Testimonials Guarantee Success at Every Level of Business
Honesty is the best policy has been drilled into our heads since childhood. This powerful idiom is the reason companies spend most of their advertising budget attempting to create a positive image for their brand. With social media and mass communication becoming easily accessible businesses are realizing a personal experience a consumer has with their product or service has significant influence on prospective consumers. Studies have shown people trust peer reviews over advertising because they are less likely to be dishonest and a misrepresentation of the company.
Collecting and sharing testimonials is a powerful tool that businesses of all sizes are beginning to take advantage of. When managed correctly testimonials can boost sales by 34 percent according to a case study done by Wiki Job. Larger businesses have a harder time believing these statistics because they already have a loyal consumer following. Wiki Job is UK’s largest graduate jobs website attracting 500,000 visits a month, proving size doesn’t matter. Companies must remember people do business with those who we trust. Maintaining credibility is just as important as gaining that credibility was in the first place no matter how big your company is.
Jay B. Lipe makes an interesting point in his article for Emerge Marketing when he says,
“A client of ours sells telecommunications services to Fortune 500 companies. Yet, nowhere in their materials do the names of these companies or people appear. This is a missed opportunity. Prospects, especially those in Fortune 500 companies, want to know you’ve worked with companies like theirs. If prospects can’t find enough warm and fuzzies in your materials, they’ll take their business elsewhere. And, very likely, it will be to your competitor who does publish testimonials with names.”
At every level of businesses, even at the Fortune 500 level, companies must maintain trust from their consumers to stay in business. With the economy not as reliable as it was in the past it is important to remember that no business, big or small is guaranteed success. Honesty and a bond of trust with every consumer prove to be the best way to retain this success.
By: Veronica McCrimmon
Sources:
Jay B. Lipe, Emerge Marketing. How to Use Testimonials in Your Business. http://www.emergemarketing.com/testimonials_in_business.pdf
Visual Website Optimizer. How WikiJob increased sales by 34% by A/B testing customer testimonials
http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/split-testing-blog/customer-testimonials-increase-sales/