Social Marketing 101: This Time, It's Good to Have People Talking About You

When you give your customers great service or sell them a killer product, they, in turn, tell all their friends and neighbors. It's a simple marketing concept, but when you come right down to it, one of the most effective around. Online, you can do this with the help of Subscriberz. But offline word-of-mouth is the way to go. After all, most of us are probably more inclined to listen to one of our peers than what a business says about itself, right? The only problem is word-of-mouth marketing can only go so far. Multiply your number of satisfied customers by 2, 5 ... 20, tops, and you get a finite number of new customers who may eventually hear about your business from someone they trust.

Making those voices carry

Nowadays, with competition what it is, you need word-of-mouth marketing on steroids. Essentially, everything that's great about this time-honored approach with the help of its younger, more hip third cousin, the Internet. There are a few tools out there, but iVouch is the example we are going to use here. An end-to-end review and testimonial solution for medium and small businesses, iVouch leverages the reach and the viral nature of the Internet to amplify your customers' voices to prospective customers near and far. Now instead of just a limited circle of contacts hearing about you, you'll be broadcasting those rave reviews to anyone who visits your website or who you engage through Facebook, Twitter or other social media outlets. It's the town crier for the 21st century!

Can't I just solicit the testimonials myself?

Because your customers enter iVouch testimonials on a third party site, consumers considering your company know you haven't had a chance to clean them up or change them in any way. This increases the credibility of their words tenfold. Also putting yourself out there for all to see - in other words, airing your clean and potentially dirty laundry - is a bold statement about your dedication to customer service. This snapshot of what you're like to work with often brings in new customers closer to the point of sale, giving you a boost in conversions.

Since you mentioned dirty laundry ... What about the bad reviews?

First of all, you probably won't get many, simply because you won't be inviting those few hard-to-please customers to write a testimonial for you. However, even if you do get a couple of negative words, the professionalism with which you respond to these words will speak volumes to your customers. In fact, it'll probably say more about your customer service and who you are as a company than all the positive reviews in the world. Furthermore, a few negative reviews (responded to correctly and professionally) make your positive reviews that much more credible.

But it's not just about the testimonials

While your testimonials are spreading like wildfire, iVouch will also be actively marketing your profile to show up in search engine results. Imagine how your internet presence and your brand awareness will benefit when your name is popping up all over the place. Sound expensive? That's the beauty of it! Two years of iVouch is about the same cost as a slim pay-per-click (ppc) monthly budget. Packages start at $14.95 per month. And even at this bargain basement price, you'll be building brand equity testimonial by testimonial, click by click. And more importantly, building a future for your business.