Driving your credibility up the trust curve is what clinches the deal when talking to prospective clients. Testimonials when done correctly are a quick sure fire way to drive your credibility up the trust curve. Being honest and true is one of the most important golden rules when using testimonials in our sales process. It is therefore important to understand how to use testimonials, to ask for them and use them when promoting ourselves or our business.

A testimonial from some one else is a very powerful endorsement of a person or a businesses worth. Testimonials have the ability to break down barriers that would normally be very difficult to overcome.

The school dating game understood the value of testimonials. A testimonial or recommendation was one of the first starting points when approaching a girl that you did not know but you would like to get to know better. Soliciting the help of your friends and her friends in a complex testimonial swapping procedure was a very good first step in the courting process. It did not always work, but instinctively it was easier getting a recommendation rather then trying the cold calling approach.

What testimonials do is promote you or your business up the trust curve. If someone else finds the business acceptable, then it may be OK. It always amazed me at the power of the unspoken testimonial. When I had a girl friend, there was no shortage of other possibilities. But when I was without a girl friend none of the other girls wanted to know my troubles.

It is very important to always be honest when using some one else’s name to endorse your credibility. Don’t use testimonials that are made up or only have an element of truth. Don’t drop names which are fabricated or use people’s names that you don’t have a relationship with.

I recently had a meeting with some who broke the testimonial rules. They referred to another business person as their business partner. The way they did it made me believe that they were credible. A few days later I ran into the person that was used as the testimonial giver and we talked about the business man that I had, had the meeting with. It turned out that the two of them hardly knew each other at all.

Here are a few suggestions to consider when using testimonials

• Don’t fabricate – don’t make up testimonials, if you need a testimonial ask someone that will give you a testimonial. If you don’t have testimonials then use a different approach to draw your perspective client’s attention.
• Ask properly – If at all possible ask for your testimonial face to face. When you have received your testimonial you may need to clarify something with the giver that will make the testimonial more useable for example get them to be specific.
• Use their words – at times it is appropriate to rewrite the testimonial. However as a general rule try and leave the testimonial in the givers words. If you are going to rewrite make the wording less “sales‎’y”
• Don’t be afraid to use testimonials – if they work on the school ground, then they will work in other situations. It is however important to make sure that the testimonial that is being used is genuine.

Testimonials are a great way to overcome difficult hurdles and drive up your credibility. If done properly and the testimonial is not cheesy you will find a wealth of use for a well placed testimonial.

But do you know that there is a certain type of computer “virus” that can make you money?  Let me reassure you that I am not going to advocate any “black hat” practises, or weird conspiracy theories about Microsoft and virus propagation.

I was at a marketing presentation the other week, and we asked the audience, a group of fellow small business owners, what they would most like to see covered in our Newsletter.  There were a couple of answers to that question, one of them was, ‘I want to know how I can get my information to spread across the internet as an email attachment’ (apologies to I.P. for my rewording of his question).

The answer to this question is “Viral Marketing”.  The use of the words “viral” and “virus” in the IT world have in the past had negative connotations. The term “virus” is used to describe these programmes, because of their ability to multiply themselves across the internet, much as a real medical virus multiplies in our cells and spreads across our bodies.

So what then is viral marketing?  It is a marketing campaign that multiplies itself across the internet.  It is not a paid marketing campaign based on ad placement, it spreads from one internet user to the next. It does not do it by taking control of your address book and hijacking you, a viral marketing “ad” is replicated when one person LIKES the ad, and sends it on.  Unlike a chain letter, a successful viral marketing campaign is anything but lame and annoying, it is entertaining.

Do you remember back around 2000, 2001 there was a Budweiser ad that every one was emailing around (WASSUP??)  It was entertaining, so people sent it on to their friends.  But at the same time it raised every body’s awareness of the Budweiser product.

So how can you get yourself a successful viral marketing campaign? 

Firstly, you need to decide who your audience is and what kind of viral ‘genre’ they are going to respond to AND want to share with their friends.

A couple of genres are:

1.  Inspirational – can often be a slide show of lovely pictures with inspirational sayings.  Appeals to people because it affirms their values.

2. Humorous – can be one funny picture, a slide show of funny pictures, a funny written piece of work or, increasingly, a video.

Successful viral marketing rarely talks about product benefits.  It often seeks to create an emotion (ie happiness) and then attach its product to that emotion.  Its main aim is to raise brand awareness.  That doesn’t mean that you can’t sell benefits.  But don’t become boring.

Once you have picked a market, and decided what kind of media they might respond to, you need to get your piece of media organised.  Either slide show, simple email, video, audio etc, bearing in mind that although video has most impact, some people still cannot down load it very fast and therefore may not watch it.

Then you need to mail it to people.

Who?  Well your database of customers is a great start.  They should be people who do not mind receiving emails from you.

They will then hopefully forward it to their friends.  Once you have sent the email, it is out of your hands and it is up to the piece of media to be compelling enough that they send it on.

Sending a whole heap of emails can be time consuming, and can also get you black listed as a spammer, so if you are uncertain about how to go about it, drop us an email.  There are easy ways to manage it.

Part of each athlete�s preparation is to understand the competition, knowing their strengths and weaknesses. This is especially true of football games where coaches will sit for hours watching videos of a competing team past games. They analyze and pick holes in their game which will allow them to devise a strategy to beat their competitor.

A website also has competitors and every webmaster should be aware of who the websites competition are. So how can a webmaster monitor the competition? The first way is to have a look which websites are where you want to be.

Record there name and web address. Have a look at their PR, title tag, description and keywords. Look at the code for the site to identify the complexity of the site. Identify what keywords they are using in their copy.

Then look at it from a users point of view identifying what is being offered. What opt-in or pull in offers are available. Does the headline grab you and what benefit does it talk about?

Then see if it is possible to get some other stats on the site like what are they bidding on. A good site to have a look at is http://www.spyfu.com.

Once you know who the competition is and what they are doing it is easier to pick holes and do something better or different that will get you ahead of the competition. And in the very least do what they are doing to get you to a similar position of credibility.

Goals should be broken down into very achievable objectives. One of the best places to start in identifying what goals for a website ought to be is to start with the keywords. If done correctly the keywords will give specific targets to aim at. The next area is to identify where the traffic is to come from. This can be search engines, directories, web 2.0 sites or other authoritative sites that already have traffic.

Goals should always be written down. An excel spreadsheet is a good place to start. A good first step is to list out 5 key phrases that the site is aiming at being found for. In the next column list out where the traffic is to come from for each key phrase.

In the third column list the activities that need to be performed to achieve that goal. These activities may include submitting to directories using certain key phrases. Getting links using the key phrases identified. Writing articles with these key phrases. Changing the copy to incorporate the keywords listed under each goal. Using other mediums such as social search, RSS, audio or video.

As each of these goals are achieved review how long it took to achieve it. Note any difficulties and things that may have helped in achieving the goal. And then most importantly set new goals to work to.