Posts Tagged ‘testimonials’

Rachel was at a networking event today and came back absolutely delighted that one of our clients was singing our praises – she couldn’t have been more complementary – talking to people about the blog, the newsletters and our Idea Magazine. And this got me thinking. This client isn’t a massive client, in fact, far from it, she’s very small in terms of profitability and turnover. And yet she’s quite clearly a huge advocate for my business. She’s recommended us to a couple of friends and colleagues, and her encouragement on our marketing is so valuable.

Conventional marketing wisdom has it that you spend the most money looking after your biggest clients. It makes sense, they bring you in the most amount of revenue. The last thing you want to do is let them walk away from your business. And yet are we missing a trick in all of this? How do you identify your business advocates and look after them? I’m not suggesting for one moment that you stop marketing to your best customers, just that you sometimes look beyond how much people spend with you, and look at the bigger picture.

A great example of this is Sales Expert and Motivational Speaker Gavin Ingham. Now I’m convinced that Gavin will have absolutely no idea who I am. I somehow got onto his mailing list around the time of the last series of The Apprentice and have stayed there ever since because he talks a lot of sense. In fact, Gavin talks so much sense that I’ve listed him on my blogroll and regularly recommend his blog to my clients. Isn’t it lovely to think that people you’ve never met before are going round selling on your behalf?

So what’s the point of this post? In truth I’m not sure – I’m not sure that I’ve finished thinking through what I’ve learned from today. So perhaps I’ll come back to you on that. Just, I suppose, that your best advocates are often found in the most surprising and unexpected of places. What do you think? How do you make sense of all of this?

Tagged as , advocates, business, recommendations, testimonials in Business Strategy

Can I share one of the most effective free marketing tools that every business has at their disposal? Testimonials. Happy clients are your best asset. Happy clients will sell for you harder than your best salesperson. They’re genuine, impartial, and most importantly, they’ll sell the benefits of your product or service from a client’s perspective.

You can use testimonials everywhere – on your website, your blog, your corporate brochures and your leaflets and postcards. They really do add a lot of value to the power of your marketing. Can I just make one suggestion?

Please, never, ever make them up. They’ll undermine your credibility. And with lots of happy customers, why would you need to!

Tagged as , agency, copy, Copywriting, design, farnham, godalming, guildford, marketing, strategy, surrey, testimonials, web, Websites, woking in Blogging, Copywriting, Web Design, Websites, Workshops

We’re all pretty familiar with the power of the testimonial aren’t we? Testimonials give your marketing another, more powerful, more genuine voice and can really help sell your products or service. I think one area of the testimonial we overlook is the ability of testimonials to generate interest in your business from people who weren’t actively looking to buy from you.

Let me explain.

Recently I’ve noticed something quite nice happening. If I receive great service from someone I make a point of emailing them to say thank you. And not just thank you, I usually say why and how it helped me or my business. What I’ve noticed is that marketing savvy people have started using these testimonials on their websites, in their emails and on their marketing literature, and they’ve got my name on them! Now this means that they are not only spreading the brand, but more often than not, they also include a link to my website. Fantastic! All these people that weren’t necessarily interested in what I have to offer might have a curious click through. And if my website design is arresting enough to capture their attention they might just delve a bit deeper.

So go on. Make someone’s day by saying thank you. And it might just turn around into some business for you!

Tagged as , cost, ideas, low, marketing, testimonials in Blogging, Copywriting, Workshops