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Newsletter #711: The “Let Your Customers Tell Your Story” Issue

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Nothing your marketing team writes is ever going to be as
effective as what your customers write for you.

   1> Let them write your ads
   2> Use best-seller lists
   3> Collect customer ideas
   4> Check it out: Win Seth Godin’s new book!

 

1> Let them write your ads 

You have a ton of testimonials and positive reviews. But
they are probably sitting on a random page of your web site or filed away in a
drawer. If you put customer reviews in your ads you get a better response.
Office Depot tested putting customer’s favorites in their ads, and the response
was phenomenal. In one test, the results were: Increased Click-Through Rate:
78.5%, Increased Conversion: 23.8%, Increased Revenue: 196.6%, and Increased
New Buyers: 183.3%. Why does it work? Because people trust other people more
than your own marketing copy.

More info


2> Use best-seller lists 

Best-seller lists are an interesting form of word of
mouth. They contain the implied recommendations of all your customers. Future
customers look at what is selling, and know that past customers endorsed them
by buying them. Show off those popular products. Sephora created a "Best
of Sephora" section on the web site and in the store that features
customer favorites. For "Best of Sephora" they use the slogan
"100,000 votes, 30 winners. You the beauty-full people have spoken." You
can do the same thing without much work. Create a popularity contest using
sales data, customer votes, or product reviews. Feature it prominently in your
store.

More info


3> Collect customer ideas 

Your customers have more ideas than you do. Ask for their
ideas and publish them on your web site. At 1000uses.com, customers can suggest
ideas for how to use Glad plastic wrap. Thousands of great product ideas were
shared by customers eager to share household tips and for a chance to see their
names published. You could build a site like this with a simple blog that
accepts comments. The benefits are fantastic: You get thousands of new ideas
that encourage purchase. Those ideas build your web site (picture 1,000 new
pages of content, written for free by customers). That new content gives you
amazing search engine results, because there is so much more content to find.

More info

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