Build Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract and retain new customers, only to get the exact same results? As most small business owners know, that finding effective ways of generating new customers can be hard. Just trying to keep your business afloat requires 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 economy, you just can’t ignore the impact of online consumer behavior, especially if they are posting negative comments about your business.
Ignoring what consumers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
By the same token, you could be doing your business a disservice if you are not promoting the positive things your customers are saying about your solutions, customer training, support, etc. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful when it comes to marketing your products and services online and should be included as part of your content.
In this article, you’ll discover tips for creating better results online with captivating client testimonials.
User Reviews
P.T. Barnum, legendary showman and businessman, once said 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. Testimonials and reviews from your satisfied customers are far more persuasive for attracting new customers than anything you have to say about your own products or services.
There is clearly an untapped source of business growth potential that most businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … client reviews and testimonials!
Consumer reviews and customer testimonials are effective for building credibility for your services and products.
Studies conducted by many marketing firms all lead to the same inevitable conclusion: testimonials and user reviews reduce doubts potential customers may have about buying particular products or services, help users select products and increases sales.
Below are just some statistics 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 web site if it has ratings and customer reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, reviews are responsible for producing an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more user reviews per product can mean a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Site 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 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 Testimonials And Reviews – Online Reputation Management
Adding great reviews and testimonials to your site from delighted clients is essential for growing your business online.
Testimonials and reviews, however, can work both ways and impact your business both in a positive or negative manner.
You see, people may not be saying bad things about your services directly to your face, but they could be posting updates on a discussion group about an unpleasant experience they’ve just had with your services and this could be doing far more damage to your business than all the good work you’ve been putting into building it.
This is where online reputation management becomes vitally important to your online business success.
Misconceptions about managing your reputation online, such as the process being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you just don’t need to worry about it) may be causing damage to your business without you even realizing it.
See this article to learn more about a WordPress plugin that allows you to legally and ethically manage customer feedback:
Improving Your Sales Conversions With Testimonials – Useful Tips
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive ways of marketing your products and services online and should be added to your content marketing strategy. When you include responses from clients in your content, you:
- Show potential customers exactly what problems and pains your products and services can help to solve for them and how easily it can do this.
- Help prospects identify and address their objections.
- Help prospects connect with their motivations and this facilitates the sales process.
Here are some tips on improving your sales conversions with user testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: You should try using the actual words used by your customers as much as possible. Leaving little grammatical errors and misspelled words in the content helps keep your testimonials sounding authentic.
- Use real photos: Marketing studies show that using images of people’s faces draws the attention of visitors on a web page. Adding client photos next to their testimonials and reviews will help increase visitor engagement with your site’s content.
- Use the power of storytelling: Stories are much 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 longer-lasting impression on those reading your content than presenting generalized statements about excellent support and giving “two thumbs up” service recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
- Use it in context: Add testimonials in your web content where it makes the most sense to place them, and where they can most effectively help you sell your point. Think about the impact you can create on your visitor’s perception if you were to insert a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution sells for before posting your service pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped your clients solve before talking about the benefits of your products, or testimonials where clients are truly thrilled about your support when offering guarantees or addressing objections.
- Quantify your information: Which of the following statements do you think your prospects would find more powerful: “XYZ solution was directly responsible for helping to increase our profits by $46,865 during the last financial quarter,” or “XYZ software 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 sales 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, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
- Avoid using the same client testimonial repeatedly throughout your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult if you are just starting out or don’t have many clients, it’s best to avoid using the same testimonial repeatedly throughout your website. 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 discount for 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 best customer is, providing testimonials from people who your prospects can relate to is a powerful motivator and influencer. People want to see and buy from “better versions” of themselves, so make sure to include testimonials targeted to your ideal customers.
- Reprint content across different platforms. If someone posts fantastic feedback on your Facebook page praising your commitment to customer satisfaction, contact them privately asking for their permission to reprint the content on your blog.
- Never use fake testimonials. Most people can see through sites that employ copywriters to create their content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your prospects need to believe that the testimonials provided on your site are genuine. Don’t destroy your reputation with false testimonials.
How To Get Testimonials
Ask For Testimonials
Getting a testimonial from a satisfied client can be as simple as just asking for it.
Here are some tips for soliciting testimonials from your customers:
- Make it a part of your business processes to contact clients after 60 days with an email request for a testimonial if you have not obtained one after completing a service.
- Include a text box for testimonials in all your client surveys.
- Take out your phone when you next meet with a client or hand over a finished job and if they are delighted with your services, 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 the client and make sure to capture your client’s positive reactions and feedback.
- Make it easy for them. If 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 best sections (only use what they have written – never put words into their mouth), and shape these into a testimonial, then contact the client and ask them for permission to publish it. Explain that you have already prepared something to help them save time and let them know they are completely free to change what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.
Offer To Publish A Link Back To The Source Wherever You Publish Their Testimonial
Offer to publish a link back to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great 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 list of subscribers, include a request for a testimonial in one of your autoresponder broadcasts. Preferably, this should be done after your clients have had a chance to assess the results 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 for feedback, a testimonial, or a review of your services.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature is a great way to solicit testimonials from other members that become part of 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 their permission to reprint it on your site (tip: offer to add a link back to their profile in exchange).
Create A Client Testimonials Section
Create a new section on your website for testimonials and add a “more client testimonials …” link to this section throughout your content sections.
Tip: You can measure how useful customer testimonials are by how long visitors stay on the section of your pages or posts where you have added your testimonial content. ”Heatmapping” technology is a great way to measuring visitor behaviour on your pages.
We have written an article about adding heatmaps to your site to monitor visitor behaviour here:
Testimonial Plugins For WordPress
If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to display testimonials. Some plugins also allow you to add a form to your pages inviting users to submit testimonials.
Once your plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for adding testimonials via the submission form – if available), all you have to do is refer customers to your “Testimonials” section.
Here are a few useful testimonial plugins you can check out:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use 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 insert a list of all your 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.
Easy Testimonials also provides users with a “pro” version with additional features and developer support.
To download the plugin, go here:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, or text with images or videos on your pages and posts. You can insert testimonials content via a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and specify different display options such as random or specific ordering.
The plugin makes plenty of additional features available via a premium version, including built-in functions for improved search engine results and technical support.
For more information about using the plugin, go here:
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 slideshows, sliders, grid layout, list layout, etc. by adding a shortcode
- Styling options (display image at the top, bottom, or side of the testimonial, display testimonials in a speech bubble, customize font and background colours, font types and more.
Visit this site to download the plugin:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Summary …
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 feedback, reviews, and testimonials from existing clients, and start publishing these on your website or blog.
Additional Info
For additional resources on creating engaging customer testimonials read these useful articles:
- 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 easy-to-digest information that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating useful content that will add value to 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 completely FREE!
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