The Age of Recommendations

Your marketing must be done through your customers.

Business has gone through many changes over the years. There was the Agricultural Age, the Industrial Age, the Information & Technology Ages.

We now have so much information and easy access to information that businesses must recognize consumers are in the Recommendation Age (I believe this term was coined by Mari Smith). Your clients often base their decisions on the recommendations of others.

They have to because the Advertising Age has left them mistrustful of marketing hype.

There are a few methods that have proven to be effective in the Recommendation Age: word of mouth, and social networking where people share information with their network of people online and through testimonials.

Something we teach our clients is how powerful testimonials are to create leverage, credibility and increase revenues.

For example, in the course we are doing with our colleague, Kathleen Gage, The Law of Action 2.0, we have received some wonderful testimonials. Now, we could think to ourselves, "Isn't that wonderful people are pleased with what we do."

Or, we can share this information with potential clients who may be thinking of taking the course, but have not yet made the decision.

Here's what Coach Eva Gregory said on our blog post Social Writing: Don't ignore networking sites:

I had the privilege of participating in this program with these 3 powerhouses - Denise, Patsi and Kathleen - earlier this year and all I can say is RUN do not WALK to join this program. The content is RICH and will have you in MASSIVE ACTION fast!

I not only learned tons, I learned HOW to actually apply it real time - not someday but IN THE RED HOT MOMENT. Listen to what they have to say and then take that information and apply it immediately. They know what they're talking about.

If you're on the fence gathering butt-blisters, do yourself a favor. Get your rear in gear and JUST DO IT. You'll be so glad you did! - Eva Gregory

On the same post is another testimonial for Kathleen, from Melanie Kissell:

Kathleen Gage comes across as a very dynamic personality. Thanks for having her on your teleconference this week. She's a real straight shooter!

I'm just beginning to understand and recognize the "overlap" you've mentioned in this post. As professional network marketers, being able to effortlessly direct blog posts to social networking sites is pretty amazing to me! We should utilize each and every venue we have available to us.

Write On!~ Melanie

There are two types of testimonials one can use. A feel good testimonial and a results driven testimonial.  Results-based testimonials are by far more powerful and always out-pull feel-good testimonials.