Native Fauna

By Alexandria Brown

 Twice a week I go to a great little massage place in the neighborhood, and right next door is a tiny Indian restaurant. The food always smells delicious when I walk by, and the owner excitedly waves at passersby. But there’s a reason why I’ve never gone in and given it a chance…

The restaurant is always empty!

When I walk by, I always think, “Hmm, maybe I’ll try that place for takeout one night.” But in five years I never have. I always end up going two doors down to the bustling Chinese place or the sushi place with the line out the door - even though I have to usually wait 20 minutes for my food to be ready.

What’s even funnier is that the food at those places isn’t even great, but I keep thinking I must be missing something since so many other people like it!

The saying is true… no one wants to eat at a restaurant where there are no cards parked outside.

We all go by the feeling of “safety in numbers” and look for what some people call “social proof” that something is good or works before we try it.

This is why it’s extremely important to use testimonials on your website, brochures, and marketing materials, and even in your talks and teleseminars.

And it’s even MORE important for people like us whose businesses don’t have parking lots. It’s up to US to show prospects they won’t be the first person ever to hire us or buy our products!

Simple idea, yes, but many people forget to use it in their marketing. (Even I forget sometimes, too.) But it’s extremely important. Whether conscious or subconscious, seeing testimonials for a product or service makes us feel “safe” when deciding to buy.

But please remember the big difference between a good testimonial and a lame one. Let’s look at two examples:

Example 1: “I’ve really enjoyed being a part of Alexandria Brown’s Gold Mastermind program and have found it great value for the money.” - E.B.

This one’s all right, says nice things, and gives the person’s initials. Problem is, there are no actual *results* shared here, and using initials-only leaves doubt about the authenticity of the testimonial.

Example 2: (and a real one, too!): “Since joining Alexandria Brown’s Gold & Platinum Mastermind programs last year, I’ve doubled my revenues and can directly attribute at least $100,000.00 to her ideas and advice. Believe me, you WANT to be a part of this exceptional group of entrepreneurs!” — Christine Kloser, Founder of “The Conscious Business Circle”, Red Lion, Pa., www.ConsciousBusinessCircle.com

Now, let’s look at the second one. Much more effective because it’s results oriented. That is, it shares actual results the client/customer has gotten. Do whatever you can to include numbers, dollar amounts, and/or percentages — these will grab your prospect’s attention, let them know this is the real deal, and dramatically increase your response.

Also, the more information you provide about your clients and customers, the more believable and effective their testimonials will be. Include full name, occupation or company name, city and state they’re from, web address (if applicable), and a PHOTO. (Even a poor photo, if that’s all they have. It’s important to make them REAL to your reader.)

If you’re in a sensitive industry and clients don’t want their names revealed, then share as much as you can about them otherwise. For example, “– female Fox News executive, 38, Studio City, Calif.” While it’s not as good as giving their names, it’s better than nothing.

And remember, one of the best things about using testimonials is it’s much more effective for your clients and customers to rave about YOU than for you to rave about yourself. So let them “rave” and have fun with it!

BONUS TIP: Use Testimonials to Address Common Objections

If you really want testimonials to dramatically improve your response, make a list of the common objections your prospects usually have to buying your products or services. And then have at least one testimonial that addresses each. For example, when I first started selling my Boost Business with Your Own online newsletter system, I learned that some folks weren’t buying it because they thought they needed a website to get started. So I found a success story from one of my customers who had used the system and never even had a real website. And we created a testimonial that made sure to share that fact.

Online entrepreneur Alexandria K. Brown, “The E-zine Queen,” publishes the award-winning ‘Straight Shooter Marketing’ weekly ezine advertising with 20,000+ subscribers. If you’re ready to jump-start your marketing, make more money, and have more fun in your small business, get your FREE tips now at

www.EzineQueen.com

How to Reach Thousands of Your Ideal Clients and Customers and Skyrocket Your E-mail List
By Alexandria Brown

 One of the questions Im asked the most by my clients is, How can I most quickly build my e-mail list?

My answer is, find someone whos already reaching your target market in droves, and use THEM to build your list! How? With these three easy steps:

STEP 1: Determine exactly who your ideal client or customer is.

The more descriptive you can be here, the better. For example, dont just think men. Think men ages 18-40 who like sports and working out. Dont just think small business owners. Think women owners of professional service businesses that do less than $1 million a year.

Can you take on clients or customers who fall outside of this description? Of course! But you need to know who youre going after.

Example: About three years ago, I spent a romantic summer week on Nantucket Island in Massachusetts. My beau was wonderful in letting me decide most of the activities wed do each day. But there was one thing he definitely wanted to do at least once - go bluefishing!

Now Im not sure if you could have guessed this, but Im not really into fishing. ; )

But hey, Ill try anything once, so off we went to the docks. Now, I figured we could go on any boat with any captain and do this. But no we went with Captain Dan the Bluefish Man (who smelled like his specialty). Dan took us on his special boat to this special place off the island where the bluefish were, and we even used special bait that the bluefish liked. And we had great success - they just kept biting!

I realized that if you know exactly what youre going after, youre much more likely to get it. The same goes for reaching your target market.

STEP 2: Find other people, companies, or websites that are ALREADY reaching your target market en masse.

Sit down with a cup of coffee this weekend and do some online research regarding your target market. What sites are they already visiting? What newsletters or magazines do they already read? For example, if your target market is stay-at-home moms, find the most popular sites they visit. Find the most popular ezines they read.

Come up with a list of your top five websites and top five ezines that are already reaching your ideal client or customer.

STEP 3: Contact these websites and ezines and see if they will:

REVIEW your book, products, services, or ezine for their readers. If so, send them a review copy and follow up a week or two later. Request that when they run the review they mention your e-zine and direct people to your website to sign up.

accept guest ARTICLES. If so, then submit one of your best, with a short bio that links people back to your website to sign up for your ezine.

SWAP ads or recommendations for each others websites, products, or services. If you have an ezine that reaches the same target market they want to reach, this is a great win-win.

do a CO-REGISTRATION deal. If you already have a good amount of e-zine subscribers and website traffic, they may be open to adding your e-zine to their ezine signup form if you do the same on your part. (Ideally folks should just check a box to subscribe to the additional e-zine automatically.)

run a recommendation or ad in exchange for a COMMISSION on resulting sales. For example, you give them the ad to run, tagged with a link that lets you know if any sales come from it. (This is easy for you to do if you have an online affiliate program.*)

accept PAID advertising. Banner ads, text ads, and other paid placements obviously cost you money, but if its your only option and you really want to reach these folks, go for it. But be sure to track your results so you can see if its working. (Youll need a link tracking program to do this.*)

And these are just a FEW ideas to get you started!

Remember, your #1 goal is to get people back to your site to sign up for your e-zine or other email list, because THAT is how you guarantee the chance to market to them repeatedly!

Online entrepreneur Alexandria K. Brown, The E-zine Queen, is creator of the award-winning Boost Business With Your Own E-zine system. To learn more about this step-by-step program, and to sign up for her FREE how-to marketing articles and FREE audio class, visit www.EzineQueen.com

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