DO YOU INCORPORATE TESTIMONIALS INTO YOUR MARKETING EFFORTS

DO YOU INCORPORATE TESTIMONIALS INTO YOUR MARKETING EFFORTS


They can be one of your more powerful influence tools or they can be completely ineffective. The psychological key is similarity—here’s how:



1) The person who wrote it is similar to your target audience. One of the first things that people think when the read testimonials is how much the person who wrote it is like themselves. If I see a testimonial from someone who runs a manufacturing business, I will wonder how much the service provider could help me a speaker and consultant. Include as much information about the person who wrote it (name, business, city, etc.) and a photo so that people can relate to them.



The exception to this is if your testimonials are written by someone with celebrity or expert status. If you had a testimonial from the president people would take notice no matter what. Remember that celebrity status varies from field to field—someone who’s a celebrity to one audience may be unknown to the next audience, which brings us to the next point…



2) The benefit described is similar to the benefit your audience wants. Be sure that your testimonials show similarity of benefits that someone achieved to the benefits your prospective client or referral partner desires and similarity of the situation, demographics, or psychographics.



Divide up your endorsements and use the ones that best fit each audience in different situations, unless your niche market is extremely narrow in which you would use the same for all.



3) The endorsement has emotion. People form impressions and make decisions based on emotion. In communication what is said is not nearly as important as how it is said.



Select testimonials to feature that have a great deal of positive energy. Whenever possible get video and audio testimonials because a live person can convey emotion much better than a written statement can. One technique is to ask people for a testimonial at exactly the time they have received a significant benefit from your work—ideally right after. They will be excited and their emotion will come through.



Use these tips to make your endorsements even more powerful. Let me know how it goes.



And if you’re enjoying this Stand Out! newsletter and have an endorsement I’d really appreciate it. Just hit reply to share it and let us know if we can use your name, business name, photo, and website url.

 

Although this post targets writers and aspiring writers, the advice can be applied to plenty of other business situations.



1. Treat everyone well at every step along the publishing path.



That includes your beta readers, agents and their assistants, editors, publicists, and anyone else you encounter along the way. How well you write is important, but I genuinely believe professionalism is nearly as important. If you’re arrogant, entitled, unreliable, mean, petty, or refuse to be a team player, nobody is going to want to work with you. There’s a reason most authors’ Acknowledgements page is lengthy – they didn’t reach the finish line (of publication) alone.



2. Be open to honest feedback.



Realize that criticism of your idea or writing isn’t criticism of you. Also realize that you are not objective about your work, and that the only way you’re going to see the flaws that are hidden from you is to rely on other people. The only way you’re going to grow as a writer is to really listen and consider what others have to say – especially when their feedback isn’t all glowing. (In fact, if all you’re getting is glowing feedback, you’re not getting honest feedback. Everybody’s work has rough edges. Also realize that if you’re not getting honest feedback, it’s because you’ve somehow sent the message that you don’t want or can’t handle honest feedback. So take a step back and decide how important publication is to you. If you’re determined to get there, you need to find a way to hear and utilize constructive criticism.)



3. Control your image: be conscientious about what you share online.



This is a good general rule, but it’s doubly important when you’re trying to convince people – agents, editors, potential readers – that you’re a professional. Even if you’re writing edgy material, you don’t want unsavory personal choices to overshadow your work, a la Jessica Simpson or Britney Spears.



4. Get excited about promoting your work – or at least be willing and able.



These days, more likely than not you will be handling some if not all of your book’s publicity. This usually begins even before you find representation, in that agents and editors are looking for writers (especially nonfiction writers) with a platform.



What’s a platform? Name recognition, a following, and/or proven expertise or celebrity. I have my doctorate in clinical psychology, which was certainly a boon in my quest to publish a writing/psychology book, but it wasn’t enough. I spent a couple of years building name recognition and a following by networking with other writers, writing for websites and blogs, working with the media, and writing articles for syndication. And once my book was sold, I didn’t stop. I am verbal about letting everyone know I like to work with the media, and that I have a book out, which has led to additional opportunities, including television, invitations to speak, and even a regular blog at PsychologyToday.com.



