As a either an offline or online business owner, you never want to miss an opportunity to grow your business and capitalize on any potential sales. One of easiest ways to grow your business is by using testimonials. Quite simply, they’re cheap, are easy-to-use, and above, are a powerful marketing tactic.

Establishing credibility with your visitors and customers can build trust, which in turn will create profits. This should be high on your to-do list, regardless of which stage your business may be in. Due to our cynical attitude, most of us need proof that something works and would be more inclined to make a purchase based on this rather than rely on a sales pitch alone.

Fact-filled testimonials on your website will satisfy most customers and is one of the most high- impact ways to let your visitors know that the product you want them to purchase lives up to their expectations.

So, How Do You Get Testimonials?

Getting testimonials may require some work on your part, especially if your business is in its early stages. Here’s how you can collect the testimonials you need to help grow your business and increase sales.

Provide a link on your site with a web form, which will allow your customers to give you their feedback. This will give them the opportunity to share their thoughts and experiences about your product. As you collect your testimonials, you will then place your “request feedback form” next to some testimonials that you’ve already gathered. This will give your customers an idea of the kind of feedback you’re looking for.

A more effective approach to this method is to use your autoresponder. By having them opt-in to your autoresponder, you can then contact them after they’ve purchased your product - even weeks, or months later, of course you don’t want to wait that long to communicate with them.

Making Use of Your Sub-list

Creating this sublist serves another important purpose.

By having this sub-list in place, you have now established a list of people who have purchased from you. Now you can market to this group of list with other related products and services. Remember, the idea is to create a long life customer and not just a buyer.

Now that you have this sub-list in place, you can now follow up with them and ask about their experience with your product, as well as giving them a chance to offer feedback on their customer service experience. Don’t forget to follow up and recommend other great products or services.

If you happen to receive a great testimonial from one of your customers. Get their permission to post their feedback and comments on your website. Let them know that in return, you will give them some free publicity by including their website URL in your sales page, a win-win for the both you .

How To Make Use of Your Testimonials

• Here’s how to make the most of your testimonials:
• Place your best testimonials in the top fold or the side bars.
• Place some testimonials right in the middle of your homepage.
• Dedicate a separate page to your testimonials - include snippets of their comments.
• Link to your testimonial page next to each of those snippets.
• Include a link to your testimonials on each and every page of your web site.
• Don’t edit your testimonials to exclude a comment or add information you want to hear
• Never use a customer testimonial without permission.

Conclusion

Getting testimonials can certainly boost your business, but if you happen to have no testimonials in place, you can always offer your product or services for free to a select group of people on your list. This is assuming you have a product in place that you haven’t launched. Once your testimonial list begins to grow, make every effort to place them in the most prominent positions of your sales page.

Most important of all, never risk committing fraud by inventing testimonials as this can easily ruin any credibility you’ve worked for and can result in destroying your business. Follow these simple guide lines and your business will grow.

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Your business isn’t growing. There are a number of reasons why it has happened.

• Maybe it’s because you’ve lost your passion.
• Maybe you’re overwhelmed.
• Maybe you just don’t have enough time.
• Maybe you’re disorganized.
• Maybe your staff is inefficient (or maybe you are)

Maybe you don’t know how to grow your business to the next level (or maybe you don’t want to do what it takes)

Regardless of the reason why your business isn’t growing, it’s time to stop making excuses and do something about it. You worked REALLY hard to get to this point. You spent time, money, and a lot of energy to build your business. Certainly you’re not going to let it fritter away.

Here’s how to stop making excuses for why your business isn’t growing:

Step 1. Figure out why it isn’t growing. Perhaps your product line is stagnant. Perhaps you’re only reaching 10% of your eligible prospects. Perhaps your sales page isn’t converting or your advertising campaign isn’t reaching the right people. The first step to figuring out how to stop making excuses is to honestly examine why it isn’t growing. The reason may reside completely in you – perhaps business got too big too fast and you don’t have time to catch up let alone build your business. This leads us to the next step.

Step 2. Decide if you want your business to grow and if so, by how much? In short, if you do want your business to grow then set goals. If you’re making $50,000 in sales then maybe you want to set a goal of $75,000 in sales. If you have a customer base of 100 regular customers maybe you want to double it. Set reasonable and attainable goals.

Step 3. Analyze what is working to help you attain your goals and what isn’t working. For example, if you want to attain $75,000 in sales but you’re spending 50% of your time on administrative duties then your time isn’t being well spent.

Step 4. Make a plan to eliminate what isn’t working. Using the example in step 3 if you’re spending 50% of your time on administrative tasks then outsourcing some or all of those tasks will free up a significant amount of time. Time you could spend on selling and reaching your new goal.

Step 5. This is the best part. Create a reward for attaining your goals. Part of the motivation to attain a goal, beyond self fulfillment and feeling very proud, is giving yourself a little pat on the back. Some may pat themselves on the back with a two week vacation to Hawaii, others prefer a new pair of shoes or a week off to go camping with their children. Whatever the reward, including it in your plan may be the extra motivation you need to get beyond excuses and into action.

Conclusion

Entrepreneurs are goal oriented, action oriented people. However sometimes life gets a bit out of control and instead of action, excuses fill the void. Regain your entrepreneur spirit, eliminate the roadblocks and hurdles and set new goals. It’s the best way to stop making excuses about why your business isn’t growing and remember why you got into business in the first place.