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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Having an effective marketing campaign that highlights the benefits of your product and not the features is the key to having a successful promotion. Repeating this marketing strategy on a consistent basis will only help your business reap the rewards over and over. If you aren’t sure what the difference is between the two, then keep reading…

Features Describe Qualities

Here are a few quick examples:

• The Widget 5000 is made from 100% recycled products
• Our ladder is made from lightweight titanium alloy
• Our glue is protected by a world wide patent

What’s In It For ME?

The easiest way to define benefits is to remember “WIIFM” or “what’s in it for me”. When looking at it from the point of a view of a potential buyer, benefits are what those features mean to your prospects, for example:

1) You’ll save time and money and cut down on environmental pollutants when you use our energy saving Widget 5000. Plus, you’ll have the peace of mind to sleep at night knowing you’ve done your part to cut down on pollution.

2) Lightweight durable titanium-alloy frame means no more aching back muscles in the morning, and the best part? You’ll be able to maneuver it with ease. Even better, it comes with a lifetime guarantee, so you’ll never need to buy another ladder again!

3) Our world wide patent-protected glue ensures you can use it on any surface material. Be it wood, plastic, metal, ceramic, glass, even tile. No messy cleanup, and no hazardous fumes to inhale. Plus it comes with our “never re-glue it again-guaranteed!”

Take a look at the words in blue. Those highlight the benefits of each sample product.

In the first product example, the consumer will “save time and money” and have “peace of mind”. Notice how these benefits fit right into a persons interest and desires?

Ask yourself, who doesn’t want to save time and money or have peace of mind?

Continuing with the first example, if a person is socially conscious, peace of mind will fit right into their desires. Remember that benefits are what those features mean to your prospects.

These are just a few made up examples, but I think you can see the big picture here.

Conclusion

The goal of your promotions is to address the benefits of the product, and not its features. People are searching for solutions to their problems. For example, save more time, make more money, and gain more confidence.

If you remember to focus on your readers interests and desires, you are sure to put forward an effective marketing campaign. The trick is to highlight the specific benefits that will push your reader’s emotional hot buttons.

Building the biggest opt-in list around isn’t always the best thing for your business. There are a number of factors to consider such as quality of the list versus the quantity. Of course, if you combine the two, the results will be very positive to your business. If you consider a list of 500 that brings in 30 sales, while a list of 3000 brings the same.

Which is more valuable?

The quality of your list is much more important than quantity. Sometimes as an Internet marketers, we can lose sight of the object of building an opt-in list.

Here are three list building strategies to help you build your business.

Rule #1: Ask. To find out what your list members want, ask. Ask them what kind of information will better serve their online business needs. This fits right into our nature as humans,…asking our opinion makes us feel validated. When it comes to your online business, nothing is more valuable than your list members opinion.

Rule #2: Don’t go over-board! Although staying in touch with your opt-in list is important, you don’t want to irritate them either with too many announcements and promotions. For example, don’t send out three emails in a day, as this made distract, interrupt or even bother some of your members.

One email per day should be enough, unless special circumstances arise requiring more. Have a good balance between quality information and promotions.

Rule #3: Know who your members are. Are your list members single mothers, or senior citizens? Are they newbie Internet marketer or are they golf enthusiast? By knowing who your members are, you can better provide them with right information and products. More than likely you want to build a list of like-minded individuals. Also, don’t hesitate to ask your list to recommend you to their friends and co-workers, or to others who share their passion for your niche.

Conclusion

As you can see, asking your list what they want is essential to your business. You can accomplish this by using such services as SurveyMonkey, or a script by Mark Hendricks. When contacting your list, the frequency of your emails will depend on the relationship you’ve built with them or are establishing. If you are unsure, have them take a survey. Using these list building strategies will better serve their online business needs, which in turn will build your business.

Taking you offline business online can seem like an intimidating task, especially if you’ve never had a website. Unfortunately, many that do make the transition from the offline world to the online community that is called the Internet, at times put up barriers that can turn off would be customers. It is important that you understand the unique differences between a typical brick and mortar business and that of an online presence.

If your plan to take your offline business online anytime in the future, there a few things to consider before taking that big step, which could impact your business significantly. In this months audio tip, you’ll discover what you need to know about your future online customers.