5. Always be ready to promote your upcoming book, even early on.



You never know who’s going to be that crucial contact, so make or have business cards made, carry them with you everywhere you go, and don’t be shy about whipping one out and passing it over to anyone who might be interested. I’ve given business cards (which have my book cover and website address printed on the back) to everyone from news reporters to admired authors who were signing a book for me to people who heard me mention the book in passing and expressed interest, right down to people who were trying to figure out which business card stock to buy in Staples.



6. Get started on another book.



If your first idea doesn’t sell, move on to another one. The Writer’s Guide to Psychology wasn’t the first book idea I had – it was just the first one strong enough to grow into a true book. I’m extremely methodical about preparing a proposal – I spend months researching and writing, and I want to know exactly what’s going into each and every chapter – so I’m pretty committed to finding the book a home once I reach that stage. Other writers find it fairly easy to write up their ideas and send them out without doing that kind of preliminary work.



When you’re working so hard on one book – writing it, editing it, promoting it – it feels like your entire world. The truth is, though, that if you want to be more than a one-hit wonder, you will eventually need to write another book. Try to get that next proposal ready before everyone forgets who you are!

 

Although this post targets writers and aspiring writers, the advice can be applied to plenty of other business situations.



1. Treat everyone well at every step along the publishing path.



That includes your beta readers, agents and their assistants, editors, publicists, and anyone else you encounter along the way. How well you write is important, but I genuinely believe professionalism is nearly as important. If you’re arrogant, entitled, unreliable, mean, petty, or refuse to be a team player, nobody is going to want to work with you. There’s a reason most authors’ Acknowledgements page is lengthy – they didn’t reach the finish line (of publication) alone.



2. Be open to honest feedback.



Realize that criticism of your idea or writing isn’t criticism of you. Also realize that you are not objective about your work, and that the only way you’re going to see the flaws that are hidden from you is to rely on other people. The only way you’re going to grow as a writer is to really listen and consider what others have to say – especially when their feedback isn’t all glowing. (In fact, if all you’re getting is glowing feedback, you’re not getting honest feedback. Everybody’s work has rough edges. Also realize that if you’re not getting honest feedback, it’s because you’ve somehow sent the message that you don’t want or can’t handle honest feedback. So take a step back and decide how important publication is to you. If you’re determined to get there, you need to find a way to hear and utilize constructive criticism.)



3. Control your image: be conscientious about what you share online.



This is a good general rule, but it’s doubly important when you’re trying to convince people – agents, editors, potential readers – that you’re a professional. Even if you’re writing edgy material, you don’t want unsavory personal choices to overshadow your work, a la Jessica Simpson or Britney Spears.



4. Get excited about promoting your work – or at least be willing and able.



These days, more likely than not you will be handling some if not all of your book’s publicity. This usually begins even before you find representation, in that agents and editors are looking for writers (especially nonfiction writers) with a platform.



What’s a platform? Name recognition, a following, and/or proven expertise or celebrity. I have my doctorate in clinical psychology, which was certainly a boon in my quest to publish a writing/psychology book, but it wasn’t enough. I spent a couple of years building name recognition and a following by networking with other writers, writing for websites and blogs, working with the media, and writing articles for syndication. And once my book was sold, I didn’t stop. I am verbal about letting everyone know I like to work with the media, and that I have a book out, which has led to additional opportunities, including television, invitations to speak, and even a regular blog at PsychologyToday.com.



5. Always be ready to promote your upcoming book, even early on.



You never know who’s going to be that crucial contact, so make or have business cards made, carry them with you everywhere you go, and don’t be shy about whipping one out and passing it over to anyone who might be interested. I’ve given business cards (which have my book cover and website address printed on the back) to everyone from news reporters to admired authors who were signing a book for me to people who heard me mention the book in passing and expressed interest, right down to people who were trying to figure out which business card stock to buy in Staples.



6. Get started on another book.



If your first idea doesn’t sell, move on to another one. The Writer’s Guide to Psychology wasn’t the first book idea I had – it was just the first one strong enough to grow into a true book. I’m extremely methodical about preparing a proposal – I spend months researching and writing, and I want to know exactly what’s going into each and every chapter – so I’m pretty committed to finding the book a home once I reach that stage. Other writers find it fairly easy to write up their ideas and send them out without doing that kind of preliminary work.



