Blog Testimonials Are That Valuable

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“It’s hard to sing your own praises, and it rarely works when you do, “ is the sentiment Chris Garrett once so aptly expressed in copyblogger.com. If a customer ever tells you how much they value your service, Garrett advises, ask them for a testimonial. Even if they don’t ask, ask them for a testimonial, he says, because testimonials are that valuable.

Careful, though; good testimonials don’t gush, the Hotjar team warns. Too much praise is likely to engender skepticism, not belief. Good testimonials, on the other hand, give prospective customers peace of mind, providing proof that people have tried your products and services and approve of them. Really effective testimonials directly address doubts prospects have about price, learning curve, or functionality of a product or service.

Just why do customer testimonials work? They are a powerful form of social proof, a psychological concept based around the idea that we are more likely to follow the actions others have already taken, explains shopify.com.

But do testimonials, in fact, work? Shopify cites four studies exploring that very question:

  1. Econsultancy – sites showcasing testimonials experience an 18% increase in sales.
  2. Wikijob – sites with testimonials earned 34% more conversions.
  3. Reevoo – 50+ reviews converts to a 4.6% increase in conversion rates.
  4. Brightlocal – 88% of people trust online reviews as much as recommendations from personal contacts.

Is asking for testimonials a good idea? Maybe. Asking for feedback always is. After all, as Sujan Patel points out, your customers are the end users of your products and services, “so who better to tell you what you’re getting right and where you’re going wrong?”

There are better and not-so-good methods of gathering testimonials from customers, printwand.com points out. First of all, never fabricate them. Amen to that, I teach at Say It For You. In fact, when a client says, “Sure, just tell me what you want me to say……” , my answer is always “No.” The testimonial has to be in the customer’s words (grammar errors and all).

Second, printwand authors caution, “Just because a customer said some nice things about your brand doesn’t mean you automatically have the right to reproduce those.” On the other hand, when you do receive good spontaneous feedback from a customer, it’s OK to ask if they would allow you to use that statement on your website.

As content for your business blog, customer testimonials are that important. No ad copy, no claims, no statistics can ever wield the power of “people just like them” praising the product or service.

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She-Did-It-To-Work-For-You Blog Content Writing

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The full page ad in Employee Benefit News is a grabber, containing a photo of a young woman wearing a sweatshirt emblazoned with the dollar figure $67,928. “Why did she borrow that money for tuition?” the ad asks, offering the response “She did it to work for you”.

“Every person who visits your site wants an experience worth their time. They want to know you understand their needs,” cautions Adobe Audience Manager. At Say It For You, we know. For readers of marketing blog content, each blog post must be created with a clear and very specific picture of the target readers in mind.

“Single your thoughts down to ONE specific person who’s experiencing ONE specific problem and you stand a better chance of capturing their attention,” writes Mo the Blog Coach. I agree. On my own website, I express the view that blogging has proven itself to have a distinct advantage over more static website copy, so long as each post is designed to have a razor-sharp focus on just one idea, one aspect of the business or practice, targeting one reader, with one desired outcome per post.

Apparently insurance sales consultant Mel Schlesinger has the same idea about the Power of One. Rather than a generic opening pitch, he suggests agents use idea-specific ones. In place of the old “I’d like to get together to learn a little bit about what you do to see if I can help you”, Schlesinger suggests the more specific approach “I have an idea that can help you reduce employees’ pressure for you to increase their wages.”

In addition to directly addressing the employers who are their readers, those Employee Benefit News ad writers got things right in another sense. “One of the simplest, yet most effective pitches comes in the form of a question,” as author Daniel Pink teaches. but you can also phrase questions that allow readers to independently speak to that pain point in their lives, Pink explains, giving the example “Do you feel safe in your home?”

The EBN advertisers, of course, answer their own question – “She did it to work for you.”

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Blog to Put New Twists on the Same Theme

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While the entire September 23 issue of TIME magazine was devoted to a single theme, each of the eleven articles was different from all the others, illustrating a point I keep stressing to business owners and practitioners hesitant about launching a blog.

“I’ve already covered my products and services on my website – what else is left to say?”   True, the company or the practice has already covered information about the products and services, but what the blog is for, by contrast, is to provide relevant, useful, and timely content to your prospects and customers to help them solve problems, understand industry trends, and make sense of the news and how it relates to them.

Yes, effective business blogging is centered around a limited number of keyword phrases and key themes. Those keyword phrases need to be repeated in order to “win search”. More important, the very nature of blogging for business over long periods of time offers a “training benefit” to the owners themselves, even if they’ve engaged the services of a professional content writer. That’s because the very process of choosing themes, sharing strategies, and planning for content creation, (which of necessity involves both owner and writer) has a 2+2=5 synergy effect.

