Building Your Reputation With Testimonials And User Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract customers, and getting the exact same results? As most small business owners know, that trying to generate new customers can be extremely difficult. Just trying to keep your business afloat takes up 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, you cannot afford to ignore the effect of online consumer behavior, especially if they are posting negative comments about your business.
Don’t ignore what users may be saying online about your business!
By the same token, you are also doing your business a great disservice if you don’t promote the positive things your customers are saying about your services, solutions, user support, etc. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are powerful when it comes to helping you market and promote your products and services online and should be included in your content.
In this article, you will learn how to turn more visitors into qualified prospects with engaging client testimonials.
Client Reviews
Legendary American showman and successful promoter P.T. Barnum is often quoted as having stated 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 and effective way of promoting your business. Quoting testimonials from your satisfied customers is existing customers are far more persuasive for attracting new customers, clients or users than anything you say about your own products or services.
There is a source of untapped business growth potential that most small businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … testimonials and reviews from their previous customers!
Reviews and customer testimonials are a fantastic way to build credibility for your services and products.
Studies conducted by marketing research firms all seem to lead to the same conclusion: user reviews and testimonials reduce doubts potential customers may have about a certain product, help with product selection and increases sales conversions.
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 consumer reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, consumer reviews result in an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more user reviews per product can translate into 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).
(Source: eConsultancy.com)
Adding Client Testimonials And Reviews – Online Reputation Management
Clearly, you should be adding positive reviews from delighted clients to your website.
Reviews and customer testimonials, however, can work both ways and affect your business both negatively or positively.
You see, people may not be saying bad things about your business directly to you, but they could post disparaging remarks on Facebook or a forum about an unpleasant experience they’ve just had using your products 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 vital to your online 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 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 to avoid the escalation of negative reviews about your business through effective user review management:
Tips On Improving Your Conversions With Profit Boosting Testimonials
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are effective when it comes to helping you market and promote your products and services online and should be added to your content marketing. When you quote responses from customers in your content, you:
- Show prospects exactly with similar problems and pains how your products and services can help them.
- Help prospects identify and address their objections.
- Help prospects connect with their motivations and facilitate moving them closer to a decision to purchase.
Below are some practical tips on improving your conversions with testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: Try using the actual words used by your customers as much as you can. Leaving little grammatical errors and misspellings in the content helps preserve your testimonials’ authenticity.
- Use photos: Marketing tests show that using images of people’s faces draws 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 content.
- Use the power of storytelling: Stories are far more effective and memorable than just providing facts and statistics. The ability to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution came to the rescue will make a far longer-lasting impression on those reading your content than presenting generalized statements about excellent customer service and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that all of us have 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 you sell your point. Think about the impact you can create on your visitor’s perception if you were to add 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 talking about the benefits of your services, or testimonials where customers are truly ecstatic about your customer service when offering a risk-free 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 find more powerful: “As a direct result of using your XYZ services, we have increased our bottom line by an additional $48,302 during the last fiscal year,” or “XYZ solution helped us grow our sales?” If possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable results, like how much your solution helped to increase their sales or reduce their costs by 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 during a specific financial period, what kind of things are they able to do or experience now that they couldn’t do before, etc.
- Vary the client testimonials on your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult if you are just starting out or have very few clients, it’s best to avoid using the same testimonial repeatedly throughout your web pages. Depending on the type of business you run, you could try to obtain more testimonials by offering limited review copies of your product, or a special launch discount for clients in exchange for an honest review and permission to publish it if you choose 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 a really 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 across different platforms. If you get a great comment on your Facebook page praising your customer service, contact them privately asking for permission to reprint the content on your site.
- Never use fake client testimonials. Most people can see through sites that employ copywriters to create their 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 integrity or reputation with false testimonials.
How To Get Testimonials From Your Customers
Just Ask
When you complete performing a service, or a customer says they are really happy with your product or service, ask them for a testimonial.
Here are some useful guidelines for soliciting testimonials:
- Make a point of contacting customers after 14 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you did not obtain one after completing your service.
- Add a text box for testimonials in client satisfaction surveys.
- Pull out your phone next time you visit clients or hand over a completed job and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they would be happy to record a very short video testimonial/feedback interview. When recording the video, explain to viewers what you have done for your client and capture their positive reactions and feedback.
- Make it easy for them. When 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 written – never put words into their mouth), and use these to create a testimonial, then contact your client and ask them for permission to use it. Explain that you have done this to save them time and invite them to modify what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.
Offer To Post A Link Back To The Source Wherever You Quote Their Testimonial
Offer to publish a link to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an 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 subscriber list, include a request for a testimonial in one of your newsletter messages. Preferably, this should be timed to reach subscribers just after your clients have had a chance to measure the effect of using 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 review of your services.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature is a great way to request testimonials from other members for your account. With LinkedIn, the process for requesting and providing recommendations is 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 website (you can offer to publish a link back to their profile in exchange).
Create A Customer Testimonials Section On Your Site
Create a “Testimonials” page and add a “read more customer testimonials …” link pointing to your main testimonials page wherever you add new testimonials on your site.
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 the testimonial content. ”Heatmapping” technology is a great way to observing visitor behavior on your site.
We have written an article about a heatmap analytics software you can add to your site to understand visitor behaviour here:
Using Testimonial Plugins For WordPress
If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to add and display testimonials. Some plugins also let you add forms to your pages inviting users to submit testimonials.
Once your plugin is installed and set up (with instructions for using the testimonials submission form – if available), all you have to do is send clients to your “Testimonials” page.
Below are some WordPress testimonial plugins you can check out:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use free plugin that lets you add user testimonials to your sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into posts and pages using a shortcode. Easy Testimonials also lets you add a list of all testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which you can use for adding a photo of the testimonial author, their logo, etc.
The Easy Testimonials plugin also provides a “pro” version that offers additional features and plugin support.
Visit this site to download the plugin:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free WP plugin that lets you add random or selected portfolios, quotes, reviews, or text with videos or images on your website. You can insert customer testimonials using a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and have multiple display options such as random or specific ordering.
Testimonials Widget offers a range of additional features via a premium version, including built-in functions SEO functionality and technical support.
To download this plugin, visit this site:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This is a premium WP plugin that provides plenty of great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes for displaying correctly on any device or browser.
- Display your testimonials in a widget or as sliders, slideshows, grid layout, list layout, etc. via a shortcode
- Styling options (display image on top, bottom, or side of testimonials, display testimonials in a speech bubble, customized font and background colours, font types and more.
For more information about this plugin, visit this site:
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 in terms of adding credibility, building authority, improving online reputation, and growing your sales funnel. Always ask for feedback, reviews, and testimonials from existing clients or customers, and start publishing these on your web site.
Resources
The articles below provide useful information about creating engaging testimonials and were also 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 regular training emails with easy-to-digest information that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating useful content that will add value to your visitors and grow your business online using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!
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