When you’re working so hard on one book – writing it, editing it, promoting it – it feels like your entire world. The truth is, though, that if you want to be more than a one-hit wonder, you will eventually need to write another book. Try to get that next proposal ready before everyone forgets who you are!

 

Most of us have a pretty good idea of who we can trust and who we can’t. We choose to do business with those who we can trust. We may have times when we are misguided by a profitable opportunity and choose to do business with someone we’re not sure if we can trust, and this usually turns out badly.

On the flip side, when people evaluate YOU to decide whether you are trustworthy, what do they think about?

Here are the top trust factors to be sure that you are doing each:

1) Keep people in the loop. It’s a common scenario: You get a referral and are happy and thankful to the referral source. You get busy working with your new client, weeks go by, and you haven’t been in touch with the referral source.

We must have communication to have trust. Instead of allowing a cycle like this one happen, get in touch with the person who made the referral as soon as possible and let them know that you’ve scheduled the client, will provide a referral for the client, or whatever your plan is.

If it will be several weeks before you can schedule the client, don’t wait to let the referral provider know that you got the referral and have made contact with the client.

2) Do what you say you will when you say you will. Sadly I have several business partners who I KNOW are trustworthy people of high integrity (this is why I still do business with them), but their actions make me second guess my decision to do business with them. Why?



They are difficult to reach. They are always “swamped” or “under tight deadlines.” When they do things they are of excellent quality but I don’t know exactly when they will be done. This does not create trust.



3) Be patient and consistent and understand differences. Trust is a complex blend of emotion or feeling and thoughts. It takes time to develop.



Know that some people are overly trusting, to the point of being naïve. Others are not particularly trusting, to the point of being paranoid. If you can figure out someone’s style, you can accommodate it. Regardless, being authentic and consistent in your actions will help build trust over time.

Evaluate your actions and ask yourself, “Would I trust someone who acts in this way?” The ability to build trust is a skill to learn and practice.

Do you have other ways to build trust in relationships or things you look for in deciding whether to trust a business contact? Share them here…

 

One of the challenges I hear most often from business owners is, I have no time to do the marketing I know I need to be doing.” So, I asked time management expert, Claudine Motto of Vistal Norte, to share some of her tips on making time for marketing.

Enjoy the guest blog post!

Larina

****************************************



There is never enough time for busy entrepreneurs to do everything that needs to be done.



But "no time" can easily become the default answer to everything we say we want to do but never seem to get around to doing. The truth is that "no time" challenges usually have roots in other factors - here are 5 to pay special attention to when it comes to marketing your business:



1. Vagueness



"Marketing" is a big, vague cloud of activities - it's hard to wrap your brain around, or make a plan from, doing "marketing."



So if you're not clear on what your marketing mix is, the first step is to make a list of all the possible activities that represent marketing, reaching out, and connecting in your business, and pick the ones you are most likely to follow through on.



2. Focusing only on your weak spots



If you dismiss marketing activities that come natural to you, and instead want to focus only on fixing your weak spots and on what you find difficult to do, it's likely that you'll end up resisting it and never seem to have the "time" for it.



For example, if you're an introvert (like me), don't "should" yourself into going to 3 networking events per week. Mix it up with other more reflective and passive types of marketing, like writing, and meeting with people one-on-one or in more intimate groups. Remember that marketing is about connecting.



I'm not suggesting that you never push yourself to do the things that challenge you, especially if they generate great results - public speaking comes to mind - but do make sure you're also capitalizing on and exploiting your natural strengths and your personality.



3. Not making the best use of the time you do have



Give your patterns a real hard look and eliminate any time-wasters to free up some time:



Pockets of energy you may be misusing - this is basic, but so often overlooked. Whenever possible, shift your day around so that your natural energy levels, not the time it says on the clock, dictates what you do, and for how long. If you find marketing boring, or challenging, see if making time for it when you feel at your peak (for most people that is the morning time) makes a difference.



