Red Kite Creative

testimonials

Weekly Links Roundup – WordPress and SEO, Google or Facebook Ads, Blogging, Getting Testimonials

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The top website and online marketing links of the week.

It’s true that WordPress is my favorite CMS (content management system). That doesn’t mean it’s the right CMS for every business. However, WordPress may be one of the best CMS platforms for SEO. Learn what makes WordPress so SEO-friendly and why it may be a good fit for your business if search engine optimization is important to you.

If you’re considering advertising your business on social media, you have some big questions to answer. One of them may be where to advertise. Are Google Ads or Facebook Ads better for your business? This is a big article with a lot of info and it may provide the answers you need to move forward with your ad buys.

Here is yet another ultimate guide to blogging, but this one from Yoast is an easy read. It covers everything from how to get started and what to write about to marketing and maintaining your blog.

Finally… I always encourage clients to collect and share customer testimonials on their websites. Whether they are within your site (my favorite plugin for managing them is Strong Testimonials) or on a third-party site like Google Reviews, it’s easy to display them on your site and gain the credibility and trust benefits. Learn how to get good testimonials from your customers.

Did you find this information useful? Please share with your friends and colleagues! And comment below with questions or observations.

Weekly Links Roundup – Business Blogging, Scannable Content, Testimonials Slider, Video Galleries

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The top website and online marketing links of the week.

Think blogging is a waste of time? (Hint: it’s not, if you do it with a focus on quality and consistency). Here’s a quick guide on starting a blog for business and why it really does matter if you’re trying to make your website the strong online base for your marketing efforts that it should be.

And if you’re taking the time to write well and frequently, make sure your content is also very easy to read. Most people today scan instead of reading – so you need to focus on great headlines, short paragraphs, lists and subheadings to break up your content. Here’s a guide to making your posts more scannable.

One of the most important types of content you should include in your business site is testimonials. Comments from your customers often have a big impact on potential new customers wondering if your product or service is a good fit for them. They increase your credibility. Learn how to use one of my favorite plugins, Strong Testimonials, to build a testimonial slider in WordPress.

Finally… recently I needed a video gallery plugin for a client site. Here’s one of the reviews I found for the best WordPress video gallery plugins. I actually wound up using GridKit, which was perfect for our particular project.

Did you find this information useful? Please share with your friends and colleagues! And comment below with questions or observations.

Weekly Links Roundup – Non-profit Newsletters, Testimonials, Improving Conversions, Calls-to-action Best Practices

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The top website and marketing links of the week.

If your business (in any industry) has an email newsletter, you might find yourself hard-pressed to find something interesting to write about every month (or week, or whatever your timetable is). Here’s a guide to developing newsletter content for non-profits that will help readers better understand and connect with you.

I always encourage clients to display testimonials on their websites – they can be a powerful persuader for potential new customers. Research shows that 70% of consumers will trust an online opinion of even someone they don’t know personally. But – there are good and bad ways to handle testimonials that impact their effectiveness. Learn how to manage testimonials.

One good way to improve conversions on your site is to make it a journey, not a set of pages with no guidance. Use a call-to-action to take your visitor where you want them to go, and use internal links to bring them deeper into your site. Get more tips on improving conversions.

And since we’re talking calls-to-action, here’s a post detailing CTA examples and best practices. See how seven other sites do it, and do it well.

 

Weekly Links Roundup – Testimonials, Product Reviews, GDPR, Analytics Alternatives

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The top website and marketing links of the week.

I always encourage clients to display testimonials on their site, if their industry allows them. Testimonials are a great way to influence prospective customers toward purchasing your products or services. And reviews let your customers speak – even if they are not always positive, how you handle negative reviews is important, too. Letting prospects see how you take care of problems is at least as important as the glowing testimonials! Learn more about why you should add testimonials and reviews to your site.

…And along that vein here’s a great guide to adding product reviews to your WordPress site. This is a comprehensive overview with a good selection of recommended plugins, and why you might want to use one of them even if you’re running an ecommerce site with WooCommerce which already has built-in reviews.

If you were in a tizzy trying to get your site into compliance with GDPR last week, you were far from alone. Read this opinion post  on GDPR from the New York Times – it might make you feel better.

Finally… if you collect traffic data for your website, did you know that Google Analytics is not the only option? That’s what I said. Learn about Kissmetrics, Matomo (formerly Piwik) and AFS Analytics. All except Kissmetrics offer a free plan as well as commercial pricing.

 

Friday Link Wrapup – Value of Professional Design, Original Content, Customer Testimonials

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The top website and marketing links for this week.

First impressions matter – especially online. What does the design of your site say about your business? A lot more than you think! If you look like an amateur, it reduces your credibility. It’s going to be harder for you to convince people of your value, especially if you have a service-oriented company. Learn more about why it’s critical to have a professional design for your business site.

Along those same lines, it’s also important to have original content on your site. Learn why original content is important for SEO.

Finally – learn about the power of social proof. Understand how gathering a nice volume of customer testimonials and using them effectively throughout your website may have a big impact on your bottom line.

The value of testimonials

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HandshakeDo you request testimonials from your clients? If you don’t, you probably should.

Recommendations from satisfied customers are a very compelling way to demonstrate the good qualities of your services or products.  Asking for them may be awkward at first, but believe me, it’s worth the effort and it gets easier. Promise them something in return – if they have a web-based business, give them an inbound link by posting their testimonial along with their website address.

When to Ask

The best time to ask for a testimonial is debatable, but for me I’ve found that doing it right as the project is concluding works best – during a prelaunch training session is a good time to raise the question, and then I’ll follow up on it when I send out a final ‘thank you’ for doing business with Red Kite. And don’t forget – testimonials don’t have to be written; you can also choose to record video or audio testimonials.

I’d estimate that about 80% of clients respond quickly with a very valuable sentence or two, but some will write a few paragraphs. Some clients promise they’ll write but it takes a while for them to get around to it, and some don’t respond. Since clients that don’t respond are no less likely to use my services again than those who do, I don’t take it personally – I hope they’re so busy they just don’t have the time!

What to Do With Them, Once You Have Them

Use them on your website, in your marketing materials, even in your monthly newsletter. Getting them on your website may take a little work depending on the type of website you have. If you’re using a content management system like WordPress, you can find a plugin to make it easy.

Most of the ‘rotating quotes’-type plugins will provide a widget that you can add to any pages. You’ll add your new testimonial (often in a very easy format, like typing in Word) and then the widget will automatically rotate testimonials when a visitor comes to that page. Getting audio or video testimonials onto your site is also pretty straightforward after you do any editing that’s needed beforehand.

If you’re not using a CMS, there are other scripts and tools that you can use to the same purpose – it’ll just be a little harder to get it going and add new recommendations.

Testimonials are the voices of pleased customers – they speak on your behalf. It’s a vote of confidence for your company.

Most satisfied clients are happy to spend a few minutes to provide you with this valuable bit of content; do yourself a favor and start collecting them if you’re not already doing so, and then learn how to get them out there working for your business.