In terms of finding variety while writing about the same topic again and again, that issue of TIME proves my point. The magazine’s chosen topic – global warming. The overriding message – we need to pay attention to global warming if we are to save our planet. Still, every single one of the articles came at the topic from a different vantage point. Here are just five examples:

  1. Paper straws alone won’t save the planet. Focusing on individual choices…heightens the risk of reliance on fossil fuels.
  2. Can we innovate our way out of this mess? Message: Advances in technology have transformed the energy industry, and ongoing research and development in wind and solar power will help drive down costs and reduce pollution.
  3. Climate change is the global health emergency of the 21st century. Discusses public health risks in different areas of the world and in poor urban U.S. communities.
  4. Kid’s-Eye View. Young readers drew their view of the planet 30 years from now.
  5. In Africa, necessity is the mother of climate-change innovation. African cities and governments, having already experienced many of the worst impacts of climate change, are adopting innovations in water treatment and telephone communication.

Yes, there is sheer discipline required in maintaining a marketing blog week after week, month after month, and year after year, without becoming same-old, same-old. But, as TIME editors so effectively demonstrate, that is far from an impossible task. Finding interesting pieces of information on topics related to that business or practice. If you can provide information most readers would be unlikely to know, so much the better. “Startling statistics”, anecdotes relating to hardships business owners and clients have overcome, and information about community activities all help lend variety without departing from the core message.

Blog to put new twists on the same theme!

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Blogging to Help Increase Positive Behaviors

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blogging to encourage positive reactions

 

There’s a lot we blog content writers can take away from a very unusual experiment called “The Sentimental Savings Study”. This study, reviewed in the Journal of Financial Planning , is about using psychology to help increase positive behaviors (in that specific case, personal savings). And, isn’t that precisely what marketing blogs are designed to do – motivate readers to take positive action? Can psychology help readers envision the positive outcomes that our products and services can mean for them, in terms of improved health, wealth, status, comfort, knowledge, and skills?

At best, financial education efforts had achieved marginal success in improving savings behaviors of Americans, the researchers found. Based on the theory that invoking sentimentality would exert influence on behavior, they employed “emotion activism”, creating art therapy and linking memories of past experience with money to their present attitudes. Participants were each asked to bring in a sentimental item or a photograph of such an item. In the sessions, they were guided to recall in detail how and where they had received that item, and what values they associated with it. Overall, the results of the study appeared to be a strong endorsement of the way in which sentiment and emotional associations drive decision-making.

“Blogs are bricks in decision-making architecture,” I wrote five years ago in a Say It For You blog post. How can blogs, which are short, personal, and conversational, help potential clients and customers make complex decisions? I suggested three approaches:

  1. Suggest questions readers can ask themselves while choosing among options.
  2. “Map” consequences, showing what feeling the prospect might gain through the decision – relief, trust, pride, etc.
  3. Offer easy ways to make choices.

After reading the Sentimental Savings Study, I now think a fourth tactic might be to help readers “reminisce” about how proud or satisfied they felt after having made a decision on a purchase. An anecdote might be the best way to accomplish this type of introspection.

Incorporating emotion might be just the way to increase positive behaviors, converting browsers to buyers.

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Blogging to Make the Reward Worth It

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“Make the reward worth it,” Nancy Duarte advises business speakers in her book Resonate. “No matter how stimulating you make your plea, an audience will not act unless you describe a reward that makes it worthwhile.” The ultimate gain must be clear.”

Duarte lists 7 basic types of reward:

  1. Basic needs – include food, water, shelter, and rest. (Concern for others’ basic needs prompts generosity.)
  2. Security – includes physical, financial, technological, and psychological.
  3. Savings – includes savings in time, labor, and money.
  4. Prize – includes personal financial reward, privilege, market share.
  5. Recognition – People relish being honored for both individual and collective efforts.
  6. Relationship – a sense of community with a group of people who support each other and make a difference
  7. Destiny – includes fulfilling lifelong dreams and reaching one’s potential.

Since one important function of any marketing blog is converting lookers to buyers, and since I train Indianapolis blog content writers, this concept of perceived rewards really piqued my interest. The things that motivate people to buy are product or service features they want, of course, and, as I explain to new clients, when readers arrive at your business blog, it’s because they already have an interest in your topic and are ready to receive the information, the services, and the products you have to offer.

However, I caution the content writers, whether the blog leads to success in converting lookers to buyers will in large part depend on the rewards those readers perceive are in store for them. Remember, there’s so much information out there for searchers to use, so many bloggers telling what they have to offer, how it works, and how they can help. What needs to come across loud and clear is that the business owners or practitioners understand the readers and those readers’ specific needs and problems.

But more than that is required for success. The focus of each blog post must be on the end result from the recipients’ point of view. Help readers know how good they’ll feel (whether in terms of security, savings, recognition, or basic need fulfillment – after using your (or your business owner or professional practitioner client’s) product or service.

Blog to make the reward worth it!

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