Testimonials are self-evidently a great way to win new clients and grow your business profile. If you want to consider adding them to your tactical marketing armoury, there are some prior considerations to resolve.
Does your business get testimonials spontaneously?
Have you got any existing testimonials?
If you aren’t a long-established business, then it will be more difficult to encourage spontaneous outpourings of delight and joy.
Never fear, we’ve got a plan for you.
What’s already in the can?
Start with any existing documented positive feedback that you or your client can find. And plan
a page on your domain where you can drop in all the quotes from clients.
Make it easy to find e.g. www.yourdomain.co.nz/testimonials.
Make the most of the page so the viewer finds it a helpful resource, not a chore.Lay out the page so the most recent testimonial is at the top and the reader scrolls down to see others.If there are obvious different services or products which have received reviews, clearly separate them too.A series of embedded tabs can be a neat solution here.
Tabbed testimonials example
Starting from zero
A different opportunity exists for businesses without any rave reviews.You may feel it’s hard to ask for favours, to ask for sales or to ask for testimonials.Let us help you make it easy.
Business “workflows” are a trendy catchphrase that is a way of describing ‘how-we-do-things-round-here’. Any marketing activity which you do more than once deserves a workflow process.The reason is that it becomes part of normal business life and is easier to reproduce if you do it frequently.
Think about how you are going to set up the business process to get new testimonials regularly from clients and customers.
Here’s ours.
Our marketing meeting has “Testimonials” as an agenda item.We review a list of recent clients and pick a couple to approach.The lead person who works on the client phones up and asks (using a pre-agreed script) if we can have a testimonial.Further, we ask for it in three places – spoken, on LinkedIn and on Google.The spoken one we write down as we chat and then send back to the client for approval.
What’s so easy about this is that the client doesn’t have to actually write anything – they just talk.Most people find that easier.
Then we upload the testimonial or ask the client to do it on social pages. Interestingly, almost 88% of sales are influenced by social media and 59% of consumers say Facebook is the most influential. We also link back to the client’s website (like we do on the Creative Agency Secrets Testimonials page).It’s nice to give them back some strong SEO link juice.
Task completed!
Testimonials add to your SEO
Ask for testimonials on your Google My Business page.Note, you have to have a gmail address in order to create these so it can be a challenge for some clients if they have to create an account.The great output from this is that your testimonials are visible in public search (alongside the search map) and when you have over 5 published, you get a star rating too.That makes you stand out even more from competitors.
Get more mileage from each testimonial
Remember I suggested you get clients to ‘just talk’ and you write the testimonial?Well that chatting will almost certainly contain a lot of information.Take all your testimonials and copywrite a long and a short “sound bite” version of each.Put the short version on the website testimonials page.Copy the long version of each to a blog post – and link to it from the short version on the testimonials page.Creating on-site links is good (reduces bounce rate) and also helps show an expanded authentic “customer voice” to each one.
Gamification of testimonials
Inspired by Gabriel McIntyre’s “Getting Paid Faster with the Invoice Challenge”, we set about adapting it to suit our need for client testimonials.[Seriously, watch the video – it’s genius.]
Now, where else can you get and share testimonials? We know they’re on Linked In, Facebook, Neighbourly (NZ local media), Yelp, Finda, Localist….. There are heaps of places – but don’t try to game the system.Just pick the site(s) you know your clients and prospects use.
https://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/testionials.png10041600Rebecca Caroehttps://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpgRebecca Caroe2016-07-06 17:50:352020-01-24 01:44:59Rocking Testimonials For Your Brand Profile
What are the best ways to validate a B2B idea without spending a lot on product development first?
I currently run a B2C online service. I’m looking to pivot to B2B as a way of growing our business.
Creative Agency Secrets are very practical and tactical marketers so in this answer we will give you a series of steps to run through. You will need to run through them all several times – for example, if you do 1,2,3 and it’s not working, go back to 1 and start again, improving each time.
You will need to be very self-critical in order to improve and if you have not got experience in B2B, we strongly recommend you find a mentor or coach who can be objective and help shortcut the number of iterations.
First – write out the revised offer as it would apply to a B2B situation. Make this a one-page print and pdf brochure.
Second – approach people you already know and who could buy the service and ask them to appraise the document and give you honest feedback. You can find these people on Linked In or via the local chamber of commerce. Get the feedback face to face if possible and / or by phone. DO NOT use email. You want to be there in person to ask supplementary questions such as “why did you say that?” to clarify your understanding.
Third – try to push a sale or two from one of your market testing interviews. Be prepared to offer a money back guarantee or a discount with the option to name them as a client as the quid-pro-quo.
