Marketing that Money Can’t Buy

My web development business has something like 32 projects on at the moment.

Now, I was just reading a Nielsen survey on eMarketer that says that “more than three-quarters of consumers worldwide trust consumer recommendations over any other type of ad. The advice of strangers can carry more weight than the best brand Web site.”

That research is consistent with the way we generated our current clients — exactly 50% of our current projects came from referrals from happy clients.

Christmas time is rapidly approaching and people are already searching for that perfect product online. If you have an ecommerce store, you’ll be pleased to know that consumer opinions posted online come in as Internet users’ third most trusted type of promotion.

So if you’re looking at marketing a web development or ecommerce business, it makes perfect sense to get as many testimonials as you can about your service or product. Don’t just settle for just a written testimonial. Why not try an audio, or even a video testimonial? Place those on your web site and the testimonials suddenly come alive — they’re a suddenly a much more powerful part of your marketing arsenal.

Testimonials — written, or in audio or video format — are similar to positive word of mouth about your business, and double up as representing consumer opinion about you — very important aspects of your marketing mix!

[Source: sitepoint.com - Oct 2007]