So why are testimonials so useful? And how can they be used to their absolute advantage? … To YOUR absolute advantage?…

They should be used in ALL of your marketing materials. So your website (if you have one, if not you should have one), your leaflets, pamphlets and brochures…. and even in your newspaper, magazine or Yellow Pages adverts.

And if you have an office – use them there too. Have them on your wall, in a folder or book so that prospects can read them.

Why this Works so Well

Testimonials help you in 3 main ways:

1) They set you apart from your competition, who may not use testimonials at all, or if they do they use them the wrong way. By using them effectively you will LOOK different, meaning you must BE different, right?

2) If your business offers slightly different services that your competitors do not, your customers can highlight this in their testimonials. THEY will appreciate why you’re different to everyone else. And spelling this out in a testimonial will be hugely powerful for you.

3) This is THE most important aspect. Testimonials will allow you to use your marketing to your advantage. They will allow you to be able to eliminate the argument of price, because prospects will see YOU as a clear EXPERT in your field.

Why believe YOU?

Testimonials use something called ’social proof’ (something I write about in my book, which you can see here) and this is extremely powerful. But why?

Well, the main reason is that its all well and good YOU telling people that you are good at what you do. But when a third party (someone else) says it for you, it has a lot more influence.

Imagine a friend or someone you know recommending a restaurant to you. You may have passed this restaurant a few times before and thought to yourself that it looks like a nice place to go and have a meal.

But when someone else says it too, it carries so much more weight. So much so that you’d probably give it a try based upon their recommendation.

So this is why they work, and why using them EFFECTIVELY is another key to the success of your business. And also do not be afraid of asking for them either, as people are often more than happy to oblige.

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Given these two facts alone, don’t you think it might be something that you should be using?

The first objection that most business owners have with regard to using video marketing as part of their marketing strategy is that they think it is too expensive. There is still this common misconception that it is something that can only be afforded by, used by or only applies to the ‘big boys’ in business.

Well, this is now not the case and in this article I am going to explain to you just how easy it is to create and produce a quality video for your business, and at a fraction of the price that you may think it would cost.

Some Basics For Creating A Great Video

First of all, I do think that it is advisable to choose a location where the lighting is good. If you’re planning on filming your video indoors then use a room that has either plenty of natural light coming in, or light coloured walls, or even better, both.

Sound is also something that you will need to consider when creating your video. Ideally you do not want any background noise if you can help it. So things such as loud traffic noise, particularly noisy machinery or over enthusiastic staff could drown out the audio on your video, and so this has to be assessed when choosing an appropriate location.

And that’s really it in all honesty. As you can see most (if not all) of it is plain common sense in reality. Choosing an appropriate and well lit area that has little or no background noise is the absolute minimum that you want to aim for.

You could also think about what it is in the background, to ensure that the viewer is getting a representative and professional image of what your company is about.

So as you can see, video marketing is not as difficult or troublesome as you may have initially thought, and the benefits of it can be enormous.

This May Surprise You

The great thing is that with just a little planning, as you’ve seen above, you can set the perfect scene for your video. Also, with the advent of High Definition (HD) camcorder technology, you can still produce excellent videos on a lot less than a Hollywood film budget, even with a tiny hand held device.

You certainly don’t need a film or television crew to create a great video for your business, you really don’t. You only need to look at the videos that you can see on You Tube the next time you’re on the internet to see what I mean, as the quality of most home-made films is now more than acceptable
for the purposes of marketing your business.

I can assure you that many of the videos that you will see posted on You Tube have been created with simple, hand held devices, and the majority of them will not even have been made with the use of a tripod or any professional lighting.

Why Video Marketing Works

I suppose the closest alternative to video marketing would have to be television advertising. The reality is however, that for the vast majority of small and medium sized business owners, the prospect of advertising on television is still pretty much financially out of reach.

Television advertising even today is still relatively expensive when compared to all other means of advertising, and there is no realistic way that many small business owners can possibly justify the cost of running a television advertisement.

Even a simple 30 second television advertisement could blow a company’s entire years marketing budget in one fell swoop. This factor alone perhaps demonstrates the lack of feasibility in a small business using television advertising, which is why video marketing is something that can serve as a very effective alternative.