Fourth – You should now have a sense of which TYPE of B2B firm could buy the service. So go and buy a mailing list of similar businesses in your local area. Approach them all and repeat – raising the price, reducing the guarantee as you get more focused onto your sweet spot.
Fifth – as you approach more, try to refine the offer and price if sales are not forthcoming. This will allow adaptation to refine the offer to suit the market. And also gradually withdraw from the face to face and phone and pull back to web (low cost) sales. You may still need telephone follow-up. Experiment with having a colleague do this calling rather than yourself as you further move to lower cost marketing tools.
Sixth – re-invest any profits into improving the marketing method and collateral.
That should give you a methodology. Now you will need very strong copywriting, CRM and sales skills. Buy or hire these for your support team.
Good luck and happy to help further.
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https://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/green-light.jpg341845Rebecca Caroehttps://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpgRebecca Caroe2016-07-06 16:51:552019-07-15 12:43:56How to market validate a B2B startup
Before starting – cramped text and hyperlink not embedded
A quick tutorial showing good practice to encourage click throughs.
We start with a quick look at the “before” scenario. The text is continuous and the url (hidden in the image) is not embedding correctly. The post gets no clicks or click throughs to the website.
Before starting – cramped text and hyperlink not embedded
Type the URL first and then Facebook allows you to select the image you want
Inserting blank lines in the text spaces it out and forces the “See More” link to appear
Corrected hyperlinks to See more and Hyperlink to your website or blog.
Type the URL first and then Facebook allows you to select the image you want.
Inserting blank lines in the text spaces it out & forces the See More link to appear
Moving forward to some of the resolutions – each one is explained in the caption.
Corrected hyperlinks to See More and site link.
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https://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/correct-image-upload.png1086786Rebecca Caroehttps://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpgRebecca Caroe2016-06-29 12:40:562016-06-29 12:53:53Getting the best from Facebook updates for business
Have a plan about how you are going to set up the business process to get new testimonials regularly from clients and customers.
Also ask for testimonials on your Google My Business page. Note, you have to have a gmail address in order to upload these so it can be a big ‘ask’ for some clients for whom that’d be a challenge to set up.
Now, where else can you get testimonials….. Linked In, Facebook, Neighbourly (NZ local media), Yelp, Finda….. over to you to share yours.
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https://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/how-to-get-testimonials-for-your-business.jpg341845Rebecca Caroehttps://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpgRebecca Caroe2016-06-21 11:53:462019-08-01 15:36:35How to get testimonials for your business
This fifth step is where the hard work, diligence and persistence pay off in your search for success in new business development.
People buy from people they know, like and trust and so having an active relationship with prospects who remember your name when they want to and can get in touch with you easily when they want to is very important.
How memorable is your business?
People are forgetful. What are the ways that prospects use to remember your business?
I know people save the newsletters that I mail out. I find people write replies to Newsletters that I sent months ago and the reason is that they keep them “just in case” they need to get in touch again. Many businesses do not use a business database and this is a shortcoming.
There are many ways to stay in touch with people and it’s beneficial, as your mailing list grows, for you to have some that are semi-automated and do not require a lot of your time in order to fulfil.
Good examples of these are autoresponders and newsletters. We also use social media as a way of staying in front of people we have a set-and-forget process of feeding RSS feeds through to our social media profiles so that we can appear to stay ahead of the news and on top of new developments even though we are not actually watching social media every hour of the day!
Staying memorable
Every business owner should have some form of regular networking in their diary. This could be as simple as a trade professional membership group, your chamber of commerce, or some specialist group for your area of expertise. Meeting people regularly is a very good way of staying front of mind. But beware, these people must be your prospects, not your competitors!
One way to find out if you are doing well in your relationship development is to track the number of new people we put into the business database. I collect business cards from as many people as I can who I think maybe of potential future interest to the business. This includes suppliers as well as prospective clients.
How and where do you get business cards? And what do you do with them?
It is important to have a careful plan to stay in touch with new people you meet. Some of them you want to spend time with and have a slowly developing individual relationship, others you can use mass communication. When planning your marketing, you need to think through these processes and organise all the communications necessary.
I have two special face-to-face relationship development techniques which I use. One is my circle of influence. The other is unhurried conversations.
A circle of influence is a small group of people who regularly feed new work through to us. These are people in parallel businesses whose services precede ours in the business service cycle. I meet with them on a quarterly basis or speak to them on the phone and they send us new enquiries and we are also able to reciprocate work back to them.
