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-driven content is a powerful way of getting your business promoted effectively. Genuine reviews and testimonials from your satisfied users are far more persuasive when it comes to attracting new clients, customers or users than anything you say about your own products or services.

There is a source of untapped business growth potential that most businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … customer testimonials and reviews!

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

Studies conducted by marketing companies all lead to the same inevitable conclusion: adding reviews and testimonials to your site decreases doubts potential customers may have about purchasing products or solutions that you are trying to sell, helps users select products and helps increase sales.

Below are just some of the stats available to support this:

• According to a study 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 web site if it has ratings and customer reviews.”
• According to Reevoo.com, user reviews can result in an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more reviews per product can translate into a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
• Website visitors who interact with both user 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 Client Testimonials And Reviews – Managing Online Reputation

Clearly, you should be adding positive testimonials and reviews from happy clients to your site.

Testimonials and reviews, however, are like double-edged swords; they can impact your business both in a positive as well as negative way.

You see, people may not be saying bad things about your business directly to you, but they could post damaging words on Facebook, or a discussion group or forum about an unpleasant experience they’ve just had using your products and this could be costing you business.

This is where online reputation management becomes a vital aspect of your online success.

Misconceptions about engaging in online reputation management practices, such as the process being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you just don’t need to worry about it) could be seriously causing damage to your business without you even realizing it.

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

• Learn How To Easily Manage Poor User Feedback In WordPress With Power Online Reviews

How To Create Standout User Testimonials – Useful Tips

Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful ways of helping you market and promote your products and services online and should be used in your content. When you quote your own user responses in your content, you:

• Show other users exactly with similar problems and pains how your products and services can help them.
• Help prospects identify their objections and address these.
• Help prospects connect with their motivations and this facilitates moving them closer to a decision to purchase.

Here are some practical tips on creating testimonials:

• Avoid over-editing: You should try to use your customer’s actual words as much as you can. Leaving grammatical errors and misspelled words in the content helps preserve your testimonials’ authenticity.
• Use photos of real people: Marketing studies show that using images of people’s faces will draw the most 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.
• Use the power of storytelling: Stories are much more effective and memorable than simply providing statistical facts. Being able 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 using generalized statements about excellent service and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that everyone has 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. Think about the impact you will have on your visitor’s mind by adding a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution retails for before posting service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before presenting 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 that helps your readers overcome their objections.
• Quantify the information: Which of the following statements do you think your prospects would find more powerful: “As a direct result of using your XYZ services, our sales have grown by an additional $44,736 in the last fiscal year,” or “XYZ software 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 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, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
• Use different customer testimonials on your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult if you are just starting out and have very few clients, try to avoid displaying the same testimonial everywhere on your site’s pages. Depending on the type of business you run, 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 choose 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 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 someone publishes great feedback on your Facebook wall praising your customer service, ask them for permission to reprint the content on your blog.
• Don’t use fake client testimonials. Many people can see through sites that employ copywriters to create content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your prospects need to believe that the testimonials provided on your site are real. Don’t destroy your reputation with a false testimonial.

How To Get Customer Testimonials

Just Ask

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

Here are some tips for requesting testimonials from your clients:

• Make it a part of your business processes to contact clients after a specific period of time, e.g. 90 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you have not obtained one immediately after completing a service.
• Include a field for entering testimonials in your client surveys.
• Take out your phone next time you visit 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 very short video testimonial/feedback interview. While recording your video, describe to viewers what you have done for the client and make sure to capture their positive reactions and responses.
• Make it easy and write the testimonial for them. When clients send 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 the client and ask them for permission to quote them on your site. Explain that you have done this to save them time and invite them to change what you have written however they like 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 site in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great incentive to get 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 A Testimonial Request In Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages

If you have a list of subscribers, include a request for a testimonial in a regularly-spaced auto responder message. Preferably, this should be timed to reach subscribers just after your clients have had a chance to experience your products or services. Use words like “I need a quick favor” in your email subject and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking users for feedback, a testimonial, or a review.

Use LinkedIn

The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature is a great way to obtain testimonials from other members for your account. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is quite user-friendly and the person providing 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 (and offer to add a link back to their website in exchange).

Create A Customer Testimonials Section

Create a new section for testimonials and place a “more client testimonials …” link pointing to your main testimonials section throughout your content sections.

Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of client testimonials by how long visitors remain on the section of your pages or posts where you have added the testimonial content. ”Heatmapping” technology is a great way to understanding visitor behavior on your pages.

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

• How To Spy On Your WordPress Site Users With Heat Mapping Tools – Heat Map Tracker Review

Useful WordPress Plugins

If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to display testimonials. Some plugins also allow you to add forms to your pages where users can submit testimonials.

Once your testimonial plugin is installed and set up (make sure to provide simple instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), you then send users to your “Testimonials” page.

Check out the WordPress testimonial plugins below:

Easy Testimonials

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

The plugin also provides a “pro” version that offers additional features and plugin support.

To download this plugin, visit this site:

• Easy Testimonials

Testimonials Widget

Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, or text with videos or images 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 makes loads more features available via a premium version, including built-in options SEO functionality and plugin support.

To download the plugin, visit this site:

• Testimonials Widget

Testimonials WordPress Plugin

This is a premium plugin that offers many 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, grid layout, list layout, etc. by adding a shortcode
• Styling options (display image on top, bottom, or side of testimonials, display testimonials in a speech bubble, customize font and background colors, font types and more.

Visit this site to download the plugin:

• Testimonials Plugin

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

• How To Add Testimonials In WordPress

In Conclusion …

Client testimonials and customer reviews are powerful 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 testimonials, reviews, and feedback from your customers or clients, and start publishing these on your website or blog.

Additional Info

For additional resources on creating effective users testimonials refer to 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 regular training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating useful 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 completely FREE!

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