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 new customers, only to get the exact same results? Most business owners don’t need to be told that trying to generate new customers can be extremely difficult. Just trying to stay in business takes 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 clients may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
Ignoring what clients may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
By the same token, you are also doing your business a great disservice if you aren’t publishing the positive things your clients say about your services, solutions, customer support, training, etc. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are powerful when it comes to 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’ll discover how to improve your sales with more effective client testimonials.
Testimonials And User Reviews
Phineas Taylor P.T. Barnum, legendary businessman and showman, once stated that “Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.”
P.T. Barnum understood the power of “social proof”. Social proof-based content is a powerful way of getting your business promoted effectively. Reviews and testimonials from your satisfied clients are far more persuasive for drawing new customers, clients or users than anything you say about your own products or services.
There is clearly an untapped source of opportunities for generating new business that most businesses just aren’t utilizing, or utilizing correctly … user reviews!
Reviews and customer testimonials are great for building credibility for your products or services.
Tests conducted by many leading firms all point to the same conclusion: adding testimonials and reviews to your sales information helps to eliminate doubts potential customers may have about buying products or services that you are trying to sell, helps users select products and helps increase sales.
Here are just some of the statistics available to support this:
- According to research findings by eVoc Insights, an organization 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 user reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, customer reviews produce an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more customer reviews per product can translate into a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
- Website 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 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).
(The figures above were sourced from eConsultancy.com)
Adding Client Testimonials And Reviews – Managing Online Reputation
You should be adding positive reviews from delighted clients who have experienced positive results with your business to your website.
Reviews and testimonials, however, are like double-edged swords; they can impact your business both negatively and positively.
You see, people may not be saying bad things about your business, products or services directly to your face, but they could be posting unhelpful words on Facebook or a forum about an unpleasant experience they’ve just had with your services and this could be costing you business.
This is where online reputation management becomes vital to your 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) may be seriously causing damage to your business without you even being aware of this.
See this article to learn more about a WordPress plugin that can help to avoid the escalation of negative reviews about your business through effective user review management:
Tips For Creating Customer Testimonials
Testimonials, user reviews, and case studies are effective when it comes to helping you market and promote your products and services online and should be included as part of your content. When you include your own customer responses in your content, you:
- Show potential customers exactly what pains and problems your products and services can solve for them and how easily it can do this.
- Help your visitors identify their objections and address these.
- Help potential customers connect with their aspirations and motivations and facilitate the sales process.
Here are some tips on how to create client testimonials:
- Avoid over-editing: Try using the actual words used by your customers as much as you can. Leaving grammatical errors and misspelt words in the content helps keep your testimonials sounding authentic.
- Use photos: Images of people’s faces draw the most attention to your content. Adding photos of your clients next to their testimonials and reviews will help your visitors and potential prospects take notice of your content.
- Tell a story: Stories are far more effective and memorable than providing mere statistical facts. Being able to present a customer’s horror story and how your solution saved the day will make a longer-lasting impression on those reading your content than presenting generic statements about excellent support and giving “two thumbs up” product recommendations that all of us have heard a “million times” before.
- Keep it in context: It’s good to add testimonials to 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 by adding a testimonial about what a “bargain” price your solution retails for before posting your product pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before presenting the benefits of your products, or testimonials where clients are genuinely ecstatic about your support before offering guarantees or providing content designed to help your readers overcome their objections.
- Quantify the information: Which of the following statements is more powerful: “XYZ solution was directly responsible for helping to increase our net profit by $87,424 during the previous financial quarter,” or “XYZ solution helped us grow our sales?” Whenever 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 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 testimonial repeatedly throughout your site: Although this can be a little difficult if you are just starting out or don’t have many clients, try to avoid displaying the same testimonial throughout your site’s pages. Depending on the type of business you run, you could try to obtain more user 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 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 best audience demographic.
- Reprint across different platforms. If you get a great comment on your Facebook wall praising your commitment to customer satisfaction, send them a message asking for their permission to reprint the content on your site.
- Only use real client testimonials. Most people can tell if you are employing copy writers to create your content. Outsourcing content is fine, but prospective customers need to believe that the testimonials displayed on your site are real. Don’t compromise your credibility with ”made up” testimonials.
How To Get Client Testimonials
Ask For Testimonials
When you complete a service for someone, or a customer says they are really happy with your product or service, ask them for a testimonial.
Follow these useful guidelines for requesting testimonials:
- Contact your customers after a specific period of time, e.g. 30 days with an email reminder for a testimonial if you have not obtained one immediately after completing your service.
- Include a field for testimonials in your client surveys.
- Pull out your phone next time you visit a client or hand over a finished job and if they are delighted with the results, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a very brief video testimonial/feedback interview. While recording your video, explain to viewers what you have done for the client and capture their positive reactions and responses.
- Make it easy for them. Whenever a client sends you positive written feedback that contains snippets of useful testimonial material interspersed with the rest of their message, grab the best sections (only use what they have given you – 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 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 add a link to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is a great incentive for clients to provide a testimonial. It also makes an implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are real and can be verified.
Add Testimonial Requests To Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a subscriber list, include requests for a testimonial in one of your autoresponder broadcasts. This should be timed to reach subscribers just after your clients have had a chance to use your solution. Use words like “I need a quick favor” in your email subject and make the point of your email or message specifically about asking them for feedback, a testimonial, or a review of your services.
Use LinkedIn
The LinkedIn “Recommendations” feature is a great way to solicit testimonials that become part of your profile. The process for requesting and providing recommendations is user-friendly and the person who provides the recommendation receives a link to their profile. If you get a positive recommendation on LinkedIn, ask their permission to reprint it on your site (tip: offer to add a link back to their website or profile in exchange).
Create A Customer Testimonials Page
Create a “Testimonials” page and add a “read more customer testimonials …” link to your main testimonials section whenever you display new testimonials on your site.
Useful Tip: You can measure how effective testimonials are by how long visitors stay on the section of your pages or posts where you have added the testimonial content. A great tool for observing visitor behavior on your pages are “heatmaps”.
We have written an article about a heatmap software you can add to your website to track visitor behavior here:
Using WordPress Plugins
If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to display testimonials. Some plugins also allow you to add a form to your pages where users can submit feedback and 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 clients to your “Testimonials” section.
Check out the testimonial plugins below:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is an easy-to-use free plugin that lets you add customer testimonials to the 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 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 with additional features and plugin support.
Go here to download this plugin:
Testimonials Widget
Testimonials Widget is a free WP plugin that lets you randomly slide or list selected portfolios, reviews, quotes, or text with videos or images on your website. You can insert customer testimonials via a shortcode, theme functions, or widgets with category and tag selections and specify different display options such as random or specific ordering.
The Testimonials Widget plugin has loads more features available via a premium version, including built-in functions for better search engine results and plugin support.
Go here to download and use this plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This premium WP plugin provides plenty of great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes for displaying correctly on any device or browser.
- Display options for your testimonials in a widget or as sliders, slideshows, 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, customized font and background colors, font types and more.
Visit this site to download this plugin:
To learn how to add testimonials in WordPress, see the tutorial below:
In Conclusion …
Client testimonials and user reviews are powerful sources of content that can help your business add credibility, build authority, improve online reputation, and grow 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 effective clients 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 a comprehensive series of training emails with easy-to-digest information that will show you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful content that will add value to 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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