This is an obvious message for some of you but is it for all of you? Are there areas you’re missing in your marketing where you could be utilizing testimonials in order to give you, your business and your products and services more credibility?

Using testimonials in your marketing in various ways is a F.R.E.E. way to compel people to buy from you so you really want to maximize your efforts.

First of course you have to HAVE testimonials to show. If you don’t have any then ASK your customers for them. If they drag their heels in getting them to you on their own then offer to write them for them if you have to and let them review and approve them. If you have customers that are business owners, offer to showcase their testimonial with their picture and website link on your website or in your ezine and they’ll get added exposure for their business just for helping you out.

If you have customers that want to keep their involvement with you kept secret or the services you provide are more embarrassing for many to admit to using for example then try getting testimonials from vendors, referral sources or other means for other things.

5 Ways to use Testimonials in Your Marketing:

1. Ezines
You may always want to put a testimonial in your ezines because it could be the only thing your subscribers see about you every once in a while. Whether they read every single issue or only one once in a while, if you always have a testimonial in them then that ONE day that ONE person decides to think about taking action with your products or services from one of your ezines it could very well help them make their decision if you have a really great testimonial in it.
Notice I always have a testimonial in my ezines right below the featured article, whether I wrote the article or if I’m using a guest article, it doesn’t matter. I trade them out about every 3 ezines in case you didn’t notice…I do have many and collect them all the time for this reason.

2. Website
You should always have testimonials on your website and I say it’s better to sprinkle them all over the site, on every page in boxes or side columns so they stand out rather than just putting them all on ONE testimonial page (which you can still have but put them everywhere too).

3. Direct Mail
You want to use testimonials even in your direct mailing like on oversized postcards, letters and flyers or anything you send to add credibility to whatever you’re trying to sell. (P.S. Hopefully you ARE still doing direct mail as a means of follow up even if you’re doing email marketing too!!)

4. Marketing Materials
You can put testimonials on your brochures (if you still have them), your handouts, flyers and anything in print you use to promote your business with. Testimonials are actually more important to show here than bullet points of your products or services; those should be on your website because most people will look at your website before taking action with you anyway and one marketing piece sure isn’t going to sell them. So use testimonials to give them an incentive to actually go to your site for more info.

5. Ads
If you’re still doing some sort of traditional advertising (it’s still a good way to market for some businesses, but typically not entrepreneurs like coaches, consultants, etc.) then the same thing goes for testimonials in your ads like I mentioned in #4 above. People are less likely these days to buy your stuff from an ad but your ad if done well and compelling enough could lead them to your website where you can get them on the list and encourage them more to take action.

Another thing to consider when gathering your testimonials is to try getting them in other formats rather than just the written word. You can have your customer read their testimonial into an audio recording service with their phone even. You can videotape your clients when you meet with them or have them videotape themselves and send you the file. With videos then you can even upload them to your YouTube, MySpace and Facebook profiles in addition to your website.

The more creative you can get the more they will work for you.

My favorite thing to do whenever I can is to brainstorm with entrepreneurs on how they can design, update, recreate or shift their businesses and implement new marketing strategies in order to be happier, live a more fulfilled life and do the things they are passionate about that can make them a very good living if set up correctly.

Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular and also the most lucrative way of earning passive income online. In affiliate marketing the merchant only pays the affiliate whenever someone he refer takes action i.e. whenever the customer makes a purchase which make the whole program a win-win affair for both merchant and the affiliate. In other word the merchant making a sale and the affiliate earning an income from the sales that he initiated.

However before one venture into affiliate marketing, it is better to understand the hiccups that surround it so as to know how to avoid some certain pitfall.

MISTAKE NO 1 NEVER CHOOSE A WRONG NICHE.

Most affiliate fail to do market research before choosing an affiliate product to promote. They tends to make money fast as soon possible from the whole scheme. For you to really make money repeatedly from affiliate marketing you have to choose a niche that you have a liking for. The basic reason for these is that it is more easier to work in the market you enjoy and know something about.

Choose a niche that is appealing to you and do some market research on it to be able to ascertain that their is high demand on it.

MISTAKE NO 2 MAKE SURE THE MERCHANT IS NOT COMPETING WITH YOU.

Take time to find out if the merchant you are promoting his product is not promoting the same product with you. This is because every sales refer directly by the merchant is a loss to the affiliate. To really know if a merchant is competing with his affiliate, you can make use of the Google search engine by typing your market niche into the search engine and look through the result that springs up critically to see if the merchant has a lot of pay per clicks advertisement or other promotional items. You will be able to tell if the merchant is competing with his affiliate as he will direct his prospect through a direct link and not an affiliate link.

MISTAKE NO 3 LOOK FOR SALES PAGE WHICH USE GOOD ATTENTION GRABBING HEADLINE.

In other to make a lot of sales, make sure the sales page of the merchant has a solid copy writing, attention grabbing headlines that makes you want to read more. The reason behind this is because the more benefit that is being reveal through the sales page, the easier it will be for the customer to dig into his wallet to make a purchase.

MISTAKE NO 4 MAKE SURE YOU BUY THE PRODUCT.

