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In marketing your services, what other people say about you is infinitely more important that what you say about yourself.

Let’s face it.  Today, anyone can put up a website and claim anything.  Looking at a website, you’d have no way of knowing if it was a one person, fly by night operation or an established company which produces results for their clients.

Or is there?

Before I answer that, let’s discuss some basic principles.

People decide to do business with you based on trust.  They want to know that whatever you’re delivering is going to work as expected, and if something goes wrong, you’ll fix it. 

Now if you’re a big brand or well-known retailer, you’ve built up a trust factor over the years, so people have confidence in your products.  Mind you, in today’s web connected world it’s very easy to have negative press spread like wildfire, but that’s a topic for another day.

But if you’re not a household name, what’s the best way of rapidly gaining trust from your prospects?

The simple answer is by using third party proof.  i.e. Other people talking in glowing terms about their experience with you and what you’ve done for them.

Here’s a simple example I’m sure you’ll relate to.

You’re looking for a new place to eat.  You walk past a number of restaurants.  Assuming they all have appealing menus, which one are you more likely to walk into?  Chances are the one with the most people in it.

Why?  Because all those people aren’t likely to be wrong.   They must know something you don’t.

And it’s the same with marketing your business.

The more people you can get to talk positively about you and what you can do, the more effective your marketing will be.  You’ll start to create a sense of trust long before a prospect actually picks up the phone and contacts you.

Think about your own process while considering a major purchase.

For the sake of an example, let’s take a Financial Planner.

Now most of us don’t need a Financial Planner.  However giving certain circumstances, there are lots of advantages to having one.

So if you were looking, what would you do?

Here are some common scenarios…

You might ask some trusted friends or colleagues for a recommendation.  Which is a form of endorsement or social proof.

You might do a Google search and check out a bunch of web sites.

You land on each site and every one of these companies will tell you the wonderful stuff they can do for you.  So how do you distinguish between them?

Most people will look at the case studies and testimonials to see what other people have said about them.  Like attracts like.  So they’ll check to see if these people are like them and the results the organisation got. 

They’ll check out testimonials while doing an “unconscious believability” test.  “Are these testimonials from real people and are they like me?”

Assuming you pass the test, they may get in contact with you.  Mind you, you shouldn’t leave this to chance.  Offer some form of white paper or other material in return for their contact details so you can follow them up.

Recommended Action Steps

If you don’t already have a number of case studies and testimonials, make it a priority to start getting them.

To accomplish this, I suggest you do the following:

1. Make a list of clients you’ve done really good work for.
2. Create case studies and testimonials using the points covered here http://www.revealedresources.com/practical-tips/283-the-critical-importance-of-social-proof
3. Publish them in your marketing material.  Put them on to your LinkedIn and Facebook profiles etc.

Now this will be a lot of work for many of you, so I’d recommend you outsource it to us.

As a special offer to our readers, we’ll interview up to 6 of your clients and write up a case study and testimonial covering the points in the article above.

The testimonials can be in writing or if your clients are available on Skype, we can interview them on video so you get a video testimonial (which one study showed to be 201% more effective than the corresponding written testimonial).

Your investment as a valued reader of our newsletter? Only $660 inc GST.  This price is set to go up by the end of the year.

Here’s what a client recently said about how we helped him:

“Rashid thanks for the case studies and testimonials that you provided. This report provided insights into our customers that we would not have been able have gleaned from our customers if we asked the same questions.

The information you provided is concise, with invaluable comments that we will used in future marketing materials. I especially appreciate the phones calls to discuss the progress and general feedback.” Tom Johns, Project Engraving and Digital, Perth.

Interested? Call me now on (02) 9499-7958 and we can start getting you effective case studies and testimonials which make your sales process easier.

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