Testimonials as a Linking Strategy - Twist on Link Campaigns
Standard, well-worn marketing techniques sometimes gain some
polish when you rework them a bit. Everyone knows that happy
customer testimonials are a valuable addition to your business
marketing materials and your web site. Glowing comments from
those who have had a good experience with your product or
service are successful relationships with your customers and
clients - publishing them on your web site shows visitors how
successfully you have dealt with previous customers.
TURN THAT TIRED MARKETING TECHNIQUE ON IT'S HEAD!
Have you ever gone out of your way to OFFER testimonials to
businesses online? There is a very fundamental difference to one
aspect of the web as a marketing medium. That difference is the
HYPERTEXT LINK. If you recieve marketing materials in the mail
and see testimonials printed on them, you are likely to wonder
who the people are offering that glowing praise and if they
really had such a wonderful experience with the business they
are praising. How do you find out when those testimonials are
printed on paper?
Here is the reason that offering testimonials ONLINE can be of
benefit to you. If you are quoted on a high-traffic web site as
being very pleased with a product or service offered there, you
will most likely be given a HYPERTEXT LINK to your web site.
This is done as a courtesy from most businesses as a way to say
"Thank You for your Compliment". It lends a sense of credibility
to your comments because people have the option of visiting your
site to see who you are or follow up with you on the comments in
your testimonial.
RECIPROCAL LINKING STRUGGLE IS A TEDIOUS EXERCISE
Many business owners struggle valiantly to establish links by
visiting sites one by one and asking them if they will provide a
link back to their site. The trick here is that you must find
those sites that are 'complimentary' and not 'competitors' to
your own business and convince them that their visitors would
find your site valuable. Even the search for relevant reciprocal
links can be tedious and tiring.
When you offer testimonials, they can be from virtually any site
you've done business with or for any product you've used. A link
is a link is a link. Everyone knows by now that links increase
search engine rankings - right? The testimonial linking
technique doesn't require such care as reciprocal links because
you aren't likely to have done business with a competitor. The
additional benefit is that you needn't give them a return link -
it's one way linking!
YOU CAN AVOID THE DELETE KEY WITH GLOWING PRAISE
When you send those tired form-letter-type reciprocal link
requests to webmasters, they'll often delete them without even a
second glance. Here, they open their email to something they
actually WANT to see - praise for their hard work and a little
love from their web site customers. When you send a testimonial
along with your link request, you are now offering something of
real value in exchange for that link. That webmaster suddenly
feels grateful for your kind words and may even feel that they
have an obligation to link to you if they use your testimonial.
If you are a customer of an online product or service and you're
truly pleased with them, why not send the webmaster a
testimonial and tell them you'd be happy to have them publish
your comments on their site? They will be pleased at your offer
if your praise is short (one or two sentences) and highly
complimentary of them. Include a hypertext link to your site or
your e-mail in the note and tell them you'd be happy to have
your comments published and request a link to your site.
NEW PRODUCTS TESTIMONIALS PROVIDE HIGHER LINKING POTENTIAL
Some webmasters actively solicit customer testimonials to push
new products or services. If you are among the first to purchase
those new products or services, your testimonial praising them
will be particularly desirable as they seek new comments to use
in their promotional sales letter page or as teasers from the
home page. Give them what THEY want and they may be happy to
offer you that link. If they respect YOU as a customer, they
might even promote your site in email promotions.
Most sites have a page of happy customer testimonials and most
offer a link back to your site or your e-mail so their potential
clients can follow-up with you. Take a look at those businesses
you patronize online and see if they offer those linkbacks. Then
tell them how happy you are to do business with them and watch
your PageRank increase and traffic grow!