As an affiliate promoting a product, for you to be able to provide an unbiased valuable information about the benefit its users will enjoy is for you to have already tested the product to see if it meets your own needs. Buying and using the product yourself will make you a living testimony that its deliver what it promise.

It’s been repeated so many times and in so many way that it has now become a mantra – People do business with people they know, like and trust. This statement applies to both offline and online Marketing and Sales.

Getting to know you, learning to like you, and building trust are all emotional reactions. It takes time to develop these emotions and reactions; time during which a relationship has to be cultivated and developed. Let’s compare this to a farmer who takes a barren plot of land, tills and fertilizes the soil, plants the seed, cares for the seedlings and growing plants so that eventually he is rewarded with a bountiful crop. In a similar way as business owners we have to develop this type of mindset in cultivating relationships. The results may not be apparent immediately, but will come over time. Here are four suggestions that have worked for many:

1) Be authentic. Each person has his or her own unique style in online marketing. However, it is important to show that you are a real person with emotions and imperfections. Do not be afraid to reveal some of your weaknesses and how you overcame or corrected them. People will be drawn to you as they will see that you experienced challenges that may be similar to theirs but you prevailed, and so can they. What is more, because you revealed some of yourself to your current and potential customers and clients, they will understand that you trust them; in turn they will give you their trust.

2) Listen to others. This may be easier to implement in offline settings with direct contact, but with a little ingenuity can be applied to online marketing by using surveys, e-mails, opinion polls, and feedback to questions.

3) Thank people for their input. Showing appreciation is very important in cultivating relationships. This is equally valuable when marketing online. A comment on your blog, a response to any of the above in 2) a compliment or other positive interactions in Social Media, like Twitter should be acknowledged. Send a follow-up e-mail, a Thank You card or a Direct Message, or any other method you may find effective.

4) Provide assistance in solving a problem. Send a free report, a free CD, a link to a free Teleseminar, or perhaps a link to another person’s website who may be in a better position to provide the needed help.

When you give first in online marketing your potential clients and existing clients will understand and appreciate that you really care about others and are concerned about providing value. The result is that you will more likely have people who want to do business with you and who may actively seek you out so that you become the Hunted rather than the Hunter.

Yvonne A Jones is a Solo Entrepreneur and Direct Sales Relationship Marketing Coach. She’s passionate about helping small business owners and solo-professionals to see the value of cultivating long-term relationships with their Customers and Clients. She’s also a Skin Care and Image Consultant who enjoys working with women to align their beauty on the outside with their beauty inside.

I have been recruiting in Direct Sales since 1989. In the 20 years I have been in Direct Sales, I have recruited over 500+ men and women.

I think when it comes to recruiting, you need to sit down and write yourself 2-3 effective recruiting ads that you can use to market your Direct Sales Business Opportunity.

Here are some of my tips for writing an effective Direct Sales Recruiting Ad.

1. I state my Company name several times in my business ad. I think its important to not have a “blind company name” in your business ad. Readers who read your business ad, want to know upfront what company you are with.

2. I list all start up costs involved. I don’t have my reader guessing what the costs are. A reader has the right to know this information upfront without contacting you to obtain it.

3. Quotas: If your company has quotas, it should be listed in your business opportunity ad. Readers who find out after they are already talking to you a lot of times feel mislead if this is not clearly stated.

4. Business Slang Terms. Not everyone who reads your business opportunity ad will be familiar with common business slang terms. You need for your ad to be in clear understandable english.

5. Do not over hype your business opportunity. Why? a. It can scare people off into thinking its a scam or too good to be true and they move on. b. If they fail at the business opportunity, they will turn around and blame you, saying you said you could make XYZ in a certain amount of time and so forth. Always state reasonable commissions about the business opportunity. A lot of the Direct Sales companies will provide you with the national average on sales.

6. Ad Length: Too often these days I see tons of 3 sentence online business opportunity ads that say 2 sentences about the opportunity and the third sentence says contact me for more info. That is a very unprofessional ad. Your ad needs to provide the reader with concise info about the opportunity you are advertising, in the same respect, don’t make it too long where they lose interest. They want to read an AD, not a book!

7. Proof Read your business opportunity ad or have someone else do it. Typos and Grammar mistakes look unprofessional!

8. Know the business opportunity INSIDE and OUT! Nothing looks more unprofessional to a recruit lead that starts asking you questions and you don’t know the answer. I feel if you are going to be recruiting you should know your business company very well. I once had a girl that was 32 hours old in her company try to recruit me into it. That was a big turn off for me. I am not saying you have to be there for years, what I am saying is you should know everything there is to know about that business opportunity before recruiting others into your company.

9. Don’t overload your Recruiting Ad with graphics. A lot of older computers can not handle dozens of graphics. Keep it simple. One banner will suffice.

10. When I make changes to my Ads, I like to get a few friends to look over it for me. A lot of times they will give you great advice on changes that should be made that you didn’t think of.

11. When you decide to recruit, You need to realize that you will have to set aside time to help train any new recruits you get. Its not right to go on a recruiting blitz and then dump them all onto your Upline Manager. Its your responsibility to take time out to help train your recruits and do so effectively. All of this takes time and patience and if you are not going to be dedicated with your time, you shouldn’t recruit!