It is evident these days that with the continual advances in technology that we’re seeing, the ability to record and produce a podcast has now become a pretty simplistic task. You certainly no longer need radio station or studio-quality recording equipment in order to produce a good quality podcast for your audience.

But why do it in the first place?

What Is A Podcast?

Well, lets start by looking at exactly what a podcast is. To put it into its simplest terms, a podcast is essentially an audio clip (or audio file) that can be placed (often referred to as embedded) anywhere on your website, and can potentially be listened to by anyone who visits your site.

Podcasting first became popular in 2005 with the launch of iTunes. If the latest statistics are to be believed, and given the current trends in the sales of portable media devices, as many as 275 million people around the world will own a portable media player by the year 2011.

This fact alone clearly demonstrates the popularity of listening on the move, or at least listening when it is convenient.

So why is this important?

Well, for prospects or customers who are interested in the audio that you have produced, it can also be downloaded onto an mp3 media device or onto a computer. In addition, there is also the possibility that people may want to subscribe to your podcasts, and as you’ll find out in Part Two of this article, this is something that can provide huge potential success and opportunities for your business.

So one critical reason why podcasts offer such potential benefits for your business is by downloading it, your listener can digest your podcast at a convenient time to them.

This is an important distinction because it fits in perfectly within the new ‘permission marketing’ framework that I have mentioned in previous articles. If you can use a media (such as podcasting) that your target audience is using and is comfortable with, you have an opportunity to get your message across more effectively.

Providing Choice Is So Important

Having a choice of how and when to see or hear your company’s message fits in perfectly with the way that your potential customers live their lives today. It can also carry more weight and effectiveness, as you are not ramming your company’s message down the throat of every poor, unsuspecting person that walks by.

This is one of the reasons why podcasts are as popular as they are. We all have so little time on our hands these days and we are bombarded with literally hundreds upon hundreds of marketing messages each and every day. But with a podcast, it can be downloaded and listened to at home, at work, on the train, on the tube, in fact anywhere.

And by producing podcasts your business will be perceived as being different. This is also very important, and something that I will cover in Part Two of this article.

Part One of this article walked you through the basics of why social media can benefit your business’ marketing strategy. Part Two will now look at some specific reasons why, and explain how you can leave your competition trailing in your wake.

As consumers these days, we are all so busy with life. We work hard, we spend time with our children and our families and we do not have time to necessarily stop what we are doing in order to be ’sold to’, which is really how things used to work.

That has all changed now however.

The order of the day now is subtly dove-tailing your marketing message within a medium, a means of communication that your target audience is already using. This means that your company’s message will not feel like an interruption at all, merely another aspect of the social media environment that your target audience is engrossed in.

Why The Internet Is So Important

One of the reasons why the internet is now becoming increasingly popular, is because it can literally be accessed from anywhere on the planet.

The introduction and accessibility of laptop computers, palmtop computers and mobile phones with internet technology (WAP enabled phones) means that you can now be online ‘on the go’ in virtually any environment that you choose.

You may well already be benefiting from this, as you can be communicating with employees and work colleagues, clients and even family or friends from a train or a taxi cab. Suddenly journeys which would have previously been ‘dead’ time as little as 20 years ago, can now be used productively.

So the internet provides convenience in our lives. What it can also do is provide instant information, and in an age where we tend to like most things done yesterday, the internet is often the first thing someone uses in order to seek information.

Beware, Things Are Not What They Used To Be

And so integrating your marketing into media where people are more likely to see you, much the same as a billboard on a busy street, is why the internet is beneficial for your business. The one difference is however, that with marketing in general, the rules have now changed.

There is now a new term in marketing called ‘permission marketing’. This effectively means that the ‘old way of doing things’, so simply just barging in and advertising your businesses’ products and services to the world doesn’t work any more.

The way that these social media sites work could lend itself perfectly to your business. One of the main benefits is the sheer speed at which communication takes place using social media. This speed can be used to potentially see your company’s marketing message passed from person to person in double quick time.

In fact, your company’s message can spread just like a virus, hence the term ‘viral’ that is now common place in the marketing dictionary.

The fact is that we are more likely to trust a recommendation of a product or service from someone that we trust. And by it’s very nature, this is one thing that social media can provide for your business. This also makes for an extremely powerful tool and rewards the businesses who are able to provide a great product or service, backed up by fantastic customer service and after sales service.