Work you could (or should) be delegating - if you're doing everything yourself, consider that the only way to free up some time for marketing might be to get help. It can be intimidating to let go of some of the control you've had for so long - make it easier to take the first step by getting recommendations from trusted colleagues and picking a small project or task to start with. This also applies to any marketing projects you may be putting on hold until you can do them yourself.



Any ruts you're in - when was the last time you gave thought to your commitments? Perhaps there are some that aren't working (they drain you, don't add value, or don't give you results worthwhile enough for the time or money commitment) but you've been doing them forever so you keep doing them. Face up to the fact they no longer serve you, and let them go - even if you're able to free up only one hour a week, that's one hour you can now dedicate to marketing.



4. No goals



This is another form of "vagueness" - without specific goals to strive for, you'll always feel fuzzy about what to do, which makes it difficult to get moving. Chunking up your marketing activities into small measurable goals makes them doable.



So once you figure out which marketing activities you'll concentrate on, set some measurable (and realistic) goals around them. For example:



I'll draft 3 articles for my blog by the end of the week

I'll call 3 local places for opportunities to speak to their group

I'll email 1 person and ask them out for a cup of coffee



5. No commitment



This is perhaps the most crucial step of all - blocking out the time in your schedule. If you wait until you "find" the time in your week, chances are you'll find yourself doing everything but marketing. Make it part of your weekly planning to pencil in a block of time for these activities - doing this helps cement your commitment and creates the habit.



The key is to keep the commitment realistic - if you were short on time before, what makes you think you'll all of the sudden stick to dedicating a whole 4 hours? It's better to block off an hour or two, and create the consistency first. It may not seem like much, but if you work focused, and you know exactly what marketing activity you will be working on, you will be moving forward.



When you find yourself saying you have no time for something that is important to your business, look deeper - often, a little delegation, clarity, awareness, and an effort at better efficiency will free up time you never you thought you had.

Several of my marketing clients have told me that they detest networking. They tell me that they are introverted and don’t enjoy or feel comfortable entering a room full of strangers and trying to “work the room.”

And the worst part about it?

Self-promotion.

When people are on the shy side, the least comfortable thing to do is to talk about is themselves. You do well speaking with people one on one and asking questions but when it comes to promoting yourself or your business, your discomfort rises.

As a side note, this is not necessarily limited to those who are shy. Extroverts may have social anxiety and introverts may be completely comfortable socially. The key is how anxious you feel and how concerned you are about embarrassing yourself of being evaluated negatively in social settings.

So, how can you market yourself if you’re shy or don’t like self promotion?

1) Find the right events. Look for activities where you’re likely to have important things in common with people. Skip the hard-core networking groups (at least at the beginning) where you have to go around and give a 1-minute sales pitch about yourself and stick with the more low-key events that have some structure, for example, a speaker and then a dinner.



2) Don’t think of it as self-marketing. This puts too much pressure on the situation. Instead, simply think of it as having conversations. Marketing is essentially relationship-building.



3) Speak with people one on one. Forget the goals of working a room or coming home with 50 business cards. Instead make it your goal to have a few in depth conversations with those you have a great synergy with. Don’t corner people and keep talking, rather, allow chemistry to speak and it will be clear who the lucky few are 



4) Introduce yourself. Getting started is often the hardest part. Once you do this, the rest becomes easier. Forget an elevator speech. Just start of with something like, “Hi, I’m Larina, how are you doing?” People respond to energy, so be upbeat and friendly and don’t worry about what you say. Once you’ve opened the conversation the other person will likely get it going, but if not, just ask them a question about their business or work.



5) Force yourself to speak about yourself. You may be tempted to avoid speaking about yourself but then you wouldn’t be networking or self-marketing. Instead, speak about yourself in the context of 1 and 2 above—this will ensure that you will do so in a conversational way that flows.



6) Find the need to fill. Make it your goal to discover the other person’s need by asking questions and really listening to the responses. You will see them become curious and interested when you speak about what you do in the context of their need. You won’t feel like you’re selling to them or self-promoting.



