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Can
Trusted Testimonials
improve your online business success?
If you've got a web site, then you need testimonials.
It's just that simple.
According to
Beyond the
Niche trust is the most important element
for the success of a business making online sales.
By nature, your web site provides a lot of
information necessary to build trust with the potential
customer. You don’t
need to worry about providing too much information in your
online business, it's impossible to provide “information overload”
online. If someone isn’t
interested in your product or service then s/he isn’t going to
bother to read or listen to your advertising message anyway.
Online, too much “information” isn’t going to
“scare away” an interested potential customer.
What information should you provide? Information that inspires
trust and without a doubt, testimonials should be used to
convey much of the information about your business.
Testimonials are an essential part of the marketing message
for any business. A fun and fruitful
way to gather testimonials from customers is to create a
contest. Nutrisystem launched a 10,000 contest to gather
their powerful customer testimonials. Customers were
encouraged to submit their before and after photos for a shot
at a large grand prize. The winners' were rewarded with cash
and their own "15 minutes of fame" by being featured in
Nutrisystem advertising.
Your business can do this too. Have a contest and offer prizes for the best
testimonials in each category. Offer a small incentive for
every entry and a nice prize for the “winners.”
While the entrants to the contest may consider themselves the
winners, in the end it’s your business that is the big winner.
However, there is a problem with testimonials. If you're not
selling a product that produces VISIBLE results like
Nutrisystem, you'll find that your testimonials may not pack
the "punch" you desire.
See, there are a
lot of "fly by night" operators out there on the web and they
are WELL aware of the power of testimonials. As a result,
they've begun featuring FALSE testimonials on their web sites.
So while real testimonials will enhance your website visitors'
trust, you need a way to convey that YOUR testimonials are
REAL!
With online fraud being a major concern, consumers must have
confidence in a website before they will make a purchase. In
fact, studies show that people tend to visit sites displaying
information they trust and an outside seal of approval.
Consider These Statistics*:
- 93 percent of U.S. shoppers say it's important for ecommerce
sites to include a trust mark of some kind on their site.
- 75 percent of online shoppers will only make purchases
through sites that include a trust mark.
- 80 percent of online shoppers expect to see a trust mark
displayed on a website's Home page.
- 64 percent of consumers who have ended an online transaction
due to a lack of security feel they would have gone through
with the original purchase if the site had included a
recognized trust mark.
*Source: A Jul 2004 study conducted by TNS, an independent
research firm. The study was sponsored by VeriSign.
You can Increase Sales and Boost Profits by Providing PROOF
that Your Company, Customers and Testimonials Are REAL.
One great way to prove that your testimonials are real is to video tape your customers giving their testimonials and then featuring those testimonials on your blog or website.
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Kathy Hendershot-Hurd is a Small Business Internet and Blog Consultant. She is the founder of