Testimonials as a Linking Strategy - Twist on Link Campaigns

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Standard, well-worn marketing techniques sometimes gain somepolish when you rework them a bit.
Everyone knows that happycustomer testimonials are a valuable addition to your businessmarketing material... Standard, well-worn marketing techniques sometimes gain somepolish when you rework them a bit.
Everyone knows that happycustomer testimonials are a valuable addition to your businessmarketing materials and your web site. Glowing comments fromthose who have had a good experience with your product orservice are successful relationships with your customers andclients - publishing them on your web site shows visitors howsuccessfully 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 testimonialsto businesses online? There is a very fundamental differenceto one aspect of the web as a marketing medium.
Thatdifference is the HYPERTEXT LINK. If you recieve marketingmaterials in the mail and see testimonials printed on them,you are likely to wonder who the people are offering thatglowing praise and if they really had such a wonderfulexperience with the business they are praising.
How do youfind out when those testimonials are printed on paper?Here is the reason that offering testimonials ONLINE can beof benefit to you. If you are quoted on a high-traffic website as being very pleased with a product or service offeredthere, you will most likely be given a HYPERTEXT LINK to yourweb site.
This is done as a courtesy from most businesses asa way to say "Thank You for your Compliment". It lends a senseof credibility to your comments because people have the optionof visiting your site to see who you are or follow up with youon the comments in your testimonial.RECIPROCAL LINKING STRUGGLE IS A TEDIOUS EXERCISEMany business owners struggle valiantly to establish linksby visiting sites one by one and asking them if they willprovide a link back to their site.
The trick here is that youmust find those sites that are 'complimentary' and not'competitors' to your own business and convince them thattheir visitors would find your site valuable. Even the searchfor relevant reciprocal links can be tedious and tiring.When you offer testimonials, they can be from virtually anysite 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 linksincrease search engine rankings - right? The testimoniallinking technique doesn't require such care as reciprocallinks because you aren't likely to have done business witha competitor.
The additional benefit is that you needn't givethem a return link - it's one way linking!YOU CAN AVOID THE DELETE KEY WITH GLOWING PRAISEWhen you send those tired form-letter-type reciprocal linkrequests to webmasters, they'll often delete them without evena second glance. Here, they open their email to something theyactually WANT to see - praise for their hard work and a littlelove from their web site customers.
When you send a testimonialalong with your link request, you are now offering something ofreal value in exchange for that link. That webmaster suddenlyfeels grateful for your kind words and may even feel that theyhave an obligation to link to you if they use your testimonial.If you are a customer of an online product or service andyou're truly pleased with them, why not send the webmaster atestimonial and tell them you'd be happy to have them publishyour comments on their site? They will be pleased at youroffer if your praise is short (one or two sentences) and highlycomplimentary of them.
Include a hypertext link to your site oryour e-mail in the note and tell them you'd be happy to haveyour comments published and request a link to your site.NEW PRODUCTS TESTIMONIALS PROVIDE HIGHER LINKING POTENTIALSome webmasters actively solicit customer testimonials to pushnew products or services. If you are among the first to purchasethose new products or services, your testimonial praising themwill be particularly desirable as they seek new comments to usein their promotional sales letter page or as teasers from thehome page.
Give them what THEY want and they may be happy tooffer you that link. If they respect YOU as a customer, theymight even promote your site in email promotions.Most sites have a page of happy customer testimonials and mostoffer a link back to your site or your e-mail so their potentialclients can follow-up with you.
Take a look at those businessesyou patronize online and see if they offer those linkbacks. Thentell them how happy you are to do business with them and watchyour PageRank increase and traffic grow! Article Tags: Hypertext Link Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com .