Unhurried conversations work on a slightly different format. It is a social event in the evening where I gather a group of interesting people around our board table for some afterwork drinks and nibbles. We use a format whereby only one person may speak any time. This forces everyone to listen carefully to what is being said. There is no agenda. The conversation takes whatever direction it wants to go. Learn more about the unhurried conversations format at this website. It is interesting that in this busy age of connected people and individuals so many people value a slower pace of talk, chat and interaction. Working at the slower pace allows my guests to take their time in thinking and considering whether they might work with us.
In summary – formalise all methods of building relationships between the business staff and prospective customers.
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https://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/relationship-development.jpg341845Rebecca Caroehttps://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpgRebecca Caroe2016-06-16 08:00:092019-08-13 15:17:16Step 5: Relationship development
This speech was given to the Grey Lynn Business Association on 10th June 2016. It includes tips on testing how your website is working, 12 ways to make local marketing work including inbound and outbound marketing tactics.
https://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpg00Rebecca Caroehttps://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpgRebecca Caroe2016-06-10 12:16:522019-08-01 15:24:39How to Get Leads from your Business Website
Auckland manufacturing firm, Cabjaks makes kitchen cabinets. They worked with Creative Agency Secrets for 3 months to improve their keyword natural search results, SEM and on-site keyword SEO.
Cabjaks Manufacturing kitchen cabinets
Summary of outcomes: Adwords results
In January when we started they sold a small amount of goods based on clicks from Adwords.
By March the revenues from Adwords clicks were up by 413%.
April is performing even better.
Cabjaks is becoming a strong brand on Google properties too
There have been 6 Five Star reviews in March (the previous one was September 2015).
We are now on page 6 of local search (up from 20+) and importantly a competitor is falling off the second page.
The YouTube optimisation has gained a 13% increase in views.
And Analytics confirms a 12% increase in website visitors over the past 30 days.
A “zero to hero” response in just three months demonstrates the success of our work with this manufacturing brand.
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https://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/zero-to-hero-cabjaks.jpg341845Rebecca Caroehttps://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpgRebecca Caroe2016-05-20 10:58:072016-08-24 12:41:23Case Study: zero to local hero for manufacturer
Getting well-known for what you do is a very long-term process. But this should not deter you because it’s relatively easy nowadays to become known for a specific skill or product.
Becoming famous for being good at what you do in a public forum takes a few simple steps, repeated.
The goal of this step in the new business development process reinforces prospects’ decision-making when they come to select someone to do work for them or with them. If they can find out about you independently, and online they are far, far more likely to hire you then if they cannot find out about you.
Where is your brand findable in public?
So let’s have a look at the different places where a stranger could find out about you and your business and the things that you do.
Do you write articles?
Have you been mentioned in the news?
What about public speaking?
Have you ever been to a conference?
Do you ever speak or present at business events like BNI, the Chamber of Commerce or Local Business / Professional Membership Associations?
What about running workshops or webinars?
Do you host events at your own premises?
Could you invite clients and prospects to learn more about your skill and expertise in a face-to-face environment?
Here are some of the things that you could do to improve your “find-ability”.
Business awards Does your industry run annual awards and could you enter? Many parts of New Zealand have local Westpac Business Awards happening every year. This not only adds to your internal feelgood factor for the team by entering, but it also gives you handy PR and some external credibility if you get through to the final stages.
What about opinion formers? There are always people who are prepared to stand up and talk about your industry; could they quote you? These people may be journalists but often nowadays they might be bloggers or podcasters.
Networking is important for most businesses particularly if you want to win clients locally. Having actually met someone is a very strong and easy way of building trust. Find out where your local networking opportunities are. This may be the Chamber of Commerce, local meetup groups or BNI.
I do recommend you check out the website meetup.com because a lot of good events are run and publicised through there. You can search by location to filter. And also, look at Eventbrite for your country. You will see that Creative Agency Secrets does a lot of Eventbrite work and we find the people actually search this site and sign up to our events.
Members of your staff also talk about your company and it’s important that every time they mention your firm you want it to be positive and also consistent. It’s important that you, the business owner, are not the only ambassador for the business. Can you enthuse them?
Conferences, trade shows and exhibitions are another good place where you can get better-known. You could run a trade stand or you could just attend and see who else is there and talk to the other people you meet. If you’re able to get onto the conference speaking platform as a speech-giver then of course it’s a very good way to put your message across in a subtle manner and showcase your expertise. Do your research locally – are there conferences running and can you get a copy of the full attendees list if you are a speaker? This gives you an opportunity to get in touch with people after the event as well.
https://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/profile-raising.jpg341845Rebecca Caroehttps://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpgRebecca Caroe2016-05-19 08:00:182020-01-24 01:44:56Step four: Profile raising for new business
