How To Become A Trusted Friend To Your Customer

Many times marketers work so hard to make their company or product look big and established that they lose any type of personal connection with their customers. You would obviously trust the recommendation of a trusted friend over the recommendation of a billboard. Your marketing should make you become the trusted friend. Not another billboard.

How often have you seen a website that includes every benefit of the product. They include pages of the technical mumbjo jumbo for the three people that actually care. They even include every contact method imaginable and a few that are probably made up yet they don’t mention ANYTHING about how the product has personally affected someone or the personal story about why the product was created. The website made no attempt to become a trusted friend or even an acquaintance.

There are some simple was you can begin to become a trusted friend to your customer that we are going to cover. To become a trusted friend it helps if they can see who you are. One way to do this is through the proper use of pictures. I’m not talking about the free stock photo you are thinking of using with some person in glasses tapping a pencil on their lip. I’m talking about actual pictures of you and the people on your team that your customers will be interacting with.

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Dollars

More people buy from a webpage that shows a human face than they do from a page that doesn’t have one (when used properly). If you aren’t using pictures in your marketing efforts then you should start right now. Let people know who is talking to them. If it’s a letter or an article, include a pic of the author. Have you created a new mousetrap? Let them see and meet the creator. It will work for you as long as you make it personal and absolutely compelling.

Some tips about good pictures to use. Don’t use the pic from your 1997 Cancun vacation that has your ex-girl/boyfriend cut out. The same goes for the Christmas photo in the sweater. Despite what your Mom says, it’s creepy.

A good picture should be close enough that the reader can connect with your eyes. Adequate lighting and proper focus should be a given but I’ll mention it for the retentive types. Sunglasses in pics are usually a bad idea unless it’s part of your persona or you are wanted for some type of crime.

From a marketing standpoint, smiling is best for building trust. If you want to go for the serious look just beware of the 2am mug shot kind of look that can easily happen.

Testimonials Sell For You

Let’s assume that you’ve added great pictures to all of the key places so know your customers know who you are. The next question that arises in the customer’s mind is, “Are you any good.” Testimonials help you answer this question before it’s even asked. Testimonials help people know in advance how good you are because they see other people telling them how good you are. Some websites have increased their sales conversion by as much as 20% just by adding testimonials.

Get testimonials from real customers who have benefited from your product. If you can get a picture too that’s even better. Some sites have improved conversion by adding an audio testimonial to their site that visitors can listen to online so that is something to consider. Be sure to include the person’s city and state so that they appear “more real” and ALWAYS get permission to use the testimonial.

Effective Communication Made Simple

Think about how you currently communicate with your customers. Are you communicating to them the way you would if you were in the room with them or are you coming across like a faulty theme park animatron? Out of the following greetings, which is more compelling and personal?:

Message From CyberWebNetcom

Or

A Letter From Jim Smith – CyberWebNetcom CEO

I prefer the latter. The best sales copy is usually written by listening to actual sales calls because it’s real. The same goes for all of your communication. Make it better by making it real.

A personal face on a company or product can be a huge asset when used properly. If you don’t believe me, just think Tom from MySpace, Jack from Jack in the Box, or even that Motel guy who always offers to “keep a light on for you.” People prefer to buy from people not from nameless soulless websites drifting anonymously through cyberspace. Put a face on your marketing and your customers will thank you with their business.

Seed Newsvine

Bookmark this article in your preferred program

Comments

Add Comment

Popular Articles in this cathegory

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.