Posted
That's right boys and girls – this week I'm giving you rocket fuel for your business and your website.
Let me first start by asking you this – you're about to make a major purchase like a car, computer, or a new cell phone …or maybe even something smaller like a book or a CD. Where do you start? If you know someone who already has one, do you ask them first?
Ever been on Amazon or another online shopping website? I'm sure you never even glance at the customer reviews before clicking to ad-to-cart, right?
What the heck am I getting at? It's testimonials or customer reviews – whatever you want to call them. And they are the MOST POWERFUL tool in your sales and marketing box that you are almost certainly not using enough of – gosh darn it, I don't use enough of them and I'm writing this article.
The more people who aren't you(or your wife's sister or brother-in-law) that are saying good things about you, your product, or the way you do business – the more credible you are in the eyes of your potential customer (or client or whatever the case may be).
- Unfortunately, it does take some work to get these things – you've basically got two good options:
- Make an organized effort to collect them over a short period of time (via old or new customers)
- Make it a part of the way you do business by building it into your fulfillment process
Here's an incredible example of how one company used a two-pronged approach to getting customer reviews and made it work for their business (I just wish we could claim it): A certain online custom t-shirt design company (of which, I can assure you, there are many) built into their website the following contest:
Each week we award a $100 voucher to the … customer … whose photo shows the most group spirit. Help pick this week's competition winner by clicking and rating your favorite photos.”
What this company has done is to give customers a solid reason to provide testimonials, that only encourages repeat business, that makes them look good to other potential customers, and that, get this: adds relevant content to their website that INCREDIBLY increases their natural search engine ranking - all without them having to tax their terrific brains or lift their tiny fingers to the keyboard.
As if that weren't enough, the company built real-time review into the sidebar of their website that shows browsers current, up-to-the-minute customer reviews.
Please excuse me while I make painfully obvious the moral of this story: Make testimonials a key feature of your website and it will increase the number of casual browsers who will contact you or immediately buy your product or service.
Post Script: By getting all of this feedback you are now rushing to retain, you WILL find unsatisfied customers. If you find that there are A LOT of these, guess what - you've got bigger fish to fry. Negative feedback is ALWAYS valuable to evaluate what kind of job you are doing to meet your customers expectations. To think anything otherwise is, to put it lightly - a personal weakness of character.
TradeMark Advertising
865-966-1690
TradeMark Advertising is based in Knoxville, Tennessee and is a full-service marketing, advertising and web design/online marketing firm. We've served both national and local clients within Tennessee and surrounding states since 1996. While we have strong roots in traditional media such as radio, television, billboards, video and direct mail, we've also kept with the times and now specialize in web and online marketing.