The more you do these things the easier they will become. Sometimes when I meet with clients in person I take them around to stores and other places and have them practice beginning conversations. As I mentioned that is the hardest part. If you make that your goal, once you initiate a conversation you can relax and be yourself and let it unwind naturally.



Have any other tips on shy networking? Things you’ve learned from your reading and experience? Post them below.

 

One of the most powerful laws of social influence is authority. We cannot help but to listen to people in roles of authority. In fact, authority is one of the most powerful building blocks of business relationships.

We want to be associated with authority figures. We admire them and respect them. Being an authority can lead to people referring to you, media quoting you, and new clients hiring you.

The key is to find the best relationship between being an authority figure and being likeable, approachable, and interested in others. Depending on your goal, you may favor one side of the equation over another. The more relationship-based your offerings, the more people need to like you, however, being likable is also important for people to want to read your books or hear you speak.

So, how can you easily and authentically increase the perception of your authority? Here are a few ways:

1) Appearance. Think of the white coat. The white coat is one reason why physicians automatically command authority. Consider what signifies authority to your audience. Also consider what conveys approachability to your audience and the setting in which you’ll interact with people.



2) Knowledge. Some may disagree but I think you must be an expert in your field to convey authority. Learn everything possible about your topic and your authority will shine through.



3) Process. It is one thing to know things but another thing to put them into a system, process, or program in a way that helps others. Give a name and a number of steps to your process to enhance its power.



4) Confidence. While we want to have humility, it is important that your verbal and nonverbal communication conveys confidence. If you appear unsure of yourself, why would others feel sure of you?



5) Endorsements. When third parties endorse you as an expert, their statements hold a lot of weight. These may be direct endorsements, such as client testimonials or references on LinkedIn, or indirect endorsements. You receive an indirect endorsement, for example, when a well known and respected publisher publishes your book or when a major media outlet quotes you.

Which of these five things can you focus on improving to enhance your authority and become more influential?

 

I love color. It is one of my favorite parts of marketing psychology. I went to art school back in high school and studied art along with psychology and business in college. Today I paint for fun, but use color theory on a daily basis as I make my own marketing decisions and help my clients with their branding and marketing communications.

I'd like to share how to think about the nuances of color to be sure you convey the message that you want in your marketing.



How Colors Make People Feel

The most important role that color serves in your marketing is to convey emotion.

In general the emotions that we tend to associate with colors are fairly obvious:

Red conveys passion and hunger.

Blue conveys calm and relaxation.

Yellow conveys cheer and warmth.



The Shades Say It All

Rather than thinking in general, such as "green" think in specifics. For example, let's look at green...



Here is a bright green. It has the warm, energizing properties of yellow plus the grounding properties of blue.

If we add more yellow and get a yellow-green, we'll emphasize the energetic properites...









This hue (color) has more yellow. It also, however, has just a bit of grey or the compliment of green (more on this on a bit) which is red, which tones it down from being a very bright chartreuse.

If we go back to the base green and add a light and bright blue we would get...







a bright turquoise. This color conveys energy not through the use of yellow but from the brightness (which includes white) and the saturation which means that it is more vivid and has less grey.

I enjoy this color and use it in a lot of my marketing because of the energy balanced with cool tone and appeal to both men and women.

If we toned this color down by adding grey we would get...









A sage green.

A shade like this is much more calming and conveys a relaxing and soothing effect.

It can also be seen as more professional and it does not convey being on the cutting edge or risk-taking.

If we were to use darker shades of blue and green we would get something like...







A deeper green.

You would want to go this route if you wanted to bring up emotions of security, peace of mind, and trust.





Another Important Piece: Color Pairings

Just as important as the color you use is the color you put next to it. Consider your use of color pairings in your marketing.

Pairing complimentary colors together enhances the vividness of each.

Colors that are across from one another on the color wheel are compliments:





Red and green are compliments

Yellow and purple are compliments

Blue and orange are compliments





If you were mixing colors, putting some of the compliment into a color would actually reduce the vividness of the color. For example, a nice way to tone down bright green is to add a little red.



The Right Balance

One of my favorite techniques is to convey various emotions by using different shades of complimentary colors. For example, a cool sage green combined with an edgy orange.

