07.28.09
Let your clients sell your services for you
Using testimonials on your site is a great way to boost buyer confidence and let your customers do the selling for you. But not all testimonials are good testimonials…in order to be effective, they have to address specific issues that your products/services solved or benefits they provided to the customer.
Bad testimonial
“Jim’s great! I loved working with him!”
Jane Doe
ABC Company
www.abccompanywebsite.com
This testimonial is too vague to convince anyone to buy from you.
Good testimonial
“Tammi,
You must think, ‘How easy was that?!’ I love all the changes you made on both web pages and could never have done it at all, no matter how simple it may have been for you. I don’t even know how to describe what you did, You made it more active, more engaging, and more personal, while omitting the boring. How can you do that?
I’m happy.”
Marilyn Miller, MS, LPC
www.marilynmillerlpc.com
The testimonial above, on the other hand, spells out exactly how the services at hand (Write Associate website copywriting services) made this client’s website more attractive and engaging, which will lead to better sales.
So…how do you get good testimonials?
The best way to get great testimonials is to ask for what you want. Your clients are busy people, so you have to guide them into testimonials that will be useful for you (without putting words in their mouth, of course). The best way to do this is to create a short questionnaire (your clients are busy, remember!) with pointed questions that will hopefully elicit helpful responses.
I send out the following questionnaire on occasion to current and former clients:
1) What benefits do you receive from using my services (e.g. save time, get better responses from potential clients, etc.)?
2) What do you like best about my services (e.g. quality, turnaround time, etc.)?
3) What was your primary reason for seeking copywriting/editing services?
4) Why did you decide to use my services over other copywriters? Please be specific.
5) Are you happy with that decision?
6) Would you refer my services to a friend or colleague? Why or why not?
Then, with their permission, I turn their answers into a testimonial that outlines the specific benefits they received from my services.
If you’re trying to hone in on a particular benefit of your products or service, such as an affordable price, try to word your questions accordingly. For instance, one of your questions could be, “How would you describe my prices compared to other {copywriters, coaches, whatever it is you’re comparing yourself to}?” or maybe, “Did you find my rates to be affordable based on your expectations? Please explain.”
The key is to try and avoid questions that allow strictly “yes” or “no” answers. You want your clients to describe, in their own words, what makes your products and services so great.
If they’re happy with your products and services, they’ll be happy to comply, but you can also provide an incentive to give them an extra push. For example, offer them 15% or 20% off their next order (if you have a service they might need again in the near future) or promise to give them access to a special report or restricted area of your website for a certain period of time. What you offer is up to you, but if you make it worth their while, they’ll take a few moments to give you a glowing review.
Action of the day: Jot down 5 or 6 questions for your own testimonials questionnaire. Look them over, maybe sleep on them to make sure they’ll provide in-depth, useful responses, and then send your questionnaire out to a client or two. It may take a little time to put together good testimonials, but the results are well worth the effort.
What are you doing to get good testimonials from your clients? I’d love to hear your ideas and thoughts. Please share them here or email them to me at tammim @ writeassociate.com.
07.13.09
Marketing tip of the week: Beating writer’s block
There’s nothing worse than staring at a blank page and wondering when (or if) the perfect words are going to strike you, whether you’re drafting web copy, an article or that e-book you’ve been meaning to write. First of all, don’t beat yourself up; even the pros who write for a living (like me!) battle writer’s block. Here’s what I find works best for me when I’m sweating over words that just won’t come:
JUST DO IT!
(Okay, so I might have borrowed that phrase.)
The point is that your first draft is just that…a draft. If you have a basic idea of what you want to write about, just start writing. Your first sentence might be so terrible that it ends up on the cutting board, but at least you’re getting the creative juices flowing. Nothing is ever set in stone…you can always go back and make changes later. I find that when I sit down to my computer, I often get hit with a vague sense of dread and a wave of questions:
- What if I can’t think of the “right” words?
- What if my writing is somehow “off” today?
- And so on and so on…
But once I start typing, the words tend to find their way onto the page. So if you find yourself sweating over your next writing assignment (whether it’s for a client or yourself), remember those three magic words and just do it!
Bonus tip: Still stuck? Try putting your task aside and writing something just for fun. Add a post to your personal blog (could even be about your frustration over having writer’s block!) or put a pen to paper and jot down some thoughts about something entirely unrelated to work. Sometimes the act of writing itself can unlock your inner muse. Just be sure that you’ve got a fresh Word doc open and ready to catch the thoughts that are sure to start flowing!
07.06.09
Are you a workaholic?
First of all, let me shout out a belated Happy Independence Day to my fellow Americans! I was so busy last week frantically finishing project work in preparation for a 3-day holiday weekend that I didn’t have a chance to wish you all a Happy 4th beforehand. And then come Thursday night, I logged off my computer and didn’t touch it all weekend, which was a definite first for me!
But let me tell you something…it was nice. I thought I’d have major email withdrawals, but instead I found myself having a great time in the “real world.” I spent my time enjoying my personal life and relaxing with friends who share common interests outside of work. Don’t get me wrong…I love each and every one of my virtual friends and business associates, and I can spend all day talking about the latest and greatest business tools and resources (actually, I just launched a new blog that offers free business tips – check it out here if you’re interested), but I can admit now that I was starting to become a workaholic.
So, in honor of National Workaholic Day, which was yesterday (7/5), I decided to write this post.
In case you’re wondering, a workaholic, as defined by dictionary.com, is “a person who works compulsively at the expense of other pursuits.” Read: a personal life.
Let’s be honest: have you ever jumped online on your day off ”just to check your email” or “to see what’s going on with your Twitter pals” only to find yourself getting so caught up in work-related business that your free time wastes away? I know I have. It’s really easy to say you’re only going online for a minute, and then before you know it, an hour has passed, sometimes two…
Sure, it’s great to love what you do so much that you want to do it all the time…in fact, isn’t that the American dream? But there is a fine line between loving what you do and jumping into full-blown workaholism.
Which is why I’m such a proponent of outsourcing work. There just aren’t enough hours in the day to do the things you love in your business, along with all of the busywork that requires your attention, and still have some semblance of a personal life (or your sanity!).
If you’re a service professional who either hates writing or constantly finds yourself without the time to put a proper marketing plan in place, now’s the time to hand those tasks off to someone who can handle all of your marketing needs. Someone like me, a copywriter with a flair for words, who can help you with everything from writing killer web copy to drafting well-crafted articles, press releases, and blog posts to drive traffic to your site. To learn more, please visit my site, www.writeassociate.com.
Together, we can fight workaholism – and win!
