In an ever-more crowded marketplace, it’s a brave business indeed that believes it can trade on its good name alone. These days, you need to use every means at your disposal to get your business noticed. Social proof – leveraging third party influence to sway potential customers – has the power to turbo-charge your claims and bring more business in the door.
Awards and certifications
Don’t hesitate to prominently advertise what you’ve achieved. Everyone likes to know that they’re dealing with a company that’s been judged to be pretty damn good in one way or another. Safety certificates, best practice accreditation, industry awards, membership of regulatory bodies – all these serve to show your business knows what it’s about and, what’s more, that it’s going places.
Testimonials from satisfied clients
The most powerful quotes to use are from customers happy to be identified by personal or business name. Choose your testimonials with care, however. You don’t need many, but you do need to make sure that they state why your client was thrilled to bits. ‘ACME Piping was great’ is a bit, well, meh. ‘ACME Piping charged fair rates, turned up on time, and fixed my plumbing problem within two hours’, on the other hand, immediately gives three excellent reasons why your service is the one to choose.
Who you’ve worked with and what you’ve done
What interesting projects has your business been working on? What was their dollar value? Who are you working with now and how long have they been your client? This sort of info is great to have on your website, in your capability statement, or in your marketing materials. Update it regularly so that it’s always current.
Case studies
These are such a powerful tool for your brand and will put you in front of the many other businesses who fail to recognise their pulling potential. Case studies – always brief and concise, please – illustrate your capabilities. They need to cover four key areas:
- The client – who they are and what their business does
- The challenge – what the issues were and what the client wanted to achieve
- Your solution – why it was the best option and how it made short work of the issues at hand
- The result – why your customer’s delighted. Back it up with a testimonial for more oomph.
Media appearances
Don’t be afraid to self-promote your business by highlighting any time it’s been in the media. When you’ve been interviewed as an industry expert, when your company has won an award, when you’ve received cracking reviews, when content has been re-posted on LinkedIn or Facebook – use them all.
Social proof has the power to turn potential clients into happy customers, so don’t hesitate to blow your own business trumpet and continuously strengthen your brand.