You would select the ratio of each based on the emotion you want. For example, a professional services firm may use 85% sage and 15% orange. A cutting-edge tech firm may use 85% orange and 15% navy.



What Works for You and Your Audience?

While there are some universals in how people respond to colors, much of our reactions are determined by personal factors such as gender, background, culture, geographical location, and so on. Carefully consider what your audience would think and feel in making your choices.

Enjoy the process-- colors are so much fun!

 

 

Let’s face it: Effectively using social media is a substantial commitment of time, energy, and effort. The way to make your social media marketing pay off (with less time, energy, and effort) is to match your strategy with your personality. This will help you:

1) Use social media more regularly. We tend to do the things that feel like a good fit and avoid those that don’t.



2) Use social media more effectively. You’ll focus your efforts on the ways that you communicate best.

3) Use social media more powerfully. Your tweets, posts, comments, connections, etc., will have greater impact.



Take this 5-question quiz to discover how you can shape your social media strategy to your personality. (A Technical Note: As a psychologist I should say that these 5 factors are not *technically* all “personality” factors but ways in which you tend to think, feel, and act.)



Answer the Questions 1-5:

1 = Not at All True for Me; 5 = Very True for Me



1. I tend to have a short attention span.



2. I tend to be perfectionistic and I feel uncomfortable putting something out that isn’t of high quality (thought out, proofread several times, and so on).



3. I am a visual person and have a hard time connecting with someone or something when I don’t see a picture.





4. I am a contextual person and understand things best when I see a complete discussion (rather than putting the puzzle pieces together on my own).





5. I tend to go for depth over breadth, or quality over quantity.



***************************************************************************************************************************

Scoring:

Question 1:

Knowing your attention span is important in choosing what type of social media to focus on. If you scored 3 and above for this one and have a short attention span you may do best with a quick, rapid-fire type of social media such as Twitter. It may work best for you to fire off a tweet or update as you think of it rather than sit down to write extensive blog posts.

Question 2:

If you scored 3 and above for this one, social media may help you change some of your perfectionistic ways because it would take way too long to do everything perfectly. That said, you may do best with adopting a quality over quantity approach. For example, dedicate 3 hours per week to writing a fabulous thought-provoking blog post that will have longevity and engage readers on your blog over time rather than trying to write 10 perfect tweets that will be gone in an instant.

Question 3:

If you scored 3 and above for this one, you may be more energized with the social media where you can include your own images and see images of those who respond. Knowing that others are similar to you, be sure to include high-quality images in your posts, including photos of yourself when possible. In general people tend respond better to either verbal over visual information. Some people are visual processors and some are more auditory. Think about how you and those in your audience best learn. If, for example, you do better when something is explained to you, you may be more verbal. If you do better when you read something or take notes, you may be more visual.

Question 4:

If you scored 3 and above for this one, you may do best to focus on specific discussions, such as those generated in LinkedIn groups. Rather than having 1,000 followers from all different backgrounds, you will interact with people of specific similar backgrounds in a given context. You may choose to create your own groups or become an active participant in targeted groups and blogs.

Question 5:

If you scored 3 and above for this one, you may need to dump some of your social media components or at least put them on the back burner so you can really get involved in a few key areas. For example, focus on quality by writing stellar blog posts that others are driven to share. Or focus on interacting with a couple high-caliber LinkedIn groups. Forget about the ego-driven numbers (how many Friends, Followers, or Fans) you have and focus on what you do best—putting out how quality information and connecting with key influencers.----------

For more tips like these on how to use your own psychology as well as that of your target audience to make your marketing more compelling, please join in the discussions on my Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/MarketingPsych

Post your comments about your social media strategy and personality here or on the FB page.

 

- 96 respondents, mostly in U.S., Canada, U.K. and Australia; 72% service professoinals in growth phase of business



- Primary areas of interest: getting referrals, gaining expert status, social networking



- Most in need of expert advice, networking

- Least in need of in-person conferences, technical assistance (not me! ;)

- Most strongly identified with achieving as much as possible, being profitable, and making a difference

Thanks to all who completed the survey!