Marketing with Testimonials
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It’s a nice summer day and you’re walking down the street. You see a store with some interesting signs and specials in the window and decide to walk in and look around. You walk in and see a bunch of products. But, nothing really grabs your attention. And, since you’ve never purchased anything there before and no one ever recommended this place to you, you file away the information in your brain, turn around and walk out the door. Sound familiar? It should. Because, this is what happens with most of the visitors to your website! You may have spent time and money to attract visitors to your site. They come in, look around for a few seconds and leave, never to return! Sure, you may have placed some nice featured product on your home page to try and get their attention. But, more often than not, they turn around and click away! But, take heart - whether it’s that brick-and-mortar store on the street or a million dollar website, all businesses have to deal with this problem. The key to solving this problem is – “Differentiation”. By that I mean, you need to do things that make you stand out from the pack – things that make you, your business and your website appear authoritative and the “in place” to be! When it comes to pulling out their wallets and making a purchase, most consumers are a very fearful and skeptical lot. They don’t trust anybody. Can you blame them? Don’t you react the same way? I know I do. It’s natural to be skeptical in new situations. That skepticism is what has allowed the human race to survive! In the old days, that healthy fear prevented one from being eaten by a wild beast in the jungle. Today, it keeps you from getting taken advantage of in a consumer purchase. So, most people are suspicious of a place they’ve never done business with before. How do you overcome this problem? Well, if the person doesn’t know you or your business, the next best thing is a recommendation. Of course, the best recommendation is from someone you know and trust. But, that’s less likely to take place with website traffic. So, the next best thing is to get others to make recommendations. Again, most people will be skeptical of these recommendations. Especially, if what they see are a bunch of entries from anonymous people. Think about it. Would you be more interested in what Mrs. Susan Myers from Los Angeles, CA has to say about the store or S.M. from LA? If a person isn’t willing to allow her name to be posted, is this a real testimonial or a fake one dreamed up by the owner of the site? Will that help or harm your site’s credibility? Will it make the visitor more or less fearful? Will she be more or less willing to make a purchase? I think you know the answer to those questions! It’s a fact that when you can post comments on your site that provide useful information and recommendations from honest-to-goodness real people, you become a far more credible business. You set yourself apart from the majority of other websites. People who come to your site are more likely to stay and read those comments and peruse what you have to sell. Why? Because… “Credibility is one of the key elements to making a sale to someone who has never done business with you before”. So, what kind of testimonials should you try and get and how do you go about getting them? There are three basic types of testimonials you should work hard to get.
Of course, this will take time. So, don’t expect to get all of your testimonials overnight. This should be an on-going process. But, you can start right away – even if you’ve just begun your online business! How do you do that? Well, I’m sure you’ve met and interacted with other people through your life, haven’t you? Do you attend a church or synagogue? Do you belong to a PTA at your child’s school? Do you have friends or co-workers? Obviously, if you’re a reasonably active human being, you know a few people. If they don’t know yet that you’ve started a new business, there’s no time like the present to let them know. And, while you’re at it, ask the ones that know you best if they would mind writing a short, personal statement about your character and integrity to post on your new website? In fact, if they have a website, you can even offer to place a link to their site in their testimonial! But, choose the sites you link to carefully. Only place links to pages on sites that complement yours. For example, if the testimonial is from a gardener who has a website, you should place that testimonial link on your site’s gardening department or product webpage. Your Version 9 eMerchantClub eCommerce website now offers the ability to display testimonials from visitors to your website. These testimonials will appear on their own page. You can ask people to go to your website and enter a testimonial. To give further encouragement, mention to them that they may place a link to their website within their testimonial. You can then copy the testimonials which appear on the testimonial page and enter them onto the pages you desire using the HTML editors within your Site Manager. After entering selected testimonials onto your home page and other pages of your site, consider placing a “Click here to see more testimonials” link to the testimonials page as well so shoppers can see all of the testimonials on your site. To effectively grow your business, you need to constantly look for ways to build relationships – both online and offline. And, you always need to look for opportunities to obtain recommendations and referrals. Doing so will build your “sphere of influence”. Have you ever heard the phrase, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know”? Well, there’s a great deal of truth in that statement. So, do everything you can to increase your access to people. Then, get those people to write a testimonial – whether it’s about you, your service, your company or your products! OK. So now you have some testimonials. What do you do with them? You’ll find that testimonials can be very versatile pieces of information. You can use them on your site’s homepage to attract the attention of visitors to your site. You can place them on department or individual product pages to show their opinions regarding specific products or services. You can use testimonials in your other advertising efforts such as in flyers, mailings, radio or TV ads. Testimonials increase awareness of your company by bringing credibility to your brand. So, if you want to succeed, do everything you can to obtain and use them regularly. We have great tools which help you learn how to use this feature. View our video tutorial on the testimonial feature or read the online manual topic to learn more. If your site has not yet been upgraded to Version 9, please call us at (888) 806-2081 to see how we can update your site with the latest features. As always, if you have any questions please contact Technical Support via e-mail at techsupport@emerchantclub.com by going to Live Chat Technical Support at http://www.emerchantclub.com/support.html or by calling (877) 384-4691. Thank you, Your eMerchantClub Team |