Leveraging reviews and testimonials for your business

Reviews and testimonials from your existing customers are extremely important to your business. People can write reviews for you, whether you sell products and / or services. Testimonials and reviews are solid evidence that you not only have those products and / or services to offer, but that they are also effective and valuable. Of course, it is important that you understand that you are the only person who cannot write a review or testimonial for your company. They just wouldn’t have any credibility coming from you.

Hear what other people have to say
If you are like most people who intend to buy something from someone else, you will check what other people have experienced and how they feel about that experience before even considering buying from a particular business.

If a large percentage of the reviews or testimonials are negative, you will probably be looking for another company that sells the same products and / or services. If that second (or third or fourth) company has more positive reviews and testimonials, you will probably choose to buy from that company. That is just common sense. Why would you want to buy something that is inferior and doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to? With the level of competition that exists, as a business owner (or as a representative of that business), you need to offer only excellent products and / or services. Otherwise, you will be done before you even start.

There are two possible mistakes a person can make when considering buying something. The first has just been discussed. The second is if that person is not looking for any comment or testimonial.

Every business needs reviews and testimonials
When it comes to reviews and testimonials, it’s not about them being a nice thing to have. They really are a necessary part of your business. Often there is no other way to get the idea across to large numbers of people that what you are offering is something of value and something other people should pay attention to because it will benefit them and your business. It really is that simple.

In fact, it’s not even enough to collect reviews and testimonials. You must share them on your social networks, through email, etc., so that other people realize how much you can do for them. You may not realize exactly how powerful positive reviews and testimonials are for your business. If you don’t have any yet, it’s definitely time to start collecting them. Once you’ve been able to do that, the next thing to do is make sure that people in your online social circles can access them too. At this point, you may be wondering exactly how you are going to achieve that.

• Organization: You may have collected positive reviews and testimonials, but they may currently be living in a repository, not organized in any way. Staying on top of everything other people are writing about your brand and your business is critical to getting the most out of those reviews and testimonials. The first thing you’ll want to do is find a way to combine those reviews and testimonials with the rest of your content marketing strategy. If you do, they will be at your fingertips to use at will. That will allow you to make the most of what you have and it is very likely that more reviews and testimonials of a similar nature will spread.
• Answer: In truth, you will probably get mostly positive reviews and (definitely) positive testimonials. However, along with the positive reviews, there is probably a small amount of negative reviews as well. It is very important that you understand how to deal with such negative reviews constructively and effectively. In fact, it is probably safe to assume that you will learn more from negative reviews than positive ones and that negative reviews are what will allow you to modify your business approach to generate positive results.
• Pay attention to the metrics / analytics: This is really important for your business. If you don’t pay attention to the analysis, how are you going to understand what works and what doesn’t? It is easy to collect the analyzes because there are programs that actually do it for you and have been shown to be extremely effective. Analytics will show you where you need to make adjustments (or abandon certain practices altogether). It is very important for you to be aware of your business at all times.
• Use reviews and testimonials to increase your brand exposure: Chances are, your business, like most businesses, is a word-of-mouth business. If that’s the case, other people’s reviews and testimonials will strengthen what you’re offering. Those reviews and testimonials will increase your visibility, give you greater credibility, and increase your professional reputation, not to mention giving you invaluable additional brand exposure.

Conclution
Reviews and testimonials are critical to the success of your brand. The consumer may be willing to do extensive research on the types of products and / or services you are offering, but it is a shortcut for that consumer to read the opinions of someone else who has already had the experience.

If you feel like you haven’t been able to collect enough reviews and testimonials so far, ask for them. In general, people will be more than willing to help you. In fact, it is part of the strong and lasting relationship you are building with the other person. Reviews and testimonials are the only way someone else will decide whether to hire you (or buy something you’re selling) or hire someone else. They certainly won’t believe you when you say your brand is the best, at least not if you haven’t been able to prove it yet!