If your business is able to deliver on all three fronts then you’re not only going to have many satisfied customers, but potentially many more prospects knocking at your door too.

In the social media arena, views and opinions can be shared between friends (or by you too), and photographs, audio and video can also be used. This is yet another reason why social media is so powerful.

So to bring this article to a close, I would also like to just suggest something to you that could quite possibly send your business global.

If this is something that appeals to you, is relevant to your business or is an option that you’ve been considering, then you’ll find this hugely important.

How To Reach A World Wide Audience – Fast

When I look at my Facebook profile at the time of writing this article, I see that roughly one sixth of my ‘friends’ are located overseas, so not in the UK. Do you think that this could open up some possibilities for you in getting your product or service international exposure? You bet it is.

Going global may not necessarily be on your business’ agenda. It might not be something that you think is right for your business at this moment in time, but the opportunity is most certainly there if you do want to branch out.

Potentially all it’s going to cost you to have your product or service seen by a world wide audience is a small investment of time and a well planned and executed strategy. Just imagine what the results could be.

Social media will not work for every business of course. Its just like any other means of marketing in that respect, however it may just be the medium that propels your business to the next level, and who knows where that could lead?

Quite often the email addresses that are entered into forms on web pages and squeeze pages (a form of web page that solely prompts you to give your name and email address) are false, as people provide this information just to gain entrance to sites or to see what comes next. The people who are in this email list will not have any interest in whatever you have to sell. So sending them emails about your company or product proves to be worthless.

At the most, and if you are lucky, you may only find about 1% of them clicking to your site through the link you send in the emails. However, I believe that it is better to have a quality list of people where you are sure that anywhere between 20-80% of them will click to your site when you send them an email.

Factors affecting list quality

When you speak of list quality, you have to realize that this is a trait in email lists that is determined by various factors. This is why to maintain your list quality; you will have to follow an effective and proven strategy when you sell products that lead to subscribers subscribing to your list.

So if you have a product to sell, it is often more effective to send prospective clients two emails that have links which lead to high quality information, or perhaps some audio or some software before you actually send them an email that leads to the page that will be selling your products.

This is because the clients on your list who will be most responsive to your offers will be prepared to wait to see what comes next, and they will hopefully appreciate some quality, free information or audio as a ‘thank you’ for signing up to your email list.

Of course, most autoresponder systems now allow you monitor which emails are opened and which links within that email are clicked, so you can easily and effectively monitor your list to see how responsive it is.

Till receipts are an untapped marketing tool

You can also include your websites address, or an offer of some description, so for example 15% of your next order, on till receipts that you give to customers. This can increase the number of visits they’ll make to your business, and could also drive customer loyalty.

Your website is your friend, so use him effectively

I know I’ve banged on about this several times, but I make no apology for repeating myself
Your website is truly a valuable asset to have, however I see too many businesses that simply have a website for the sake of having one.

A clear layout and a “call to action” on every page (this could be to call a phone number or sign up to a newsletter) are essential – and that’s just for starters. Flash, sound effects, creative graphics and the like may look nice and pretty, but it does not necessarily gain you customers, in fact in many cases it has the opposite effect.

Audio or video that is targeted to your customer, contains valuable information and again has a call to action at the end of it on the other hand is something that can work very well indeed, and should be considered.

Ultimately, the internet is just another means of advertising your business, albeit perhaps the fastest growing and most popular medium for advertising currently. But do not overlook the cornerstones of traditional offline marketing such as referrals and joint ventures, and I will discuss these at a future date, as they can work very well indeed if done correctly.

However just expecting them to promote your site is not sufficient; I have to say that there are some things you have to understand to be successful at viral marketing.

With the help of viral marketing strategies, you will be able to give website visitors sales messages or free carrier tools to promote your website. However, you are not to force visitors to deliver sales messages but use them as a side effect so that they eventually gain from the services you offer.

Using the help of affiliates

People are today using the help of affiliates for viral marketing. With this concept, a retail store selling a product starts affiliating with people in the general products genre in the hopes of increasing their sales.

With this endeavor, they link to other sites through their affiliates with the help of a banner, a clicking ad or something else that helps bring business to the retail store.

And if the affiliate succeeds in bringing some business, the affiliate is paid a commission for the sale, which is seldom more than 5%.  This is a minimal amount for the retail store but is a very cost effective means of advertisement for the store.

