How To Build Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews

Are you stuck in a cycle of doing what you’ve always done to attract and retain customers, only to get the exact same disappointing results? Most small business owners don’t need to be told that generating new business can be extremely hard. Just trying to keep your business afloat takes up a lot of your 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 customers may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!

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

You could be doing your business a disservice if you are not boosting the positive things your clients say about your products or services. Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are powerful ways of helping you market your products and services online and should be added to your content marketing.

In this article, you’ll discover how to turn more visitors into prospects with highly effective client testimonials.

Testimonials And Consumer Reviews

P.T. Barnum, legendary American showman and successful promoter, 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 way of getting your business promoted effectively. Quoting testimonials from your satisfied customers is satisfied users are far more persuasive when it comes to drawing new customers, clients or users than anything you say about your own products or services.

There is an untapped source of opportunities for generating new business that most businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … customer reviews!

Customer reviews and testimonials are a fantastic way to build credibility for your services and products.

Marketing studies conducted by many leading research companies all lead to the same inevitable conclusion: adding testimonials and consumer reviews to your sales pages reduces doubts potential customers may have about purchasing products and services, helps with product selection and helps increase sales conversions.

Below are just some findings that 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 consumer reviews.”
• According to Reevoo.com, consumer reviews play a significant role in creating an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more customer reviews per product can translate into a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
• Site 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).
• Consumer 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 User Reviews – Online Reputation Management

Clearly, you should be adding great reviews from existing customers to your site.

Consumer reviews and testimonials, however, are like double-edged swords; they can impact your business both negatively and positively.

People may not be saying bad things about your business, products or services directly to you, but they could have posted disparaging remarks on Facebook, or a forum or discussion group about an unpleasant encounter they’ve just had with one of your team members and this could be costing you business.

This is where online reputation management becomes a vitally important aspect of your online business success.

Misconceptions about managing your reputation online, such as being too complicated or too time-consuming (or the belief that you just don’t need it) could be causing damage to your business without you even being aware of it.

See this article to learn more about a simple tool for WordPress users that can help you avoid the escalation of problem reviews about your business through effective customer review management:

• Manage Bad User Reviews Easily With Power Online Reviews Plugin

How To Create Testimonials – Useful Tips

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

• Show prospects exactly with similar problems and pains what your products and services can do for them.
• Help prospects identify and address their objections.
• Help prospects connect with their motivations and aspirations and this facilitates the sales process.

Below are some useful tips on how to create testimonials:

• Avoid over-editing: Try using the actual words used by your customers as much as you can. Leave little grammatical or spelling errors in the content. This helps keep your testimonials ‘real’.
• Use photos: Images of people’s faces draw the most attention on a web page. Adding photos of your clients next to their testimonials and reviews can help increase visitor engagement with your content.
• Tell a story: Stories are far more powerful and memorable than just providing statistical facts. The ability to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution saved the day will make a more lasting impression on those reading your content than using generic statements about how “excellent” your service was and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that everyone has heard a “million times” before.
• Use it in context: It’s good to add testimonials in your site copy where it makes the most sense to place them, and where you believe these can most effectively help 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 sells for before posting product or 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 customer service before offering a risk-free guarantee or addressing objections.
• Quantify your information: Which of the following statements is more powerful: “Since using your XYZ services, we have noticed our net profit grow by $14,702 in the last financial quarter,” or “XYZ software definitely helped us grow our business?” If possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable data, 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 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.
• Avoid using the same client testimonial repeatedly throughout your site: Although this can be somewhat difficult when you are just starting out or have very few clients, it’s best to avoid using the same testimonial throughout your web pages. Depending on the nature of 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 best customer: As every infomercial featuring a celebrity endorsement, subject expert or “busy mom” knows, if you know who your ideal 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 content across different platforms. If someone publishes fantastic feedback on your Facebook wall praising your commitment to customer satisfaction, send them a message asking for permission to reprint the content on your site.
• Only use genuine client testimonials. Many people can see through sites that employ copywriters to produce content. Outsourcing content is fine, but your potential clients need to see that the testimonials you provide on your site are real. Don’t compromise your integrity with ”made up” testimonials.

How To Get Testimonials From Clients

Ask

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

Follow these useful guidelines for requesting testimonials from customers:

• Make a point of contacting customers after a specific period of time, e.g. 90 days with an email request for a testimonial if you have not obtained one after completing a service.
• Include a field for entering testimonials in client surveys.
• Pull out your phone when you next meet with a client or hand over a completed job and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they would be happy to record a brief video testimonial/feedback interview. While recording the video, explain to your viewers what you have done for the client and try to record their positive reactions and feedback.
• Make it easy and write the testimonial for them. If 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 written – don’t 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 done this to help them save time and invite them to change what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.

Offer To Publish A Link To Their Site 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 Testimonial Requests In Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages

If you have a subscriber list, include requests for a testimonial in a scheduled newsletter message. This should be timed to reach subscribers just after your customers have had a chance to experience your products or services. Use words like “I need your help” in the subject of your message and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking them to provide honest feedback, a testimonial, or a review of your services.

Use LinkedIn

The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature helps you request testimonials from other members for your profile. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is 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 (you can offer to publish a link back to their profile in exchange).

Create A Client Testimonials Page

Create a “Testimonials” page and place a “read more client testimonials …” link pointing to this section throughout your content sections.

Tip: You can measure how effective user 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 monitoring what visitors are doing on your pages.

We have written an article about a heatmap technology you can add to your website to predict visitor behaviour here:

• How To Spy On Your WordPress Site Visitors With Heat Mapping Software – HeatMap Tracker Review

Testimonial Plugins

If your website or blog is powered by 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 feedback and 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 refer clients to your “Testimonials” section.

Check out the plugins below:

Easy Testimonials

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

The plugin also comes with a “pro” version that has additional features and technical support.

Go here to download the plugin:

• Easy Testimonials – WordPress Testimonials Plugin

Testimonials Widget

Testimonials Widget is a free WordPress 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 content via a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and have multiple display options such as random or specific ordering.

Testimonials Widget has plenty more features available via a premium version, including built-in functions for better search engine results and developer support.

To download the plugin, visit this site:

• Testimonials Widget

Testimonials WordPress Plugin

This premium plugin 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 sliders, slideshows, list layout, grid layout, etc. using a shortcode
• Styling options (display image at the top, bottom, or side of the testimonial, display testimonial in a speech bubble, customized font and background colors, font types and more.

To download this plugin, visit this site:

• 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, and publish positive content about your business on your website or blog.

Resources

The articles below are a great source of information on creating engaging clients testimonials and were 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 a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable information that will show you how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating high-quality 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 100% FREE!

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