Trust is the bedrock of any successful business relationship. Whether it’s a business owner depending on their employees to do the right thing, a company relying on its vendors to deliver what’s been promised, or a prospect choosing between service providers, trust is the differentiator that turns prospects into loyal customers.
If you want to build trust with your audience, you could do a lot worse than relying on testimonials. These accounts, straight from the mouths of your previously satisfied customers and clients, can easily bear much more weight than many—arguably most—other marketing efforts. After all, they are first-hand accounts of what someone can expect from working with you. That said, there are still ways that you can and should coax the best, highest-quality testimonials from your happy clientele. Let’s go over the four questions you should always ask while collecting customer accounts to accomplish just that.
In many ways, a case study is one of the most powerful marketing tools that any business— especially one that serves other businesses—can use. Not only does it serve as a highly effective form of social proof, it also gives your existing marketing collateral another impactful deliverable—provided that it is put together properly. Consider this your complete guide to putting together and utilizing great case studies.
The value of a good referral should not be underestimated. Not only do they help you acquire a new prospect without the typical marketing investments you would otherwise make, but they also typically enter your marketing funnel much closer to the purchase point than the average lead does.
However, don’t make the mistake of thinking that referrals will start flowing in without some effort on your part. Let’s discuss the processes you must adopt to encourage your clients to provide you with referrals.
Case studies are a great example of marketing collateral that any business should consider using for various reasons. Let’s review a few of these reasons, then cover what a case study should provide and how to put it to use.
The benefits of including testimonials in your marketing mix are many, but you need to make sure you approach your testimonials correctly. They are much more than just quotes praising your past services. To find out why you need them--and how to get them--read on.
FOMO, or the Fear Of Missing Out, can be a powerful motivator to accelerate the decision-making process. This is no less true when it comes to business decisions. As a result, you might be able to use FOMO to your advantage in your MSP’s marketing… so long as you do so responsibly.
Case studies are a key marketing tool that too few small businesses take advantage of. But, using case studies to showcase your problem-solving capabilities can be an especially powerful social proof and lead to an increase in conversion rates.
There may not be as powerful, or as admirable, a title as “thought leader” in the business setting. If you have earned this distinction, it suggests quite a bit about the respect and influence you command. However, it is important to emphasize that this really is a reputation that must be earned, despite the fact that the path to being seen as a thought leader isn’t always an obvious one.
You can sing praises about your company’s dedication to providing superior IT support in your marketing all you want. The fact of the matter is, this isn’t always enough to convince every prospect that it’s worth entering into a business relationship with you. How do they know you aren’t stretching the truth?
When it comes to your business’ marketing, there’s one group who knows what works (and what doesn’t) better than anyone else: your audience. As a result, their feedback is some of the most important for you to hear. The best way of finding out what this group is thinking is to ask, and it just so happens that there are many ways for you to do so.
A B2B Referral Program is a formalized process set up that allows your customers to recommend your business to another business in need of your products and services by asking your sales team to reach out to that other business in question. Often, these programs are paired with some sort of reward to the referring party, and may even offer a reward for the business that they referred if they become a paying client.
The use of video adds a considerable amount of value to many marketing materials, but the boost that video gives to testimonials particularly stands out. Videos, in general, will help keep your visitors on your site longer - and when they can see your happy, existing clients raving about your service, how could they not be convinced to engage with you?
It’s common knowledge that before you buy a car, you should take it for a test drive. It’s the only way to know if the car is going to meet your expectations. If you think about it, we actually apply the ‘try it before you buy it’ strategy to a lot of decisions, including those made for business. Since your target audience can’t really ‘test drive’ a new infrastructure or a remote monitoring session, offering them a case study that shows how your current clients benefit from working with your MSP is the next best thing.
You may have heard the term “social proof” pop up every so often when marketing is discussed, but what is it? Simply put, it is support for your marketing that you get by borrowing influence to add to your initiative’s. Social proof gets its power from the actions or opinions of an influential force--usually another person or their experience.
A call to action, CTA, is a clear instruction designed to provoke an immediate response. Whether you say something like “call now” or “find out more”, you’re attempting to convince your audience to delve further into your site or services, without being forceful or demanding. You don’t want your audience to feel like you’re telling them what to do, but rather offering suggestions and assistance to better themselves. After all, when faced with “you’re not doing this correctly so you need to click here now” or “for more information on how to increase your website traffic, click here”, which are you more likely to choose?
Digital marketing has become the primary type of advertising. While there are many different suggestions about digital marketing best practices, one thing that most marketers can see eye-to-eye on is the importance of transparency. Fortune magazine defines transparency as:
“making the practices, policies, algorithms, and even code, operating data, and future plans available to customers, employees, or business partners — runs counter to traditional business practices."
To put it simply, transparency is opening your company’s proverbial door to clients, prospects, vendors, and anyone else who cares to learn about you.
“Don’t take my word for it, listen to what this guy’s got to say!” Even though this well-known sales mantra is extremely overused and comes off like a used car commercial, the marketing principle behind it is highly effective. Is your website taking advantage of testimonies to help sell your product or service?