Make use of articles

Another effective viral marketing tool is articles and tutorials. You have to write, or have ghostwriters write articles about your product and services, or at least something related to it.

These articles then have to be published in article directories, where you state that it is possible to reproduce the article, as long as there is a reference made to your website. There will be some webmasters who will use your article on a high traffic website, with acknowledgement, and thus help in creating traffic to your website.

As there is a growing need for web content and articles in the internet, you are sure that there will be people waiting to lap your articles up. Tune in same time next week for more viral marketing tips and techniques…..

The first thing you have to do is to submit your site to Google through their free ‘submit your site’ form. All you have to do is to submit your home page and Googlebot will do the rest of the work of giving your website a ranking.

However, there is a hitch here; as Google does not add all the URLs that are submitted to their index, there is no guarantee to when and if your site will be indexed at all. The second tip to follow is to link your site to a site that you know Google crawls regularly.

This way, whenever Google re-crawls the website it will find your link. It will then crawl your site and index it too. In fact, Google prefers using this method to find sites to index.

Another important factor is sites that directly link to yours, as this is still held in high regard by Google. Finding sites to link to yours is quite easy and you can start by looking for sites that are linking to your competitors.

You can ask them to link to your site in what is known as a ‘link exchange’, so you may have to offer a link back to their site.

You can also post comments on blogs and forums with a link back to your site. This is a very effective way of obtaining back links to your site – just ensure the content your posting on blogs and forums is relevant and useful and just not a simple attempt to get back links.

This has to be the most effective method of getting your site indexed by Google. Plus, its not technical at all and its not that labour intensive either.

The final tip for getting your site indexed does require a little more work, but not a lot. Google loves fresh, new and unique content. By posting regularly on your blog or by placing articles on your site every couple of days, Google will soon learn that your site is updating regularly with unique information, and Google loves this.

Blogs are a great way to get indexed as by definition they’re made for regular posting of information, but the same can apply for standard sites, even e-commerce site, where you can have featured articles on pages that are behind the main page of your site.

So there you have it, a few simple tips to get your site indexed quickly on the biggest and most important search engine on the planet.

It can be said that link bait is content written with the intention of educating, entertaining and inflaming readership to prospective readers. It is through these articles that you manage to create a buzz and this buzz spreads from site to site with the help of links and comments that others leave about your written work.

Link bait works at link building

The inbound and back links that are generated by link bait are used to rank websites by search engine algorithms. So the higher is the ranking, the higher is the listing. And with this, you have an increased volume of traffic to your website.

Basically, link bait creation is an internet marketing campaign that follows the task of link building. It is created with the hope of increasing the quantity of high quality, and relevant links to a website.

Create provoking content to initiate link baits

Link bait is usually helpful and specific content that is written by authoritative people in the market with the intention of initiating a discussion and perhaps an argument in niche subjects.

This content has to make people like or hate your content enough so that they write about it in their website, and provide a link to your site and page where the content is found. This is a basic form of viral marketing that ensures a continuous source of links to your site.

If you are interested to learn more about link baits, and using them for your internet marketing campaign, don’t forget to follow the next post!

This is because unlike other advertising methods, these advergames can keep your audience occupied, and have repeat interactions with your brand. This makes your campaign much more memorable and in the process increases the chances of making any sales.

In addition to this, I think that it can be used to guide your audience to the right and desired action is adopted. You can also create web links that lead directly to your online store for visitors to see your product or service and use ‘send to a friend’ function for spreading news about your product.

Advergames that are good will not only make people play it, but also pass it on to others. So if you have the right marketing message in the game, you are sure of a great brand exposure to millions worldwide, for the cost of glossy magazine adverts. They also have an additional benefit of not expiring and will work to provide returns to you indefinitely.

Despite all these advantages, there are some disadvantages to using advergames. You have to create a game that gives the right marketing and message to the user. It should not only give incentives for interaction with your brand, but also provide a good brand experience to the user.

This is why I say that it is important to hire an advergame designer with knowledge of video game design and development to create the right game for your brand. Also ensure that you have a successful viral marketing campaign for distributing your game.

Without this, even the best game ends up sitting idly in your website, without the necessary exposure. Use the help of an experienced viral advergame developer to launch your campaign with a successful bang.

Try out gaming to get your business off to a head start with advergames……