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It’s a typical nightmare: you are walking down a busy hallway or giving a presentation, look down, and realize you are completely naked.
We are fundamentally afraid of unveiling an excessive amount of about ourselves, and as an entrepreneur, this probably applies to your enterprise too.
But having built my very own company from zero to over $100 million in annual revenue, I can inform you that less just isn’t more in relation to business transparency – more is more. Openness builds trust, and trust results in quite a few customers and relationships. The only exception is that you just don’t share your trade secrets together with your competitors.
Here are three effective ways to realize the trust of shoppers and prospects through greater transparency (without feeling such as you’re being nightmarishly exposed).
Related: How Transparency in Business Leads to Customer Growth and Loyalty
1. Increase your sales by 18% or more by getting more Google reviews
Almost everyone reads reviews before buying. A study found that 93% of individuals read reviews before buying, and on average reviews result in a 18% increase in sales. In today’s online landscape, people place almost as much value on a Google review as they do on a private advice.
The best approach to increase your rankings is to easily ask! According to research70% of consumers leave a review for a corporation when asked.
About 4 years ago, we had 486 reviews after serving greater than 90,000 customers. We began using Podium to send SMS or emails, depending on customer preference, asking to depart a review on Google, the Better Business Bureau and Trustpilot.
By May 2024, we had collected 2,312 five-star reviews, a rise of 375%. Keep in mind that our account managers are very diligent in sending review requests to customers, and only ask for a review from those customers who’re most certainly to reply positively.
Another great approach to increase reviews is to routinely send postcards after an order is accomplished, thanking someone for his or her purchase and welcoming them to depart a review. A physical letter is more likely to be more practical than an email. A study examined 1,200 consumers found that 76% trust unsolicited mail essentially the most over online methods.
You could also be wondering, “What about the negative reviews?” You’ll at all times have a handful of bad reviews, but people have a look at the ratio of fine to bad reviews. If you have got way more five-star reviews than one-star reviews, they’ll ignore the negative ones and assume that is not the norm.
2. Improve lead generation by 105% by sharing your customers’ success stories
Sharing real marketing results has at all times been a priority for my company. PostcardManiaWe currently have 944 Marketing Case Studies and 139 video case studies during which real people share details of campaigns that resulted in additional leads, sales, and latest customers for his or her businesses.
We share these case studies with prospects via email and postcards to construct trust, but recently we began incorporating these stories into video ads on social media. During a recent Meta quarterly earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that folks spend 50% of their time on Facebook and Instagram watching videos, so we naturally moved in that direction to drive more awareness to our services.
We let our 139 video case studies – real business owners speak about their successful campaigns – work for us on Facebook and Instagram.
As a result, our social media leads doubled. In 2022, our average variety of social media leads per week was 174, and in 2023, the common lead count increased to 356 per week! That’s a 105% increase.
Of course, our use of social media on this case is a component of a broader multi-channel marketing strategy that mixes unsolicited mail and digital ads, so I like to recommend an analogous approach if you ought to achieve the identical results (in reality, as a consequence of high demand from our clients to duplicate this method, we have bundled our successful approach right into a single, inexpensive marketing package called Everywhere Small Business). Campaigns that uniquely mix print and digital promoting using hyper-targeted mailing lists and lookalike audiences have proven successful time and time again, so I highly recommend them.
No matter what industry you’re in, your customer success stories might be collected and integrated into your marketing plan to grow your customer base.
Related: How Problem-Solving Case Studies Help You Market Your Business
3. Convert prospects faster by dropping the velvet rope and welcoming them
Transparency online helps construct a positive brand image and brings you more customers. But you can even go a step further and provides potential customers the chance to go to your enterprise in person and interact together with your services or products. A report found that 79% of shoppers want brands transcend their disclosure obligations and supply more information. Two-thirds of them said they’d switch brands for more detailed data.
At PostcardMania, our customers are welcome to go to us and tour our in-house printing facility. We also host a marketing conference twice a yr where our customers can meet their marketing consultants in person and learn more in regards to the ins and outs of our business. These customers often turn out to be a few of our greatest and longest-lasting business relationships! You can do the identical by hosting an event and opening your doors to the general public. It doesn’t should be a conference – you’ll be able to start small, with something so simple as a night of snacks and entertainment.
Related: 3 Ways to Personalize Your Marketing for More Engagement
Free samples are also an important approach to show customers exactly what they’re getting before they commit. This doesn’t at all times apply to each business, but you’ll be able to try to search out a way for prospects to interact together with your services or products on a deeper, more physical level.
When you employ any of those tactics, you are showing prospective customers your most authentic side and that of your organization. Trust me after I say that trading your fear of over-transparency for daring authenticity will really repay in long-term growth and customer loyalty.
