Build Your Reputation With User Testimonials And Reviews
Are you stuck doing what you’ve always done to attract customers, only to get the exact same results? As most business owners know, that 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 digital, mobile and social-driven economy, ignoring what your clients may be saying online about your business could be a costly mistake!
Don’t ignore what clients may be saying online about your business!
By the same token, you could be doing your business a disservice if you are not spreading the positive things your clients say about your services and products. User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are persuasive ways of helping you market your products and services online and should be added to your content.
In this article, you will learn tips for converting more visitors into prospects with knockout customer testimonials.
Testimonials And Consumer Reviews
P.T. Barnum, legendary businessman and showman, 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 getting your business promoted. Testimonials and reviews from existing clients are far more persuasive for attracting new customers than anything you say about your own products or services.
There is clearly a source of untapped opportunities for generating new business that most businesses simply do not utilize, or utilize correctly … testimonials and reviews from their users!
Reviews and customer testimonials are a terrific way to build credibility for your business.
Tests conducted by many leading research companies all lead to the same conclusion: testimonials and user reviews decrease doubts potential customers may have about buying certain products, help with product selection and increases the number of product sales.
Here are just some of the findings 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 site if it has ratings and consumer reviews.”
- According to Reevoo.com, user reviews produce an average 18% uplift in sales and 50 or more customer 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).
- 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 Client Reviews – Managing Online Reputation
Clearly, you should be adding testimonials and reviews from delighted clients who have experienced positive results with your business to your website.
Customer testimonials and reviews, however, are like double-edged swords; they can impact your business both in a negative as well as positive way.
You see, people may not be saying bad things about your business directly to you, but they could have posted negative comments 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 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 to worry about it) could be causing damage to your business without you even realizing it.
See this article to learn more about a simple yet effective plugin for WordPress users that can help to avoid the escalation of negative reviews about your business through effective user review management:
How To Create Client Testimonials – Useful Tips
User reviews, testimonials, and case studies are powerful when it comes to helping you market your products and services online and should be used in your content marketing. When you include 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 your visitors identify their objections and address these.
- Help prospects connect with their motivations and this facilitates moving them closer to a decision to purchase.
Below are some useful tips on creating awesome client testimonials:
- Don’t over edit: Try using the actual words used by your customers as much as possible. Leaving little grammatical errors and misspelt words in the content helps to keep it ‘real’.
- Use photos: Images of people’s faces draw attention to your content. Adding photos of your clients next to their testimonials and reviews can help increase visitor engagement with your content.
- Use the power of storytelling: Stories are far more effective and captivating than simply providing facts and statistics. 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 using generic statements about excellent support 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 best makes sense to place them, and where you believe these 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 sells for before posting pricing information, or testimonials about problems you’ve helped clients solve before presenting the benefits of your services, or testimonials where clients are genuinely ecstatic about your customer service before offering guarantees or providing content that helps readers overcome their objections.
- Quantify the information: Which of the following statements do you think your prospects would find more powerful… “XYZ solution was directly responsible for growing our sales by $66,671 during the last financial quarter,” or “XYZ solution has helped us grow our business?” If possible, publish testimonials containing quantifiable results, like how much your solution helped to increase their profits or reduce their costs 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 during a specific period, 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 displaying the same testimonial repeatedly throughout your website. 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 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 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 posts fantastic feedback on your Facebook page praising your customer service, send them a message asking for their permission to reprint the comment or post on your blog.
- Only use genuine client testimonials. Many people can tell if you are employing copywriters to create your content. Outsourcing content is fine, but prospective clients need to believe that the testimonials provided on your site are real. Don’t compromise your integrity or reputation with a false testimonial.
How To Get Testimonials From Your Clients
Just Ask
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.
Here are some useful tips for requesting testimonials from your customers:
- Make it a part of your business processes to contact customers after a specific period of time, e.g. 90 days with an email request for a testimonial if you did not obtain one immediately after completing your service.
- Include a field for testimonials in all your client surveys.
- Take out your phone next time you visit clients or hand over a finished job and if they are delighted with your services, ask them if they wouldn’t mind recording a short video testimonial/feedback interview. If they agree, while recording the video, explain to viewers what you have done for your client and record their positive reactions and responses.
- Make it easy for them. If 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 written – don’t put words into their mouth), and use these to create a testimonial, then contact the client and ask them for permission to publish it. Explain that you have done this to help them save time and invite them to edit what you have written however they like before replying with their approval.
Offer To Post A Link Back To The Source
Offer to post a link back to their site in exchange for their testimonial. This is often enough of an incentive to get clients providing you with a testimonial. It also makes the implicit statement to visitors that your testimonials are not fake and can be verified.
Add A Testimonial Request To Your Auto Responder/Newsletter Messages
If you have a list of subscribers, include requests for a testimonial in a scheduled auto responder broadcast. This should be timed to reach subscribers just after your customers have had a chance to use your products. Use words like “I need a quick favor” in your email subject 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 lets you solicit testimonials that become part of your profile. 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 recommendation on LinkedIn, ask for permission to reprint it on your site (tip: offer to add a link back to their website or profile in exchange).
Create A Client Testimonials Section
Create a new section on your website for customer testimonials and add a “more testimonials …” link to this section throughout your content sections.
Useful Tip: You can measure the effectiveness of your testimonials 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 monitoring visitor behavior on your site.
We have written an article about adding heatmap analytics to your website to understand visitor behaviour here:
Using WordPress Plugins
If your website or blog is powered by WordPress, you can use a plugin to display testimonials. Some plugins also let you add a form to your pages where users can submit testimonials.
Once your testimonial 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.
Check out the plugins below:
Easy Testimonials
Easy Testimonials is a free WP plugin that lets you add testimonials to the sidebar as a widget, or embed testimonials into your pages and posts using a shortcode. The Easy Testimonials plugin also lets you add a list of all your testimonials or output a random testimonial, and include images with testimonials, which is great for adding a photo of the testimonial author, a company logo, etc.
The plugin also provides a “pro” version with additional features and plugin 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 blog. 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 has plenty more features available via a premium version, including built-in functions SEO functionality and technical support.
Go here to download and use this plugin:
Testimonials WordPress Plugin
This is a premium plugin that provides many great features right out of the box, including:
- Responsive design that resizes to display correctly on any device or browser.
- Display your testimonials in a widget or as slideshows, sliders, list layout, grid layout, etc. via a shortcode
- Styling options (display image at the top, bottom, or side of the testimonial, display testimonials 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 …
Customer reviews and testimonials 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 feedback, reviews, and testimonials from existing customers, and publish positive content about your business on your website.
Resources
The articles below are a great source of information about creating engaging customer 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 actionable information and practical tips that will show exactly 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 marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!
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