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A LITTLE REVERSE PSYCHOLOGY
by Mike Banks Valentine
Standard, well-worn marketing techniques sometimes gain some
polish when you rework them a bit. Everyone knows that happy
customer testimonials are a valuable addition to your business
marketing materials and your web site. Collect comments from
those who have had a good experience with your product or
service and share those successful relationships with your
potential customers and clients by publishing them on your
web site.
Now take that marketing routine and turn it on it's head!
Have you ever gone out of your way to OFFER testimonials to
businesses online? There is a very fundamental difference to
one aspect of the web as a marketing medium. That difference
is the HYPERTEXT LINK. If you recieve marketing materials in
the mail and see testimonials printed on them, you are likely
to wonder who the people offering that glowing praise are and
if they really had such a wonderful experience with the business
they are praising.
Here is the reason that OFFERING testimonials online can be
of benefit to you. If you are quoted on a high-traffic web
site as being very pleased with a product or service offered
there, you will most likely be given a HYPERTEXT LINK to your
web site. This is done as a courtesy from most businesses as
a way to say "Thank You for your Compliment". It lends a sense
of credibility to your comments because people have the option
of visiting your site to see who you are or follow up with you
on the comments in your testimonial.
Many business owners struggle valiantly to establish links by
visiting sites one by one and asking them if they will provide
a link back to their site. The trick here is that you must find
those sites that are 'complimentary' and not 'competitors' to
your own business and convince them that their visitors would
find your site valuable. When you offer testimonials, they can
be from virtually any site you have done business with or whose
product you've used. A link is a link is a link. You all know
by now that links increase search engine rankings -- right?
If you are a customer of an online product or service and you're
truly pleased with them, why not send the webmaster a testimonial
and tell them you'd be happy to have them publish your comments
on their site? They will be pleased at your offer if your praise
is short (one or two sentences) and highly complimentary of them.
Include a hypertext link to your site or your e-mail in the note
and tell them you'd be happy to have your comments published.
Most sites have a page of happy customer testimonials
and most offer a link back to your site or your e-mail so their
potential clients can follow-up with you. Take a look at those
businesses you patronize online and see if they offer those
linkbacks. Then tell them how happy you are to do business with
them and watch your traffic grow!
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